A Radar Game That Actually Feels Like a Radar

Most "radar games" are top-down shooters with a circle in the corner. Signal//Lock is the opposite — the radar is the game. Every contact is a phantom on a 60Hz sweep, every decision is made under a moving sweep line, and every miss leaks into a saturation meter that eventually overloads the dish. There is nothing else on the screen.

How a round plays

1. A sweep rotates around the dish at a fixed period. Contacts only become visible as the line passes over them.
2. You lock matched pairs by tapping or clicking before they decay. Locks chain into combos; combos build a salvo charge.
3. Every missed signal pushes the phase saturation meter higher. At 100% the dish overloads and you lose a life.
4. Survive long enough and the radar swaps mode entirely — fever streaks, vector overflow, parachute drift, classified intercepts. Each stage is a different rule set on the same dish.

Why it works as a radar game

• The sweep is real. Information arrives in waves, not all at once. You learn to anticipate the line.
• Contacts decay. Doing nothing is never neutral — every uncaught signal costs you saturation.
• Sound matters. The audio engine plays positional tones, lock-on beeps, and a low orbital hum. Headphones genuinely help.
• No filler. No score-multiplier shop, no daily quests, no login wall. Open the tab, start the run.

Built for short sessions

A typical run is two to five minutes. The game is designed for the gap between meetings — long enough to feel a real arc, short enough that you don't lose an afternoon. Stages rotate fast, so you rarely play the same rule set twice in a row.

Nine radar modes, one dish

Signal//Lock isn't a single radar puzzle on repeat. The dish reskins itself across nine different modes — vector overflow saturates the screen with persistent lines, fever turns the sweep into a torrent, parachute mode adds wind drift, classified intercepts flip the radar 180° and demand recall. The radar stays; the rules don't.

Start playing

Open the radar — no signup, nothing to install. Or read the full mechanics guide first if you want to know what every overlay means before you sit down.

More to read

• Compared to ATC games — what overlaps, what doesn't.
• All nine stages — full rule sets.
• FAQ — common questions about the game.