Arctic Adventure 2026
A 1981 TRS-80 text adventure, remastered for the browser with Claude Code.
Official site www.arctic81.com, verified Nov 3, 2026. The developer's own site (copyright Harry McCracken), linked from his first-person Technologizer post of 16 Feb 2026.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- Play free — official siteBrowserReleasedFree
Runs in a desktop or mobile browser. No download.
Browser (no download) · Mobile · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Arctic Adventure 2026
A browser remaster of Arctic Adventure, a text adventure Harry McCracken wrote in TRS-80 BASIC as a high-school student and published as a type-in listing in 1981. The new version adds animated colour graphics, sound effects and clickable items, and keeps a text mode. McCracken says Claude Code ported his BASIC code to the web and that he wrote none of the JavaScript and CSS himself; he says Gemini wrote the code for the text-only mobile mode. It is free to play on arctic81.com, and his post also links a downloadable zip.
How it was built
Partially verifiedThe developer says Claude Code ported his 1981 BASIC code to the web and made a first draft of the graphics. He says he wrote none of the JavaScript and CSS and barely looked at it, and that Claude Code kept some of his original logic and variable names. The game page says Claude Code "got about 80% of it done" with almost no instruction.
- DeveloperGame page: "I used Anthropic's Claude Code to port my ancient and sloppy BASIC code to the web." — Harry McCracken
Google Gemini: the developer says Gemini wrote the code for the text-only mobile mode, the only code in the game that Claude did not generate.
The developer pasted his original 141-line BASIC listing into Claude Code in its entirety and asked it to convert the game for the web and add graphics; the 2026 edition is about 20,940 lines of JavaScript and CSS. He says he used Google's Nano Banana for some supplementary graphics. He says he spent something approaching $200 in overage charges after using up his Claude Pro plan's tokens.
- Engine / framework
- None disclosed (JavaScript and CSS in the browser)
- Languages
- JavaScript, CSS
- Team size
- Not disclosed
- Initial build time
- About three weeks of work by the time of his post (late January and early February 2026)Developer ReportedTechnologizer (Harry McCracken)
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“But I wrote none of the JavaScript and CSS code that makes the new game work.”Verification notes: AI use, code size, cost and history from the developer's own Technologizer post (16 Feb 2026); AI statement and credit also on the game page at arctic81.com, which the post links. The "about $200" overage cost is approximate and not recorded as a number. No release date is stated; the post date is recorded in history.
Development history
- 1981
The original Arctic Adventure, written in TRS-80 Level II BASIC, is published as a type-in listing in The Captain 80 Book of BASIC Adventures.
DeveloperTechnologizer (Harry McCracken) - 2021
The developer finds and fixes a bug that made the published version unwinnable, using a TRS-80 emulator.
DeveloperTechnologizer (Harry McCracken) - Late January – early February 2026
Remaster built with Claude Code.
DeveloperTechnologizer (Harry McCracken) The developer publishes his post about the remaster, linking the playable browser version and a downloadable zip.
DeveloperTechnologizer (Harry McCracken)
Game performance
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Browser (official site)
No price or payment shown on the game page; plays free in the browser.
Not publicly available: Monthly revenue, Gross revenue.
Sales & revenue (all platforms)
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Official site and look-alikes
Several similarly named websites exist. We keep one canonical record for the game at its official site and do not merge other sites into it: their versions, traffic or popularity claims are never attributed to this game.
| Domain | Relationship | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| arctic81.com | Official | The developer's own site; also hosts the 2021 TRS-80 emulator version and Jim Gerrie's MC-10 port, which are separate versions and not part of this record. (Technologizer (Harry McCracken)) |
Only the official domain is linked. Other domains are shown as text so this page does not send them traffic.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| My 1981 adventure game is now a multimedia extravaganza Technologizer (Harry McCracken) | Devlog | Feb 16, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Arctic Adventure 2026 — game page Harry McCracken | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Official game page (language check) Harry McCracken | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
