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denissergeevitch/pole-chudes-2

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

77TypeScriptAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

A browser reimplementation of a 1993 Russian DOS game show, rebuilt from binary files with editable assets.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Pole Chudes 2))
    What it does
      Browser DOS game port
      Wheel and letter puzzle
      Full tournament stages
    Tech stack
      TypeScript
      WebP assets
      Playwright tests
    Use cases
      Play the game
      Edit sprites
      Reproducible test runs
    Audience
      Developers
      Retro game fans
    Assets
      61 sprites
      Bitmap fonts
      686 questions

Code map

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Play a faithful browser recreation of the 1993 Pole Chudes DOS game show through all its tournament stages.

USE CASE 2

Edit game sprites or fonts in any image editor since assets are converted to standard WebP files.

USE CASE 3

Use a fixed random seed URL parameter to reproduce the exact same game for testing.

What is it built with?

TypeScriptWebPPlaywrightnpm

How does it compare?

denissergeevitch/pole-chudes-2xuanyuanzhifeng/ai-video-agentadrienckr/notslop
Stars777778
LanguageTypeScriptTypeScriptTypeScript
Setup difficultyeasyhardeasy
Complexity2/54/52/5
Audiencedevelopervibe coderwriter

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Just npm install inside the web folder, then open the local dev URL.

MIT license for the code, the original 1993 game data keeps its own separate copyright.

In plain English

Pole Chudes 2 is a faithful browser port of a 1993 Russian DOS game show of the same name. The game is similar in concept to Wheel of Fortune: contestants spin a wheel, pick letters, and try to solve a word puzzle across multiple tournament rounds. The original DOS version was published by Vadim Bashurov and the source code was never released. This TypeScript reimplementation recreates the complete game from the original binary files and a public-domain disassembly. It covers every part of the original experience: the splash intro, player name entry, eight tournament stages from the first round through the superfinal, the 16-sector spinning wheel, the letter-picking hand cursor, an assistant who flips letters on the board, a card minigame, prize bargaining, advertisement breaks, the closing ceremony, and the final top-8 table. One notable aspect of the project is that it ships none of the original binary files. Instead, every asset is converted to a format you can open and edit: the 61 game sprites become individual lossless WebP image files, the three bitmap fonts become WebP glyph sheets, and the question database of 686 entries becomes plain JSON. The build can reverse each conversion and reproduce the original files byte-for-byte, verified by checksums in the test suite. This means you can edit a sprite in any image editor and run your modified version. To play, clone the repository, run npm install inside the web folder, and open the local development URL in a browser. A URL parameter lets you fix the random seed so you get the same game every run, which is useful for testing. The project includes 93 automated tests and browser-based smoke tests using a tool called Playwright. The TypeScript code is released under the MIT license. The 1993 game data retains its original copyright.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Walk me through cloning pole-chudes-2, running npm install, and playing it locally.
Prompt 2
Explain how this project converts original DOS binary assets into editable WebP and JSON files.
Prompt 3
Show me how to use the fixed random seed parameter to reproduce the same game run for testing.
Prompt 4
Summarize the automated test setup using Playwright in this project.

Frequently asked questions

What is pole-chudes-2?

A browser reimplementation of a 1993 Russian DOS game show, rebuilt from binary files with editable assets.

What language is pole-chudes-2 written in?

Mainly TypeScript. The stack also includes TypeScript, WebP, Playwright.

What license does pole-chudes-2 use?

MIT license for the code, the original 1993 game data keeps its own separate copyright.

How hard is pole-chudes-2 to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is pole-chudes-2 for?

Mainly developer.

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