RCTiger.com: Real-time web-based tank warfare

We received an email today telling us about RCTiger.com, a German website that lets you move little remote control tanks around a simulated battlefield. While I was quite skeptical at first, once I started the game I was taken aback at the fun I had running little Tiger tanks over miniature trees.

The system isn’t quite foolproof. The game runs from 10pm until midnight Munich time and there is apparently someone in a room watching these things so they don’t tip over or crash. You use the standard keyboard controls – ASDF – and press K to fire at the other tank. When you’re hit the tank shakes around a little and lights up. We received a beta account to try it out and we even recorded a video of our adventure!

Here is a link to the full-sized video of my game.

RCTiger is entirely web-based and the cameras are quite quick and refresh instantly. Best of all you can run into other tanks and walls without suffering much damage and if you get off course a giant hand will pick you up and drag you back to the playing field.I especially liked the weird little room where the tanks start out where the giant – actually a guy named Tony – lives.

Given enough work, I could see this as a very niche gaming experience. I think the limited screen space is holding this game back for now but it was quite a novel experience and loads of fun once you got the hang of it. Sadly, jerks like me will probably spend most of their time trying to push down trees instead of playing the game, but that’s to be expected.

Here’s a video from the other tank’s perspective:

John Biggs

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John Biggs is a writer, consultant, programmer, former East Coast Editor and current contributing writer for TechCrunch. He writes mainly about technology, cryptocurrency, security, gadgets, gear, wristwatches, and the internet. After spending his formative years as a programmer, he switched his profession and became a full-time entrepreneur andwriter. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Laptop, PC Upgrade, Surge, Gizmodo, Men’s Health, InSync, Linux Journal, Popular Science, Sync, and he has written a book called Black Hat: Misfits, Criminals, and Scammers in the Internet Age.

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