Tank Trouble 2 and the Original Tank Trouble: What Is the Same and What JPTR Changed
Published · 2 min read
Where the game comes from
Tank Trouble is a browser game by Danish developer Mads Purup, first released as a Flash game in 2008 and later rebuilt in HTML5. Its rules are small enough to fit on a napkin: a random maze, tanks that turn on the spot, shells that ricochet until they fade, and one hit to destroy a tank. It became a school-laptop staple because two people can play it on one keyboard, and it is still developed under the Tank Trouble ApS name at tanktrouble.com, where it has online play and a dog called Laika who explains the rules.
What the sequel keeps
Tank Trouble 2 is an independent fan-made game by JPTR, built in Construct 2 and distributed on the big HTML5 portals. It keeps everything that made the original work: the maze rebuilt after every kill, the same wall-bounce physics, one-hit kills, and the same first two key layouts — arrows and M for Player 1, E S D F and Q for Player 2 — so anyone who learned the original sits down and plays.
What it adds
Three things. A computer-controlled tank, so there is a one-player mode that the original never had offline. Third and fourth keyboard seats on the numeric keypad and on I J K L, where the original's third player steered with the mouse. And weapon crates that spawn in the maze with the arsenal the original made famous — gatling gun, laser, death ray, homing missile, RC missile, frag bomb and mines — picked up by driving over the crate and fired with the normal fire key.
What it does not have
Online matchmaking, accounts and the shop belong to the original. This build once had a login and profile system through a hosted database that no longer answers, so those buttons are hidden on this site; the four local modes are the game. If you want ranked online play against strangers, that is what tanktrouble.com is for.
Which to play
For two people at one keyboard the two games are close enough that it comes down to taste: the original's art and sound are more polished, the sequel starts faster and has the crates and the four-player mode. For a quiet solo round, Tank Trouble 2 is the one with a computer tank waiting in the maze.
More from the blog
- Aiming Around Corners in Tank Trouble 2: How the Bounce Works and How to Use It
The shell in Tank Trouble 2 reflects off every wall like a snooker ball. Here is how to plan a shot you cannot see the end of, and how to stop your own shells coming back for you.
- Three or Four Players on One Keyboard: Key Layouts and the Ghosting Problem
Tank Trouble 2 seats four people at one keyboard. Which keys each player gets, how to start the round, and why a tank sometimes stops answering when everyone is pressing at once.