PERSONAL PLANETARY DEFENCE SYSTEM ORB-01

PERSONAL PLANETARY DEFENCE SYSTEM 

ORB-01

ORBIT

Retro Pixel Space Defender · Break the Cycle 

 You don't open ORBIT. You pick it up. ORBIT comes installed in the ORB-01 "Personal Planetary Defense System" — a handheld console from 2002 that never existed. Grey plastic, a 320×240 color STN panel behind real glass, a rubber D-pad, four amber fire caps, two shoulder triggers, and a volume wheel that turns when you turn it.

 Every pixel of that machine is drawn by code. There is not one image file in this game. The buttons click — and the D-pad, the fire caps, the shoulders and the tiny START/SELECT pills all click differently, because on a real handheld they would. Every sound in the game comes out through a modelled 28mm speaker: no bass, a boxy resonance, and it distorts when you push it. Exactly like the thing it's pretending to be. 

 The game inside it 

 You're the last guardian of a dying star system. Orbit strange planets, collect what you can before something notices you're there, then descend through the atmosphere into whatever is waiting. 

 Your AI companion rides shotgun — you name it yourself on the first screen — and it has opinions about what you're doing. It gets hopeful, or it gets corrupted, depending on how you play. So does the thing at the end. 

 Upgrade your ship with lasers, deployable shields and bombs across 11 planetary biomes: VERDANT, DESERT, ICE, LAVA, TOXIC, OCEANIC, JUNGLE, ASHEN, CRYSTAL, NEON, and the RUINED core. Each has its own enemy behaviour and its own guardian.

Features 

 A real twin-stick shooter. The D-pad moves. The four-cap fire diamond aims independently, 8 ways. You do both at once, with two thumbs, like a console.

Charge-release laser. Tap for rapid fire, hold to release a charged beam. 

 Deep upgrade & synergy system — combine laser, shield and bomb upgrades into combinations the game never explicitly tells you about.

 Procedural branching star map — normal worlds, safe outposts, sanctuaries, corrupted worlds, and two hidden ones that only appear if you earn them. 

 Morality that actually branches. Purity and corruption decide your AI's personality, which of three final bosses you fight, and which of three endings you get. 

 11 biomes, 11 guardians, each with phase transitions that change how they fight as you break their armor. 

 Permanent progression. Star Cores buy five permanent unlocks — Reinforced Hull Plating, Munitions Locker, Salvage Magnet, Pre-Tuned Lasers, Capacitor Primer — that carry across every run.

Juicy as hell. Screen shake, dithered explosions, a 32-colour panel that repaints its palette when you make planetfall. 

 Controls 

 On a phone or tablet: use the console. Thumbs on the drawn buttons, exactly where they look like they are. It's a portrait device — hold it upright and it tells you so if you don't.

 On desktop: Arrow keys move · WASD (or IJKL, or the numpad) fires · Space/Z/Q shield · Shift/X/E bomb · Enter START · Esc SELECT. Or just click the buttons on the console with the mouse. Scroll anywhere on the chassis for volume. 

 Classic arcade intensity meets modern roguelike progression, in a machine that feels like it's been in a drawer for twenty years. 

 Can you restore balance to the stars... or will you become the corruption?