Desktop Arcade

// your desktop is the game board

A macOS menubar app that turns Finder into an arcade. The game pieces are real files with custom icons, moved around by Finder itself. No window. No canvas. Just your desktop, misused.

Download for Apple Silicon Intel read the docs →

A .dmg, signed & notarized — drag to Applications. Your real Desktop files are stashed while you play and restored exactly when you're done.

2048 played with real desktop icons
2048 — every tile is a file
Pong played with real desktop icons
Pong — solo or networked head-to-head

## how

Pick a game from the menu bar. Desktop Arcade stashes your Desktop, takes over the keyboard, and renders the game as files on the live Finder desktop — a custom React reconciler whose DOM is your file system. Quit, and your Desktop comes back exactly as it was.

Networked games share room codes (like neon-comet-42) — one player hosts, friends join from their own Macs, and every desktop renders the same game.

## fourteen games

Arcade

  • Snake — steer a snake of files across the Finder grid
  • Tetris — falling tetrominoes, every cell a desktop icon
  • Breakout — paddle, ball, and a brick wall of files
  • Pac-Man — chomp dots and dodge ghosts across your desktop
  • Pong — solo against the wall, or networked head-to-head

Puzzles

  • 2048 — slide and merge number tiles
  • Minesweeper — right-click flags and all
  • Sudoku — a 9×9 grid of icons, filled by keyboard

Cards & Board

  • Solitaire — Klondike, drag real files card by card
  • Chess — drag-to-move; vs the computer or networked
  • Hearts — four players over the network

Studio

  • Pixel Editor — paint with icons as pixels
  • Step Sequencer — a drum machine laid out in files