Hop Across
Game by Steven Lambert (straker) · Licensed under CC0-1.0 · Source
© 2026 Pixel Arena · Back to all games
About Hop Across
Hop Across is a screen-traversal arcade game. You start at the bottom of the screen and need to reach the top. The path crosses a busy road full of cars, then a river full of moving logs and turtles. You move one tile at a time. Touch a car and you die. Touch the water without standing on a log and you drown. Reach the top safely and you score a point.
The format was created in 1981 by Konami and is one of the most copied arcade games of all time. The original used a four-direction joystick. Pixel Arena's version uses arrow keys on desktop and tap controls on touch. The character moves in single-tile steps in the direction of the input. There is no continuous motion. Every tile change is a deliberate decision.
The road has multiple lanes of traffic moving in alternating directions. Cars in adjacent lanes go opposite ways. Speed varies by lane. Some lanes have fewer cars and longer gaps. Some lanes are bumper-to-bumper. Reading lane patterns is the basic skill.
The river is the harder half. There is no swimming. You have to land on a moving log or a turtle's back, then ride it sideways while you wait for the next safe spot. Logs move at constant speeds. Turtles also move but occasionally dive underwater, taking you with them if you are still on top. Watching for the dive is part of the challenge.
Pixel Arena's Hop Across is straker's CC0 implementation. The game is one screen, with the road in the bottom half and the river in the top half. A safe area at the very top represents the goal. The game cycles continuously. Every successful crossing earns a point and resets you to the start.
Controls are arrow keys to move in any cardinal direction. Touch users tap the direction they want to move on screen. Moves are immediate and discrete.
Strategy is largely about timing the crossings. Each lane and each log has a predictable pattern once you watch it for a few seconds. Wait at the safe boundary between lanes until you see a gap that is wide enough for you to cross at your movement speed. Beginners try to cross constantly. Better players wait through the dangerous patterns and only move during the safe windows.
The road section is faster than people expect. Cars cover several tiles per second. A character that hesitates in the middle of a lane gets hit. The trick is to commit to a crossing once you start. Do not stop in the middle. If you are between two lanes and a car is approaching, you usually have to either back off or push forward. Indecision is the most common death.
The river requires a different cognitive mode. On the road, you are crossing through traffic. On the river, you are riding traffic. Your character moves with the log or turtle you are standing on. So if you stop moving, you are still moving relative to the riverbank. Letting yourself drift to the right edge of the screen and then off it ends the run as fatally as any car.
Re-syncing the road and river patterns each crossing takes practice. After a successful run, you start at the bottom again and the patterns have shifted. There is no memorization possible because the lanes are randomized within each session. You have to read each new state and react.
A common mistake is panicking when a turtle dives. The dive is signaled by a small visual cue a moment before it happens. Watch for the cue. If your turtle is about to dive, hop off it onto an adjacent log immediately. If there is no adjacent log, you are about to be in the water and the run is over.
Most runs end at the river crossing rather than on the road. Cars are predictable. Turtles are not.