Play BUGS online

Development and history

BUGS is an original Vectrex homebrew game created by Sean Findley in 2026 and featured as Vectrexia's startup cartridge. The downloadable project package includes the padded 8 KB ROM, build tooling, symbols, checksums, a changelog, and an automated build report.

The current v29.09 Hunter Sprite Cleanup release is a focused visual update built on the stable v29.08 recovery path. It makes the chasing spider use the same clean sprite, brightness, and center-dot timing as the regular spiders while retaining the game's score, high-score, food acceleration, hazard-spawn protection, audio cues, and BUG SPRAY behavior.

The source package documents 41 automated checks covering cartridge structure, RAM layout, scoring, progression, random placement, collision safety, artwork, audio tables, and assembler fixups. The project still calls for a final emulator or physical-console playtest, and the about panel makes both the ROM and source package available to visitors.

This page uses one stable canonical URL for the title and loads its embedded ROM directly into the emulator after the Vectrex BIOS is ready.

Gameplay and background

Guide the caterpillar through the field, collect food to grow and accelerate, and avoid hazards including plants and spiders. Special food, pickup effects, BUG SPRAY, queued turns, and a hunter spider add pressure as the level advances.

How to play in Vectrexia

• Move with the Arrow keys or WASD. Compatible controllers can use the left analog stick or D-pad.
• Vectrex buttons 1–4 map to Z, X, C, and V, and to the standard face buttons on most gamepads.
• Press a controller button after connecting it so the browser can expose the gamepad to the page.

Audio may begin after the first click, key press, or controller input because browsers can restrict autoplay.