How to Play Snake Like on the Old Nokia Phones
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To play snake the way it felt on an old Nokia phone, you need four things: a small grid, a monochrome green screen, a snake that speeds up as it grows, and controls that only turn in four directions. You can get all of that for free in a browser: open Pixel Snake, set PALETTE to LCD in Options, and you are back in the year 2000, with a few modern comforts like queued turns and a choice between walls and wrap-around edges. Here is a short history of the game, what made it so addictive, and how to set it up and play it well.
A very short history of snake
Snake is older than mobile phones. The idea of steering a line that grows behind you goes back to the arcade game Blockade in 1976, and home-computer versions followed through the 1980s.
The game became a household name when Nokia preinstalled a version called Snake on the Nokia 6110 in 1997. Later phones, including the famous 3310, shipped with Snake II, and versions of the game appeared on hundreds of millions of handsets. For a lot of people it was the first game they ever played on a phone, usually in class or on the bus, with the volume off.
The phones are mostly gone, but the game design holds up perfectly. That is why “nokia snake game online” is still a common search more than 25 years later.
What made phone snake feel the way it did
If you try a modern snake game and something feels off, it is usually one of these:
- A small, visible grid. The snake moves one cell at a time, in steps you can see and count. No smooth sliding.
- A monochrome LCD. Dark pixels on a green-grey background. Nothing distracts you from the field.
- Four directions, no reversing. You cannot turn back on yourself; a U-turn always takes two presses.
- Rising speed. Every bite makes the snake longer and a little faster, so the game gets harder exactly as your tail gets in the way.
- Bonus critters. Every so often a special bug appears for extra points, and it does not wait for you.
- Instant restarts. Crash, glance at your score, go again.
Setting up Pixel Snake for the classic look
Pixel Snake is an original snake game, not a Nokia port, but it was designed to capture that feeling. Open Options and set:
| Option | Classic setting | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| PALETTE | LCD | Switches the bright color look to a monochrome green LCD screen |
| WALLS | On or Wrap | On: hitting the edge ends the game. Wrap: the snake leaves one side and comes back on the other |
| MAZES | Off for a pure game, On for a challenge | Adds stone blocks every 20 apples, up to five layouts |
Not sure about walls? Different phone versions handled the edge differently, and both feel authentic. Walls On is the stricter test. Wrap is more relaxed but has its own trap: your body wraps too, so a long snake crossing an edge can block you on the other side.
The rules in Pixel Snake
- The field is 18 cells wide and 22 tall, and the snake starts 4 cells long.
- Every apple is worth 10 points and adds one cell.
- Speed starts at 6 cells per second and rises by 0.2 with every apple, up to 13. You hit top speed after 35 apples.
- After every fifth apple a golden beetle appears. It is worth 100 points when it appears and its value drops to 50 as its six seconds run out. It blinks for the last two. Catching it adds two cells.
- New food never appears right next to your head. As long as the field has room, it spawns at least 7 steps away, so you are always crossing open space.
- The run waits for you. On the GET READY screen nothing moves until you press a direction.
- Two turns are remembered. Press two directions quickly and both are carried out, so a fast U-turn never gets swallowed.
That last point is the biggest modern comfort. On many old phones, pressing two keys too fast meant one of them was ignored.
Controls
- Keyboard: arrow keys or W A S D.
- Phone: swipe anywhere on the game in the direction you want, or use the four arrows of the round D-pad below the screen. GO in its middle starts the round.
- Gamepad: D-pad or left stick.
P or Esc pauses, and M mutes the little beeps if you are playing in class. Not that you would.
How to play like you did in 2000 (but better)
The classic strategies still work, and a few are worth spelling out.
Stay near the edges early
While the snake is short, travel along the walls and only cut inward to grab food. Keeping the middle of the field empty gives you room to maneuver later, when your tail is long.
Make U-turns with both presses at once
Turning back always takes two moves: for example up, then left, when you are heading right. Press both quickly. With the turn buffer, the snake folds back neatly even at top speed. Leave one free cell beside you before the fold so you do not clip your own neck.
Mow the lawn
Once the snake is long, sweep back and forth in long lanes and keep one free row or column as your way back. Your body fills the board in tidy stripes instead of a knot. The golden rule: never split the field into two pockets.
Chase beetles only on a clear path
A fast beetle is worth as much as ten apples, so it matters. But a beetle is also how long games end. Chase it when there is an open path and a way back out; otherwise let it go.
For the full playbook, including maze layouts and Hardcore tactics, read our snake game strategy guide.
Hardcore: for people who beat the original
Switch Difficulty to Hardcore in Options and the game gets much tougher: the snake starts at 9 cells per second and speeds up to 18, beetles come every fourth apple but stay only about three and a half seconds, walls are always on, stone mazes rise every 10 apples, and there are no continues. Hardcore scores go on their own leaderboard.
Snake anywhere, even offline
Like everything on NoInternet Arcade, Pixel Snake keeps working without a connection once you have opened the page. That is fitting for a game that was born on phones with no internet at all. You can also install the arcade to your home screen so it opens fullscreen from its own icon, a bit like finding Snake in the phone menu. Our guide to installing a web game as an app shows how.
FAQ
Is Pixel Snake the Nokia snake game?
No. It is an original game inspired by the snake games that came preinstalled on mobile phones around the year 2000, including the Nokia ones. The art, sounds and code were all made from scratch, and it is not affiliated with Nokia.
Can I get the green screen look?
Yes. Set PALETTE to LCD in Options for a monochrome green screen. Switch back to COLOR any time.
Can the snake go through walls?
Yes, if you set WALLS to Wrap. The snake leaves one side of the field and comes back on the opposite side. Wrap is available on Normal difficulty; Hardcore always keeps the walls on.
Does the snake get faster forever?
No. It speeds up with every apple until it reaches a top speed of 13 cells per second after 35 apples (18 in Hardcore). After that, only your growing tail makes the game harder.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. Swipe in the direction you want to go, or use the on-screen D-pad. It works in portrait on any modern phone browser.
If you miss other handheld classics, try Brick Tanks, our remake of the tank battle from the old Brick Game consoles, and read about Brick Game handheld games you can still play.