Asche zu Asche browser preservation

Site: https://asche.rammwiki.mrzetti.com

Hosting on another VPS: follow HOSTING.md. All public runtime assets are included; this is a static nginx deployment with original game audio.

Compact wiki player: add ?embed=1 to the site URL. See EMBED.md for the click-to-load embed and its browser-isolation requirements.

Flashcards desktop: the same compact player is embedded in the RammWiki Flashcards desktop (catalog id 1997-asche-zu-asche). That host is cross-origin isolated and the nginx template ships CORP same-site, so the sibling subdomain can frame the game while other sites cannot.

Touch controls: mobile/touch devices automatically show Left, Right, Jump and Fire buttons below the playfield, including in embeds and fullscreen. The toolbar toggle can enable them on any device. Multiple fingers can hold actions together; short taps last at least 160 ms for the original game's keyboard polling. Cancelling a touch, hiding the page or restarting releases held buttons. Runtime/HTTPS/isolation requirements still apply on phones.

tools/verify-touch.cjs checks native multi-touch input in Chromium mobile emulation. Set PLAYWRIGHT_MODULE and BROWSER_PATH if using existing installs. It routes the local web files over the test site's runtime; set GAME_URL to your deployment (without a trailing slash). Physical iOS/Android device testing is still useful for memory/performance and browser-specific fullscreen support.

Startup feedback: a loading panel covers the blank canvas while downloading and booting. It reports actual per-file download bytes, elapsed time and the Windows startup phase. It clears when artwork appears (with a manual Show game fallback after 45 seconds). Loading may take a minute or more on phones. Recognizable extension-origin errors are retained separately in diagnostic reports and do not disable loading updates or claim an emulator failure. tools/verify-loading.cjs covers slow startup, progress, first artwork, extension errors and failed downloads.

The original 1997 Rammstein game runs through Boxedwine and its stripped Wine 6.0 filesystem in the browser. The original executable, VB3 runtime, custom DLL and audio files are preserved in assets/original/; provenance is in assets/SOURCES.md.

Layout

• web/: public page, English controls and browser wrapper.
• fallback/web/: working Boxedwine deployment bundle (historical directory name).
• fallback/README.md: Boxedwine build provenance and packaging details.
• deploy/: nginx configuration, including TLS and cross-origin isolation.
• reference/: extracted original artwork and researched game guide.
• runtime/, RUNTIME.md: earlier wine-assembly prototype and source patches; retained for research. The public page uses Boxedwine.
• tools/parent-boxedwine-check.cjs: browser gameplay smoke check.

Deploy

On this server, as root:

bash deploy.sh

Deploys to /var/www/asche, using the existing Let's Encrypt certificate. Certificate renewal is handled by Certbot. No backend service is needed.

Controls and verification

Click the title screen to start. Hold Left/Right to move, Up to jump, Space to fire. Escape quits the original game; the wrapper's Restart button reloads it. The game polls keyboard state periodically: automated tests must hold keys (150 ms or longer) rather than sending an instantaneous key press.

Losing the last life shows the original game-over screen. The wrapper watches the game canvas and, after a short countdown, reloads the emulator on its own so a new game starts without a click; Play again now skips the wait and Stay on this screen keeps the original screen visible. The wrapper compares each frame with the exact game-over bitmap extracted from the executable and only acts when that screen persists for several seconds, so level-loading and transition screens cannot trigger it; if the screen changes before the countdown ends, the restart is cancelled. node tools/verify-restart.cjs checks the detection, the transient-screen guard, the countdown and the reload against the real game (ASCHE_URL and the optional PLAYWRIGHT_MODULE/BROWSER_PATH select the target, as with the other tools).

Sound is enabled, with a 0–100% volume slider (0 mutes). The SDL sample-rate query now proxies from the Wine pthread to the main thread where AudioContext lives. This fixes the exception that caused the earlier Wine audio-lock timeout. fallback/web/audio.js routes output through a master gain, including when Wine recreates its audio context. Slider settings survive Restart game.

node tools/verify-audio.cjs verifies actual nonzero PCM output while firing, silent output at 0%, gain adjustment, and both sites' volume/layout controls.

To exercise the public page using the installed Playwright and Chromium:

ASCHE_URL=https://asche.rammwiki.mrzetti.com node tools/parent-boxedwine-check.cjs

The check captures screenshots under /tmp/opencode/asche-parent/ for visual verification of the original playfield, firing, jumping and movement. It is a smoke check, not a complete playthrough of all three levels.

Verified on 2026-09-13 against the public HTTPS page: original title and level artwork, held-key firing, jumping and leftward movement, with no browser JavaScript errors. The deployed bundle is approximately 40 MB.