Roping Ari
Ari is a small creature who travels along trolleybus wires on two long poles that grew from her horns. When a trolleybus is in her way on the same wires she goes over it: a swing, a release, a turn in the air, and her poles back onto the wires ahead of it. The move is named after the ninja rope of Worms Armageddon. Here is a game of it and the physics sketches it came from, all in side view and to scale.
Roping Ari, the Game
Ride the two trolleybus wires at 79 km/h on her poles and get over the trolleybus ahead. Keyboard. Press A to watch it done once.
Roping Ari: the cross-spans
From a standstill to the 6th support with the cross-spans in place: the steady ride, the fastest, and the least effort, each catching the wire in every 35 m section.
Roping Ari, the Game, kinematic tips
The game as built on 2026-09-23, before her tips became a mass on the wire: infinite grip, no friction, 1 kg poles. Kept playable.
Roping Ari at Speed
Four solved ways over a trolleybus from 79 km/h, side view, to scale; playback stops at each key moment and shows its numbers.
Ari's Wire Gaits
Where her body sits relative to her pole tips at a steady speed: pulled, or lifted and flying ahead of them. Four scenarios.
Roping Ari, the first version
The move at town speed: brake, back swing, drive, release at 60°, hoop over the bus, catch, one full circle.
The moves, as demos
Ten candidate rewards of the game, each a scripted run through the same physics with numbered stops at its key moments (tick "Stop at key moments" on the page, or step with , and .). First on the current build, where her tips are a mass on the wire (coils, hands, friction); then the same ten on the kinematic-tips build of 2026-09-23, kept as it was.
- Spun down badge: the hoop, then opened, then a soft catch
- Held it badge: a hard catch
- Through the arc badge: arced between the wires, stayed on, and still passed the bus
- Short-pole flight badge: the lifted gait held for 2 s at the shortest pole length
- Hoop over the roof badge: curled into the hoop with her head above the trolleybus
- Kiss badge: a catch with under 0.5 m/s of speed along the poles to absorb
- Swoop line: REL → SPREAD → CATCH → LIFTED before the swing back
- Swoop below the wire line: REL → SPREAD → CATCH → LIFTED with her head never above the wires: a wing hop in the space under them, no trolleybus in the way
- Rolled up line: REL → CURL → OPEN → SPREAD → CATCH in one flight
- One breath line: PULL → REL → CATCH → PASS in under 3 s
- Full repertoire line: REL, CURL, OPEN, SPREAD, CATCH and LIFTED, in any order, within 6 s
On the kinematic-tips build
- Spun down badge: the hoop, then opened, then a soft catch
- Held it badge: a hard catch
- Through the arc badge: arced between the wires, stayed on, and still passed the bus
- Short-pole flight badge: the lifted gait held for 2 s at the shortest pole length
- Hoop over the roof badge: curled into the hoop with her head above the trolleybus
- Kiss badge: a catch with under 0.5 m/s of speed along the poles to absorb
- Swoop line: REL → SPREAD → CATCH → LIFTED before the swing back
- Rolled up line: REL → CURL → OPEN → SPREAD → CATCH in one flight
- One breath line: PULL → REL → CATCH → PASS in under 3 s
- Full repertoire line: REL, CURL, OPEN, SPREAD, CATCH and LIFTED, in any order, within 6 s