DinoRun is a free, browser-based ASCII endless runner game built in the terminal aesthetic of jasperbernaers.com. It is a loving tribute to the iconic Chrome dinosaur game that appears when your internet goes offline — but rendered entirely in ASCII art characters, running in any modern browser without plugins, downloads, or accounts. The dino sprints across a scrolling desert landscape while you dodge cacti and flying pterodactyls using only your keyboard. It is a quick, satisfying distraction that works on any device with a keyboard.

Press Space or the ↑ (Up Arrow) key to make the dinosaur jump over cacti and ground obstacles. Press ↓ (Down Arrow) to duck and slide under pterodactyls flying at head height. Press P to pause the game at any time, and R to restart after a game over. On mobile and touch devices, tap the game canvas to jump. The game starts automatically when you first press Space or tap the canvas.

Yes. DinoRun progressively increases in difficulty as your score climbs. The scrolling speed increases every 200 points, making obstacles arrive faster and giving you less reaction time. New obstacle types and combinations — including double cacti, tall cacti, low-flying pterodactyls, and mixed obstacle patterns — are introduced at higher speed tiers. By the time you reach 1,000 points the game is genuinely challenging even for experienced players. The difficulty curve is designed to feel fair but relentless, exactly like the Chrome dino game that inspired it.

Your high score is saved automatically to your browser's localStorage — a small, private storage area built into every modern browser. No account is required, no data is sent to any server, and no cookies are set. The score persists between browser sessions on the same device, so your best run is always preserved. The top 5 scores with timestamps are shown in the local leaderboard below the game. Clearing your browser data will reset the leaderboard.

Yes, very much so. The Chrome dinosaur game — officially called "Project Bolan" — is one of the most-played browser games in history, with an estimated 270 million plays per month. It appears in Chrome when your internet connection drops, featuring a pixelated T-Rex dodging cacti and pterodactyls. DinoRun is a terminal-aesthetic homage to that concept: same core mechanic (jump, duck, dodge), same endless format, same escalating speed — but rendered in ASCII art characters using JetBrains Mono font, wrapped in the dark terminal style of jasperbernaers.com tools. It is the Chrome dino game you can play at your desk without losing your internet connection.

Yes. DinoRun supports touch input on iOS and Android. Tap the game canvas to jump, and the game will start on your first tap. For ducking, a swipe-down gesture is also recognized. For the best experience on mobile, use a tablet in landscape orientation where the ASCII canvas renders at a comfortable size. DinoRun also installs as a Progressive Web App (PWA) — use your browser's "Add to Home Screen" option to get an app icon that launches the game full-screen without browser chrome.

DinoRun uses a carefully chosen set of ASCII and Unicode characters to create the retro terminal aesthetic. The dinosaur is drawn with characters like \o/, |, and /\ to suggest a running bipedal figure. Cacti use vertical bars and branch characters. Pterodactyls use wing-spread characters like >=<. The ground line uses underscores and dashes to create the desert floor. Clouds drift overhead using tilde and parenthesis characters. Everything is rendered using a monospace font (JetBrains Mono) at a small point size to give the effect of a dense terminal display.

Yes, completely free. DinoRun is one of 57+ free browser tools on jasperbernaers.com. No account required, no ads during gameplay, no microtransactions, no data collected. Open the page, press Space, and play. Your high score is stored locally in your browser — it never leaves your device. The game runs 100% client-side using vanilla JavaScript and the HTML5 Canvas/pre rendering approach, with zero external dependencies.