Snake is one of the most recognised video games ever made — not because it launched on a console or PC, but because it shipped pre-installed on Nokia mobile phones starting in 1997. Hundreds of millions of people played Snake on their phones long before smartphones existed. That version, built by Nokia engineer Taneli Armanto, defined what an entire generation thought a mobile game should be. You can play the same game right now in your browser, free, with no download required.
The History of Snake
Snake didn't begin on Nokia. The concept traces back to the 1976 arcade game Blockade by Gremlin Industries, where two players controlled growing lines trying to force the other into a wall. A single-player version called Worm appeared on mainframe computers in the late 1970s and spread through early home computing platforms in the 1980s. But the game's cultural peak came with Nokia's bundled version on the 6110 handset in 1997.
The Nokia version was designed within brutal constraints: a small monochrome LCD screen, a numeric keypad for controls, and severe memory limits. Armanto stripped the concept down to its essence — a snake moving in four directions, food that grows the snake, walls and self-collision as the only failure conditions. The result was a game anyone could understand in under ten seconds and spend an entire commute playing. It became arguably the first game to reach a mass non-gaming audience, simply because it came on a phone everyone already owned.
Snake's design principles — simple rules, emergent difficulty, no win state, just an ever-growing score — anticipated the mechanics that would define mobile gaming twenty years later. When smartphones launched in 2007, game designers were essentially rediscovering what Nokia had proven in 1997: that the best mobile games are ones you can pick up instantly and play in any context.
How to Play Snake
- Start the game — Press any arrow key or tap the screen to begin. The snake will start moving automatically.
- Steer the snake — Use the arrow keys (desktop) or swipe gestures (mobile) to change direction. Up, down, left, right. The snake cannot stop moving.
- Eat the food — A dot or pellet appears somewhere on the grid. Guide the snake's head onto it to eat it. Each piece of food adds one segment to the snake's tail and increases your score.
- Avoid the walls — If the snake's head hits the outer boundary of the play area, the game ends. Some versions wrap the snake to the opposite wall instead — check which variant you're playing.
- Avoid yourself — As the snake grows longer, its own body becomes the primary obstacle. If the head collides with any body segment, the game ends. This is what makes Snake genuinely hard at high scores.
- Keep growing — There is no win state. The game continues until you crash. Your goal is to maximise your score before that happens.
Tips for High Scores
The biggest mistake beginners make is reactive steering — turning away from walls at the last second without planning ahead. At low snake lengths this works. Once your snake is 30+ segments long, reactive play becomes impossible. The entire grid is a constraint and random steering leads to self-collision within seconds.
The technique that separates good players from great ones is structured path planning. Instead of chasing food in a straight line, move in deliberate patterns — spirals, figure-eights, or systematic sweeps of the grid — that keep the snake in known territory. The food will appear somewhere; your route will eventually reach it. This sacrifices some speed early but prevents the trapped-in-a-corner death that ends most games.
Another key habit: always know where your tail is. Your tail is moving forward just as your head is — the space your tail currently occupies will be free in a few moves. Expert players use this to thread the snake through seemingly impossible gaps by timing the tail's departure precisely. When you think you're stuck, check if a tail-gap escape is available before accepting game over.
How to Play Snake Online on Any Device
INFINFY TV's Snake runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript and HTML5 Canvas. There is no download, no plugin, no Flash, no account required. On desktop, use arrow keys. On mobile and tablet, swipe to steer. The game works on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. Load the page, click play, and you're in.