BM

Co-op shooter · two on one keyboard, online or with the CPU

Baling Machine

An orange ship and a purple ship against a rain of asteroids. Break rocks, collect the machines each mission asks for and, if you touch, fuse into one stronger ship.

Play in the browserPlay the 2015 originalDownload the original (2015, Windows)

Two versions: the 2015 game as it was, in English as it shipped, and a widescreen remake with more to it. Alone, together or online, on a keyboard, a gamepad or a phone.

The remake: the glowing triangle snake over space, the orange ship with a shield and the purple one shooting among asteroids

How to play

Controls

ActionOrangePurple
MoveW A S DI J K L
ShootEU
Split the fusionSpaceSpace
PauseEscEsc

With one player, either set of keys flies your ship. A gamepad works too, and phones get an on-screen stick. Keys can be changed in Options.

Two versions

You pick one when you start. Both use the original art and sounds.

2026 remake

The remake: both ships shooting among asteroids, a glowing power-up and points floating up
  • Widescreen, with glow and effects.
  • The triangle snake: it moves in waves, figure eights and spirals and dives at whoever stays still.
  • Online: open a room and send your partner the link.
  • Play alone with a CPU partner, at three levels.
  • Big rocks split; breaking several in a row builds a combo.
  • When fused, the second ship runs a turret.
  • If a ship goes down, the other has 10 seconds to rescue it.
  • Three new power-ups: shield, magnet and rapid fire.
  • A storm while you hold out the 15 seconds, missions that get harder and three difficulties.

2015 original

A 2015 match: both ships at the bottom, their health bars at the top corners and the 00/05 machine counter in the middle

The 2015 rules, numbers and screens, as they were and in English, as it shipped: the uncapped acceleration, damage on every frame of contact, the fusion flown by player 1. Only bugs nobody wanted were fixed, like the first shot that got lost.

In Spanish and English, with each player's keys remappable, three volumes and touch controls for phones.

Story

BM wasn't born in 2026: it is a 2015 game coming back.

  1. 2015 · The beginnings

    Steve Aragon makes it in ActionScript 3, with Flash Builder and Flash, as an Adobe AIR app, the same year as Kingdom of Robots. He draws the ships, the asteroids and the effects, and builds a camera that zooms in when the ships fuse.

  2. 2017 · Released

    On June 12, 2017 it ships as a Windows .exe, with a blog post and a gameplay video. On July 29 it goes into a repository with its code, its art and sound libraries and the built game.

  3. 2026 · The web version

    Flash no longer runs in any browser. BM comes back built with three.js, with the ships, rocks and sounds of the 2015 SWF, plus a remake with more mechanics, a CPU partner and phone controls. The original plays here too, through Ruffle, with nothing to install.

Download the original (2015, Windows)The original 2015 Windows build, as it shipped.