Bullseye Darts

Bullseye Darts hangs a proper tournament board on the wall of a quiet pub: oiled panelling, a brass lamp throwing a hard circle of light, a shelf of half-finished pints and a chalk scoreboard beside the board where every visit gets written up. The board itself is measured the way a real one is — a thirty-four centimetre scoring bed, an eight millimetre treble ring, a twenty-five and a fifty in the middle — so a dart that lands a hair inside the wire scores what it would in a league match.

Throwing is one gesture. Press and hold and the aiming ring stops wandering and settles on the bed you want; a timing bar runs while you hold, and letting go inside the green band sends the dart where the ring is pointing. Let go early or late and the dart lands high or low, usually in the single twenty instead of the treble. Hold too long and your arm starts to shake, so the good dart is the one you take while you are still steady. Darts thud into the sisal and stand there for the rest of the visit, and every so often one catches a wire and drops out for nothing, to a groan from the corner.

Four games on the one board. 501 with a doubles-out switch, against a Pub, League or Pro arm, with the chalkboard suggesting the way out from a hundred and seventy down — T20 T19 D12 and so on — or with two players passing the darts across one screen. Cricket closes twenty down to fifteen and the bull, three marks each, points on anything your opponent has left open. Around the Clock walks you from one to twenty and then the bull, where a double jumps you two ahead and a treble three. High Score is thirty darts and nothing else: score as heavily as you can and see the number stick. Best scores, your best checkout and your wins are kept in the browser. It fits a phone held upright and a wide screen alike, works on touch, mouse and keyboard, P pauses and M mutes.