Pulse - Time Memory Game: How Good Is Your Internal Clock?

You experience time all day long, but how well can you measure it? Pulse lights up a glowing orb for a moment. When it fades, press and hold for exactly as long as it lasted. Five pulses make a game, and every round scores up to 10 points.

How to play Pulse

1. Press Start. After ready, set, go and a short pause, a pulse of light glows. A soft tone plays with it.
2. When the screen says your turn, press and hold anywhere, or hold the Space bar. Let go when it feels like the same length of time.
3. See the pulse and your hold side by side, to the hundredth of a second, with your score for the round.
4. After five pulses, see your total out of 50 and share it.

Presses shorter than 60 milliseconds count as a tap, not a hold, so you can try that round’s hold again.

Questions

How is Pulse scored?

A perfect hold scores 10. Your score depends on the ratio between your hold and the pulse, so holding twice as long costs exactly as much as holding half as long. Being 10% off still scores about 9 on Easy (8.7 on Hard), while being 50% too long drops to about 1. Both times are rounded to the hundredth of a second before scoring, as they are shown.

What is the difference between Daily, Easy and Hard?

Daily gives everyone the same five pulses, from half a second to six seconds, with no clock. You get one attempt, and new pulses arrive at 00:00 UTC. Easy practice uses pulses from 1 to 3.5 seconds and shows a running clock while you hold. Hard practice uses the daily rules. Hard and daily sets always mix quick blinks with long holds.

Can I challenge a friend?

Yes. After a practice game, Copy result includes a link to the exact same five pulses, so your friend can try to beat your score.

Can I count along with the orb?

Not really, and that is on purpose. The glow drifts on several unrelated rhythms, so there is no steady beat to count. The pause before each pulse varies, so you cannot anticipate the start either.

What happens if I switch tabs mid-round?

That round starts again, because a hidden tab would spoil the timing. Finished rounds are saved, so a reload continues where you left off.

What does sharing show?

Your total and each round’s score, with a coloured square per round. It never shows the pulse lengths or how far off you were in seconds, because those together would give the daily pulses away.

About this edition

This Playdle edition is inspired by the Time game on Dialed.gg. Its visuals, sounds, remarks and code are its own. It has no accounts, ads or multiplayer server, and the game makes no network requests after the page loads.