React Pixel Pinball: 2D Arcade Engine
A custom-engineered retro pinball simulation combining HTML5 Canvas rendering, discrete collision geometry, spring-loaded plunger mechanics, continuous raycasting, and synthesized audio.
Architecting Pixel Pinball reinforced the necessity of continuous raycasting and sub-stepped physics when modeling high-velocity ballistic motion on an HTML5 canvas. Isolating keyboard event listeners and canvas rendering loops from React's virtual DOM reconciliation cycle ensured a deterministic, jitter-free 60 FPS update loop. Computing Euclidean point-to-segment projections mathematically eliminated flipper tunneling bugs and provided authentic angular rebound impulses. Overall, the project demonstrated that building custom 2D vector physics engines yields superior performance and tactile feedback compared to importing monolithic third-party gaming libraries.