How to play Cakewalk online
- Move the baker between belts: up and down arrow keys
- Stop the belt next to the baker: Space bar
- Speed up the belt next to the baker (only in ābelt speedupā variations): right arrow
- Start a new game: F12 (the consoleās Reset switch)
- Choose one of the 16 variations: F11 (the consoleās Select switch)
- Starting difficulty: F4 toggles the left difficulty switch (B is normal, A starts at a harder level)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0ā9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0ā9 loads it
Gameplay
Pastries roll down six conveyor belts at different speeds. Your baker stands at the end of the belts and moves up and down between them. Touch a pastry as it reaches the end and the baker boxes it and puts it on the outgoing belt, for 100 points. Pressing fire freezes the nearest belt, which turns red, for about four seconds; stopping another belt releases the first one straight away. Watch out for the knife and fork that sometimes appear: they are the only things you must not catch.
Every dropped pastry is swept up by the janitor, and each cleanup uses one of your reserve blocks, shown in red at the top left. You can hold up to four. When a pastry drops, or the baker grabs the cutlery, with no cleanups left, the game is over. Catch enough pastries and you earn a coffee break: the belts go quiet, a cup appears on the middle belt, and the game waits until you walk the baker over to drink it. That also gives you an extra cleanup, and then a faster wave begins. Dancing gingerbread men turn up now and then and move back and forth even on a stopped belt.
Variations and switches
The 16 variations mix four options: a fast baker (easier), pause to box (the baker stands still while boxing each cake, which makes tight bunches harder), belt speedup (push right to hurry a belt along) and all gingerbread men, where every pastry moves erratically. The manual calls game 6 the easiest and game 11 probably the hardest. With the left difficulty switch at A, play starts at the pace you would normally reach after the fourth coffee break. The right difficulty switch and the colour/black-and-white switch do nothing.
Tips
- Use the janitorās time. While he sweeps up a dropped pastry, stop a busy belt and get the baker into position.
- Freeze the belt you canāt reach. Stop the belt with the most urgent pastry that is further away, then go and deal with the nearer ones.
- Learn the gingerbread men. Their dancing looks random but follows patterns you can learn.
Players often compare Cakewalk to the arcade game Tapper, as both are about serving things along several lanes, although the two games play quite differently.
