Billiard

Billiard was one of those straightforward Flash games you'd find on a casual site in the early 2000s. It didn't try to be anything more than a digital version of the table game, and that was its appeal. You loaded it in a browser window, and there was the green felt, the rack of balls, and the cue ball waiting.

You control the cue stick with your mouse. You click and drag to aim, pulling back to set the power, then release to shoot. The main objective is simple: sink all your designated balls, stripes or solids, and then the eight ball. The physics felt weighty; the balls would carom off the cushions with a satisfying thud, and you had to think about angles and spin. The pacing was slow and thoughtful, a game of geometry rather than speed. It was a quiet, focused way to spend a few minutes, the click of the mouse and the soft clack of the balls being the only sounds.