Story
The Summer of '87
It's June 15. Uncle Ray left you the cottage, the dock, and an old Sunray 240. Take jobs, buy hulls, and race every Saturday until the Monomonac Cup on September 5 — with four rivals who live here and remember how you drive.
LAKE MONOMONAC
THE SUMMER OF '87
A real living breathing New England lake in the summer of 1987. Race the locals, tow the skiers, work the water, earn the fleet, and win the Monomonac Cup.
No download · desktop & phone
Three ways to play
The same lake, the same boats, three different reasons to be out there.
Sandbox
Just the lake
The whole living lake with no season and no debt attached. Pick a hull, pick a starting stake, and go — the neighbors still keep their schedules, the radio still plays, and nothing is counting down.
Arcade
Straight to the good part
Eight events on a launcher, no career attached: races, the regatta, freestyle, waterski, wakeboard, tubing, the fishing derby, and BMX. Top-ten boards on every one, and they survive starting a new career.
A day on the lake
A summer's worth of things to do
Days roll by in about twelve real minutes. What you do with them is up to you.
- Saturday racing
- Twelve Saturdays against Tommy V., Dee Marchetti, Rico Suave, and the Commodore, building to the Monomonac Cup.
- Ski, wakeboard, tube
- Tow Cindy through the slalom, drive slow and boring on purpose for Trish's big air, and whip Scooter until he lets go.
- Sailing and the regatta
- Two wind-driven hulls with real tacking and heel, lay-line guidance, and a club regatta that rewards reading a puff.
- Race a friend
- Send a link, line up boat-to-boat, and settle it on the same water — a real one-on-one race against a friend across town. No accounts, no chat, just you two. New, in beta.
- Working the lake
- Deliveries, passenger shuttles, fishing charters, loon surveys, and water quality testing off seven job boards.
- Camp counselor
- Get hired by Peggy at Camp Monomonac and run kids through eleven activities. Keep them happy or get sent home.
- BMX
- Scooter's dirt track: three laps, real jumps, medals, and a ghost of your best run to chase.
- Ashore
- Leave the boat and walk, drive, or ride. Every house is real, open, and lived in by neighbors who keep their own hours.
- Neighbor favors
- Lost cats, loose dogs, firewood to stack, a package run, and a grocery list with ice cream that's melting.
- Your cottage
- Furnish the big room, put keepsakes on the shelf, and watch the real lake move through the windows.
- Nights
- Campfires, fireworks off the beach, a six-station radio dial, and loons out past dark.
The lake is real
Lake Monomonac sits on the Massachusetts–New Hampshire line, between Winchendon and Rindge. It's a hidden gem. I've been spending summers there for over a decade.
The shoreline in this game is that shoreline. All six islands are where they actually are, the roads have their real names, and the houses stand where they really stand — 789 of them, built from OpenStreetMap geometry rather than drawn by hand. People who know the water recognize it the moment the boat moves.
Everything on top of that is invented. The summer of 1987 never happened here, the neighbors aren't anyone, and no real person is in the game. It's what the lake feels like, rendered as the arcade game a kid in 1987 would have wanted: flat colors, a loud radio, and a boat that planes.
More about the lake and how it was built →
Built out of love · Winchendon, Mass.
Lake Monomonac is a fictional video game inspired by life on the real Lake Monomonac (Winchendon, Mass. / Rindge, N.H.). The shoreline is real; the neighbors, businesses, and events are invented.