THE SUMMER OF '87

A LAKE MONOMONAC GAME

It's June 15, 1987. Uncle Ray left you the lake cottage, the dock, and an old Sunray 240. The lake is yours until Labor Day — make it count.

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No download · works on phones (turn sideways)

A whole summer on the water

Twelve weeks, twelve Saturdays, and one Cup. In between: jobs to run, boats to earn, skiers to tow, a camp that needs a counselor, and a shoreline full of people who notice how you behave.

The season

Twelve Saturdays from June 20 to the Monomonac Cup on September 5, across three courses. Points, standings, and a rank that shifts what people say to you — win, podium, mid-pack, or a DNF that counts as the real result it is.

Four rivals who live here

Tommy V., Dee Marchetti, Rico Suave, and the Commodore each have a house, a job on the lake, and a schedule. Find them at work and they'll talk — a hundred written exchanges deep, across racing, roots, work, the lake, and what's next.

Ten boats to earn

From a Wave Cat 300 jet ski to the Hydra X5 unlimited hydroplane, through work skiffs, bowriders, an offshore V-hull, and a tunnel cat. Two are wind-driven. Three tracks of upgrades, three dealerships, and hulls you can only get at one.

Work the lake

Seven job boards post fresh work every morning: deliveries, passenger shuttles where a rough ride costs you the tip, fishing charters graded by the catch, loon surveys, and water quality testing for the lake association.

Behind the boat

Tow Cindy through the slalom gates, drive deliberately slow for Trish's wakeboard air, and whip Scooter on the tube until he lets go — which ends the run and is entirely your fault.

Sailing

Two wind hulls with real tacking, heel, and lay lines, a weekly club regatta, and a coach who'll teach you to read a puff. The wind is its own system — the same breeze that helps you upwind is the chop that punishes the motor fleet.

Ashore

Dock the boat and keep going on foot, in the family car, or on a bike. Every house is real, open, and lived in. Knock or walk in — but the household remembers, and trust is the only currency that matters up there.

Camp Monomonac

Peggy will hire you for full or half shifts. Eleven activities to run — swim relays, hide-and-seek, ghost stories, a boat ride, the playground — with camper happiness tracked and a very real chance of being let go.

Scooter's BMX track

Three laps of dirt with jumps that will land you badly if you over-rotate and corners that will let go if you push the grip. Medals unlock a pack race, and your best run comes back as a ghost to chase.

Your cottage

A big room to furnish from a twelve-item catalog, keepsakes to display with a note about whose house they came from, and windows that show the actual lake moving outside.

Things that just happen

Eleven encounters find you on the water: a sheriff's cruiser mid-chase, a dead engine needing a tow, a chemical slick to trace back to its drum, a bait run against a spoil timer, a boat parade, a thunderstorm that can hit your hull.

Arcade mode

Eight events with top-ten boards and four difficulties, in its own save slot so starting a new career never touches your records: races, regatta, freestyle, waterski, wakeboard, tubing, the fishing derby, and BMX.

Postcards from the lake

Sailing a beach catamaran across flat open water on a clear summer morning — MONDAY, 9:00 AM — MORNING SAIL

Rounding a star-marked buoy in a sailing regatta, the wind gauge reading eleven miles an hour — THE REGATTA — BUOY 1 OF 6

Towing a water-skier past a pink and teal ramp on the ski course at 54 miles an hour — THE SLALOM COURSE

A wakeboarder carving outside the boat wake with the tow rope stretched tight — WAKEBOARD — YOUR WAKE IS THE RAMP

Whipping a rider on a red inflatable tube out wide behind the boat — TUBING — WHIP HARDER

Running third of five in a Saturday race, a rival boat crossing ahead through the turn markers — SATURDAY — P3 OF 5

Four riders on the start line at Scooter's BMX Track, the dirt loop and jumps ahead — SCOOTER'S BMX TRACK

The CAMP MONOMONAC sign at the roadside, with a cabin, a swing set, and campers beyond — CAMP MONOMONAC — SUMMER SESSION

Walking up the sand to the lake cottage past the fire ring and lawn chairs — ASHORE AT THE COTTAGE

Running the boat home across water gone copper under an orange sunset — GOLDEN HOUR

Running a motorboat across the lake after dark under stars and shore lights — OUT PAST DARK

Built from a real lake

The shoreline, the six islands, the roads and their names, and 789 buildings standing where they really stand — all of it from OpenStreetMap geometry, with elevation from the USGS. More about the lake →

1987, all summer

Days roll by in about twelve real minutes — dawn, dusk, weather, thunderstorms, loons, deer at the treeline, campfires, and fireworks off the beach.

WLKM 98.7 and five more

A six-station dial with original summer tracks. Every other sound in the game — engines, water, wildlife, interface — is synthesized in code.

A lake that keeps its own hours

Households wake, commute, work, and come home on their own clock, whether or not you're watching. Nothing about them is saved; they're a function of the time.

How to play

No download and no account.

DESKTOP WASD or arrows to drive · ENTER start · E interact · SHIFT run TAB minimap · M road atlas · R radio · C camera · 1-9 switch boats PHONE landscape only — on-screen stick + throttle, lighter graphics preset GAMEPAD supported — stick to steer, south button to interact, start to begin BROWSER any modern browser with WebGL2 (current Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge) SOUND starts after your first tap or key press (browser autoplay rules) SAVING your career saves in the browser you play in

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The Summer of '87 is a fictional story set on the real Lake Monomonac (Winchendon, Mass. / Rindge, N.H.). The shoreline and buildings are mapped from real data; every resident, business, and event is invented, and no real person is depicted.