Once upon a time, a RAS engineer spent his days configuring Gateways, Brokers and Agents. One day he wondered: what if we smashed all of this with a ball?
RAScanoid is a tribute to the legendary Arkanoid (Taito, 1986), reimagined with the colors of the Parallels RAS architecture. Each brick represents a component of the RAS stack. The paddle is the RAS Paddle. And the ball is the network packet that just wants to break everything.
🎮 Play RAScanoid
Controls:
🖱️ Mouse to move the paddle
⬅️ ➡️ Arrow keys (or A/D)
⎵ Space bar to launch the ball
X to fire the laser (when bonus is active)
🧱 The RAS architecture in bricks
The bricks are not placed randomly. Each row corresponds to a layer of the Parallels RAS architecture, and each column to a functional role:
| Row | RAS Component | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — blue | Gateway | Secure entry point for client connections. Handles TLS encryption and session routing. |
| 2 — purple | Broker | Brain of the RAS farm. Orchestrates resources, manages load and user sessions. |
| 3 — green | Agent | Installed on each RDSH server or VDI desktop. Communicates with the Broker and exposes resources. |
| 4 — yellow | Provider | Interface with the hypervisor (VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix…). Provisions VMs on the fly. |
| 5 — red | SecureGW | Secure Client Gateway: SSL/TLS tunnel for remote access without VPN. The perimeter fortress. |
The columns represent the cross-functional roles: Gateway, Broker, Agent, Provider, Farm, FSLogix, PKI, MFA. A Gateway/PKI brick? That’s your TLS certificate about to get destroyed. A Broker/MFA brick? Multi-factor authentication biting the dust. 💥
⭐ Bonuses
Some bricks hide a bonus (look for the ★ star in the corner). Catch the capsule with the paddle to activate it:
- ▬ Wide Paddle — paddle gets wider. Like a Gateway with more licenses.
- ⚪ Multi-ball — 2 extra balls in play simultaneously. Controlled chaos.
- ❄ Slow Ball — ball slows down. Perfect for aiming at stubborn FSLogix bricks.
- ⚡ Laser — laser shots from the paddle (X key). Snipe bricks from a distance.
- 🔒 Sticky — ball sticks to the paddle after each bounce. Precise aiming guaranteed.
- ❤ Extra Life — one extra life. Like a snapshot before a RAS update.
- 💣 Bomb — destroys a cluster of adjacent bricks. The forced farm upgrade.
🔊 Sounds
RAScanoid features 100% Web Audio synthesis — no external files, everything is generated on the fly in pure JavaScript. Bounces, brick explosions, level clear fanfare, dramatic game over… the old-school atmosphere is complete.
⚙️ Under the hood
RAScanoid is a standalone HTML file (~40 KB), no external dependencies except Google Fonts. It runs at 60 fps thanks to several canvas optimizations:
- Offscreen brick canvas: redrawn only when a brick changes state, blitted each frame.
- Zero shadowBlur on bricks: canvas performance enemy #1 — removed, replaced with colored borders.
- Capped particle system at 120 elements maximum.
- Fully responsive: adapts to both browser width AND height. The paddle is always visible.
Happy brick smashing! 🚀
