Hinge Hoops

An arcade basketball machine that lives in your folded phone. Stand it up like a laptop: the hoop is on the raised half, you flick from the half on the table, and every shot sails up and over the fold. Sixty seconds on the clock. Flick, swish, flick again. The next ball racks under half a second after the last one leaves your thumb, and up to three can be in the air at once. HOW IT SCORES Two points a basket. Nothing but net is worth one more. In the last fifteen seconds the backboard turns red and every basket thrown then is worth three. Make three in a row and the ball catches fire: every basket after that is worth one more, until you miss. At 20 points the hoop starts to slide; at 40 it moves faster and the backboard tilts. A shot in the air when the buzzer goes still counts. FOUR WAYS TO PLAY Arcade: sixty seconds, as many baskets as you can. Streak: no clock. Miss once and it is…