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The Data Systems Arcade

Four games,
made of the trade.

Everything falling, wiring and routing below is the material this company has supplied since 1984, behaving the way it behaves on real sites. Stack a rack without wasting a U. Punch down a wiremap in the right order. Route the traffic before the queue overflows.

And the scores are worth something. Cross the line printed on a game and tell us when it ends: the game will hand you straight to WhatsApp or email with your score written in, and there is a small thank-you with your next order. What it is stays our little secret until you ask.

Rack Builder

Stack the cabinet tight. A full row goes live.

Score past 50 and tell us at game over.

How to play

The idea. An empty cabinet fills from the top. Switches, servers, patch panels, power strips and cable managers drop in one at a time, and your job is to pack them so no space is wasted.

What to do. Slide the falling piece left or right and rotate it so it lands flush against what is already there. The dotted outline shows exactly where it will land, and the small block above the cabinet shows what is coming next.

Scoring. Every piece you place scores 1. Fill a shelf all the way across with no gap and that row is racked and cabled: it clears, everything above settles down, and it scores 10. Gaps are dead space. When the stack reaches the top of the cabinet the install is over.

Arrow keys move and rotate. Down nudges, space drops. P pauses.

Use the buttons under the rack.

Fill the cabinet

Switches, servers, panels and power drop into a 42U cabinet. Slide and rotate each piece so every row packs solid: a full row is racked, cabled and goes live, and live rows score. Leave gaps and the stack climbs; hit the top and the install is over.

Arrow keys slide, up rotates, down nudges, space drops the piece home. P pauses. Each placed piece scores 1, each full row scores 10.

The buttons under the rack slide, rotate and drop. Each placed piece scores 1, each full row scores 10.

The Wiremap

T568B, pin one to pin eight, against the clock.

Score past 30 and tell us at game over.

How to play

The idea. Eight coloured conductors, one right order. This is the T568B wiremap every installer knows: white/orange, orange, white/green, blue, white/blue, green, white/brown, brown.

What to do. Tap the conductors in that order, pin 1 first. A right pick seats itself in the next empty slot; a wrong pick shakes and costs you two seconds.

Scoring. Each correct wire scores 5. Finishing all eight is a termination: 20 more and time back on the clock. The shuffles get meaner as you go. When the clock runs out the round is over.

Click or tap the conductors in T568B order, pin 1 to pin 8. A wrong pick costs two seconds. Every finished termination buys time back.

Punch it down

Eight conductors, one right order: the T568B wiremap every installer carries in their head. Pick them in pin order before the clock runs out. Each correct wire scores, each finished termination scores more and buys time, and the shuffles get meaner as you go.

Tap or click the conductors in pin order, 1 to 8. Each right wire scores 5, a finished termination scores 20 and buys time back, a wrong pick costs two seconds.

Packet Rush

Four ports, one of you. Route everything.

Score past 50 and tell us at game over.

How to play

The idea. Four lanes of traffic come down the screen: voice, camera, data and web. Each lane has a port at the bottom, marked by a coloured line, and only you can route what arrives at it.

What to do. When a packet reaches its lane's port line, press that lane's button, or its number key on a keyboard. Timing is the whole game: press as the packet crosses the line, not before it arrives.

Scoring. Dead centre scores 3, anywhere in the zone scores 2, and pressing an empty port costs 1. Every packet that slips past the line eats one of your five switch buffers. When the buffers are gone the queue overflows and the run ends. It only gets faster.

Keys 1 to 4 route each lane. P pauses.

Tap a lane button as the packet crosses its port.

Hold the uplink

Traffic pours down four lanes: voice, camera, data and web. Route each packet as it crosses its port, dead centre for the bonus. Every packet that slips past eats switch buffer, and when the buffer is gone the queue overflows. It only gets faster.

Keys 1 to 4 route their lanes. P pauses. Dead centre scores 3, anywhere in the zone scores 2, an empty punch costs 1.

Tap a lane's button as its packet crosses the port line. Dead centre scores 3, anywhere in the zone scores 2, an empty tap costs 1.

Signal Defence

The original. Shoot what blocks the signal, never what carries it.

The arcade's first cabinet lives on its own page, where it has kept people company through stalled projects since it was built. Play Signal Defence.

Everything in these games is on the shelves one page away: racks, cable, switches and the rest of the catalogue. Or talk to us on WhatsApp between rounds.