Tap to fire
Tap an enemy and both cockpit guns fire at it. Shots lock onto whatever is closest to your finger, so you aim at targets, not pixels.
Vector simulation // Clearance level 4
Blackbox 1981
One finger. One tunnel.
A neon vector tunnel shooter for iPhone. Tap to fire, watch your gun heat, and keep anything from reaching the cockpit.
Get Blackbox 1981 on the App Store — $4.99
Status: coming soon to the App Store
Built for Apple Silicon
MFi & Game Controller Support
Requires iOS 17+ | Native Metal & SwiftUI | Universal Purchase
Operating procedure
One finger. One tunnel.
Every run is the same loop, and it gets faster each time you clear a sector.
Watch the heat
Every shot adds heat. Fill the gauge and the guns lock until they cool, so spraying taps gets you killed.
Clear the sector
Twelve kills moves you to the next sector. Enemies arrive faster and more often, and the high score is saved on your phone.
Field guide
Know what's coming.
Two hostiles patrol the tunnel. Anything that reaches the cockpit drains your shield, and the run ends when the shield hits zero.
Claw
Rides the tunnel wall and drifts quickly around it, so it is rarely where you last saw it.
- Breach
- −25% shield
- Kill
- 100 pts + range bonus
- Seen
- 6 in 10 contacts
Spinner
Hangs inside the tunnel and turns slowly. Easier to hit, but it shows up in the gaps between claws.
- Breach
- −15% shield
- Kill
- 150 pts + range bonus
- Seen
- 4 in 10 contacts
Range bonus: +25 points per unit of tunnel depth when the shot lands. A kill at the far end is worth up to 350 extra.
Terminal output
From the dossier to the tunnel.
Visual comfort
Bright, never harsh.
Arcade neon without the arcade strobe. The whole game is built to be comfortable to look at for a long session.
No strobes or screen flashes
Lights glow and fade on slow curves. Nothing blinks or fills the screen with a flash.
Gentle hit feedback
Taking damage swells a soft amber glow at the screen edges for about a second, then fades.
Respects Reduce Motion
With Reduce Motion on in iOS settings, the tunnel stops rolling and the game stays playable.
Pauses when you leave
Switch apps or lock your phone and the run freezes until you come back.
Privacy policy
What leaves your phone.
Last updated 29 October 2026
Blackbox 1981 is a single-player game for iPhone, made by Jamieson Rothwell (Lymegrove). There are no accounts or sign-in, and we don't run any servers, so we never receive your personal information ourselves. The free version shows ads from Google, and Google collects some data to serve them. This policy explains what that data is and how you can control it.
What stays on your device
- Your high score
- Whether you've bought Remove Ads
These are stored only on your device and are removed when you delete the app.
Advertising
If you play the free version, the game shows ads from Google AdMob (the Google Mobile Ads SDK):
- Banner ads at the bottom of the game over screen.
- Interstitial ads: full-screen ads shown between runs, at most once every three runs and never more than once every two minutes. Ads never appear during a run.
To serve, measure and personalize ads, and to prevent fraud, Google may collect:
- Device identifiers, including Apple's advertising identifier (IDFA), but only if you allow tracking
- Your IP address and the approximate location it implies
- Information about how you interact with ads
Google handles this data under the Google Privacy Policy. To learn more, see how Google uses information from apps that use its services.
Ads load only after the consent and tracking choices described below have been made. If your choices don't allow ads to be requested, no ads load.
Consent (EEA, UK and Switzerland)
If you're in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, the game shows Google's consent form before any ads load. You can accept, decline or manage your choices. If you decline, you may still see limited, non-personalized ads.
You can change your choice at any time with the PRIVACY link on the main menu. The link appears only where Google's consent rules apply.
Tracking
The game asks for permission to track you using Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt. Where a consent form applies, this prompt comes after it. If you choose Ask App Not to Track, your IDFA isn't shared and ads aren't personalized by tracking you across other companies' apps and websites.
You can change this at any time in Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking on your iPhone.
Data collected
The following data is collected only from free players, through Google's ad SDKs:
- Device ID: linked to your device. Used for tracking, advertising and analytics.
- Coarse location: linked to your device. Used for advertising, analytics and app functionality.
- Product interaction and advertising data: linked to your device. Used for advertising, analytics and app functionality.
- Crash, performance and other diagnostic data: not linked to you. Used for analytics and advertising.
No gameplay data, including your score, is sent anywhere.
Purchases
The game offers one in-app purchase, Remove Ads. It's a one-time, non-consumable purchase sold only through Apple. Apple handles the payment, so we never see or store your payment details. All the game keeps is a note on your device that you've bought it.
Once you've bought Remove Ads, the game no longer starts Google's ad SDK, and you won't see the consent form or the tracking prompt. If you buy partway through a session, ads stop right away.
On a new device or after reinstalling, use > RESTORE PURCHASE on the Remove Ads screen to get your purchase back.
US state privacy rights
We don't sell your personal information for money. Under some US state privacy laws, letting Google personalize ads may count as "sharing" personal information. To opt out, turn off tracking as described above, or contact us.
Children
The game isn't directed at children under 13, and its ads aren't targeted at children.
Support messages
If you use the support form, your name (if given), email address, device details and message are emailed to us so we can reply. We use them only to answer you and don't share them.
Changes
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new date.
Contact
Questions? Email support@lymegrove.com or use the support form.
Support
Open a channel.
Send a message below, or email support@lymegrove.com. For bugs, include your iPhone model, iOS version and what happened. Every message gets read.
The Lymegrove line