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Season One • Nexus Cyber Championship

Velocity Nexus

Early-2000s arcade style · free in your browser

Velocity Nexus is a free arcade kart racer that plays in your browser: eight circuits, a six-race Grand Prix, the four-race Zapvyn Cup, a Time Trial against your own ghost and a daily challenge, with no install and no account. It is an original DDS game in an early-2000s arcade style.

▶ Race now, free See the controls

Free · no account
Plays in your browser
Keyboard · touch · gamepad
Live build eeda7a8

Neon Harbor GP in the game's demo race. In-engine footage, demo driver

By Robert McCullock, Founder and Studio Director, Design Delight Studio

01 In short

Velocity Nexus is a free arcade kart racer in your browser. Race three rivals over three laps on eight circuits, in a quick race, a six-race Grand Prix or the four-race Zapvyn Cup, or chase your own ghost in a Time Trial. No install, no account, no third-party ads, and after the first visit it plays offline.

02 The numbers, every one checkable

8circuits
6races in the Grand Prix
4chassis
6items in the roulette
3turbo stages: blue, orange, purple
2,950automated tests pass (commit eeda7a8, 21 Oct 2026)

03 Eight circuits

The Grand Prix races the first six in order. The Zapvyn Cup races four: Fathomglass Run, Hyperion Speedway, Vinegate Temple and Starlight Canyon.

In-engine footage, demo driver

Grand Prix race 1
Neon Harbor GP
A city at night, where every Grand Prix starts.
In-engine footage, demo driver

Grand Prix race 2
Magma Caldera
A volcano circuit.
In-engine footage, demo driver

Grand Prix race 3
Cyber Mirage
A digital-void circuit.
In-engine footage, demo driver

Grand Prix race 4
Hyperion Speedway
A sunset speedway.
In-engine footage, demo driver

Grand Prix race 5
Glacier Ridge
An ice circuit.
In-engine footage, demo driver

Grand Prix race 6
Starlight Canyon
A space canyon, and the final race.
New circuit
Fathomglass Run
A deep-sea circuit, and the Zapvyn Cup's first race.
New circuit
Vinegate Temple
A jungle-ruins circuit.

Watch the demo race

When the Title is left idle, the game plays a demo race with the computer at the wheel, unless your device asks for reduced motion. This is that race, without its closing shot, captured without the logo, circuit cards and prompts on top.

Neon Harbor GP, then Glacier Ridge, in the game's demo race. In-engine footage, demo driver

04 Six items in the roulette

Plasma Orb

Fires a homing orb at the nearest kart ahead, or at a rival behind when you lead. It spins that rival out for 1.2 s.

EMP Mine

Drops a mine 2.5 m behind you. A rival that runs into it spins out for 1.2 s. A rival's mine spins you out for up to 1.2 s.

Nitro Boost

+14 m/s to your top speed for 1.8 s.

Kinetic Shield

Blocks the next mine, orb or bolt that would hit you.

Thunderbolt

Spins out every rival for 3.5 s. A rival's shield blocks it.

Plasma Magnet

Fires a homing bolt at the nearest kart ahead, or at a rival behind when you lead, and gives +18 m/s to your top speed for 3 s.

A rival with its Kinetic Shield up blocks your orb, mine or bolt.

05 Drift for a Turbo Burst

Hold a drift through a corner to charge a Turbo Burst: blue, then orange, then purple. Release it for the boost.

06 The Garage

Four chassis, Apex Phantom, Titan Breaker, Vortex Nitro and Shield Vanguard, and four upgrades, Engine power, Turbo charger, Racing tires and Reinforced armor, each up to level 10, bought with the credits you win.

Apex Phantom
Titan Breaker
Vortex Nitro
Shield Vanguard

Your best laps come back to race you as ghosts.

07 More ways to race

Time Trial

You, the circuit and your own ghost: no rivals, no items.

Daily challenge

The same circuit for everyone each day (UTC), with your best time of the day.

Ghost links

Share a lap as a link, and a friend races your ghost.

08 Controls

Keyboard, touch in landscape, or a gamepad. The tables below are copied from the game's own controls card.

Keyboard

Action	Keys
Steer	A D / ← →
Throttle	W / ↑
Brake	S / ↓
Drift	Space / Shift
Item	E
Pause	Esc / P
Restart	R
Mute	M
Menus	↑ ↓ ← → Enter, Esc

Touch (landscape)

Action	Touch
Steer	Steering strip
Throttle	Gas
Brake	Brake
Drift	Drift
Item	Item
Pause	II (the pause button)
Menus	Tap

Gamepad

Action	Pad
Steer	Left stick, D-pad ← →
Throttle	Right trigger or Cross (D-pad ↑)
Brake	Left trigger or Square (D-pad ↓)
Drift	Right shoulder
Item	Circle or left shoulder
Pause	Start
Menus	D-pad, Cross select, Circle back

09 Sound, synthesized live

Every engine note, effect and music cue is synthesized live in your browser. The game ships no audio files.

10 What the game sends, and what it does not

The game itself, at velocity.ddsboston.com: no accounts, no third-party ads, no third-party trackers. It does send first-party telemetry to its own server, and every field is listed below.

Your progress is saved in your browser, not on a server.

Every field the game sends to its own server, at /_t
Field or event	What it is	Why
v	The schema version, 1.	So a future change can be told apart.
sid	8 random hex characters, made when the page loads and never stored on your device. The server writes it into each accepted event line of the game's log.	Groups the events of one visit. It cannot link two visits or two devices.
build	The commit the game was built from.	Which build a session or an error came from.
t	Whole milliseconds since the page loaded, sent with each event.	When, within the visit.
session_start	The browser viewport, rounded down to 100 px; the pixel ratio, to the nearest 0.5; the input the game starts with: keyboard, touch or gamepad.	Did anyone play, and on what kind of screen.
race_finish	The circuit, your place, your race time, and the frame times when the results card opened, with the last frame's draw calls and triangles and the display's refresh rate.	Where players finish, and real-world frame times on real devices.
gp_finish	Your championship place.	Does anyone finish a Grand Prix. A finished four-race cup sends none.
error	The error's built-in class name (for example TypeError) and where it happened. Never its message, stack, file name or URL.	Does the game break, and where.

The session id is random, made on each page load and never stored on your device; it is kept with the events in the game's log.
The game's server writes no IP address anywhere. It keeps one only in memory, for rate limiting: about 3 minutes after your last request while the server is busy; an idle server keeps it until its next telemetry request or until the instance stops.
Google Cloud's request log records the address, user agent, address of the page and referring page of each request to load the game and its files, as for any website. Since 14 October 2026 the telemetry posts' request-log entries are dropped before storage.
The game's log keeps its lines for 30 days.
No cookies, no third-party trackers and no third-party ads in the game. The server is hosted on Google Cloud, whose request log is described above.
A “From our studio” card in the game opens our shop, a separate site with its own policy, cookies and analytics.

This page: This page is on our shop, ddsboston.com, whose connected third-party pixels (Google & YouTube; Klaviyo: Email Marketing & SMS; Pinterest; and Printful, as listed in the store admin on 19 October 2026) receive events from its pages, this one included. The game itself, at velocity.ddsboston.com, loads none of them.

Race Velocity Nexus, free. No install.

▶ Race now, free

More free games from the studio

11 Questions

Is it really free?

Yes. There is no price, no account and no payment anywhere in the game. The only ads are a few cards for our studio's own shop, never during a race.

Do I need to install anything?

No. It runs in a browser tab.

Does it work offline?

After your first visit, in most modern browsers, yes.

What can I play with?

A keyboard, a touchscreen in landscape, or a gamepad.

What does the game collect?

First-party events: race results, your screen size (rounded), the input type, frame times and error types, sent only to the game's own server under an id made on each page load, and described line by line on this page. No third-party trackers and no cookies in the game.

Where is my progress saved?

In your browser, on your device.

How many circuits are there?

Eight. The six-race Grand Prix runs the first six; the four-race Zapvyn Cup runs Fathomglass Run, Hyperion Speedway, Vinegate Temple and Starlight Canyon.

Can I race against myself?

Yes. The Time Trial puts you on a circuit alone with your own ghost, and a ghost link lets a friend race yours (a link from an incompatible version of the game is refused).

Who made the art?

Some art was made with AI image tools: the eight circuit skies, the eight trackside boards and the four kart emblems. The karts, drivers, tracks and sound are made in code.

Is it affiliated with a console maker or publisher?

No. Velocity Nexus is an original game.

12 Key takeaways

Free arcade kart racer in the browser, early-2000s arcade style.
Eight circuits, a six-race Grand Prix, the four-race Zapvyn Cup, four chassis, six items.
The game itself: no accounts, no third-party ads, no third-party trackers.
A Time Trial against your own ghost, a daily challenge on the same circuit for everyone each UTC day, and ghost links a friend can race.
Keyboard, touch in landscape, or a gamepad; every sound is synthesized live, with no audio files.
Progress stays in your browser; the game's first-party telemetry is listed on this page, field by field.

The bottom line

Velocity Nexus is an original arcade kart racer you can play free in a browser tab at velocity.ddsboston.com, with no install and no account. The game itself carries no third-party ads and no third-party trackers, and what it does send to its own server is printed above, field by field, rather than summed up in a badge.