Unabated Pool

Take a seat at a nine-foot walnut table. Play eight-ball against Alex at one of five difficulty levels, share the table with a friend, or practise cue-ball control on your own. Choose a single rack or a race to three or five.

Set the rules before you break: WPA Eight-ball, APA Eight-ball, Blackball, International Eightball or Unabated House. The game handles fouls and break choices, with on-table pocket calls when your rules require them. Blackball and International use red and yellow balls on the game's American-dimension equipment. International includes a shot clock and an optional casual setting without it.

Move around the table to find your angle, get low behind the cue ball, or switch to the overhead view. Adjust the cue's contact point for draw, follow and side spin. Fine aim lets you make small corrections before you shoot.

In practice, place the cue ball wherever it fits and retry your previous shot. Try the same position with a different pace or spin and see where the cue ball finishes. A smaller seven-foot table is also available.

Play with a mouse and keyboard, or use the touch controls in portrait or landscape. Your browser saves the table after each completed shot so you can return to it later.

The goal

Pot your group, then the eight. Your group is solids or stripes, or reds or yellows under Blackball and International. After the break, potting the eight before your group is clear, or fouling on the shot that pots it, loses the rack.

Controls

• Click or drag on the cloth to aim. On a touch screen, tap or drag.
• Set the power slider and press Shoot. On a keyboard, hold Space to build power and let go to shoot.
• The left and right arrow keys nudge your aim.
• Click the spin disc where you want the tip to strike. Raise Cue Elevation for a steeper strike, up to 70°.
• Right-drag, Alt-drag or two fingers move the camera round the table. Scroll or pinch to zoom. C swaps between 3D View and Top View. Esc opens the menu.

Calls and fouls

• WPA: after the break, call a ball and a pocket for every shot, or declare a safety. Tap a ball to call it, then tap a numbered pocket marker.
• APA and Unabated House: you only call the pocket for the eight.
• International: on an open table, nominate reds or yellows before you shoot.
• Blackball: no calls. A foul gives your opponent a free shot, played from where the cue ball lies or from baulk.
• In the other rule sets, a foul gives your opponent ball in hand.

Matches

• International gives you 45 seconds a shot, and one 15-second extension per rack. Let the clock run out and it's a foul.
• Under APA the rack winner breaks next. The other rule sets alternate the break.
• Two players on one device can agree a stalemate from the pause menu. The same player breaks again.

Spin practice

Six drills set up the same shot each time: draw, follow, stop shot, left and right side off a cushion, and cut-shot throw. Press Reset drill to go again.