WARDIAL: Retro War Terminal
Dial into a 1983 war computer
Only for iPhone
$0.99 · Designed for iPhone. Not verified for macOS.
iPhone
Somewhere out there, an old computer is still listening. Dial in, log on, and find the move it never learned. Now with chess, drone warfare, and a two-minute war.
SOMEWHERE OUT THERE, AN OLD COMPUTER IS STILL LISTENING.
WARDIAL is a work of interactive fiction: a 1983 bedroom, a homebrew terminal, and a phone number that answers with a carrier tone. Log on, meet a war-planning machine with a strange sense of humor, and talk your way into its game library.
THE FICTION
• A wardial montage with real modem chatter — busy signals, wrong numbers, and one carrier
• A logon puzzle solved the 1983 way: research, patience, and an old backdoor
• A machine that types, speaks, and remembers you between calls
THE GAMES
• GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR — set your posture, read the crisis, and decide what to do when the board says the tracks are 35% real. If it goes wrong, you pick the targets, and the missiles fly in real time: watch every minute of it, or hold to accelerate
• THEATER COMMAND — six turns, three sectors, three command points a turn
• AIR INTERCEPT — a radar scope with honest physics: contacts only paint when the sweep passes them
• DRONE WARFARE — a one-minute flight into flak, and a few seconds to make it count
• CHESS, CHECKERS, BLACKJACK, TIC-TAC-TOE — the classics. One of them has to be earned.
Every sound is synthesized. Every word is typed. Endings are recorded, and one of them is hidden. The machine hopes you find it.
Fully offline. No ads, no accounts, no purchases — one price, the whole machine. A work of fiction: no real calls are made, ever.
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The developer, MATTHEW MALHAM, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
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Information
- Seller
- MATTHEW MALHAM
- Size
- 1.1 MB
- Category
- Simulation
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 17.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
9+
- 9+
- Infrequent
Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Guns or Other Weapons
- Copyright
- © 2026 Matthew Malham
