Sound Rally

Sound Rally is a fast back-and-forth volley you play entirely by ear against Dobby. The court is split into eight lanes from left to right. You guard the bottom; Dobby guards the top. Dobby serves the ball toward you and you find it by sound: it is placed in 3D space, so a lane on your left really sounds on your left and a lane on your right sounds on your right, and each lane also has its own musical pitch, low on the left and rising to the right, so you can pinpoint the exact lane. The tone grows louder and brighter with quickening beeps as it nears. Slide your bat with the left and right arrow keys: each step plays a clear knock whose pitch tells you which lane your bat is in, low on the left and rising to the right, so you always know where you are. Line your bat up with the ball until you hear a steady lock tone — that means your bat is in the ball’s lane — then press the up arrow to hit as the beeps become fastest. A clean hit sends it rocketing back to Dobby with a sharp knock.

Keys: left and right arrows move your bat; up arrow or space hits — you can swing as many times as you like as the ball comes in, so keep trying until you connect; press M any time to hear the score and where the ball is. If the ball gets past your bat to the bottom, you lose a chance; get it past Dobby at the top and he loses one. You each start with ten chances; the first down to zero loses. Watch out for pace balls that suddenly speed up and spin balls that drift across the lanes.

For the best experience, use headphones (the left-to-right sound is how you find the ball) and switch your screen reader to focus mode or pause its speech, since this game guides you with sound. In NVDA press the NVDA key plus S; in JAWS press Insert plus Space, then S.