Play Manhole Online

Manhole came out in 1988 as part of the MS-DOS Classic Games series from The Software Toolworks. It was a strange, simple game for its time, built around a single, oddball idea rather than complex mechanics or a grand story. It fit right in with the experimental, sometimes surreal titles that popped up in the early days of home computing, where developers weren't afraid to try something completely different.

You control a cursor that lifts manhole covers on a grid-like city map, revealing the pipes below. Your goal is to guide various characters, like ducks, kangaroos, or even a marching band, from their starting manhole to a specific destination by opening a path for them. The core mechanics involve planning routes, timing your cover flips to avoid letting characters fall into dead ends, and sometimes dealing with multiple characters moving at once. The pacing is deliberate, almost puzzle-like, and it can get tricky when paths cross or you have to manage several movements at the same time. Playing it feels like conducting a silly, slightly chaotic underground traffic system.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".