Highway Oasis: Rest Stop Tycoon

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Highway Oasis: Rest Stop Tycoon is a free online gas station game you can play instantly in your browser, with no download and no account. You start with two working pumps and a site full of rubble, and you grow it into whatever you like. There is no button for working a pump: every service point has a circle painted on the ground, and standing inside one is doing the job there. Fuel flows or a battery charges, and when the driver has what they came for they pay and drive out on their own. Step out of the circle and it stops where it is; step back in and it carries on. Nothing counts down at you. No driver ever gives up and pulls out: when every bay is taken the next car simply lines up on the driveway, and shoppers stand in the queue at the till until somebody works it. There is no clock to beat, no quota and no way to lose, because demand follows supply: cars and people turn up in proportion to what you have actually built, so you set the pace by deciding when to expand. Superchargers are a project rather than a purchase: every one draws a kilowatt, and the only kilowatts on site come off a solar array and a transformer out in the yard, so the electric side means building the grid first. Electric cars then start pulling in — they pay more per unit and take longer to deliver, so a charger earns more per car while holding a worker for longer. Clear the plots along the pavement and vending machines and a supermarket go in, and the public start walking up to buy from them on their own while you stay on the forecourt. The site you inherit is derelict, and clearing it is the other half of the game. Brush has grown over the west corner and the hedge strip, someone has fly-tipped pallets and blocks along the pavement, and the utility yard in the east is knee-deep in scrap iron. All of it clears the same way everything else here works — stand on it and it goes — and all of it pays: overgrowth goes for cash, a scrap heap comes up as metal, and fly-tipped material gives a bit of each. Which heap you walk to depends on what you are short of, so the map is worth reading rather than sweeping. Everything bigger than a bare pump wants building material on top of its price, and salvage is where most of it comes from — so a plot you cannot yet afford is still worth standing on. Six of the plots also have a heap sitting right beside them, and that ground has to be clear before anything can go up: two of the vending machines, the supermarket, the diner, the toilet block and the transformer each wait on one job apiece. The transformer being one of them is why a whole bank of superchargers starts with a spade rather than a wallet — its three kilowatts are what the bank runs on, though a single kilowatt off the solar array will still buy you a first charger with nothing cleared at all. Clearing costs nothing but the seconds you spend there, which is what makes expanding something you choose rather than a menu you click. Parcels drop around the site as you go, holding cash, crates or material, and reward parcels land at your feet as the customer count passes each milestone; none of them expire, so one you have not reached yet simply waits where it landed. Every fill takes about a second and a half and every driver asks for roughly the same amount, so the decision is never which car is worth serving — it is which bay to walk to next, and the walk is most of what a car costs you. The site is much bigger than the screen and you are free to walk all of it. Past the forecourt is the rest stop: the solar array and transformer that power the chargers, a diner that sells the biggest meal on the site, a toilet block that takes a coin and serves itself while making every driver on the forecourt tip better, and the storeroom the crates come out of. The motorway runs across the top of the map and never stops: most of the traffic on it drives straight past, and the cars that do pull in run a one-way circuit — in at the east ramp, along the driveway, into a bay, out to the exit lane and away. The pavement works the same way. The more you build along it, the more people walk up, and only some of them are buying — the rest are passing through, which is what a rest stop by a motorway looks like. Cash goes back into faster pumps, a stronger grid, a bigger storeroom, and five different people you can hire one at a time — a pump attendant, a charge technician, a cashier for the supermarket till, a cook for the diner counter, and a runner who carries crates from the storeroom out to the vending machines. Each only does their own job, so who you hire next is a plan rather than a purchase.

How to play Highway Oasis: Rest Stop Tycoon

1. You start with two pumps working and the rest of the site under rubble. Cars come in off the road at the east ramp, along the driveway, and park at a free bay.
2. Tap or click anywhere on the ground to walk there, hold and drag to lead the way, or steer with WASD and the arrow keys.
3. Every open bay has a circle on the tarmac. Stand inside it and the pump starts on its own — there is nothing to press and nothing to hold.
4. The gauge under each car counts up and shows the seconds left. When it reaches what the driver asked for, they pay and drive out to the exit lane by themselves.
5. Step out of the circle and the fill stops exactly where it was. Walk back in and it carries on, so nothing is ever wasted.
6. Stand on a rubble plot to clear it. That costs nothing but the seconds, and it salvages building material — which everything bigger than a bare pump needs on top of its price, so a plot you cannot afford yet is still worth standing on.
7. The surrounds are derelict too: brush over the west corner and the hedge strip, fly-tipped pallets along the pavement, scrap iron out in the yard. Stand on any of it to shift it. Overgrowth pays cash, a scrap heap pays metal, and fly-tipping pays a little of both — so walk to whichever one you are short of.
8. Six plots have a heap sitting beside them, and that ground has to be clear before anything goes up: two of the vending machines, the supermarket, the diner, the toilet block and the transformer. The plot says which — its footprint reads CLEAR THE BRUSH, THE SCRAP or THE DEBRIS until the heap is gone, and an arrow points at it from off screen.
9. Superchargers need power before they need money. Every one draws a kilowatt, and kilowatts come off the solar array and the transformer out in the yard, so the electric side starts by building the grid.
10. Superchargers take electric cars. They pay more per unit and take longer to deliver, so a charger earns more per car but pins a worker for longer than a pump does.
11. Vending machines sell on their own as long as there are crates inside them. The supermarket needs somebody on the till — the queue there only moves while a worker is standing in its circle.
12. Crates come from the storeroom at the east end. Standing there takes a delivery and fills your arms; carry them to a vending machine and stand by it to load it. A stock runner does that round trip for you once hired.
13. Out past the forecourt is the rest stop. The diner is the biggest sale on the site and needs a cook on its counter; the toilet block takes a coin and runs itself, and having one makes every driver on the forecourt tip better.
14. Parcels drop around the site as you play, and a reward parcel lands at your feet each time the customer count passes a milestone. Walk over one to open it — cash, crates or building material. None of them expire, so one you have not reached yet just waits where it landed.
15. Every driver asks for about the same amount, and a fill takes about a second and a half, so serving is a beat rather than a wait. Spend cash on faster pumps and a stronger grid, and hire staff one trade at a time: a pump attendant, a charge technician, a supermarket cashier, a diner cook, and a stock runner. Each works only their own part of the site, so hiring is a decision about which walk you want to stop making.
16. The motorway across the top of the map runs whatever you do, and it thickens as the site grows. Most of those cars never stop — the ones that pull in are the ones you serve — and the pavement works the same way, so a crowd walking past your shops is not the same thing as a queue at them.
17. Nobody walks off. A full forecourt sends the next car into a queue on the driveway, and a shopper at an empty machine waits for it to be filled. Serving people quickly pays a tip on top; serving them late simply pays the fare.

Tips

• Clear rubble and the mess around it in the gaps between cars. It only needs you standing there, and it is where cash and building material come from, so the quiet moments are free expansion.
• Read the heaps before you walk. Scrap iron is the only metal that comes free in quantity, overgrowth is the only clearance that pays straight cash, and fly-tipping splits the difference — so what you are short of decides which corner of the site to work.
• The transformer out in the east yard is behind a heap of scrap, and the transformer is what a whole bank of superchargers runs on — so shift it early, on a quiet stretch, rather than when a queue of electric cars is already turning in. The solar array is not gated, so a single first charger is still available with nothing cleared.
• Build the cheap vending plot early. It sells on its own while you are on the forecourt, which is the only income that does not need your feet.
• A supercharger is worth more per car but holds a worker longer, so build the first one when you have somebody hired or a quiet stretch to cover it.
• The solar array is the cheapest kilowatt on the site and covers exactly one charger. The transformer covers three, so it is the thing to save for if you want a whole electric bank rather than a single post.
• Build the toilet block early for its size. It costs little, sells itself with nobody standing there, and it lifts the tip on every fill you make on the forecourt.
• Fills are short and much the same length, so the walk between bays is now most of what a car costs you. Serve neighbours together rather than criss-crossing the forecourt.
• Take the storeroom trip while the bays are empty. It is a walk to the far end of the site, and that walk is the real price of keeping the shops selling.
• Hire an attendant before you open a lot of bays. More cars parked is only worth having when more than one of you is pouring.
• Faster Pumps buys time back on every fill for the rest of the session, so it compounds harder than it looks the first time you read the price.
• Leaving a driver waiting costs you part of the tip and never the fare, so if a plot is nearly clear it is usually worth finishing first.
• A parcel you cannot see yet still shows as an arrow at the edge of the frame, and it will keep waiting — walking one down between cars costs you nothing but the steps.
• The arrows around the edge of the screen point to whoever needs you off screen, coloured by how long they have been waiting.
• Do not read the pavement as a queue. Building along it draws roughly twice as many people as actually buy, so a busy stretch is a sign the site is worth stopping at rather than a sign somebody is waiting — check the counters for the number waiting.

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