A tribute
Dolphin Olympics: the classic that flew to space
Dolphin Olympics and Dolphin Olympics 2 by Alan Rawkins are the reason Dolphin Beyond exists. This is a fan tribute to those games — what they were, why they still matter, and where you can play them today.
A two-minute game with no bottom
Some games are enormous. Dolphin Olympics was tiny — and unforgettable. You control a single dolphin, you have two minutes, and you try to land nose-first so cleanly that you keep almost all your speed for the next jump. That is the whole game, and it is genuinely hard to put down.
The original Dolphin Olympics was made by Alan Rawkins and released in 2006. The 2007 sequel, Dolphin Olympics 2, is the one most people remember: a Flash game that added interactive fish, boost rings, surface tailslides, glowing star paths in space, and a long climb past the moon and the planets. It spread across portals like Kongregate and Armor Games and became a genuine cult classic.
Why it became a classic
Dolphin Olympics 2 works because it is built on one honest idea: speed is earned, and it compounds. A clean re-entry banks your momentum. More speed means a bigger jump, which is more time in the air to chain tricks, which feeds a combo multiplier that rewards variety. Master it and a single run turns into a breathless, minutes-long combo that flings you off the top of the screen and into orbit.
It also had charm, and expert players chased scores far beyond what looked possible. It was the kind of "just one more try" game people kept open in a browser tab for years.
Dolphin Up: the official version
When Flash faded, Alan Rawkins brought the game to modern devices himself. In 2012 he released Dolphin Up, the official native version of Dolphin Olympics 2. If you want the creator’s own continuation of the series, Dolphin Up is it — please support his work directly.
How Dolphin Beyond carries the idea forward
Dolphin Beyond is a love letter to that original feeling of building speed and flying, rebuilt from scratch by Halfdan Harring as a modern, portrait, one-thumb game for the phone in your pocket and a keyboard game on the desktop web. It keeps the parts fans adore: earning speed through clean entries, a combo multiplier that pushes you toward variety, surface tailslides, star paths in space, boost rings, and a long climb upward.
It also makes the idea its own. The dolphin, the art, the sound, the physics and the code are all original, and some things are deliberately different. To be clear: Dolphin Beyond is an independent fan homage. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by Alan Rawkins or Rawkins Games, and it uses none of the original game’s code, art or audio. All credit for Dolphin Olympics, Dolphin Olympics 2 and Dolphin Up belongs to their creator.
Dolphin Olympics — frequently asked questions
Is Dolphin Beyond the original Dolphin Olympics?
No. Dolphin Beyond is an independent fan homage. The original Dolphin Olympics and Dolphin Olympics 2 were created by Alan Rawkins; Dolphin Beyond is a separate, original game inspired by them.
Who made Dolphin Olympics?
Dolphin Olympics (2006) and Dolphin Olympics 2 (2007) were created by Alan Rawkins, who later released the official mobile version, Dolphin Up.
Where can I play the original Dolphin Olympics 2?
You can play Dolphin Olympics 2 on Kongregate and Armor Games, and it is preserved at the Internet Archive. For mobile, play Alan Rawkins’ official Dolphin Up.
Play the originals and further reading
The best way to appreciate the classic is to play it. All of these belong to Alan Rawkins or are trusted preservation and press sources: