[HN Gopher] Best command-line-only video games (2019)
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       Best command-line-only video games (2019)
        
       Author : indigodaddy
       Score  : 72 points
       Date   : 2022-09-16 05:07 UTC (17 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.linuxjournal.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.linuxjournal.com)
        
       | markus_zhang wrote:
       | I'm wondering if it's possible to run graphics games in terminal
       | as in DOS?
        
         | emmanueloga_ wrote:
         | There's sixel [0] to display pics in text terminals. Also
         | apparently the kitty terminal has a custom protocol to blit
         | graphics on text terminals too [1].
         | 
         | There's a library with some impressive demos called "notcurses"
         | if you are curious what kind of graphics can be displayed in a
         | terminal ... the author uploaded some demos to YT showing the
         | capabilities. It's been discussed in HN a bunch of times [2].
         | 
         | 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixel
         | 
         | 1: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/graphics-protocol/
         | 
         | 2: https://github.com/dankamongmen/notcurses -
         | https://hn.algolia.com/?q=notcurses
        
       | pyuser583 wrote:
       | It's been way too long since I've been killed by a grue.
        
       | huydotnet wrote:
       | Where's Nethack, DCSS???
        
       | axiolite wrote:
       | Omitted MyMan, a Pacman clone:
       | 
       | https://myman.sourceforge.io/
       | 
       | On Fedora just:                 dnf install myman
        
       | remoquete wrote:
       | ADOM, of course.
        
       | lelandfe wrote:
       | > _Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead... The visuals may be incredibly
       | simple, but the gameplay is deep and open-ended_
       | 
       | Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead also has a tiles mode that is actually
       | pretty great. The community has done some amazing work:
       | https://cataclysmdda.org/
        
       | guerby wrote:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angband_(video_game)
       | 
       | And Zangband :)
        
       | programd wrote:
       | I'm going to hijack this thread and mention the modern spiritual
       | cousin of terminal games (but not really a terminal command line
       | game at all) "Caves of Qud"
       | 
       | https://store.steampowered.com/app/333640/Caves_of_Qud
       | 
       | It's like Nethack, only weirder. In a good way. Don't let the
       | Early Access label fool you. It's been around for seven years
       | already and is highly polished, and getting weirder all the time.
       | In a good way.
        
       | dllthomas wrote:
       | Nitpick, maybe, but I think it's worth maintaining a distinction
       | between "terminal (or terminal emulator)" and "shell (or command
       | line)".
       | 
       | From a skim, these seem like games that run in the terminal
       | usually spawned from a shell, but that is not the same thing as
       | being "run entirely in your Linux shell."
       | 
       | For the headline itself I think IF with a parser counts as
       | "command line only", though it still doesn't run in your shell.
       | 
       | I don't know of any games that run "in your shell" but a good
       | example of the distinction is that mutt and pine run in a
       | terminal, but nmh actually runs in the shell (not in the sense of
       | processes but in the sense that the shell is what I am using to
       | string together actions when I use nmh).
        
         | catern wrote:
         | Yes, I came here to say this, these are not command line games.
         | 
         | I'm tempted to make some kind of gimmick website or Twitter
         | account, "Not Command Line", which posts examples of this
         | confusion...
        
         | emmanueloga_ wrote:
         | Agreed... by nature a "command line game" would have to be turn
         | oriented, I think. I was curious what kind of games where going
         | to be linked here. It seems is mostly games that run on "text
         | mode" on a terminal, as opposed to turn based games using the
         | command line as UI.
         | 
         | Counter example: command line tetris! [0]. Although... still
         | gives the player the advantage of "freezing time" on every move
         | :-).
         | 
         | 0: https://github.com/mattbierner/Super-Template-Tetris
        
           | dllthomas wrote:
           | It doesn't need to be turn based, though it does need
           | relatively self contained actions and avoiding unfortunate
           | race conditions could be tricky.
           | 
           | I once made a shell driven instant messaging (libpurple)
           | client that could serve as a point of reference - incoming
           | messages were reported with PROMPT_COMMAND, and reply would
           | send a message to the sender of the last message reported
           | rather than the last message received.
        
       | taviso wrote:
       | I can't believe it didn't mention my favorite, asciipOrtal
        
       | MCrekt wrote:
       | Apsis Online - https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/10/whatever-
       | happened-to-mult...
        
       | kerblang wrote:
       | If you want a game you can play at a leisurely pace, robots:
       | 
       | https://linuxcommandlibrary.com/man/robots
        
       | Waterluvian wrote:
       | Not sure it fits whatever definition is being used here but
       | Cogmind is pretty amazing.
        
       | guerby wrote:
       | Not command line but I used to play it at my university in the
       | nineties on Unix machines (and hacked /tmp files to create
       | powerful artefacts) :
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossfire_(1992_video_game)
       | 
       | Some of the contributed levels are ... a map of my university and
       | some monsters were teachers at the time :)
        
       | dusted wrote:
       | Is there a command-line version of dwarf fortress? Because the
       | default version, though text-based is certainly not command-line
       | compatible.
        
         | Vvector wrote:
         | DF is noted in the article
        
         | salted-fry wrote:
         | On Linux/macos, you can enable terminal output by setting
         | PRINT_MODE:TEXT in init.txt
        
         | Corazoor wrote:
         | Yes! The game itself supports [PRINT_MODE:TEXT] in the ini.
         | Depending on the version you might need a virtual x server to
         | trick the game into starting though.
         | 
         | Used that to run it via wine + quemu on my android phone, at a
         | whopping 5fps at embark. Didn't play for long, but was totally
         | worth it!
        
       | anthk wrote:
       | Meh. No Nethack/Slashem, no DCSS, no BSDGames, no IF game beyond
       | Zork such as Anchorhead or Spider and Web...
        
         | kunwon1 wrote:
         | I came here looking for DCSS. Anyone who likes roguelikes
         | should take a look at it, if they haven't.
         | 
         | It's actively developed, so you can play it once, come back a
         | year later, and there will probably be new things to try.
         | 
         | There's an active community, you can play over SSH with ASCII
         | or over a webapp with tilesets or you can run it standalone on
         | your PC.
         | 
         | Magic, extremely varied gods that favor you with powers for
         | your devotions (these can have a drastic impact on playstyle),
         | huge variety of classes... I could go on.
        
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