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cbeams is a, screensaver? It quotes tears in rain monologue of Roy Batty from Blade Runner (1982):

Ive seen things you people wouldnt believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tearsinrain. Time to die.

And this must be it:

I guess you can call this script reimagine a part of what Roy Batty has seen in his final monologue, in a fashion of terminal. Numerous explosions everywhere.

cbeams was created by Jonathan Hartley on 2015-10-04, written in Python 3 with Blessings under the New BSD License (3-clause), currently version 1.0.0rc3 (2016-01-07).

Cmas is a tiny Christmas tree with red and blue light bulbs blinking alternatively.

Dont want to buy a tree for Christmas, this would do. _Maybe.

Cmas was created by Taylor Hoff, written in C++ under the GPLv3, currently git-08d594c (2015-05-31, post v1.0 (2015-05-26)).

text2048 is a clone of that popular game 2048, which will be two years next March.

After this long time, 2048 is still sliding strong, a lot of people is still cloning it, making their own versions, even more A.I. popping up every a while with new ideas and algorithms.

It was even played in 18th Computer Olympiad (2015) for the first time.

As of this clone, the only thing differs it from others is the cells, the red color on the either edge of the cells of $2^{2n+1}$.

text2048 was created by Christian Fiedler on 2015-08-09, written in C99 with ncurses under the MIT License, currently git-7b6cf12 (2015-11-11).

CPat is a Patience suite game, including 11 solitaire games:

FreeCell, Klondike, Spider, 40 Thieves, Bakers Dozen, Scorpion, Penguin, Yukon, Strategy, Canfield, Duchess.

(Watch this video for other screens and a bit of playing)

Since its all-in-one, you can have a unified controls, its all the same way to move a card, put into foundations, and so on. It also has help and rule screens to help you understand the card game.

There is also game statistics and high scores to keep records. There is one useful command-line option, -f, to speed up auto-moves, that is when you using free cells to move a stack of cards, it will move one by one to show the movements, but the default speed is too slow. -f can be used for multiple times, for example, -fff.

When move to the foundations, #pp or P will really be helpful since it doesnt do like some implementations will automatically move to the foundations for you, such as freecell.

CPat was created by Trevor Carey-Smith on 2006-02-16 (v0.1), based on Steve Levines code, written in C with ncurses, currently version 1.2.1 (2008-09-16).

mandelbrot-viewer is a simple and interactive viewer, you can zoom in and out with + and -.

The GIF screencast is of course sped up, somehow, it looks like something has been locked and the system is tracking down the subject like in sci-fi movie.

mandelbrot-viewer is written by David Ulrich in C with ncurses under the AGPLv3, based on Ken Perlins code snippet, currently git-a3f2762 (2015-10-30).

Pipong is a simple clone of Pong game, the classic table tennis video game. It doesnt have much to offer, but it definitely is playable.

(thats a blinking cursor)

It needs a terminal size of 100x40 and two players, using ef and ok to move the paddles, but it feels more like left hand vs. right hand by the locations of the keys.

Pipong was created by Dong-jun Lim on 2015-09-18, written in C++ under the MIT License, currently git-c9a519b (2015-11-23).

Canfield is part of BSD Games, a Patience/Solitaire game, also a gambling game.

Canfield: Instructions, Betting, Card counting

At first few plays, I could barely get a few into the foundations, I thought even I wasnt good at Patience game, but I couldnt be that bad, could I?

Finally, I looked up on Wikipedia and the first line it reads:

[] with a very low probability of winning. According to legend, it is originally a casino game, []. In England, it is known as Demon. [some emphases mine]

Tower of Mediocrity is a tower defense game with ncurses and SDL backends.

Click to watch whole the map played

You are in Mediocrity Central and the chatter says that some group is going to invade the Mediocrity Treasury, you job is to define while they crawling through the oddly built and hardly straight passageways through the city.

The following screenshot is of SDL backend, the bad guys are smiling devilishly, and the towers are bold-underline-strikeout icons for font styles as in word processors, WTF?

nsudoku is a Sudoku game, of course. It doesnt have any fancy display, no menus, not much stuff, just the board and numbers plus a clear help message on the left side.

nsudoku was created by Tin Benjamin Matuka in 2008, written in C with ncurses, under the MIT License, currently version 1.3 (2015-06-23).

Zombies is a Robots-like game (video), with walls and without teleports.

The design and interface are clear, everything is shown on screen. You have to trick zombies to hit the walls and that will kill them, which isnt hard since they are mindless. Once every zombie paints the wall with their mindless brains, you clear the level and move on to have more zombies.

robots is almost three or four decades old, that probably is the reason this game is conceptually simple, but yet fun to play if you need to kill time.

Zombies was created by Simon Burge in 1994, written in C with ncurses under the Simplified BSD License (2-clause), currently hg-afc398a073d4 (2015-11-18, post v1.0 (1999-06-26)).

Who needs teleportation when you get brain-crashing walls.

GNUSki is a SkiFree clone, which was made by Chris Pirih with Microsoft in 1991 for Windows and included in Best of Windows Entertainment Pack. Actually a clone of Ski for VAX/VMS, or at least, inspired by it, which in turn was inspired by Skiing (1920) for Atari 2600 console.

Click to ski longer

Using hjkl or arrow keys to play, the up and down keys are for changing speed. It only has one goal, ski as far down as you can, either to the left or to the right, just dont hit the rock.

The project is marked as inactive as of now on SourceForge, and eight years without any updates, the snow has melted, no more skiing.

GNUSki was created by Rudolf Olah on 2005-07-01 in C with ncurses under the GPLv2, currently version 0.3 (2007-05-31).

Blue Moon is a type of Patience game, its also called Gaps.

Click to watch a complete game played

This 52-card solitaire starts with the entire deck shuffled and dealt out in four rows. The aces are then moved to the left end of the layout, making 4 initial free spaces. You may move to a space only the card that matches the left neighbor in suit, and is one greater in rank. Kings are high, so no cards may be placed to their right (they create dead spaces).

[]

The rule sounds like a lot, but you only needs four keys to play with and it doesnt take a lot of time to finish one game. It seems always solvable:

A moments reflection will show that this game cannot take more than 13 deals. A good score is 1-3 deals, 4-7 is average, 8 or more is poor.

The real skill in this game is just how many deals does it take.

Blue Moon was originally created by Tim A. Lister in C, Eric S. Raymond added ncurses on 1994-11-28 for visual user interface and color support, licensed under the Simplified BSD License (2-clause), currently git-4223982 (2015-10-17, post v2.12 (2014-05-30))

asciijump is really a tiny little fun game, that you can play alone or with friends on same computer or across network.

It has three play modes, World Cup, Training, and network games. In World Cup, it has players like Erykah Badu, Charlie Parker, Thom York, and Bjrök, all musicians that I do not understand. Ten hills to choose from, Poland, Pakistan, Ukarine, England, Tarnica, Czumulungma (Mount Everest), Finland, and Be Free!.

I always crashed when I first played, finally I realized you need to hit Enter just before landing to perform a telemark landing, whatever that really is. Not just Left and Right to adjust after the jump.

The graphics is really stunning, the hill looks nice and its snowing in background, even the players have different outfits.

asciijump was created on 2003-02-12 (v0.0.1), written by Grzegorz Moskal, Michal Moskal, and Przemek Niezobrala in C with ncurses under the GPLv2, currently version 1.0.2~beta (2010-08-27).

Sea Battle is a Battleship clone, its very colorful and easy to play.

Title screen

It only has three types of ships, Submarine, Battleship, and Aircraft Carrier. Not the usual five ships setting.

The Ncurses Sudoku System is a Sudoku clone, and it looks like it means business, the interface looks as if its for system configuration.

Screentshot of nsuds (video for a level played)

CLines is a Color Lines clone in console.

You use hjkl to move and Space to pick up chip and replace it somewhere else, or you can use mouse to click. The board resizes to fit into terminal size as best as it can, you can see in this video.

Its a simple puzzle game to play, all you do is to line up at least five chips of the same color in a straight line, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, one of them will do. But if you cant form a line after each move, three more random chips will be placed.

When I first played, I thought you can only move a chip in a straight line, that is only go in one direction, didnt realize as long as the path is clear, you can move a chip to anywhere. I hardly got past 40 points, it was hard. I almost nicknamed this game as Cussing Lines.

CLines was created in 2002 by Pawel S. Veselov, written in C with ncurses under the GPLv2, currently git-410ae26 (2015-11-11, post v1.0.5 (2015-06-19)).

Dr. Mario or BUGS is a clone of Nentendos Dr. Mario, well sort of.

You fix bugs instead of eradicating deadly viruses. From red, yellow, and blue viruses to A, L, and S bugs, but you are still a Dr., just not a physician one.

The controls are hjkl to use in options to change level and speed, or in game for moving the piece around. as to rotate the piece. p to pause or resume the game.

This clone was made in 1991 by SRN, according to the comment, released under the name BUGS or BUGS I as version 1.3, then in 1992, Scott Noecker and Ken Corey released under Dr. Mario and for Linux.

Dr. Mario was born on 1991-07-10 and has been placed in public domain, is written in K&R C, currently hg-0541a33a647e (2015-11-14, post 1992-06-15).

freecell is a clone of FreeCell.

You can choose the game by specifying the number in command-line argument. The controls use A to H for eight cascades, and W to Z for four open cells. You can move a stack between cascades by preceding the source cascade with the number of cards first.

ascii-invaders is a Space Invaders clone, the classic arcade and space shooter game, in animated ASCII art.

You control the laser cannon or gun ship, you fire at the aliens ships to destroy them using Space and Arrows or J/K to move about, chasing or evading coming weapon fires. 3 lives to waste if you aint good at this like; or 2 lives too more, because you are a nerd, one is enough.

Beside three minions of alien ships, there is a big red one mother ship? which seems to only appear in very end, which gives you 50, 100, or 150 points if you can destroy it.

Moon-Buggy is side-scrolling run-and-gun (or jump-and-gun?) platform game which you control a moon buggy trying to traverse the terrain of the moon. You dont drive, just jump and shoot.

Moon-Buggy in action, and also a video.

You will encounter craters, from tiny to big ones, the bigger crater you can jump over, the higher score you earn. It has 8 levels. The moon buggy is also equipped with laser beam, that you can destroy meteors if they block your buggy way, which they do, each requires 3 strikes of laser beams. Firing laser beam costs one point of score, but if you hit on a meteor, you earn more scores back.

It really is a fun game, especially you can share high scores among users, a little competition would be nice. By the way, you can jump-shooting, although I dont know what the purpose is, maybe hostile UFO?

The animations are stunning, details, details. The wheel spinning, the laser hitting the rock to disintegrate into nothing, and my favorite, crashing, parts broken and being thrown out into the air, curving down and hitting the ground, then rolling.

Moon-Buggy was created by Jochen Voss on 1998-12-17, written in C with ncurses under the GPLv3, currently git-e4b97c9 (2015-05-30, post v1.0.51 (2006-03-19)).