BSD-FBG(6)

💖 NAME 💖

bsd-fbg — a falling block game, bestie. it's giving "shapes falling, rows vanishing, serotonin happening" ✨

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🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

bsd-fbg [-ps] [-k keys] [-l level]

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

okay so. bsd-fbg runs a display-based game, and heads up — you must play it on a CRT terminal. no cap. the whole object of the game is to fit the shapes together so they form complete rows, and then those rows vanish 💅. when the shapes fill all the way up to the top? game's over, that's it, thank you next.

you can optionally pick a level of play, or custom-select your control keys. very choose-your-own-adventure of you 🦋

the default level of play is 2.

the default control keys are literally these:

• j — move left
• k — rotate 1/4 turn counterclockwise
• l — move right
• ⟨space⟩ — drop
• p — pause
• q — quit

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -k — the default control keys can be changed using the -k option. the keys argument must have the six keys in order, and — and this is the part everyone forgets — remember to quote any space or tab characters from the shell 🙈. for example:

bsd-fbg -l 2 -k 'jkl pq'

that will play the default games, i.e. level 2 and with the default control keys. the current key settings are displayed at the bottom of the screen during play, so you can always vibe check them mid-game.

• -l — select a level of play. pick your difficulty, main character 💅
• -s — display the top scores. leaderboard moment 👑
• -p — switch on previewing of the shape that will appear next. this is the iconique one, it tells you the future 🧚

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🦋 PLAY 🦋

at the start of the game, a shape will appear at the top of the screen, falling one square at a time. the speed at which it falls is determined directly by the level: if you select level 2, the blocks will fall twice per second; at level 9, they fall 9 times per second. (and as the game goes on, things speed up, no matter what your initial selection. so don't get comfy 😭.) when this shape "touches down" on the bottom of the field, another will appear at the top.

you can move shapes to the left or right, rotate them counterclockwise, or drop them to the bottom by pressing the appropriate keys. as you fit them together, completed horizontal rows vanish, and any blocks above fall down to fill in. when the blocks stack up to the top of the screen, the game is over. periodt.

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⭐ SCORING ⭐

you get one point for every block you fit into the stack, and one point for every space a block falls when you hit the drop key. (dropping the blocks is therefore a good way to increase your score. do with that information what you will 💅.) your total score is the product of the level of play and your accumulated points — 200 points on level 3 gives you a score of 600. math is mothering, fr fr.

each player gets at most one entry on any level, for a total of nine scores in the high scores file. players who no longer have accounts are limited to one score. also, scores over 5 years old are expired. the exception to these conditions is that the highest score on a given level is always kept, so that following generations can pay homage to those who have wasted serious amounts of time. honestly? iconic behaviour.

the score list is produced at the end of the game. the printout includes each player's overall ranking, name, score, and how many points were scored on what level. scores which are the highest on a given level are marked with asterisks "*" ✨

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🌸 FILES 🌸

• /var/games/bsd-fbg.scores — high score file

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💀 BUGS 💀

the higher levels are unplayable without a fast terminal connection. that's not a skill issue bestie, that's a hardware issue 😭

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🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

adapted from a 1989 International Obfuscated C Code Contest winner by Chris Torek and Darren F. Provine.

manual adapted from the original entry written by Nancy L. Tinkham and Darren F. Provine.

code for previewing next shape added by Hubert Feyrer in 1999.

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💜 this one's from the Debian crew, dated May 31, 1993 — so yeah, this game is older than literally everyone in the group chat, and it still ate. go stack some blocks, you got this 🌈✨