CIRCUSLINUX(6)

👑 CIRCUSLINUX — the circuslinux(6) glow-up 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the Games Manual section of the man pages, and no this is not a drill — it's circuslinux(6) and the clowns are literally out here trying to pop balloons to score points. main character energy fr fr 🎈🤡

---

✨ NAME ✨

circuslinux — The clowns are trying to pop balloons to score points! 🎈

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

circuslinux [--disable-sound] [--fullscreen] [--low] | [--digital]
[--paddle] [--help | --usage] [--version]

that's the whole vibe check right there. run it, or run it with flags, your call 🫶

---

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so this manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution because the original program does not have a manual page. nope, not one. instead it has documentation sitting pretty in /usr/share/doc/circuslinux/README.gz — go read it if you want the deep lore 📖

"Circus Linux!" is based on the Atari 2600 game "Circus Atari" by Atari, released in 1980. yes, 1980, iconic behavior honestly 👑

gameplay is similar to "Breakout" and "Arkanoid" — you slide a device left and right to bounce objects into the air which destroy a wall. that's it. that's the game. and it ate 💅

---

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• --disable-sound — if sound support was compiled in, this turns it off for this session of the game. silence mode, activated 🤫
• --fullscreen — run in fullscreen mode. take up all the space, you deserve it ✨
• --low — disables some features so the game might run better on low-end hardware. specifically: titlescreen ballons and game backgrounds get disabled, and the game screen refreshes every 1/15th of a second instead of 1/30th of a second. glow-down for performance, but make it worth it 💀
• --digital — when you're using a joystick, left and right cause the teeter-totter to move incrementally. this is as opposed to the default mode, where the analog position of the joystick is used literally. useful for playing with a digital gamepad 🎮
• --paddle — for using real Atari 2600 paddles connected to your PC's joystick port. vintage, retro, unbothered 🕹️
• --help — display a help message summarizing command-line options, copyright, and game controls. the whole info dump, but helpful 🫶
• --usage — display a brief message summarizing command-line options. short and sweet, lowkey the tl;dr version 📝
• --version — display the version of Circus Linux! you're running. know your era bestie ⭐

---

✨ CONTROL ✨

🎪 Starting

launch a clown by pressing RETURN, ALT or SHIFT or the Mouse/Joystick button. that's your moment, go off 🤡

🎪 Controlling the Teeter-Totter

move the mouse/joystick left and right, or press the left and right arrow keys, to move the teeter-totter left and right.

if a clown is in the air, you can also click any of the mouse buttons to flip the teeter-totter. this causes the low and high ends of the teeter-totter to change places — useful when the teeter-totter is at a far side of the screen and the low end is on the outside. strategic queen behavior 👑

🎪 Pausing

to pause the game, you can press either the [SPACE], [TAB] or [P] key. to unpause, press one of those keys again. yes it's that simple, we love a toggle ✨

🎪 Quitting

to quit the current game, you can press [ESCAPE]. this forfeits your game (as though you ran out of lives). yeah. it's giving consequences 😭

to quit Circus Linux! altogether, you can use your window manager's close command or press EXIT on the title screen. bye bestie 👋

---

✨ AUTHOR ✨

this manual page was written by Christian T. Steigies <cts@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). shoutout to the author, we appreciate you 🫶

---

okay that's the whole page, no cap. this was the CIRCUSLINUX(6) manual from August 14, 2015, and it's still serving. periodt. 🎀💜🦋