JESTER(6)

📦 version 1.0, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 JESTER(6) — the games manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to jester, from the Games Manual section of the manual. it's an X-based game. it's basically Othello(tm). it's gonna eat your entire evening. let's go 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

jester — an X-based game similar to Othello(tm)

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

jester [{-display, -d, --display} display] [{-h, -help, --help}]
[-2players] [-ai {white, black}]

that's the whole vibe check. four little things. iconic.

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so jester is an X-based game, and it's similar to the board game Othello. that's it. that's the pitch. 🫶

and like, it allows you to waste hours of otherwise productive time — hours you could have spent playing Solitaire instead. the manpage said it, not me. 💀

👑 GAME PLAY 👑

okay so the rules, bestie, pay attention:

there are two players — one playing the white pieces, the other playing the black pieces. each player takes turns placing a piece of his or her color on an 8x8 board. and here's the spicy part: each piece must be placed so as to bracket a line of the opponent's pieces between two of the current player's pieces. when this happens, the opponent's pieces are replaced by pieces of the current player's color. not me flipping the whole board with one move 😭✨

when the cursor is over a square that it is legal for the current player to play in, the cursor will change to a pointing hand. 👆 subtle but slay. and a small rectangle in the upper right side of the window shows the color of the current player, so you always know whose turn it is.

the game ends when a player cannot make a move, either because the board is full or because the position of the pieces makes it impossible to make a move. at this point, the player with the most pieces on the board is the winner. 👑 and then you will be offered the option of starting a new game. (you will take it. you always take it.)

you may exit at any time by clicking the “Exit” button. no pressure. the board will simply wait for you. forever. 💅

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -d, -display, --display display — display on display. yeah that's literally what it says, she's self-explanatory like that 💖
  • -h, -help, --help — print a help message and exit. bye bestie 🫡
  • -2players — play against another person at the same console. couch co-op era 🔥
  • -ai {white, black} — tell the computer which side to play. the default behavior is equivalent to -ai black. 🖤

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

jester uses the environment variable “DISPLAY” as the default display. and yes you can override that on the command line — she's flexible, she's accommodating, she's a queen. ✨

💀 BUGS 💀

None known...

(i know. i know. suspicious. but that's what it says and i'm not gonna lie to you bestie 🙈)

🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

Matt Grossman ⟨mattg@oz.net⟩

give him his flowers 💐 he made a whole game. periodt.

also, real talk: don't forget DISPLAY is just the default — the command line always gets the final word. main character energy only. 👑

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this is jester 1.0, dated 5/16/1998, straight from the Games Manual. go waste some productive time. you've earned it. 🍓💜✨

📦 where this page comes from