pong(6)

📦
version 6.15 · 2 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

👑 NAME 👑

pong — the Pong Home Video Game Emulator, bestie. yes, that Pong. the ancient one. 💖

so this page is from the XScreenSaver manual (that's the manual name, folding it in right here like a lil label on a scrunchie 🎀), and it's gonna walk you through running pong, which literally simulates an ancient Pong home video game — plus all the lil artifacts you get from displaying it on a color TV set. the vibes are immaculate. the CRT noise is real. 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

pong [--display host:display.screen] [--foreground color] [--background
color] [--window] [--root] [--window-id number][--mono] [--install]
[--visual visual] [--clock float] [--noise] [--fps]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

okay so the pong program simulates an ancient Pong home video game, as well as various artifacts from displaying it on a color TV set. that's it, that's the whole pitch, and honestly? iconic. 🫶

🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

pong accepts the following options, and yes we're doing all of them, no skipping, periodt:

  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this one is literally the default, so if you do nothing you already slayed. ✨
  • --root — draw on the root window. main character energy, zero window chrome.
  • --window-id number — draw on the specified window. you pick which one, iykyk.
  • --mono — if you're on a color display, pretend we're on a monochrome display. delusion but make it aesthetic 🎀
  • --install — install a private colormap for the window.
  • --visual visual — specify which visual to use. legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual.
  • --clock — the score of the game will be the current time. your score is the clock, no cap 🕐
  • --noise float — how noisy the video signal should be (between 0.0 and 4.0 or so). crank it for maximum cursed-broadcast energy 🔥
  • --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load. for the girlies who need the numbers 👑
  • (-p1 | --p2) mode — set a player to either ai, mouse, tablet, kbleft (for W and S), or kbright (or just kb, for arrow keys). pick your fighter 💜

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number.
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root.

🎀 X RESOURCES 🎀

notable X resources supported include the following, which correspond to standard TV controls: analogTVTint, analogTVColor, analogTVBrightness, and analogTVContrast.

they range from 0 to 100, except for tint which is an angle between -180 and +180. so like, tiny numbers except the one that's a whole angle. math is wild. 😭

💀 TRADEMARKS 💀

Pong may be a trademark.

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

X(1), xscreensaver(1), xanalogtv(6), apple2(6)

2003 by Jeremy English. Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

like, legally please keep the notice, bestie, it's the whole deal 🙈

💖 AUTHOR 💖

Original Pong program by Jeremy English <jenglish@myself.com>. Scoring and television emulation by Trevor Blackwell <tlb@tlb.org>.

okay that's the whole page, go bounce some squares around 🏓 and hey — this was X Version 11, version 6.15 (30-Mar-2026), pong(6), signing off with a kiss 💋✨

📦 where this page comes from