SNAKE(6)

🐍 SNAKE(6) — display chase game • Games Manual 🐍

✨ NAME ✨

snake — display chase game. That’s the whole vibe, bestie. 💅

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

snake [width height] [-s]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

snake is a display-based game, and it must be played on a CRT terminal. Yes, CRT — we’re in our vintage era, no cap. 🫶

The object of the game is to make as much money as possible without getting eaten by the snake. 💰🐍

Two optional arguments let you specify the size of the playing field: width and height. By default the entire screen is used. If the -s argument is passed, snake will print scores and exit.

On the screen:

• you are @
• the snake is represented by s's with an S at its head
• the money is $
• an exit is #
• your score is posted in the upper left hand corner

You can move around using the same conventions as vi(1): the h, j, k, and l keys work, as do the arrow keys. The manual says this lets you quit the game at any time. Space warp to get out of tight squeezes, at a price. ✨

To earn money, move to the same square the money is on. A new $ will appear when you earn the current one. As you get richer, the snake gets hungrier. To leave the game, move to the exit (#).

A record is kept of the personal best score of each player. Scores are only counted if you leave at the exit — getting eaten by the snake is worth nothing. 😭

As in pinball, matching the last digit of your score to the number which appears after the game is worth a bonus. 🎀

🎀 FILES 🎀

• database of personal bests

💀 BUGS 💀

When playing on a small screen, it’s hard to tell when you hit the edge of the screen. 🙈

The scoring function takes into account the size of the screen. A perfect function to do this equitably has not been devised.

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mwah 💋 this one’s from Debian, dated May 31, 1993 — bye bestie! 🫶