NAME¶
snake
,
snscore
—
display chase game
SYNOPSIS¶
snake |
[ -w
width ]
[-l
length ]
[-t ]
|
DESCRIPTION¶
snake
is a display-based game which must be
played on a CRT terminal. The object of the game is to make as much money as
possible without getting eaten by the snake. The
-l
and
-w
options allow you to specify the length
and width of the field. By default the entire screen is used. The
-t
option makes the game assume you are on
a slow terminal.
You are represented on the screen by an I. The snake is 6 squares long and is
represented by s's with an S at its head. The money is $, and 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.
Other possibilities include:
sefc
- These keys are like hjkl but form a directed pad around the d key.
HJKL
- These keys move you all the way in the indicated direction to the same row
or column as the money. This does not let you
jump away from the snake, but rather saves you from having to type a key
repeatedly. The snake still gets all his turns.
SEFC
- Likewise for the upper case versions on the left.
ATPB
- These keys move you to the four edges of the screen. Their position on the
keyboard is the mnemonic, e.g. P is at the far right of the keyboard.
x
- This lets you quit the game at any time.
p
- Points in a direction you might want to go.
w
- 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.
To see who wastes time playing snake, run
snscore
.
FILES¶
- /var/games/bsdgames/snakerawscores
- database of personal bests
- /var/games/bsdgames/snake.log
- log of games played
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.