terminal-games

2048, tic-tac-toe against the computer, hangman, Snake, Minesweeper, Blackjack, Tetris, Space Invaders, and a dinosaur run in the terminal. Written in C++17.

Running it

You need a C++ compiler and CMake.

cmake -B build
cmake --build build
./build/games
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

Run cmake --build build again after every change.

How it's supposed to work

Menu

• Choose a numbered game card, 0 to change menu page when available, or the displayed Quit option. In the current 8-game menu, Tetris is 7, Space Invaders is 8, and Quit is 9. Invalid entries print an error and ask again.

2048 (w a s d to move, u to undo)

• Tiles slide as far as they can. Equal tiles that meet merge, and a tile only merges once per move: 2 2 2 2 moved left is 4 4 _ _.
• The score goes up by the value of each merged tile.
• A new tile appears after a move only if something actually moved.
• Undo restores the board, score, and random state from before the most recent successful move.
• The game ends when no move is possible.

Tic-tac-toe

• Three in a row wins: rows, columns, and both diagonals.
• The computer wins if it can, otherwise blocks you, otherwise takes the centre, then a corner.

Hangman

• Upper and lower case letters count as the same guess.
• A wrong guess costs a life, repeating a guess costs nothing. You get 6 lives.

Snake (arrow keys or w a s d to steer, p to pause, q to quit)

• Interactive retro title screen with animated falling snake cascade matrix.
• Arcade Mode: expanded textured arena, multiple food targets ($), session high-score tracking, and dynamic speed levels (1 to 9).
• Steer with arrow keys or w (up), a (left), s (down), d (right).
• The snake wraps around all boundaries (passing through one side brings you out the opposite side).
• The game ends if the snake runs into its own body.

Dinosaur Run (like Chrome's offline dinosaur game)

• Space or Up jumps, Down ducks, q returns to the menu. No Enter needed.
• Cacti and pterodactyls come at you and the game keeps getting faster. Hitting one ends the run.
• Jump low birds, duck under middle ones, and run under high ones.
• Space restarts after a crash. The high score is kept until you quit the program.

Blackjack

• Start with $1,000; wagers are $10 or more, up to your available bankroll.
• Hover over and click the $10, $25, $50, or $100 chips to build a wager; keys 1–4 work as a keyboard alternative. Backspace removes the last chip, c clears the bet, and Enter deals.
• Hover over and click Hit, Stand, or Double Down; press H, S, or D as a keyboard alternative. Double Down is available on the first two cards when you can match the wager. The dealer hits through 16 and stands on all 17s.
• A natural Blackjack pays 3:2; a regular win pays 1:1, and a tie returns the wager.
• Press q at the wager prompt or after a round to return to the menu.

Space Invaders (arrow keys or a/d to steer, Space or w/Up to shoot, q to quit)

• Defend against marching waves of alien invaders across 3 distinct tiers (Crimson, Green, and Purple).
• Use the 4 destructible bunkers for tactical cover; bunkers erode block-by-block when struck by player lasers or alien bombs.
• Player cannon (/-^-\) can fire up to 2 active lasers (:) on screen.
• Alien fleet shifts and descends whenever reaching the borders; movement speed accelerates as alien numbers diminish.
• Clear all invaders to advance to the next level. The game ends if all lives are lost or invaders descend to bunker/cannon level.

Tetris

• The playfield is 10 columns wide with 20 visible rows and 2 hidden spawn rows. Pieces come from a seeded 7-bag randomizer; each bag contains all seven tetrominoes once, and the same seed produces the same sequence.
• Left/Right arrows or a/d move; Down or s soft-drops one row for 1 point; Up or x rotates clockwise; z rotates counter-clockwise. Rotation uses SRS wall kicks. Controls work without pressing Enter, and each Down press soft-drops one row.
• Space hard-drops and locks the piece for 2 points per row. c holds or swaps the current piece once per turn; p pauses the game timers; q, Escape, or Ctrl-C returns to the menu.
• A ghost shows the landing position. The side panels display the held piece, next three pieces, score, level, lines, and session high score. After game over, press r to restart or q/Escape to return to the menu.
• Clearing 1/2/3/4 lines scores 100/300/500/800 points, multiplied by the current level. Back-to-back Tetrises score 1.5 times the normal Tetris points. Every 10 cleared lines advances a level and speeds up gravity, from one row every 45 ticks at level 1 to every 3 ticks at level 15.
• Pieces lock after 30 ticks (0.5 seconds) on the ground. Successful moves or rotations can reset the lock delay up to 15 times.
• TetrisGame (src/tetris.h and src/tetris.cpp) contains the game rules independently of input and drawing. playTetris() handles POSIX raw input and rendering, and restores terminal settings when you leave. A terminal smaller than 80 columns by 24 rows displays a warning and returns to the menu.

Minesweeper (board: 9x9, 10 mines)

• Clear all non-mine cells to win. Revealing a mine loses.
• Commands: r row col (reveal), f row col (flag/unflag), q (quit). Coordinates are 1-9 (1,1 = top-left).
• First reveal is always safe; if it lands on a mine, the mine is moved.
• Revealing a zero-adjacent cell performs flood fill through safe neighbors.

Code

• src/main.cpp: the menu
• src/game2048.*, src/tictactoe.*, src/hangman.*, src/snake.*, src/dino.*, src/blackjack.*, src/tetris.*, src/spaceinvaders.*: the games
• tests/tests.cpp: tests, using a small CHECK macro
• src/intro.*: Borderland startup animation, scalable trial card rendering, and theme menu
• src/spaceinvaders.*: Space Invaders arcade game logic and renderer

Contributing

Fork the repo, make your changes on a new branch, and open a pull request. Make sure it builds and the tests pass.

If you find a bug, open an issue with the steps to reproduce it, what you expected, and what happened instead.

Part of Source Start by CSI SPIT. MIT licensed.