spacedinvaders

A textual terminal spin on an arcade classic ... and my CS50X final project for the year that CoViD-19 made me want to forget.

Implemented using Python's builtin curses module; no other dependencies unless you want audio, see the caveat below.

Installation

Assuming you've got Python 3.7+ installed you should be able to install with:

pip install --user spacedinvaders

There's also optional sound support, but see the caveats below if you run into any trouble:

pip install --user spacedinvaders[SOUNDS]

Gameplay

Controls are pretty self-explanatory:

Move Left    A KEY or LEFT ARROW
Move Right   D KEY or RIGHT ARROW
Fire         SPACE
Quit         CTRL + Q

Though there might be others if you're looking for eggs.

Caveats

Unicode

Your terminal and your font must support unicode characters; run spacedinvaders -h and see if the UFO appears:

         ▁▁▁
        ▞█▀█▚
        ▔▘▔▝▔

Terminal Sizing Issues

The game will complain vigorously if you've got it sized below the minimum possible number of rows and columns required for it to render the play field. Unfortunately this is entirely dependent on your screen size and font settings. This is the nature of trying to squeeze arcade action into a curses based interface: if you've got a 1920x1080 screen and your font size is reasonably small it should work, but be prepared to try setting your terminal to use smaller font sizing.

Controls

Being that it's curses the movement controls can feel a bit sloppy. You might want to play around with xset r settings to find an autorepeat that works for you.

Audio

Sounds will only work with simpleaudio and its dependencies installed. Worked out of the box for me, but Your Mileage May Vary. See [their docs][simpleaudion-install] for a first pass at troubleshooting.

Credits

Couldn't have gotten anywhere near this accurate without the awesome resources at:

1. The useful descriptions of the arcade box's gameplay found at Classic Gaming's overview: they also get full credit for the audio files they've made available.

2. Some details about resolution on the original arcade screen found at Retro Games filled in gaps from the above (and literally, on the screen).

3. Couldn't have gone the extra mile on the little details of Invader timings, sound, or general play details without the absolutely brilliant, and exhaustive, excavations at Computer Archaeology, which honestly make all the difference in making this feel at least a little like the real thing.