LinuxCommandLibrary

greed

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SYNOPSIS

greed [-h] [-n] [-r] [-s]

PARAMETERS

-h
    Print help message and exit.

-n
    Do not pause at the end of the game.

-r
    Choose a random starting position.

-s
    Silent mode: do not beep on errors.

DESCRIPTION

Greed is a simple yet addictive terminal-based game using the curses library. The screen fills with edible food represented by @ symbols and poisonous blobs shown as *. The player controls a cursor (initially a +) using arrow keys or vi-style movement keys (h left, j down, k up, l right). The objective is to eat as much food as possible by moving over @ symbols, which disappear and increase your score by 1 point each. New food continuously appears to refill the screen.

Avoiding the poison * is crucial, as contact with it ends the game immediately. The game displays your current score in the top-right corner. Press q to quit at any time. Upon game over or quit, it shows the final score and pauses unless disabled. High scores depend on efficient pathing to maximize food consumption before inevitable poison collision.

Ideal for quick sessions in a terminal, greed tests spatial awareness and planning in a randomly regenerating field. It's lightweight, with no save states or levels, emphasizing pure survival scoring.

CAVEATS

Requires a curses-compatible terminal. Game ends on poison contact; no undo or lives. Scores are session-only, no persistent high scores.

CONTROLS

Arrow keys or h/j/k/l to move.
q to quit.
? or Ctrl-L for redisplay if needed.

SCORING

1 point per @ eaten. Goal: maximize before poison hit.
Field regenerates food dynamically.

HISTORY

Originally developed by David J. Burger around 1990 for Unix systems. Included in BSD variants and later Linux distributions via game packages like bsdgames. Remains a minimalist classic for terminal gaming enthusiasts.

SEE ALSO

robots(6), worm(6), trek(6)

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