nSnake is a implementation of the classic snake game with textual interface. It is playable at command-line and uses the nCurses C library for graphics.

Started as a test for me to learn nCurses and developed to be a serious project. I maintain it via Git and host it on several sites.

Currently, it works on GNU/Linux (tested on Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/Arch) and Microsoft Windows (tested on Windows 7).

For nSnake-related news and updates, check my blog.

Download

You can direct download the latest version for your OS (from SourceForge) here.

Installation (GNU/Linux only)

The following commands should compile and install the game on the default directories:

$ make
$ sudo make install

By default, make install places the package on the following directories:

/usr/local/bin/                   Executable files
/usr/local/share/man/man6/        Man page
/var/games/                       HighScore files

For more advanced instructions (including how to install the game on a custom directory) see the INSTALL file on the source root directory.

How to Play

The rules are the same of any snake game:

You control a hungry snake and the objective is to eat as many fruits you can. Each fruit eaten increases it’s size by two units. The game ends when the snake collides with the walls or itself. Currently, nSnake has two modes: With borders and without borders. The challenge is to earn the biggest score possible by eating as many fruits as you can.

Controls

Numbers (1~9)       Changes the game speed at the main menu
Arrow Keys, WASD    Moves the snake
q                   Quits the game at any time
p                   Pauses/Unpauses the game

Command-line Options

-h, --help
	   Displays the quick help text.
-l, --license
	   Displays the program license and warranty.
-v, --version
	   Displays the version and general information.
-r, --reset-scores
	   Resets all the Highscores to default.

Development

You can follow all nSnake news here, at my blog. Generally, it’s about progresses and features added, but i ask for opinions too.

This is the link to the complete documentation of the nSnake code. It was generated by Doxygen. There are links to Data Structures and Files, with a list of all containing functions and structures.

The source comes with the documentation. To create a local copy:

$ make dox

This will create and place it on the doc/html subfolder. To access it, open the file doc/html/index.html.

There are online copies of the source code too:

nSnake on the Web

UbuntuGames.org
UbuntuPortal.com
UpUbuntu.com
Softpedia
LinuxGameTome
LinuxAppFinder
DownloadPlex.com
UbuntuVibes
LinuxoPlanet
GameDevBrasil
ClubedoHardware
WebSyrup
OpenNews

Screenshots