XorCurses

Software Screenshot:
XorCurses
Software Details:
Version: 0.2.2
Upload Date: 15 Apr 15
Developer: James W. Morris
Distribution Type: Freeware
Downloads: 22

Rating: nan/5 (Total Votes: 0)

XorCurses is a puzzle game coded by jwm-art.net and based entirely on Xor by Astral Software. The original game was released around 1987 for the 8 bit home computers popular at the time. XorCurses attempts to faithfully recreate that game for Linux, but slightly ironically, uses ASCII characters instead of pixel based graphics (which even the 8bit computers could manage).

The idea of Xor is to roam around a series of mazes collecting masks. The first level is simply a matter of finding your way around, but the second level introduces fish and chickens which block your path or kill you if they hit you. From there on in things get progressively tougher and really is a challenging and difficult puzzle game.

XorCurses resulted from there not being a direct port of the game for Linux. Windows users are ok. People happy with using emulators are ok too. I settled with a character-based display (as opposed to fancy graphics) because it would be much simpler to code, and learning ncurses simply has no learning curve compared with graphics (which I did not even look into). If I could get a working game using ncurses then atleast it would pave the way for a graphical version.

Features:

  • Colour ASCII for console and terminals using NCurses.
  • Very little system footprint.
  • Varying wall colours and wall patterns.
  • Fish and Chickens
  • Bombs
  • Dolls
  • Teleports
  • Sad Masks/Wall visibility toggle
  • Levels 1 - 15 from original Xor game.
  • Tracking of least number of moves taken to complete a level - stored in user's home directory.
  • Replays
  • Nine replay speeds changable by keypress during replay
  • Save replays
  • Load replays
  • Continue playing from any point in replay (thus use of saved replays as game progress save files).
  • Help on controls, replays, tips, objects.
  • Easily navigatable menus and options via keyboard.
  • Three different scrolling settings, including traditional and keep-player-central - changable during play by simple keypresses.
  • Confoundingly difficult levels which I still can't complete even after all these years. (Note: I've just completed level 8 - Enlightenment).

What is new in this release:

  • This version fixes a bug/regression where fish and/or chickens failed to move after a player entered a teleport, i.e. level 14.

What is new in version 0.2.1:

  • This version fixes two bugs caused by a minor difference in the way the player positions are stored.
  • These bugs manifested in the teleport, and the game window display.
  • Additionally, serious bugs with the game view after terminal resizing have been fixed.

What is new in version 0.2.0:

  • This version fixes a highlighting issue when time-based ranking is enabled, and adds basic authentication to the search API.

What is new in version 0.1.3:

  • This version fixes issues with the replay menu and player/level state, adds visual feedback for scroll threshold changes, and provides minor debugging and maintenance features and for developers.

What is new in version 0.1.1:

  • Level menu scores are now updated when a level is completed and a high score achieved.
  • Hyper replay speed and a single stepping replay mode were added.
  • Key help was updated.
  • Page up and down keys can now be used within help.

What is new in version 0.1.0:

  • A generic menu system is now in place for the main level menu, a help menu, and the replay menu, making things much clearer.
  • Breakpoints can now be set so the replay will stop when it encounters them.
  • They can be set/unset by pressing "b" during play, or from the replay menu.
  • The main help file has been split into two sections, for game play and keys.
  • Help can now be called upon while playing the game.
  • Pressing "q" (quit) during game play no longer increments the number of moves.

What is new in version 0.0.9:

  • DEBUG build no longer disables the use of ncurses.
  • DEBUG code cleaned up, fprintf used instead of printf for info msgs which are now sent to stderr.
  • All error messages now sent to stderr.
  • Screen data types upgraded to int to handle large windows on big displays.
  • README updated to recommend xterm as the best terminal for playing XorCurses in.

What is new in version 0.0.8:

  • Resizing the terminal XorCurses runs in can now increase the game display area and also allows the map display in the info panel to be shown in full detail.
  • Two difficulty levels: new school and old school. The old school plays as the original Xor game; it restricts the game display area to 8x8 and the scrolling threshold is set to 1. The new school allows a game display area up to 12x12 and a scrolling threshold can be set as per previous releases.
  • Code reformated using GNU indent and many other code changes made in order to implement above changes. See CHANGES file for more details.

What is new in version 0.0.7:

  • Bug fixed: One of the points checked after a bomb blast, was only checked for a gravitating object which moved in one direction, when in fact there should have been two checks at that precise location for both gravitating directions.

Requirements:

  • GCC
  • GNU Make
  • Ncurses

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