j4james / vtrex Goto Github PK

@al20878 @KalleOlaviNiemitalo I've built this game with the intention that it should be playable on a real DEC terminal, but I'm not positive that it will actually work. I know you both have terminals that meet the minimum requirements (VT420 or better), so I'm hoping you'd would be willing to give it a try when you have a chance, and let me know how it performs, before I make it public.

It uses macros to keep the bandwidth low (if my calculations are right, it averages around 900 bytes per second at the top speed), so that should be manageable at 9600 baud. However, it's possible these terminals may still not be able to execute the actual operations as fast as they're received.

So if you find the response is sluggish, you can try running it with a lower speed, e.g. vtrex --speed 1 will render at 1 frame a second (but hopefully it won't need to be that low). You can also try turning off sound effects with vtrex --mute if you find it lagging when a sound is played (typically when you jump, or when the score reaches a multiple of 100).

Btw, if you've never played this game before, you just press Space to jump, and that's all there is to it. You can press Esc at any time to exit.

I should also warn you that there'll likely be a significant pause at startup while it loads the font and macros. I'd estimate around 5 or 6 seconds at 9600 baud. So don't assume it's died if it takes a while to start.