Terminal Phase is a side-scrolling shoot-em-up in the Gradius and R-Type tradition, but in text mode. In the terminal! It's free software created by Christopher Lemmer Webber [Patreon].

The game is completely playable and is a fun game (well, at least a number of playtesters told me they thought it was fun). It includes two levels (one of which is more balanced than the other), and more content is on its way (1.0 isn't the end!). You can see it being played above in cool-retro-term but it works in all sorts of terminals, including gnome-terminal and etc.

I also released a video recently (archive.org mirror) of me doing a live playtest of the game and also showing off how to make new levels and program new enemies (which serves as kind of an introduction, but probably not the best one, to Spritely Goblins).

One of the first games I had as a youngster was Harrier Attack, which was essentially the same idea of a textmode side-scrolling shooter, albeit with redefined characters to try and get it looking "better". It was not great. Read the rest

Rather than soak thru pages and make reading the flipside of whatever I just took notes on annoying to read, these dry highlighters are just great. Read the rest

So you like Trello but like your terminal even more? Taskwarrior and Taskbook are apps for task management and note-taking that live in the dark space of pure text. From Taskbook's homepage:

By utilizing a simple and minimal usage syntax, that requires a flat learning curve, taskbook enables you to effectively manage your tasks and notes across multiple boards from within your terminal. All data are written atomically to the storage in order to prevent corruptions, and are never shared with any third party entities. Deleted items are automatically archived and can be inspected or restored at any moment.

I am very fond of high-quality single-purpose text apps, the sort that only require keyboard input. Yes, there is the whiff of empty rustic nostalgia about it, but I'm too young to have ever used textmode apps in a way anyone would be nostalgic about (first PC: 1996) so I can confidently say it's the empty faddish minimalism that appeals to me. Read the rest

Browsh is a modern text-only browser which "renders anything that a modern browser can; HTML5, CSS3, JS, video and even WebGL." Read the rest

Unicode Table has something over the other Unicode table sites: predictive search. There's useful tools as well: a HTML endoder/decoder, text-flipper Read the rest

Stuck for something smug to say? The Idiomatic randomly generates idioms by gluing together parts of other idioms, allowing you to control conversations and stymie unwelcome trains of thought through the power of confusion. Read the rest

The legendary painter and educator has inspired a placeholder text generator based upon his calm yet encouraging dialogue. Friendlier than the classic lorem ipsum, it should provide all the happy little texts you ever need.

When things happen - enjoy them. They're little gifts. In this world, everything can be happy. All you have to do is let your imagination go wild. Look around. Look at what we have. Beauty is everywhere you only have to look to see it.

There is immense joy in just watching - watching all the little creatures in nature. Don't be afraid to make these big decisions. Once you start, they sort of just make themselves. These things happen automatically. All you have to do is just let them happen.

Go out on a limb - that's where the fruit is. We don't need any guidelines or formats. All we need to do is just let it flow right out of us. Didn't you know you had that much power? You can move mountains. You can do anything. Don't kill all your dark areas - you need them to show the light. That is when you can experience true joy, when you have no fear.

The very fact that you're aware of suffering is enough reason to be overjoyed that you're alive and can experience it. In your imagination you can go anywhere you want. In painting, you have unlimited power. You have the ability to move mountains. You can bend rivers. But when I get home, the only thing I have power over is the garbage.

John Gruber on the rise in the use of *asterisks* for emphasis in the plaintext age: "Neither appeared in print until the mid-’60s, when *sigh* began appearing. But *cough* doesn’t appear until 1987. Both though, exploded in usage starting in 1997, and have risen steadily ever since. So I think I’m correct that this use of asterisks has been largely driven by Internet punctuation idioms." Read the rest