Play With Words in Linux Terminal With This Bookmark Inspired Game

Remember the classic Bookworm game? You can have similar fun in the terminal with Sausage.
Warp Terminal

Sausage is a word forming game, inspired by the classic Bookworm. Written in bash script, you can use it on any Linux distribution.

Playing Sausage Game in terminal
Playing Sausage

The goal of the game is simple.

  • Earn points by spotting words.
  • Longer word spotting results in coloured letters. Using coloured letters give more points.
  • Smaller words introduces red letters, which when reached bottom, you lose the game.

Installation

βœ‹
Since it's a terminal-based game, it requires a few commands for installation. I advise learning the command line essentails from our terminal basics series.

You need to have git installed on your system.

Use git to clone the official Sausage repository:

git clone https://gitlab.com/christosangel/sausage.git

Switch to the clone directory:

cd sausage

Give execution permission to the install.sh shell script.

chmod +x install.sh

Run the script:

./install.sh

Once the installation is finished, open Sausage in the same location using:

./sausage.sh

Essential commands and shortcuts

πŸ“‹
Sausage needs a 60 Column x 34 Lines terminal to work properly.

The interface has all the key combinations described properly. Even the direction of motion is displayed.

To move without selecting any word, use the arrow key.

Once a starting word is decided, press the Space/Enter key to select that letter. Now, use the navigation keys to continue selection.

Navigation Key
↑ (Up) k or Up Arrow
↓ (Down) j or Down Arrow
β†— (Right and Up) L or Shift + Right Arrow
β†˜ (Right and Down) l or Right Arrow
β†– (Left and Up) H or Shift + Left Arrow
↙ (Left and Down) h or Left Arrow

To show all the words, press the b key in the game.

Show all words in Sausage
Show all words

To undo a letter select, press the Backspace key. Undo a word selection with the Delete key.

Select/Unselect letters
Select/Unselect letters

Press r key in game to reshuffle. Each reshuffle loses a turn and introduces multiple red cells. Existing red cell drop one cell down.

Reshuffle constantly ends the game
Reshuffle in Sausage

Configuration

Limited configuration is possible here. Either manually edit ~/.config/sausage/sausage.config file or use the c key in the game start page.

Sausage config file editing using nano editor
Sausage Config

You can find more gameplay details on its official GitLab page.

Removing Sausage

Technically, you run Sausage from the script itself. Still, initially, it has created a few directories. This screenshot from the official repository shows them:

installing Sausage creates a few directories

So, to 'uninstall' Sausage, you have to remove the cloned repository and if you want to remove the game related files, check the screenshot above and remove them.

Up for a (word) game?

If you ever played the classic Bookworm, Sausage will be pure nostalgia. And if you never played that before, it could still be fun to try it f you like these kinds of game.

It's one of those amusing things you can do in the terminal.

I let you leave a few words in the comments πŸ˜‰

About the author
Abhishek Prakash

Abhishek Prakash

Created It's FOSS 11 years ago to share my Linux adventures. Have a Master's degree in Engineering and years of IT industry experience. Huge fan of Agatha Christie detective mysteries πŸ•΅οΈβ€β™‚οΈ

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