SnakeTermRS

A feature-rich terminal Snake game written in Rust.

  ╔═══════════════════════════════╗
  ║     SNAKE — Terminal Edition  ║
  ╚═══════════════════════════════╝

Features

• Colored rendering (green snake, yellow head, red food)
• Singleplayer and local multiplayer (2 players, same keyboard)
• Start menu with high score display
• Pause / resume
• Progressive speed (gets faster as you grow)
• Bonus food ($) that spawns randomly for extra points
• Random obstacles / walls
• Shrinking border mode
• Death animation
• Wrap-around (borderless) mode
• Inverted controls mode
• Auto-restart mode
• Dynamic map sizing (auto-detects terminal size)
• Input buffering (queue up to 3 fast turns)
• High score persistence
• Game recording and replay
• TOML config file support
• Fully configurable glyphs, speed, and RNG seed
• Terminal bell on food eat and death

---

Build

Requires Rust (1.70+).

cargo build --release

Run

./target/release/snake-term

---

Controls

Key	Action
W A S D	Move (Player 1)
Arrow keys	Move (Player 1, or Player 2 in multiplayer)
P / Space	Pause / Resume
Q / Esc	Quit
R	Restart (on game over)
M	Back to menu (on game over)
Ctrl+C	Force quit

---

Command-line options

Usage: snake-term [OPTIONS]

Options:
      --speed <ms>               Frame delay in milliseconds [default: 200]
      --body <char>              Snake body character [default: @]
      --head-w <char>            Head glyph moving west [default: <]
      --head-n <char>            Head glyph moving north [default: ^]
      --head-e <char>            Head glyph moving east [default: >]
      --head-s <char>            Head glyph moving south [default: v]
      --head <4chars>            All 4 head chars as WNES (e.g. '<^>v')
      --food <char>              Food glyph [default: *]
      --seed <num>               RNG seed, 0 = random [default: 0]
      --hide-score               Hide the score display
      --auto-restart             Auto-restart on game over
      --invert-controls          Invert movement directions
      --disable-borders          Enable wrap-around
      --obstacles <num>          Number of random walls [default: 0]
      --multiplayer              Enable 2-player mode
      --progressive-speed        Speed increases as snake grows
      --shrinking-border         Play area shrinks over time
      --map-width <num>          Map width, 0 = auto [default: 0]
      --map-height <num>         Map height, 0 = auto [default: 0]
      --config <path>            Load settings from a TOML file
      --record <path>            Record game inputs to a file
      --replay <path>            Play back a recorded game
  -h, --help                     Print help

---

Examples

# Classic game
snake-term

# Fast game with custom glyphs
snake-term --speed 100 --body '#' --head '<^>v' --food '@'

# 2 players with obstacles
snake-term --multiplayer --obstacles 10

# Challenge mode: fast, shrinking, no borders
snake-term --progressive-speed --shrinking-border --disable-borders

# Auto-restart for high score grinding
snake-term --auto-restart --speed 150

# Record a game, then replay it
snake-term --record my_game.rep --seed 42
snake-term --replay my_game.rep --seed 42

# Use a config file
snake-term --config settings.toml

---

TOML config file

Instead of passing flags every time, create a settings.toml:

speed = 150
body = "#"
food = "@"
obstacles = 5
progressive_speed = true
disable_borders = true
map_width = 30
map_height = 20

Then run with:

snake-term --config settings.toml

CLI flags override config file values.

---

Multiplayer

Run with --multiplayer for local 2-player on the same keyboard:

• Player 1: W A S D
• Player 2: Arrow keys

Players spawn on separate rows. Colliding with the other snake's body kills you.

---

Project structure

src/
├── main.rs        Entry point, game loop, menus
├── config.rs      CLI parsing, TOML config, constants
├── snake.rs       Snake state, movement, collision
├── game_map.rs    Grid rendering, walls, bonus food
├── input.rs       Keyboard input handling
├── highscore.rs   High score persistence
└── replay.rs      Game recording and playback

---

Tests

cargo test

Covers snake movement, collision, wall hits, wrap-around, food eating, direction queue, and reset logic.