ASCII screensaver for the command-line or a TUI?

Question

This question was closed due to being too broad, so I'll be more specific with regard to ASCII animations here =)

Are there any ASCII animations that can be used as screensavers - either in the TUI or in the command-line?

@guntbert the text user interface is also what you get when using the key combination Ctrl+Alt+F1+F2+F3 etc. — TellMeWhy, Dec 01 '15 at 20:45
Well, thats just a CLI - but I found out since that interfaces like `ncurses` are called TUI, which makes sense as we have no command line there but they are text based (see `nm-tui` for instance). — guntbert, Dec 02 '15 at 19:56
What I have been looking for is something I can install as root, to keep terminals that are logged into, from being left un-attended (GUI-LESS, LINUX, BASH PROMPTS ONLY) Even if the user is logged in with putty, I want to be able to force a screen saver (ASCII) and then force the user to provide a password to unlock the screen. I started to write one myself, then realized it may already exist. It probably does. Does anyone know? (NO GUI INSTALLED ON THESE MACHINES), some are running CentOS, RedHat and Debian. — PyTis, Nov 24 '22 at 00:50

score 31 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Pipes.sh

The classic screensaver in ASCII.

Usage :

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pipeseroni/pipes.sh/master/pipes.sh 
chmod +x pipes.sh
./pipes.sh

Installation :

git clone https://github.com/pipeseroni/pipes.sh.git
cd pipes.sh
sudo make install

Options :

 -t #

Type of pipes. Refer to the documentation to see them all.

-f [20-100]

Framerate.

-s [5-15]

Probability of a straight fitting.

-r LIMIT

Reset after x characters, 0 if no limit.

-R

Random starting point.

-B

No bold effect.

-C

No color.

Refer to the documentation for more information.

score 31 · Answer 2 · 2018-05-25T22:37:00.287

cmatrix is another great one! Install it with:

sudo apt-get install cmatrix

The manpage description on it:

CMatrix(1)                                                    General Commands Manual                                                   CMatrix(1)

NAME
       CMatrix - simulates the display from "The Matrix"

SYNOPSIS
       cmatrix [-abBflohnsVx] [-u update] [-C color]

DESCRIPTION
       Shows a scrolling 'Matrix' like screen in Linux

   OPTIONS
       -a     Asynchronous scroll

       -b     Bold characters on

       -B     All bold characters (overrides -b)

       -f     Force the linux $TERM type to be on

       -l     Linux mode (sets "matrix.fnt" font in console)

       -o     Use old-style scrolling

       -h, -? Print usage and exit

       -n     No bold characters (overrides -b and -B)

       -s     "Screensaver" mode, exits on first keystroke

       -x     X window mode, use if your xterm is using mtx.pcf

       -V     Print version information and exit

       -u delay
              Screen update delay 0 - 9, default 4

       -C color
              Use this color for matrix (default green).  Valid colors are green, red, blue, white, yellow, cyan, magenta and black.

   KEYSTROKES
       The following keystrokes are available during execution (unavailable in -s mode)

       a      Toggle asynchronous scroll

       b      Random bold characters

       B      All bold characters

       n      Turn off bold characters

       0-9    Adjust update speed

       ! @ # $ % ^ & )
              Change  the  color  of  the  matrix to the corresponding color: ! - red, @ - green, # - yellow, $ - blue, % - magenta, ^ - cyan, & -
              white, ) - black.

       q      Quit the program

BUGS
       This program is very CPU intensive.  Don't be surprised if it eats up over 40% of your CPU at times.

HOMEPAGE
       The CMatrix homepage is currently at http://www.asty.org/cmatrix.

AUTHORS
       Chris Allegretta (chrisa@asty.org), with a lot of help from many other people. See README file for details.

                                                                  Mon May 3 1999                                                        CMatrix(1)

Examples:

Normal Terminal running:

cmatrix -s -b

Console:

cmatrix -s -b -l

Note: Although I do not show it in the images here, it is animated.

And if you want it to work like a proper screensaver (though the -l option won't work) then check out this answer.

Not sure how change the color according with `! @ # $ % ^ & )` when I use the `shift + number` to get the desired character ( ie.: `Shift + 4` to get `$`) and therefore expect the new color - then only changes the speed of the animation, so how is expected insert/activate `! @ # $ % ^ & )`? — Manuel Jordan, Sep 30 '21 at 14:19

score 17 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 26 '23 at 15:09

Termsaver

Termsaver is a text-based screensaver embedding various animation :

 urlfetcher     displays url contents with typing animation
 starwars       runs the asciimation Star Wars movie
 matrix         displays a matrix movie alike screensaver
 jokes4all      displays recent jokes from jokes4all.net (NSFW)
 clock          displays a digital clock on screen
 programmer     displays source code in typing animation
 quotes4all     displays recent quotes from quotes4all.net
 rssfeed        displays rss feed information
 rfc            randomly displays RFC contents
 sysmon         displays a graphical system monitor
 randtxt        displays word in random places on screen
 asciiartfarts  displays ascii images from asciiartfarts.com (NSFW)

(From man termsaver)

Installation :

 sudo apt-get install termsaver

Usage :

 termsaver matrix

score 16 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 03 '21 at 07:23

This ASCII animation can be used a screensaver:

Live aquarium

You can find out how to install it here.

The first portion of the installation will take care of any remaining dependencies that aren't included in the standard Perl installation. For this installation, follow these steps:

Open up a terminal windows. If you are using a GUI-less server then just log in.

Change to the /tmp directory with the command cd /tmp.

Download the Terminal Animation package with the command wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/K/KB/KBAUCOM/Term-Animation-2.4.tar.gz.

Unpack the Terminal Animation package with the command tar -zxvf Term-Animation-2.4.tar.gz.

Change into the newly created directory with the command cd Term-Animation-2.4/.

Build the makefile with the command perl Makefile.PL && make && make test.

Compile Terminal Animation with the command sudo make install

Now to install the actually asciiquarium application. Follow these steps.

Open a terminal window (again, if you are using a GUI-less server, just log in).

Change to the /tmp directory with the command cd /tmp.

Download the necessary package with the command wget http://www.robobunny.com/projects/asciiquarium/asciiquarium.tar.gz.

Unpack the asciiquarium package with the command tar -zxvf asciiquarium.tar.gz.

Change into the newly created directory with the command cd asciiquarium.

Copy the executable to the necessary directory with the command sudo cp asciiquarium /usr/local/bin.

Give the executable the proper permissions with the command sudo chmod 0755 /usr/loca/bin/asciiquarium.

It is time to test out the waters of asciiquarium. To do so open up your terminal window (or if using a GUI-less machine - log in) and issue the command /usr/local/bin/asciiquarium

in my case I had to `cpan Curses` – Sterling Butters Jul 27 '23 at 18:55 — Sterling Butters, Jul 27 '23 at 18:55

score 9 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 18 '15 at 13:15

9

_Source

sudo apt-get install bsdgames
worms -d 190 -n 4

rain -d 180

answered Nov 18 '15 at 13:15

A.B.

89,123
21
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score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 09 '19 at 08:43

2

ASCII Saver – Screensaver for terminals. This is my attempt to run some animation while there is no I/O on a terminal.

answered Dec 09 '19 at 08:43

Mikhail Zakharov

121
3

score -2 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 18 '15 at 18:40

-2

zone-mode in emacs can be used as a screensaver. If you care about the mode line burned onto your screen then you are not an emacs user!

answered Nov 18 '15 at 18:40

zombieRMS

1

ASCII screensaver for the command-line or a TUI?

7 Answers7

Pipes.sh

Termsaver

Live aquarium

Linked