PacVim – A CLI Game To Learn Vim Commands

Howdy, Vim users! Today, I stumbled upon a cool utility to sharpen your Vim usage skills. Undoubtedly, Vim is a great editor to write and edit code. However, some of you might be struggling with the steep learning curve. Not anymore! Meet PacVim, a CLI game that helps you to learn Vim commands.

PacVim is inspired by the classic game PacMan and it gives you plenty of practice with Vim commands in a fun and interesting way. Simply put, PacVim is a fun, free way to learn about the vim commands in-depth.

Please do not confuse PacMan with pacman (the Arch Linux package manager). PacMan is a classic, popular arcade game released in the 1980s.

Without further ado, let us see how to install and use PacVim in Linux.

Install PacVim in Linux

First, install Ncurses library and development tools as described in the following links.

• How To Install Ncurses Library In Linux
• How To Install Development Tools In Linux

Please note that this game may not compile and install properly without gcc version 4.8.X or higher. I tested PacVim on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and it worked just fine.

Once Ncurses and gcc are installed, run the following commands to install PacVim.

$ git clone https://github.com/jmoon018/PacVim.git
$ cd PacVim
$ sudo make install

Learn Vim Commands using PacVim

PacVim game teaches you vim commands in fun and engaging way. You must move pacman (the green cursor) to highlight each word on the gameboard while avoiding the ghosts (in red).

Start PacVim game

To play this game, just run:

$ pacvim [LEVEL_NUMER] [MODE]

For example, the following command starts the game in 5th level with normal mode.

$ pacvim 5 n

Here, "5" represents the level and "n" represents the mode. There are currently two modes. They are:

• n - normal mode.
• h - hard mode.

The default mode is h, which is hard.

To start from the beginning (0 level), just run:

$ pacvim

Here is the sample output from my Ubuntu 18.04 LTS system.

To begin the game, just press ENTER.

Now start playing the game. Read the next chapter to know how to play.

To quit, press ESC or q.

The following command starts the game in 5th level with hard mode.

$ pacvim 5 h

Or,

$ pacvim 5

How to play PacVim?

The usage of PacVim is very similar to PacMan.

You must run over all the characters on the screen while avoiding the ghosts (the red color characters).

PacVim has two special obstacles:

1. You cannot move into the walls (yellow color). You must use vim motions to jump over them.
2. If you step on a tilde character (cyan ~), you lose!

You are given three lives. You gain a life each time you beat level 0, 3, 6, 9, etc. There are 10 levels in total, starting from 0 to 9. After beating the 9th level, the game will reset to the 0th level, but the ghosts move faster.

Winning conditions

Use vim commands to move the cursor over the letters and highlight them. After all letters are highlighted, you win and proceed to the next level.

Losing conditions

If you touch a ghost (indicated by a red G) or a tilde character, you lose a life. If you have less than 0 lives, you will lose the entire game.

Here is the list of Implemented Commands:

After playing couple levels, you should notice there is a slight improvement in Vim usage. Keep playing this game once in a while until you mastering the Vim usage.

Conclusion

Playing PacVim is fun, interesting and keep you occupied. At the same time, you should be able to learn Vim commands thoroughly. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

Resource:

• PacVim GitHub page