Like most kids I grew up playing a lot of video games, but the type of games that really kept me engaged didn’t have any video at all. MUDs, or Multi-User Dungeons, are completely text based role-playing games. I fell in love with these games because it combined my love of fantasy books and role-playing games. When I began computer programming and more specifically learning about the command line I came across a blog that mentioned a game I could play right in my terminal, Dunnet. What really peaked my interest, however, was that Dunnet was a text-based adventure game!

Dunnet is a cyperpunk adventure game created by Ron Schnell in 1983 and is playable on any OS with an Emacs editor, so most Unices and Linux distributions. If you’re on a Mac you can start Dunnet by entering emacs -batch -l dunnet into your terminal prompt. You begin the game on a dirt road with an exit to the east. But what does a dirt road have to do with the command line? Dunnet starts out like most MUD games, but as you get deeper into the game you realize that you are actually traveling through a computer. Cool beans! To find clues and eventually complete the game you will have to know some basic command line tools. While I don’t want to give away any clues to solving the game, you should think about problems through the terminal and then find out what unix command will accomplish that problem. For example, how do I read a file in the terminal. Dunnet is extremely fun and if you’re completely new to the command line it’s a fantastic way to learn a few of the basic terminal commands. Give it a try.