Linux / UNIX Desktop Fun: Terminal ASCII Aquarium

Posted on in Categories Download of the day, Linux desktop, UNIX last updated January 5, 2011

You can now enjoy mysteries of the sea from the safety of your own terminal using ASCIIQuarium. It is an aquarium/sea animation in ASCII art created using perl.

Install Term::Animation

First, you need to install Perl module called Term-Animation. Open a command-line terminal (select Applications > Accessories > Terminal), and then type:
$ sudo apt-get install libcurses-perl
$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/K/KB/KBAUCOM/Term-Animation-2.4.tar.gz
$ tar -zxvf Term-Animation-2.4.tar.gz
$ cd Term-Animation-2.4/
$ perl Makefile.PL && make && make test
$ sudo make install

Download and Install ASCIIQuarium

While still at bash prompt, type:
$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://www.robobunny.com/projects/asciiquarium/asciiquarium.tar.gz
$ tar -zxvf asciiquarium.tar.gz
$ cd asciiquarium_1.0/
$ sudo cp asciiquarium /usr/local/bin
$ sudo chmod 0755 /usr/local/bin/asciiquarium

How do I view my ASCII Aquarium?

Simply type the following command:
$ /usr/local/bin/asciiquarium
OR
$ perl /usr/local/bin/asciiquarium

(Fig.01: ASCII Aquarium [ click to enlarge ] )

Related media



Video 01: ASCIIQuarium – Sea Animation on Linux / Unix Desktop

Download: erminal ASCII Aquarium KDE and Mac OS X Version

Download asciiquarium. If you’re running Mac OS X, try a packaged version that will run out of the box. For KDE users, try a KDE Screensaver based on the Asciiquarium.

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. He has worked with global clients and in various industries, including IT, education, defense and space research, and the nonprofit sector. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+.

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35 comment

    1. Cent OS users, try:
      yum install perl-Curses
      instead of
      sudo apt-get install libcurses-perl

      Worked for me 🙂

    1. Strictly speaking this is a curses animation, it will work over any terminal with a proper curses descriptor not just an ANSI terminal.

  11. Just a small detail: chances are you are not the owner of the file you just sudo cp’d into /usr/local/bin, so you won’t have the necessary permissions to chmod at the end. It should be ‘sudo chmod’.

    A great find. Thanks.

  14. Any idea how to Install Term::Animation on Fedora 14?
    The perl ‘Makefile.PL && make && make test’ fails with message:
    BEGIN failed–compilation aborted at Makefile.PL line 2.

    When I looked at this line I see:
    use ExtUtils::MakeMaker;
    Then I installed the perl-MakeMaker-5.41-10.i386.rpm package from:
    http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/12105913/dir/redhat_7.x/com/perl-MakeMaker-5.41-10.i386.rpm.html

    Ok. Installed without errors.
    Now I tried again ‘Makefile.PL && make && make test’
    And again it complains about BEGIN failed–compilation aborted at Makefile.PL line 2.

    Any ideas? Thanks in advance

  18. Redhat distro’s can also use “CheckInstall” to create an rpm package from the source code. Check out http://checkinstall.izto.org/ for more information. This should already be included in the latest CentOS repo’s. Works very well and allows one to easily remove the application with your package manager as well.

  23. Not sure if posted. For OSX. I became root and issued the command:

    prompt>cpan

    I then accepted all the default prompts.

    Then I ran

    cpan>install Term::Animation

    Then I ran:
    shine:~ jasonralph$ asciiquarium

    Since it was in my path the binary ran perfectly.
    Afer that I was able to see the coolness. Very sweet.

    Jaysunn

  25. can u tell, how must I do after I get this message : BEGIN failed–compilation aborted at Makefile.PL line 2. I used fedora, thanks

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