The iTerm2 terminal has long included a tool for displaying images in the console, and I was looking for a reason to use it to make an interesting project. In the end, I created a port of the game Wolf5k, originally written in JavaScript.

During the process, I had to face a lot of difficulties. The thing is, bc is a fairly simple language. For example, it lacks any built-in functionality for graphics output. In order to work with graphics, I had to develop my own base64 encoding function and generate images in BMP format.

I had to struggle, inventing various things that aren't available in the language. In the end, I managed to port the game in a day and spent the following day leisurely fixing bugs.

The controls in the game are managed with the A, S, D, W keys or J, K, L, M, Space — to shoot.

• BSD bc 6.5.0+
• iTerm2
• zsh

Many thanks to Lee Semel, the author of the original game Wolf5k, which can be found in the repository. Also, many thanks to the person who performed the partial deobfuscation of the original game's code.