A revived and renamed fork of MyMan, an unofficial text-based clone of the classic Pac-Man game. Designed for terminal and console environments, with no GUI support. Integrated into a collection of minimal text-based projects.
Glomph Maze is a fast-paced, curses-based game where you navigate mazes, collect dots, and avoid ghosts. It supports multiple platforms including modern Unix-like systems, DOS, and VMS, emphasizing portability and legacy compatibility.
Original project last updated in 2009; this fork adds modern maintenance while preserving the text-based ethos.
- 1998: Original MyMan by Benjamin Sittler—public domain, basic ncurses Pac-Man clone (742 lines, large tiles, maze/color support).
- 1998-2003: Expanded portability (cygwin/DOS/VMS), small tiles, variants (e.g., pacmanic). Data files public domain.
- Nov 2003 (v0.4/0.5): Switched to BSD 2-Clause license for attribution.
- 2003-2009: Added backends (PDCurses/SDL/GTK/Allegro/libcaca/EFI/Mac Carbon), sizes/variants (quackman/small/square), UX (pager/help/snapshots/MIDI). Last update: 2009 (DOS fixes). v0.7.0 final.
- 2025 Fork (Glomph Maze): Renamed/revived; Makefile/UX tweaks (license in help, no startup prompt); focus on text portability. Data/original code under BSD; mazes/tiles public domain.
- Text-mode rendering using ncurses or alternatives (PDCurses, SDL, etc.).
- Modular data files for mazes, tiles, and sprites (customizable variants).
- Color and attribute support (toggleable).
- Optional audio support: SDL2_mixer (MIDI/tracker music) or terminal beep fallback.
- Command-line options for mazes, sizes, ghosts, etc. (e.g.,
glomph -m pacfor Pac-Man layout).
- ANSI C compiler (e.g., GCC or Clang)
- CMake 3.15 or higher
- Curses library (e.g., ncurses on Unix, PDCurses on Windows)
- Optional: SDL2 + SDL2_mixer for audio support (MIDI/tracker music)
Basic build (terminal beep audio):
git clone git@github.com:michaelborck-dev/glomph-maze.git
cd glomph-maze
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build
./build/glomphBuild with SDL audio (recommended for music):
# Install SDL2 libraries first
brew install sdl2 sdl2_mixer # macOS
sudo apt install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev # Ubuntu/Debian
# Build with audio enabled
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DENABLE_AUDIO=ON
cmake --build build
./build/glomph -b # -b enables soundSee CMAKE_SETUP.md for detailed build instructions and options.
Run the game:
glomph-maze # Or 'myman' if not renamed in binary
Controls (case-insensitive):
- Arrow keys / HJKL: Move (left/down/up/right).
- Q: Quit.
- P/ESC: Pause.
- C: Toggle color.
- S: Toggle sound on/off.
- ?: Help.
Full options: glomph-maze -h.
Environment variables for fine-tuning rendering (see original README notes).
This fork renames binaries/docs from "MyMan" to "Glomph Maze". The CMake build produces four size variants:
glomph(default) - 4×4 filled bitmap characters, best balance of detail and compatibilityglomph-xlarge- 5×3 ASCII-art outlined characters, largest and most detailedglomph-small- 2×1 Unicode symbols, compact display fits more on screenglomph-tiny- 1×1 single characters, minimal display for small terminals
All variants play identically; only the visual rendering differs.
- Update curses support to modern ncurses.
- Explore MIDI alternatives without breaking legacy.
- Refactoring for clarity while maintaining portability.
- No GUI development; focus on text environments.
Modified from original BSD license. See LICENSE for details.
Original author: Benjamin C. Wiley Sittler bsittler@gmail.com. Fork maintainer: Michael Borck.
This project is a fork of the original MyMan game, originally developed by Benjamin C. Wiley Sittler.
Original Sources:
- Original author's homepage: https://xent.com/~bsittler/geocities/#myman
- SourceForge project: https://sourceforge.net/projects/myman/
- GitHub mirror (CVS to Git conversion): https://github.com/kragen/myman
Based on MyMan (public domain/BSD). Inspired by Pac-Man (Namco). Thanks to contributors for ports and variants.