A game that teaches the command line

Terminus is a browser-based text adventure. You type commands to look around, move, read items, and solve puzzles. Those commands are the same ones used on Linux and other Unix-like systems.

Michele Pratusevich created Terminus so the terminal would feel less scary. The game started as an MIT class project and grew into a free learning tool. Select Play Terminus to open her official Web build in a new window on Zemew.

Play Terminus Visit Michele Pratusevich

Credits and recognition

Terminus exists because Michele Pratusevich and her teammates built it, shared it, and kept it playable. This Zemew guide is only a pointer to their work.

Michele Pratusevich

Creator, coder, and long-term steward of Terminus. Host of mprat.org.

Michele is an MIT alum, computer vision and machine learning engineer, and the person who created and still hosts Terminus. This page runs her published Web build. Read the project notes on her site, and send gameplay feedback through the Terminus GitHub issues if you find a bug.

Original MIT team, Spring 2011

Terminus began in MIT course 11.127 / CMS.590, Educational Games, taught by Professor Eric Klopfer. The original team was:

Michele Pratusevich ’13 — design, coding, hosting, and ongoing project home at mprat.org
Shawn Conrad ’12 / MEng ’13 — coding partner, later artwork, and 2013 Education Designathon collaborator
Emma Tolley ’11 — most of the original artwork
Michaela LaVan ’12 — original storyboarding
David Zhou ’12 — original storyboarding

In 2013, Michele and Shawn brought Terminus to MIT’s Education Designathon and earned the Best Scalable Assignment prize. They were encouraged to enter the MIT iCampus Prize. The later web version also taught MIT Debathena terminal commands, because MIT’s campus computers run on Ubuntu Linux and incoming students often had never used a terminal.

The game is released as open source under the GNU GPL 2.0. If Terminus helps you, the thanks belong to Michele and the original team.

Why a text adventure is a good Linux teacher

A real terminal can feel like a blank, unfriendly box. Terminus gives that box a world, a story, and a reason to type the next command.

You learn by doing, not by memorizing a cheat sheet
Wrong commands are safe. You cannot break your computer
Looking around, moving, and reading files become habits
The same verbs work later in Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, macOS, or WSL
It is fun enough that you keep going when a puzzle gets hard

Command, explore, discover, solve, unlock

The game looks like a classic adventure. The verbs are Linux.

Command

Type a command and press Enter. That is the whole interface. Same loop as a real shell.

Explore

ls shows what is here. cd moves you. pwd tells you where you are.

Discover

less reads items and notes. Later commands help you search and inspect.

Solve

Puzzles ask you to move, copy, or rearrange things with real file commands.

Unlock

Each solved room is a command you can reuse on a real Linux machine.

Your first session

Select Play Terminus to open the game in a new window. Click the black terminal on the left, then follow the tips Michele put on the start screen.

> ls

Look at your surroundings.

> cd LOCATION

Move to a new location.

> cd ..

Backtrack one step.

> less ITEM

Interact with something in the world.

> pwd

Print where you are if you get lost.

Those five commands are enough to start exploring. Write down every new command that works. That note becomes your first Linux cheat sheet.

Command map

In Terminus, a “spell” is a real command. After you leave the game, the same words still work.

In Terminus	On Linux	What it does
`ls`	List files	Shows what is in the current place.
`cd`	Change directory	Moves you into a folder, or `cd ..` goes back.
`pwd`	Print working directory	Tells you the path of where you are standing.
`less`	Read a file	Opens text one screen at a time. Press `q` to quit.
`man`	Manual pages	Help for a command. Try `man ls` on a real machine.
`mv` / `cp`	Move / copy	Rename, relocate, or duplicate files.
`mkdir` / `touch`	Make a folder / empty file	Create new places and files.
`grep`	Search text	Find a word inside files.
`rm`	Remove	Deletes. Learn it in the game first. Be careful on a real system.

A simple learning path

Play first. Then take the same commands off the page and onto a machine.

Level 1
Open Play Terminus and play until ls, cd, pwd, and less feel automatic.
Level 2
Keep a list of every new command the game teaches you.
Level 3
Open a real terminal: Linux, macOS Terminal, or Windows Subsystem for Linux.
Level 4
Make a practice folder and repeat the same commands on dummy files.
Level 5
Learn man, then pipes and redirects when you are ready.

After Terminus

The game is the on-ramp. These are the next useful habits on a real Linux box.

Tab completion man pages Hidden files with ls -a Permissions Pipes and grep Package managers SSH Reading logs

If you later host a server, the Minecraft backend guide on Zemew is a practical next project. Terminus teaches the language. A real machine teaches the consequences.

Safety notes

The game is a safe sandbox. A real shell is not.

Practice rm in Terminus, not on files you care about
Never run a command copied from a stranger if you do not understand it
On a real system, rm -rf can delete entire directories with no undo
Use a throwaway folder when you first leave the game

Terminus is not a real shell

It teaches real command names and habits. It does not give you access to your computer. That is the point. Learn the verbs there, then use them carefully later.

Play, then take it with you

This page is a Zemew guide wrapping Michele Pratusevich’s game, built with Shawn Conrad, Emma Tolley, Michaela LaVan, and David Zhou. Play Terminus opens their Web build in a new window.

Play Terminus. Then take those commands into a real terminal.

Play Terminus mprat.org

Play Terminus, learn Linux

Play Terminus, learn Linux guide