📅 February 5, 2024
“What? An animated ASCII art aquarium that runs in a terminal? Yes!”
ASCII art is fun, but animated ASCII art is even more impressive. Why not brighten your day with a secondary terminal filled with marine life as you use Linux?
ASCIIQuarium is one of those rare gems that few seem to know about but always provides hours of entertainment in the background once discovered. It is as essential as sl, cowsay, and fortune, so why not?
Let’s have fun!
Installing ASCIIQuarium
From what I can tell, ASCIIQuarium seems to be abandoned — or at least not given any attention lately. This means it is not in the Ubuntu repository for easy installation using Synaptic or apt, and a .deb or AppImage is not easily obtainable (that I can find). This is a Perl script, but it takes a little work to get ASCIIQuarium running. I set this up with success in Linux Mint 21.2.
Here are the steps I used:
Step 1. Download ASCIIQuarium
This is available from the official ASCIIQuarium web site. Look for “Latest Version (1.1)” under Downloads.
ASCIIQuarium web site. Yes, it has a web site. It…gets the job done.
Step 2. Copy asciiquarium to /usr/local/bin
There are multiple files in the archive, but all we need is asciiquarium. Extract it, and then copy it to /usr/local/bin. (Navigate to where you extracted it.)
sudo cp asciiquarium /usr/local/bin cd /usr/local/bin
Step 3. Set execute permission
This is required in order to run the script.
sudo chmod +x asciiquarium
Step 4. Install Perl dependencies
sudo apt install cpanminus libcurses-perl
ASCIIQuarium depends upon the Term::Animation Perl module in order to create the ASCII art animation, but we need to install these packages first in order to install that. (CPAN is the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network in case you are interested in learning more.)
Step 5. Install Term::Animation
To run ASCIIQuarium, just enter asciiquarium at the command prompt. However, if you try to run it now, you will see this error message:
This is normal.
Run the command below as root, and choose the defaults:
sudo cpan Term::Animation
Step 6. Test
ASCIIQuarium should work now. Just enter asciiquarium and watch the aquatic life explore your terminal!
Watching ASCIIQuarium
The aquatic life activity is random. Fishies. Swans. Sharks. Whales. Ducks. A castle. Occasional air bubbles. Even a fishing hook! There is no sound, and this is a full-terminal script. Resizing the terminal window will restart the action. There are no options to set. Press q to quit.
ASCIIQuarium in action.
Maximizing the terminal window increases the virtual aquarium size and allows more fish and activity to happen.
The aquatic variety is impressive.
Oh, look! A ship!
A fishing hook will lower once in a while.
When it catches a fish, it will reel it in.
The random activity will hold your interest.
Fishes come in all shapes and sizes with varying swimming speeds
Open multiple terminals for more excitement!
Conclusion
This is fun to watch! No matter how long it runs, I could take screenshots all day and never see the same scene twice. The variety of colorful ASCII art and their animations are eye-catching, making this an excellent screensaver for those who enjoy the terminal.
Of course, still images fail to convey the action, so have a look at various videos and GIF images that are available via web searches.
If you are a fan of ASCII art, this is one program to check out.
Have fun!
Delightly Linux 