NAME

royalur - the Royal Game of Ur, in a terminal

SYNOPSIS

royalur
royalur --rules masters --level 2
royalur --mode hotseat --route
royalur --mode watch --pace 0.3
royalur --seed 5f1c9a --first light --record game.txt

DESCRIPTION

Plays the Royal Game of Ur against the program, between two people, or the program against itself. See Game::RoyalUr::Terminal for how it is played and Game::RoyalUr for the game.

OPTIONS

--mode how

bot, you against the program, which is the default; hotseat, two people at one keyboard; watch, the program against itself.

--rules name

finkel, the default, or masters. See Game::RoyalUr::Variant.

--level n

How well the program plays, from 1. The top of the ladder by default. See Game::RoyalUr::Bot.

--side which

light, the default, or dark: your side against the program.

--first who

light or dark to say who moves first, or roll, the default, to have both sides throw the dice for it.

--seed hex

Hexadecimal, two characters a byte. Every throw of the dice follows from the seed, so the same seed and the same moves are the same game.

--pace seconds

How long a turn lost to the roll, and each move the program makes, stays on the screen. 1 by default in a terminal.

--route

Show, under the board, the order in which the side to move visits the squares.

--record file

Write the game to a file when you leave, in the form Game::RoyalUr::Notation describes.

--replay file

Carry on from a game written by --record.

--ascii

Draw with plain letters and lines. --no-unicode is the same.

--unicode

Draw with line and shape characters. That is the default in a terminal; this asks for it anywhere else.

--no-colour

No colour. Pieces, rosettes and marks are shapes as well as colours, so nothing is lost. --no-color is the same, and so is setting NO_COLOR in the environment.

--no-pick

Type moves instead of choosing them with the arrow keys.

--version, --help

Say so and stop.

EXIT STATUS

0 when the game was left in the ordinary way, 2 when the options were wrong or a file could not be read.

AUTHOR

LNATION <email@lnation.org>

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

This software is Copyright (c) 2026 by LNATION <email@lnation.org>.

This is free software, licensed under:

The Artistic License 2.0 (GPL Compatible)