# why is 'bcd' a game?



## neilms (Aug 5, 2012)

If you go to /usr/games, there is a 'game' called bcd. It even has a short manual page that says 'reformat input as punch cards or paper tape'. Apparently you give the program a string such as *$bcd myname*, and it displays that input at the top of a bunch of numbers.

I do not understand what this is about. Why is it a game? Is it historical? I know punch cards and paper tape are historical things in computing, but I fail to see the joke here.


----------



## Beastie (Aug 5, 2012)

Yes these are historical. And as hier(7) describes them they're not really games as one would expect, but rather "useful and semi-frivolous programs".
It's the engineers' special way of having fun


----------



## UNIXgod (Aug 5, 2012)

UNIX would have never happened if Ken Thompson didn't wnt to play games!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game)


----------

