ON AIRTerminal of Terror

โ–€โ–ˆโ–€ โ–ˆโ–€โ–€ โ–ˆโ–€โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–€โ–„โ–€โ–ˆ โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–„ โ–ˆ โ–„โ–€โ–ˆ โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–€โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–€โ–€ โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–ˆโ–„ โ–ˆโ–€โ–„ โ–ˆ โ–€ โ–ˆ โ–ˆ โ–ˆ โ–€โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–€โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–„โ–„ โ–ˆโ–„โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–€ โ–€โ–ˆโ–€ โ–ˆโ–€โ–€ โ–ˆโ–€โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–€โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–€โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–€โ–ˆ โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–ˆโ–„ โ–ˆโ–€โ–„ โ–ˆโ–€โ–„ โ–ˆโ–„โ–ˆ โ–ˆโ–€โ–„

๐Ÿ“บ Channel 13's Creature Feature, live in your terminal

๐Ÿ“บ "Good evening, creatures of the night, and welcome to the Channel 13 Creature Feature. I'm your host, Count Cathode, broadcasting from beyond the static."

Meet 55 monsters in 6 packs: the Universal classics, world folklore, cryptids, literary monsters, classical mythology and the silent screen. Learn the real history behind them: who played them, who did the makeup, and which "facts" Hollywood simply made up. Then prove it in the Midnight Quiz and fill your crypt.

๐Ÿ”ฎ Summon it ๐Ÿง› Meet the monsters ๐Ÿ“š Night School

โš ๏ธ Viewer discretion is advised. Side effects may include knowing far too much about 1930s makeup artists, a sudden distrust of huts with chicken legs, and correcting your friends about silver bullets.
Terminal of Terror: the Channel 13 intro, Dracula's pages, a myth-vs-movie reveal, the silent-film Phantom and a search for 'silver'
CATHODE ยท CH 13
๐ŸŽƒโ€ฆnights until Halloween
๐ŸŒ™โ€ฆtonight's moon
โœจ Tonight's fact ยท โ€ฆ

๐Ÿ“… Tonight's Programme

9:00 PM๐Ÿ”ฎ Summon it ยท Homebrew, download or install
9:05 PM๐ŸŒ™ Your first night ยท five commands to try
9:15 PM๐Ÿง› The Creature Feature ยท the interactive explorer
10:00 PM๐Ÿง  Games ยท the Midnight Quiz, Guess the Monster and the Monster Mash
10:45 PM๐Ÿ’€ The Crypt ยท capture monsters, earn badges
11:30 PM๐Ÿ•› Nightly rituals ยท fact of the night, double features, the Halloween countdown
Midnight๐Ÿ“œ The roster ยท every monster in the vault
1:00 AM๐Ÿ“ฆ Packs ยท make your own monsters
3:00 AM๐Ÿ“– Command reference, for the insomniacs
Dawn๐Ÿ“š Night School ยท build it yourself, in 31 nights

๐Ÿ”ฎ Summon it

On macOS or Linux, install it with Homebrew:

brew install hungovercoders/tap/terminal-of-terror

brew upgrade terminal-of-terror picks up each new release.

Check it worked with terminal-of-terror --version.

๐ŸŒ™ Your first night

terminal-of-terror monster           # tune in to the Creature Feature
terminal-of-terror quiz              # test yourself in the Midnight Quiz
terminal-of-terror tonight           # see tonight's double bill
terminal-of-terror countdown         # how many nights until Halloween?
terminal-of-terror random --daily    # the Fact of the Night

๐Ÿ’ก Add terminal-of-terror random --daily to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc and every new terminal opens with the Fact of the Night.

๐Ÿง› The Creature Feature

Count Cathode opens the broadcast through a wall of TV static, then hands you the keys to the vault. Every monster has its own colours and a page full of sections:

SectionWhat you'll learn
FactsTerrifying facts, origin and first appearance
LegendThe real folklore and history behind the monster
The FilmThe classic film's director, star, makeup artist and release date
Myth vs MovieTrue or false? Make your guesses, then press r for the verdicts
QuotesLines from the original public-domain novels
Stat CardStrength, speed, cunning and dread, plus powers and weaknesses
LegacySequels, remakes and crossovers

๐ŸŽž๏ธ The silent-era monsters, from the Phantom and the Hunchback to Count Orlok and the whole Silent Screen pack, flicker in black and white with title cards and film grain, just as they did in the silent era.

Jump straight to a monster by name, nickname or even part of a name:

terminal-of-terror monster dracula
terminal-of-terror monster wolfman
terminal-of-terror monster quasimodo
terminal-of-terror monster --all       # open on the gallery
terminal-of-terror monster --no-intro  # skip the static
โŒจ๏ธ Keys
โ† โ†’ / h l / p nPrevious / next monster
tab shift+tab / 1-7Switch section
โ†‘ โ†“ / j k, space, pgup/pgdnScroll
rReveal the Myth vs Movie verdicts
/Search names, facts, films and legends
g / escBack to the gallery
?Full help
q / Ctrl+CQuit

๐Ÿง  Games

The Midnight Quiz: a true-or-false question, a wrong answer with its explanation, and a final rank

The Midnight Quiz

Questions built from the monster data: facts, film credits, lines from the novels and myth checks. Every answer explains itself, so you learn as you play. Finish with a rank from Ghoul-in-Training to Master of Horror.

terminal-of-terror quiz
terminal-of-terror quiz -n 5
terminal-of-terror quiz dracula
Guess the Monster: the Yeti's portrait slowly clears from the fog as clues appear

Guess the Monster

A portrait is hidden in the fog. Press space to clear a little more (clues appear as it lifts), but every clearing costs points. Name the monster through the thickest fog for the Eagle Eye badge.

terminal-of-terror guess
terminal-of-terror guess --rounds 8
The Monster Mash: Dracula and the Wolf Man compare stat cards and fight three rounds

The Monster Mash

Three rounds, no rules, no refunds. Two monsters fight it out over strength, speed, cunning and dread, decided by their stat cards and a roll of the dice.

terminal-of-terror mash
terminal-of-terror mash dracula "wolf man"
terminal-of-terror mash --fast

๐Ÿ’€ The Crypt

Answer three questions about a monster correctly, in quizzes or Guess the Monster, and it's captured. Your crypt keeps your collection, your badges and your records.

terminal-of-terror crypt
terminal-of-terror crypt reset   # release them all and start again

Progress is saved as JSON in your config directory (e.g. ~/.config/terminal-of-terror/progress.json on Linux). Set TERMINAL_OF_TERROR_HOME to keep it somewhere else.

The Crypt: captured monsters, progress towards the rest, badges and records

๐Ÿ… All 17 badges

๐Ÿ•› Nightly rituals

Everything here is worked out offline: moon phases, film anniversaries and the countdown to Halloween.

๐ŸŽŸ๏ธ Tonight's Double Feature

A retro ticket for tonight's Channel 13 double bill. The line-up changes every night.

terminal-of-terror tonight
terminal-of-terror tonight --shuffle
terminal-of-terror tonight --date 2026-10-31
A double-feature ticket for Halloween night: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) and El Chupacabra

๐ŸŽƒ The Halloween Countdown

The nights until Halloween, tonight's moon and the next film anniversary. During October it's the 31 Nights of Fright, with a different monster featured every night.

terminal-of-terror countdown
A jack-o'-lantern beside '18 nights until Halloween', with Night 13 of the 31 Nights of Fright featuring Son of Dracula

โœจ The Fact of the Night

The same fact for everyone all day, and a new one tomorrow. It notices full moons, Friday the 13th and anniversaries too: on 21 November it'll remind you that Frankenstein opened in 1931.

terminal-of-terror random --daily
terminal-of-terror random --date 2026-11-21
terminal-of-terror random
The Fact of the Night card for 21 November: a Dracula's Daughter fact, and a note that Frankenstein opened 95 years ago tonight

๐Ÿ“œ The roster

Universal Classics --pack universal

The monsters that haunted Universal Pictures from the silent era to the 1950s.

Cryptids --pack cryptids

Creatures people swear they have seen, from the Himalayas to the Jersey Pine Barrens.

World Folklore --pack folklore

Monsters from the stories people have told around fires for centuries, from Prague to Tokyo.

Literary Monsters --pack literary

Monsters born on the page, from a London laboratory to a Danish mead hall.

Classical Mythology --pack mythology

The monsters of Greece and Rome, who were terrifying heroes three thousand years before Hollywood.

Silent Screen --pack silent

The first monsters ever filmed, from Edison's studio to Weimar Germany, flickering in black and white.

Open the full roster โ†’

๐Ÿ“ฆ Monster packs

Monsters come in packs. Use --pack with any command to choose which ones come out to play:

terminal-of-terror packs                       # every pack in the vault
terminal-of-terror quiz --pack folklore        # a folklore-only quiz
terminal-of-terror guess --pack cryptids       # who lurks in the fog? probably Bigfoot
terminal-of-terror monster --pack universal,literary

๐Ÿงช Make your own

Build your own monsters without writing any Go:

terminal-of-terror packs new urban-legends

This creates ~/.config/terminal-of-terror/packs/urban-legends/ (or your OS's equivalent) with an example monster to edit. Every pack there loads automatically, and its monsters join the explorer, the quiz, the guessing game, the Mash and everything else. Only name, description and facts are required. See CONTRIBUTING.md for every field, and if your pack turns out frightfully good, send it our way.

๐Ÿ“– Command reference

Every command, for the insomniacs. Each also takes --pack, and terminal-of-terror [command] --help has the details.

CommandWhat it does
monster [name]The interactive explorer (--all, --no-intro, --json)
listEvery monster, grouped by pack (--json)
randomA random fact (--daily, --date YYYY-MM-DD, --json)
quiz [monster]The Midnight Quiz (-n, --json)
guessGuess the Monster (--rounds)
mash [monster] [monster]The Monster Mash (--fast)
cryptYour captured monsters, badges and records (--json); crypt reset starts again
tonightTonight's double feature (--shuffle, --date)
countdownNights until Halloween (--date)
packsList packs (--json); packs new <id> makes one

๐Ÿ“š Night School

Want to know how it's built, or build your own? Count Cathode's Night School is a 31-night course that builds Terminal of Terror from an empty folder to a released Go CLI: Cobra commands, embedded monster data, a Bubble Tea explorer, games, saved progress, community packs, CI and a GoReleaser release. One lesson a night, each with an exercise and a terrifying Go fact.

Week 1 ยท The Vault

foundations

  1. It's Alive!
  2. The Skeleton Crew
  3. Meet the Monsters
  4. A Random Terror
  5. Data in the Coffin
  6. Packs of Monsters
  7. Check Under the Bed

Week 2 ยท The Sรฉance

finding and styling

  1. Speak Its Name
  2. A Splash of Blood
  3. Every Monster in Its Colours
  4. The Sรฉance Begins
  5. Fitting the Screen
  6. Friday the 13th: Turn the Page
  7. Whispers in the Dark

Week 3 ยท The Double Feature

atmosphere and games

  1. Your Host, Count Cathode
  2. Silent Picture
  3. The Gallery
  4. Writing the Questions
  5. The Midnight Quiz
  6. Who Lurks in the Fog
  7. What the Crypt Remembers

Week 4 ยท The Finale

rituals, packs and release

  1. Captures and Badges
  2. Monster Mash
  3. By the Light of the Moon
  4. Nightly Rituals
  5. Speaking to Machines
  6. Open the Doors
  7. Haunting the Tests
  8. The Night Watch
  9. Lights, Camera
  10. Halloween: Sign Off

๐Ÿ“บ "Thirty-one nights. Bring a blanket."

Start Night 1 โ†’