I remember writing games like this in rom basic, and thought "there's not enough stupidly simple text mode games around" wanted to get back to my roots a bit. I shared with with a group of young adults to see if I could inspire them to code, and it may have worked!!

driver.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import sys
import time
import random
import select
import termios, fcntl
import atexit
import os

posx = 40
		
def restoreTerm():
	global oldterm, inputfd
	termios.tcsetattr(inputfd, termios.TCSAFLUSH, termattr)
	pass

atexit.register(restoreTerm)

inputfd = sys.stdin.fileno()
termattr = termios.tcgetattr(inputfd)
termflags = fcntl.fcntl(inputfd, fcntl.F_GETFL)
attr = termios.tcgetattr(inputfd)
attr[3] = attr[3] & ~termios.ICANON
fcntl.fcntl(inputfd, fcntl.F_SETFL, termflags | os.O_NONBLOCK)
termios.tcsetattr(inputfd, termios.TCSANOW, attr)


def getKey():
	if len(select.select([sys.stdin], [], [], 1/60)[0]) == 1:
		return sys.stdin.read()


def createRow(offset, width):
	if random.randrange(2) == 0:
		if random.randrange(2) == 0:
		    offset -= 1
		else:
			offset += 1

	if random.randrange(50) == 1:
		width -= 1
        
	if (offset < 0):
		offset = 0
    
	if (offset >= 80 - width):
		offset = 80 - width - 1
		
	if (width < 5):
		width = 5

	return (int(offset), int(width))
       
score = 0
playerx = int(80/2)
offset = int((80 / 2) - 5)
width = 10
state = [(offset, width) for x in range(24)]

def clrScreen():
    print(chr(27)+'[2j')
    print('\033x')
    print('\x1bc')

def lineString(offset, width):
	return ('#' * offset) + (' ' * width) + ('#' * (80 - width - offset))

def drawScreen():
	print("Score: ", score)
	i = 0
	for (offset, width) in state:   
		i = i + 1
		line = lineString(offset, width)
		if (i == 20):
		  line = line[:playerx] + '@' + line[playerx +1:] 
		print(line)

def renderScreen():
    clrScreen()
    drawScreen()

def main():
	global offset, width, state, playerx, score
	frame = 0
	while True:
		k = getKey()
		if k == 'a':
			playerx -= 1
		if k == 'd':
			playerx += 1

		frame += 1
		
		if frame % 10 == 0:
			(offset, width) = createRow(offset, width)
			state = [(offset, width)] + state
			state = state[:-1]
			score = score + 1			
			
		renderScreen()
		if lineString(*state[20])[playerx] == '#':
			print("Crashed!!!!!")
			return

main()

License is public domain, take it for what it is, it was written targeting Linux - feel free to adapt it to whatever you got.

This is not sophisticated, "It's doing all the wrong things" but it's doing what it takes to make it work.

The letters 'a' and 'd' move the player '@' left in right in the playing field while the score count increments. Avoid crashing into the walls.

It's almost entirely liekly that there was some original inspiration to this, but I cannot for the life of me find it? So credit to the person in the 80's who wrote it!