Well, since no one voulenteered a game they'd like to see, it's my turn to pick. And I pick...
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Rotate</div>
Remember those little sliding puzzles where you'd win when all the pieces were in order? I loved those games. I was a wiz at them. This game has a similar concept. Once again I must kaotao to the
BASIC program this game draws inspiration from.
A 4x4 block of letters have been scrambled. In order to unscramble them you rotate 4 at a time clockwise. Thus there are 9 overlapping areas of rotation centered between each block of 4 letters.
Code:
********A B C D
********E F G H
********I J M N
********K O L P
Which position to rotate (0 - 9) ?
To make control intuitive the number pad can be used and the rotations coorespond to the position. (See the in game instructions for more information)
A proper scrambling routine would take an unscrabled board and rotate pieces randomly. However, this game doesn't do that. This game's rotation routine just drops the pieces randomly on the board. Consequently it is possible to have an unwinnable situation if you limited yourself to just rotating pieces. So a bonus move has been added that will allow you to swap two pieces, like taking the stickers off the rubix cube. But to make it more game like the two pieces being swapped must be adjacent and you only get to do it once (you won't ever need more than that).
Code:
/* Rotate
* by Joseph Larson
* Inspired by a BASIC program of the same name by David H. Ahl
* as found in 'More BASIC Programs' edited by David H. Ahl (c) 1978
*/
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#define DRAW for(c = 0; c < 16; c++) printf((c % 4) ? "%c " : "\n\n\t%c ", b[c])
int main (void) {
**int c, d, temp, turn, special, done, b[16];
**char input;
**int x[4] = {0, 4, 5, 1};
**int t[9] = {8, 9, 10, 4, 5, 6, 0, 1, 2};
**long mask;
**
**srand (time (NULL));
**printf ("Rotate\n-------\n"
**"Order the puzzle board from top to botom, left to right, in alphabetical\n"
**"order by rotating four blocks at a time clockwise:\n"
**"\n\tA B C D\n\t 7 8 9\n\tE F G H\n\t 4 5 6\n\tI J K L\n\t 1 2 3\n\tM N O P\n"
**"\nIn the above illustration, the numbers betweent the letters are what you\n"
**"will input. So if you want to rotate the A, D, E, and F you would input 7\n"
**"as your move.\n\n"
**"You also have one special move that you may not need where you can switch\n"
**"the location of two adjacent blocks with each other. Input 0 (zero) as\n"
**"your move if you want to do this. If you try to do a second special move\n"
**"you will be asked if you want to quit.\n"
**"\nGood luck!\n\nPress ENTER to begin...");
**getchar ();
**do {
****mask = 0;
****for (c = 0; c < 16; c++) {
******while (1 << (b[c]=rand () % 16) & mask);
********mask |= 1 << b[c];
********b[c] += 'A';
****}
****done = 0;
****for (turn = special = 0; !done; turn++) {
******done = 0;
******putchar ('\t');
******DRAW;
******printf ("\n\nWhich position to rotate (0 - 9) ? ");
******while (!isdigit(input = getchar ()))
********if (isalnum(input))
**********printf("\nPlease choose a number between 0 and 9 ? ");
******input -= '0';
******if (input) {
********temp = b[t[--input]];
********for (c = 0; c < 3; c++)
**********b[t[input] + x[c]] = b[t[input] + x[c + 1]];
********b[t[input] + x[3]] = temp;
******} else {
********printf ("\nDo you want to quit? (y/n) ");
********while (!isalpha(input = getchar ()))
**********if (isalpha (input) && toupper (input) != 'Y'
**********&& toupper (input) != 'N') printf("\nY or N please ? ");
********if (toupper (input) == 'Y') done = 2;
********else if (!special) {
**********printf ("Which two letters do you want to switch? ");
**********do input = getchar ();
**********while (toupper (input) < 'A' || toupper (input) > 'P');
**********for (c = 0; b[c] != toupper(input); c++);
**********do input = getchar ();
**********while (toupper (input) < 'A' || toupper (input) > 'P');
**********for (d = 0; b[d] != toupper(input); d++);
**********if (d - c != 1 && d - c != -1 && d - c != 4 && d - c != -4) {
************puts ("Those two letters are not adjacent."); turn --;
**********} else {temp = b[c]; b[c] = b[d]; b[d] = temp; special = 1; turn++;}
********}
******}
******if (!done) for (c = done = 1; c < 16; c++)
********if (b[c - 1] > b[c]) done = 0;
****}
****if (!--done) {
******DRAW;
******printf ("\n\nYou ordered the board in %d moves!", turn);
******printf ("\nDo you want to play again? ");
****} else printf ("\nDo you want to try another? ");
****do input = getchar ();
****while (toupper (input) != 'Y' && toupper (input) != 'N');
****done = (toupper (input) == 'N');
**} while (!done);
**puts ("Goodbye!");
**exit (0);
}
Programming challenges for this game would include modularizing the code into functions or re-writing the scrambling alogrythm so to make the swapping function unnecessary. The later would be served well by the former.
Well, Cymon's original games is drawing near it's end. There are only 3 of the original 18 programs left. So what do you want to see next?
- Reverse (order a list of number by turning them around)
- Acey Deucy (a card game of highs, lows, and middles)
- Pickup Piles (1000 games in one, set the rules and play)