DUE Gaming Brix

This is a mid to advanced level game that showcases the use of DUE to build Brix game!

Prerequisite

You must have completed the Gaming Intro lesson.

Game Objective

The player will need to destroy all blocks.

Array’s Usefulness

DUE Script keeps things simple when it comes to variables. Instead of letting the user define variables and types, it simply ships with 26 variables! This can get a bit messy when writing larger programs. An alterative is to use arrays found in DUE Script. For example, we can use array b[ ] to hold the ball information. We could say b[0] is x, b[1] is y, b[2] is deltaX…etc. Moving the ball will look something like this.

b[0]=b[0]+b[2]
b[1]=b[1]+b[3]

Start vs Loop

It is a good practice in any program to have an initialization code and a main loop. This is especially useful when coding devices. A device’s program never ends. We will always have a loop that runs endlessly. Before entering the main loop, it is a good practice to have a start() method/subroutine that “Gets things ready”. It can initialize variable and get some hardware ready. For example, some connected sensors need to be configured before they are used. The initialization is done in start() and then then repeating code uses in the @Loop.

start()

@Loop
## add repeating code here
Goto Loop

@start
# Get things ready!
Return

Code can be broken further as needed. For example, a game can process collisions in a separate function and then does all drawings in a function.

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Code Listing

start()
 
@loop
  # Move ball
  b[0]=b[0]+b[2]
  b[1]=b[1]+b[3]
 
  # Move paddle
  if x>0 && dread('a',1)=0:x=x-2.3:end
  if x<112 && dread('b',1)=0:x=x+2.3:end
 
  # Check missed paddle
  if b[1]>60:reset():l=l-1:end
 
  # Check paddle collision
  if b[1]>=60-r
    if b[0]+r>=x && (b[0]-r)<=x+16
      b[1]=60-r
      b[2]=((b[0]-(x+8))/8)*2
      b[3]=-b[3]
      Beep(200,10,100)
    end
  end
 
  # Check boundary collision
  if b[0]<=r || b[0]>=127-r:b[2]=-b[2]:end
  if b[1]<=0:b[3]=-b[3]:end
 
  # Check brick collision
  if b[1]<=22 && b[1]>=10
    u = b[0]
    v = b[1]-10
    i = trunc(u/8) + trunc(v/3)*16
    if i>=0 && i<48
      if z[i]
        b[3]=-b[3]
        z[i]=0
        Beep(400,10,100)
        c=c-1
        s=s+5
      end
    end
  end
 
  # Update screen
  lcdclear(0)
  u=0:v=0
  for i in range(0,48)
    u=(i%16)*8
    v=10+trunc(i/16)*4
    if z[i]
      lcdrect(1,u+1,v-1,7,3)
    end
  next
 
  if l = 3
    lcdfill(1,115,2,3,3)
    lcdfill(1,120,2,3,3)
    lcdfill(1,125,2,3,3)
  end
  if l = 2
    lcdfill(1,120,2,3,3)
    lcdfill(1,125,2,3,3)
  end
  if l = 1
    lcdfill(1,125,2,3,3)
  end
  if l = 0
  over()
  end
 
  lcdline(1,x,60,x+16,60)
  lcdcircle(1, b[0], b[1], r)
 
  lcdtext("score",1,0,0)
  lcdtext(str(s),1,32,0)
  lcdshow()
 
  if c=0
    # Restart if we got all the bricks
    start()
    reset()
  end
goto loop
 
@reset
  # Reset ball
  b[0]=64-r
  b[1]=28
  if b[0]>x
    b[2]=-1
  else 
    b[2]=1
  end
  lcdtext("Ready",1,52,30)
  lcdshow();
  wait(1000)
return
 
@start
  c=48        # Brick count
  dim z[c]    # Bricks
  dim b[4]    # Ball x,y,dx,dy
  r=2         # ball radius
  d=r*2       # ball diameter
  x=64-8      # Paddle X
  w=16        # Paddle width
  l=3         # Start with 3 lives
 
  # Setup the bricks
  for i in range(0,48):z[i]=1:next
 
  # Setup ball
  b[0]=64-r
  b[1]=20
  b[2]=1
  b[3]=2 
return
 
@over
  lcdclear(0)
  lcdtexts("Game Over", 1, 10, 10, 2, 2)
  lcdtexts(Fmt("Score ",s), 1, 15, 30, 2, 2)
  lcdshow()
  wait(2000)
  lcdclear(0)
  start()
  reset()
return

What is Next?

Modify the code to change how the game works, or completely make a new game.

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BrainStorm

In the early computer days, things were very simple and resources were severely limited. Game creators had to be very creative to make exciting games with limited resources. Can you think of examples that you are familiar with? Tetris? Packman? Mario?