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Snake Game in a Win32 Console

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5 Jun 2010CPOL2 min read 94.7K   4.7K   24   16
A Snake game in a Win32 Console
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Introduction

The Snake game is a widespread game. It has been done a million times, and is playable on any device. Variants of snake run on things like cellphones to mainframes and Snake has been written in most of the major programming languages, from BASIC, C/C++, Pascal, Java, C# to whatever. Today we are going to take a look at a Snake game that is written in C/C++ and is designed to run in a Win32 console using text characters.

So, what is the Snake and how does it all work? Our Snake is simply a text character that traverses within specified boundaries on the screen gobbling up apples that are randomly placed within that specified boundary. Our snake compares its x y location to that of the apples to see if there has been a collision, i.e., if our snake has eaten up the apple. If so, that apple is removed, and a new apple is randomly placed within the specified boundary, and our snake gets 
a body transplant, it is enlongated. All we need is to do is simply process the keyboard commands from the user and draw the snake. We will use the <LEFT>, <RIGHT>, <UP> and <DOWN> keys to steer the snake.

So let's get going.

We begin as usual by creating a project and a class, then we continue further on by embodying the class with members. We choose not to define and embody our member functions in the header file, we will just put the prototyes in a separate file.

The project files are:

CSnake_main.cppThe main file
CSnake.cppThe class definition and method body file
CSnake.hThe class declaration file

We will put the declaration of the variables, prototyes and function headers in CSnake.h.

C++
class CSnake
{
	public:

		int snakeXLocation[201];
		int snakeYLocation[201];
		int color_background, color_border  , color_apple , 
				color_normal , color_snake ;  //  colors
		int snake, prvSnake, snake_Enlongment ;
		int randomX, randomY, apple ;
		int level ;
		int score ;
		char playAgain;

		int i, j;
		int centerX, centerY;
		int x, y, oldX, oldY;
		int lines, columns;
		char c;
		int direction, difficulty;

	public:
		CSnake();
		CSnake( int i);
		~CSnake();

	public:

	   void Settings();
	   void Game_Main();
	   void game_Canvas();
	   void initsnake();
	   void check_collision();
	   void keyPressed();
	   void Display_snake();
	   void check_Snake_Location();
	   void Create_Apples();
	   void Check_Apples();
	   void Remove_Apple();
	   void Game_Over();
	   void Display();

		void gotoxy(int x, int y);
		void clrscr();
		void setcolor(WORD color);
		void clrbox(unsigned char x1,unsigned char y1,
			unsigned char x2,unsigned char y2,unsigned char bkcol);
		void box(unsigned x,unsigned y,unsigned sx,unsigned sy,
			unsigned char col,unsigned char col2,char text_[]);
		void putbox(unsigned x1,unsigned y1,unsigned x2,unsigned y2,
			unsigned char texcol,unsigned char frcol,
			unsigned char bkgcol,char bheader[]);
};

And bring Snake to life in CSnake.cpp.
Now let's have a look at some vital methods that are contained in CSnake.cpp.

The Create_Apples() Method

The Create_Apples() method creates a new apple and randomly places it within the specified boundaries.

C++
/***************************
 *   create apples         *
****************************/
void CSnake::Create_Apples()
{
   setcolor(color_apple);
   randomX= ( rand()% columns )+ centerX ;
   randomY= ( rand()% lines)+ centerY  ;
   for(i=1;i<=snake;i++)
   {
      if((randomX==snakeXLocation[i])&&(randomY==snakeYLocation[i])) Create_Apples();
   }
   gotoxy(randomX,randomY); printf("%c",770);
   if(score==1)getch();
} 

The Check_Apples() Method

The Check_Apples() method compares the Snake's location with the apples, if they have collided, the snake to gets a body transplant, it is enlongated, the apple is removed and a new one is placed randomly within the boundaries.

C++
/***************************
 *   check apples          *
****************************/
void CSnake::Check_Apples()
{
	if((snakeXLocation[1]==randomX)&&(snakeYLocation[1]==randomY))
	{
       	       apple++;
	       Remove_Apple();
	       snake+=snake_Enlongment;
	       Create_Apples();
	}
} 

The Display_snake() Method

The Display_snake()) method draws the snake and the enlongment of the snake in a for loop. Display_snake()) also prints out the score and how many apples are left too.

C++
/***************************
 *   display snake         *
****************************/
void CSnake::Display_snake()
{
   for(i=snake;i>=0;i--)
   {
      gotoxy(snakeXLocation[i],snakeYLocation[i]);
      if(i==0)
	  {
              setcolor(color_background);
              printf("%c",177);
      }else setcolor(color_snake);
         if(i==1)           printf("%c",178);
         if((i!=0)&&(i!=1)) printf("%c",219);
   }
   setcolor (color_normal);
   gotoxy(centerX-1,centerY+lines+2);
   printf("level: %2.d",level);
   gotoxy(centerX-1,centerY+lines+2+1);
   printf(" apple(s) :%2.d/%2.d ",apple,(((lines*columns)/30)+6));
   setcolor (color_background);
} 

The keyPressed() Method

The keyPressed() method simply gets the commands issued by the user from the keyboard and sets the direction of the snake. Use the <LEFT>, <RIGHT>, <UP> and <DOWN> keys to steer the snake.

C++
 /***************************
 *   keypressed             *
****************************/
	void CSnake::keyPressed()
{
   if(kbhit())
   {                           //
      c=getch();
      switch(c)
	  {
         case RIGHT :
			 if(direction!=3)
			 {
                       x++ ;
                       direction=1;
                       }else x-- ;
			 break;
	         case LEFT:
			 if(direction!=1)
			 {
                       x-- ;
                       direction=3;
                       }else x++ ;
			 break;
	         case DOWN :
			 if(direction!=2)
			 {
                       y++ ;
                       direction=4;
                       }else y-- ;
			 break;
	         case UP  :
			 if(direction!=4)
			 {
                       y-- ;
                       direction=2;
	                       }else y++ ;
			 break;
	         case SPACE : getch() ; break;
      }
   }
} 

The Main File

Finally the CSnake_main.cpp file is where we create an instance for our class and run our Snake game.

C++
#include "CSnake.h"

int main()
{
  CSnake *snake = new CSnake(1);

  return 0;
}

Thanks for reading.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Sweden Sweden
About me:
I attended programming college and I have a degree in three most famous and successful programming languages. C/C++, Visual Basic and Java. So i know i can code. And there is a diploma hanging on my wall to prove it.
.
I am a professional, I am paid tons of cash to teach or do software development. I am roughly 30 years old .

I hold lectures in programming. I have also coached students in C++, Java and Visual basic.

In my spare time i do enjoy developing computer games, and i am developing a rather simple flight simulator game
in the c++ programming language using the openGL graphics libray.

I've written hundreds of thousands of code syntax lines for small simple applications and games.

Comments and Discussions

 
Questiondelete snake? Pin
paladin_t29-Dec-10 22:04
paladin_t29-Dec-10 22:04 
General[My vote of 1] My vote of 1 Pin
User 674486815-Nov-10 6:13
professionalUser 674486815-Nov-10 6:13 
General[My vote of 2] My vote of 2! Pin
venomation7-Jun-10 17:53
venomation7-Jun-10 17:53 
GeneralSnake, the good old days Pin
Gene Stillman7-Jun-10 7:11
Gene Stillman7-Jun-10 7:11 
GeneralVery poor use of C++ [modified] Pin
Aescleal6-Jun-10 0:48
Aescleal6-Jun-10 0:48 
GeneralRe: Very poor use of C++ Pin
Zhang, Ethan25-Aug-10 21:57
Zhang, Ethan25-Aug-10 21:57 
GeneralBug fixed, crash due to uninitialized variable fixed Pin
Software_Developer5-Jun-10 20:19
Software_Developer5-Jun-10 20:19 
GeneralThanks Pin
Dr.Donny5-Jun-10 4:58
Dr.Donny5-Jun-10 4:58 
GeneralPlease! Pin
Tim Festgeld5-Jun-10 3:53
Tim Festgeld5-Jun-10 3:53 
GeneralMy vote of 1 Pin
Dave Cross4-Jun-10 0:13
professionalDave Cross4-Jun-10 0:13 
GeneralRe: My vote of 1 Pin
Rick York4-Jun-10 8:15
mveRick York4-Jun-10 8:15 
GeneralApalling! Pin
Dave Cross4-Jun-10 0:12
professionalDave Cross4-Jun-10 0:12 
GeneralRe: Apalling! Pin
Shawn Poulson4-Jun-10 2:22
Shawn Poulson4-Jun-10 2:22 
GeneralRe: Apalling! Pin
Dave Cross6-Jun-10 1:18
professionalDave Cross6-Jun-10 1:18 
General[My vote of 1] 30 years too late Pin
Johnny J.3-Jun-10 21:27
professionalJohnny J.3-Jun-10 21:27 
GeneralMy vote of 1 PinPopular
goorley3-Jun-10 21:01
goorley3-Jun-10 21:01 

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