ioccc/2013/morgan2

To build:

    make

NOTE: this entry requires the X11/Xlib.h header file and the X11 library to compile. For more information see the FAQ on "X11".

To use:

For the console version (ncurses):

    ./morgan2

For the graphical version (X11):

    ./morgan2 X

Judges' remarks:

The judges enjoyed playing the game almost to completion; if we remember correctly, we managed to place 59 or 60 dominoes. We wonder, what would be faster: to play the game to completion or to write an unobfuscated version of it?

Author's remarks:

This program is a domino game. The goal is to place dominoes on the 8x8 grid. Each domino is made of 6 squares of the colour red or green. To place a domino, at least one of its side shall match the other side of another domino.

How to play

Start of the game

At the start of the game, the first domino is placed randomly on the grid. You get another domino to place by selecting one empty position in the stack on the right. You can have up to 8 dominoes pending at any time.

Moving in the stack

Use Up and Down key to move the cursor in the stack. Press Enter to either:

• Reveal a new domino if the position was empty.
• Select the domino to try to place it if the position was not empty.

The currently selected domino is indicated on the top right.

Placing a domino

Once a domino has been selected, the cursor moves to the grid. Use Up, Down, Left and Right keys to move in the grid. Press Enter on an empty position to place the domino.

To go back to selection mode, press Enter on an occupied position.

The domino can be placed in an empty position if all its neighbours have matching sides and the domino has at least one neighbour.

Scoring

First, depending on the number of dominoes pending in the stack, a bonus is accorded:

• 1 domino in the stack: 8 points.
• 2 dominoes in the stack: 4 points.
• 3 or 4 dominoes in the stack: 2 points.
• 5 or more dominoes in the stack: 0 points.

Then the bonus is multiplied by the number of matching neighbours the placed domino has (1, 2, 3 or 4). This is added to the score.

Finally, the total score is divided by the number of dominoes placed (1 - 64).

The 3 numbers on display represent: the total score, the fill count and the final score (total score divided by fill count).

End of the game

The game is finished when no more dominoes can be placed and if one of the following occurs:

• You have completely filled the grid.
• You have 8 pending dominoes in the stack.
• No more dominoes can be revealed in the stack (more than 56 dominoes placed on the grid).

Note: There is no real end of game detection implemented in the program, simply press q when you have finished...

Strategy

• Try to minimize the number of dominoes revealed in the stack. The lower the number, the higher the bonus.
• Each domino is unique and all combination of colours exists, so keep track of what is already placed and what is left.
• Make sure you don't render dead some positions by preventing a future placement. If the corner of a domino does not match another corner diagonally, the move is valid but will prevent some future moves.

Limitations

• ASCII character set is assumed.
• Requires both ncurses and X11 at compilation and runtime, but selection could be done at compilation with some extra code (mainly empty stubs).

Obfuscation

• 1 letter identifiers, reused when possible.
• 1 algorithm, 2 different kinds of display (ncurses and X11) mixed.
• No parameters to functions, all variables are global and shared.
• Some variables are not initialized if they have a known value at the time of use.

Compilation warnings

With gcc 4.7.2 on Linux Ubuntu 12.10 :

    morgan2.c:46:65: warning: value computed is not used [-Wunused-value]

With clang 3.1 on Linux Ubuntu 12.10 :

    morgan2.c:23:24: warning: adding 'int' to a string does not append to the string [-Wstring-plus-int]

!!!!! HAVE FUN !!!!!