Play - a Simple Handball-like Game written in Java
A simple handball-like game. Intention was to experiment a bit
with Java during the holidays, not necessarily to create the
fanciest game.
Overview
- Balls hitting the right wall add 1 point to the score
- Balls hitting the left wall subtract 1 point from the score
- Balls pass through each other
- Rest of the use should be fairly obvious:
- The Balls text field determines the number of balls in play when a
new game is started (each ball is a
separate thread)
- The Speed choice selects 1 of five speeds from slowest to fastest
- The New button starts a new game
- The Pause button pauses the game
- The Score label shows the current score
- The paddle is moved by the mouse
Play Possibilities
Note: Due to some Netscape sizing problems, best results seem to be
obtained by reloading / resizing until it displays properly
(or if you're so inclined - run it under the Java SDK).
Play within the Browser
Play in a separate window
Development
Notes: The text below this paragraph relates to the Java Beta 1 SDK
under Windows NT. Using the Java Beta 2 SDK under Windows NT, and
using fills instead of clears (which still don't seem to work
properly) the balls are more easily seen under Netscape 2.0 b5,
however there are still some sizing problems. Best results are
still obtained by reloading / resizing it until it comes up looking right -
wierd. Also, under the Beta 2, the ball movement seems much more
jerky - sigh - under beta one it was pretty smooth!
With some recent Java releases, I've noticed that the pause button
sometimes does not work.
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This app was built under the Java Beta 1 SDK under Windows NT.
Using the Java SDK Beta appletviewer, the app works fine with the
following exceptions triggered by appletviewer bugs?!:
1. Sometimes (but not all the time!?) when trying to run in its own
window (rather than inside the browser or appletviewer) the app
doesn't come up sized properly and resizing is needed to get the
display correct - wierd!
2. If many balls are started, eventually appletviewer seems to
stop erasing the balls' tracks and/or the appletviewer generates
an internal exception violation. Note that the appletviewer that
comes with the Solaris version of the SDK doesn't seem to break
like this.
Using WinNT Netscape 2.0 Beta 3, the app comes up, but sometimes requires
resizing before it's displayed properly when running in a separate
window. Unfortunately when run, the balls are only seen as brief
flickers. Also, WinNT Netscape 2.0 Beta 3 never closes up the separate
app window. (Am I missing something?)
WinNT Netscape 2.0 Beta 4 has the same problems as Beta 3, only worse.
Very rarely will Netscape 2.0 Beta 4 size and display the app
properly when it's run in a separate window.
Well, I guess these are all 'betas' after all
- so I can't gripe too much!-)
Java Source for the app
Comments, suggestions, fixes, improvments welcomed!
larner@cs.stanford.edu
larner@parc.xerox.com.com