Robocode 1

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Introduction In this lab you will learn and be able to play the exciting coding game called Robocode. Robocode is an event driven program that allows us to create, modify and test virtual warrior robots in a virtual battlefield. If you are not familiar with event driven programming you should consider completing the GUI Lab part 1 lab or at least read Step 3. Completing these Robocode labs will also give you a head start on understanding and using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

Installation

Note: To play and use Robocode you must have Java 5 or higher installed on your machine. You can download Java from here: http://java.com/en/.

• Download and run the latest version of robocode-x.x.x.x-setup.jar file from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/robocode/files/

• After Robocode is installed you can run it by either using the supplied shortcut or navigating to your installation folder and running the robocode.bat file.

Upon first boot of the game you see a short demo battle

When the battle ends you will be presented with a scoreboard of the demo battle and the Main Menu. Close the scoreboard, we have no use for it.

The Main Menu

At the top of the main menu you will find the toolbar which you will use to start virtual battles or design a robot.

The Battle menu will allow you to set up a virtual battle. Selecting New will prompt you to create a new virtual battle from scratch by presenting you with the New Battle Screen. Selecting Open will let you open a pre existing virtual battle setting where you can may modify the settings or simple run the battle.

The Robot menu provides robot development options. Selecting Editor within the Robot menu will open the Robot Editor.

For now this is all you need to know to get started and move around using robocode. Don't worry about the other options for now.

Sample battle

To better familiarize yourself with robocode and understand what the game is all about let us first look at setting up a sample battle using pre definied robots that came with the installation of robocode. Lets create a virtual battle with 3 robots and 10 rounds. To do so:

1. Click on the Battle menu and select New. This will open the New Battle Screen.
2. Double click on any 3 robots from the Available Robots pane. Upon adding robots you should be able to see them pop up on the Selected Robots pane on the right.

- To see what the program actually does (sample.MyFirstRobot, sample.RamFire, sameple.Tracker) - screen shot of main menu

Create your first Robot

Now that you have the basics down, lets create your first Robot. 1.From the Robot menu, select "Editor" (Or Press Ctrl+E). This opens up the Robot Editor where you will make, edit, and compile your Robot. 2. From the "File" menu, select "New", then select Robot. (Or press Ctrl+N). 3. Enter a name for your Robot (This name cannot contain any spaces, similar to java variables! Remember, Robocode is made in java). Click "Ok". 4. Enter a short package name for your Robot. This should be somewhat different than your Robot's name. 5. Voila! Your Robot has been created. As you can see the Robot code pops up and is ready to edit. Your Robot is what is known as an [1] in more advanced programming. 6. Your Robot has some basic methods in its file. These include run(), onScannedRobot(ScannedRobotEvent e), onHitByBullet(HitByBulletEvent e), onHitWall(HitWallEvent e).

Making the Robot Move

Now that your code for your Robot has been created, lets add in some functionality. By default the robot has some movement functionality already in it. If you look in the the run() method, inside the main loop while(true) are the following movements. ahead(100); turnGunRight(360); back(100); turnGunRight(360); Lets test this out. Compile your Robot by going under to"Compiler", select "Compile" (Or press Ctrl+B). Once it successfully compiler click "Ok". Yay, your Robot is now compiled and ready to move around the map!

Go back to the main GUi and lets import your Robot. Click "Battle", and click "New" (Or press Ctrl+N). Locate your package under the Packages section. Click on it to see your Robot under the "Robots" section. Click on "Add ->" and add your Robots to the list of selected Robots. Now lets see if your Robot actually moves! Click on Start Battle. Unless you added any other Robots your Robot should just run around aimlessely for 10 rounds. But now we have verified that movement works! If you like, you can add in different values to the ahead, turnGunRight, back, and turnGunRight to experiment with it.

Firing on Other Robots

Now that we know our Robot can move around, let's make it fire on other Robots! By default, when your

Additional Methods

  - run(), onSeannedRobot() and onHitByBullet()

Battle your Robot

- This is what you would have to show the TA, that your Robot can defeat a default one.