nmstory/battleship

'You sunk my Battleship...' - terminal-based game developed in Java, mimicking the original created by Hasbro

Battleship

Based around the original board game Battleship, created by Hasbro.

This is a side project that I've used to keep up my Java skills, with a strong emphasis on Object Orientation.

Getting Started

These instructions provide a basic method for you to get Battleship running on your own machine!

Prequisities

• This Game was developed using Java 10, and has not been tested on any other version of the language.
• Rather than porting the source code into an IDE, the best experience is when running the game using your terminal of choice.
• Another person to play along with!

Installing

Firstly, clone this repo to your local machine using https://github.com/nmstory/Battleship

Next, open your terminal of choice and navigate to the directory with the source code.

javac *.java

This will allow you to compile the code with your pre-installed version of Java.

java Play

This will initialise the Battleship game and run.

Features

• Being able to place a variety of sized ships on an 8x8 grid, either horizontally or vertically
  • Initial check if the proposed location will fit on the grid
  • Every spot is checked for collisions (does another ship already exist there?)
• Turn based system
  • Displaying the players current grid (how well the enemy is doing) and the grid the players is attacking
  • The grid being attacked is masked with question marks, as the players makes their way through the game uncovering grid spots
  • Checking whether a player has won yet
• Exception handling
  • If the player wants to hit a spot that's outside the 8x8 grid
  • If the player enters false data for the row/column locations

What's the basic structure of the Game?

1. The core of the game is the GridSpot with 3 attributes (hit, occupied and hidden).

2. On top of that is a GridRow. This class has a linked list of type GridSpot, whereby 8 GridSpots make a GridRow.

3. Above that is the Grid. This class has a linked list of type GridRow, whereby 8 GridRows make a Grid.

This structure, combined with the power of Object Orientation in Java makes it very simple to develop any grid-based game.

• For instance to be able to place a ship of size 5 thats horizontal at position [row = 1, column = 1]:
  • Iterate through the linked list on the Grid for the first GridRow
  • Then iterate through that GridRow, starting from 1 (up to 6) setting each GridSpot as occupied.
• When placing a ship of size 3 thats vertical at position [row = 2, column = 2]:
  • Iterate through the linked list on the Grid for the second GridRow, and assign its second GridSpot as occupied
  • We do this again as we move through the GridRow's in Grid

The next version?

Whilst the current version does represent the complete game of Battleship, there's always more that could be done:

• Using the Java Swing framework to develop an interactive GUI.
• Remove the requirement of a second player by creating an AI.

Contact

Feel free to contact me through my main email: [email protected]