Creating a Pac-Man Game

[alex7841]

I am trying to make a Pac Man game and I'm stuck. I am having trouble figuring out the 2D array, and was wondering where to go from here.

This is what I have so far:

import java.applet.Applet;
import java.awt.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;

public class PacMan extends Applet
{
	String fileToRead = "maze.txt";
	StringBuffer strBuff;
	char map;
	char[] mapArray;
	Image[] images = new Image[12];
	int mapWidth = 28, mapHeight = 31;
    URL base; 
    MediaTracker mt;
    
    public void init()
    {    	
    	mt = new MediaTracker(this);
    	try
    	{
    		base = getDocumentBase();
    	}
    	catch (Exception e) {}
    	
    	//get Images
    	images[0] = getImage(base,"Pac-Images/Tile-Space.JPG");
    	images[1] = getImage(base,"Pac-Images/Tile-Wall.JPG");
    	images[2] = getImage(base,"Pac-Images/Tile-Dot.JPG");
    	images[3] = getImage(base,"Pac-Images/Tile-Horizontal.JPG");
    	images[4] = getImage(base,"Pac-Images/Tile-Vertical.JPG");
    	images[5] = getImage(base,"Pac-Images/Tile-TopRight.JPG");
    	images[6] = getImage(base,"Pac-Images/Tile-TopLeft.JPG");
    	images[7] = getImage(base,"Pac-Images/Tile-BotRight.JPG");
    	images[8] = getImage(base,"Pac-Images/Tile-BotLeft.JPG");
    	images[9] = getImage(base,"Pac-Images/Tile-PowerDot1.JPG");
    	images[10] = getImage(base,"Pac-Images/Tile-PowerDot2.JPG");
    	images[11] = getImage(base,"Pac-Images/Tile-PowerDot3.JPG");
    	
    	//set Image ID
    	mt.addImage(images[0],0);
    	mt.addImage(images[1],1);
    	mt.addImage(images[2],2);
    	mt.addImage(images[3],3);
    	mt.addImage(images[4],4);
    	mt.addImage(images[5],5);
    	mt.addImage(images[6],6);
    	mt.addImage(images[7],7);
    	mt.addImage(images[8],8);
    	mt.addImage(images[9],9);
    	mt.addImage(images[10],10);
    	mt.addImage(images[11],11);
    	
    	String prHtml = this.getParameter("fileToRead");
    	if (prHtml != null) fileToRead  = new String(prHtml);
    	readMap();
    	
    	//mapArray = strBuff.toString().toCharArray();
    	//mapArray = new char[map.length()];
    	//map.getChars(0, map.length(),mapArray,0);
    	
    	try
    	{
    		mt.waitForAll();
    	}
    	catch (InterruptedException e) {}
    }
    
    public void readMap() //throws MalformedURLException
    {
    	String line;
    	URL url = null;
    	try
    	{
    		url = new URL(getCodeBase(), fileToRead);
    	}
    	catch(MalformedURLException e){}
    	
    	try
    	{
    		InputStream in = url.openStream();
    		BufferedReader bf = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in));
    		strBuff = new StringBuffer();
    		while((line = bf.readLine()) != null)
    		{
    			strBuff.append(line + "\n");
    		}
    	}
    	catch(IOException e)
    	{
    		e.printStackTrace();
    	}
    }
   
    public void paint(Graphics g)
    {
    	
    	for (int y = 0; y < mapHeight; y++)
    		for (int x = 0; x < mapWidth; x++)
    		{
    			char c = map;
    			int im;
    			switch(c)
    			{
    				case ' ' : im = 0; break;
    				case 'X' : im = 1; break;
    				case '.' : im = 2; break;
    				case '-' : im = 3; break;
    				case '|' : im = 4; break;
    				case '[' : im = 5; break;
    				case ']' : im = 6; break;
    				case '(' : im = 7; break;
    				case ')' : im = 8; break;
    				case 'O' : im = 9; break;
    				default  : im = 0;
    			};
    			g.drawImage(images[im],x*16,y*16,this);
    		}
    }
}

[Norm]

where to go from here.

Big question.
Where are you having problems?
Do you have any specific questions?

[alex7841]

Yes, I am having trouble actually drawing the map onto the screen. It will only draw one image for the entire for() loop.

[Eranga]

Go through the logic on switch block, weather it prevent adding images to the panel.

[Norm]

It will only draw one image for the entire for() loop.

How does the program chose different images in the for loop? What controls which image is drawn?

[alex7841]

Sorry for not being clear before. I need to take the "maze.txt" file, which is being read in, and put it into a 2D char array. In the for() loop, it should say
char c = mapArray[x][y].

[Norm]

Did that change fix your problem?

[alex7841]

the problem is that i don't know how to go about putting the "maze.txt" file into a 2D array...once i have that working, it should compile. Right now im getting a null pointer exception for char c = mapArray[x][y]

[Norm]

how to go about putting the "maze.txt" file into a 2D array.

Take a piece of paper and draw out the contents of the maze.txt file and assign to each item in it the row,col that you want it to go into in the 2D array.
When you have that, you should be able to read a line from the file, get each item from the line and store it where it goes in the array.
You'll have the line number and the item number on the line that can be converted to the x,y for indexing into the array.