Somewhat Classic Hangman

How to play

First off you need to know how many are playing you have a choice of up to 2 players, in 1 player mode the challenge is chosen randomly from a database, and in 2 player mode the challenge is made by your challenger, he chooses the category and the challenge, there are no limits to what that category can be but the size of it, must be no more than 20 characters.

Game Rules:

While guessing the challenge you get 4 chances to miss then you have so many seconds to finish, the time allotted is determined by how much of the puzzle has been solved. You have to solve it before your man strangles.

2 Player Specifics:

In two player mode there are a few differences that you may like to know. in this mode since you choose your own puzzles for each other, you can add them to the database to make 1 player games more interesting. Also the scoring is different. In two player mode you get 1 point for every one you get right, and your opponent gets one for everyone you get wrong. The two players alternate turns until you wish to quit.

1 Player Specifics:

In the one player mode you are fed one puzzle after another out of the data base. To add to the game play I made it randomly choose which puzzle to show, and now there will be no repeats. Thanks beta testing! :) the principle is the same you just have a different scoring system, none. :P

Behind the game

I created this hangman game in qBasic back in high school, teaching myself the language by reading the help doc I found on my family's PC. While I had created other projects before, this game was a bit more advanced, and presented several challenges that I had to overcome.

One major challenge was the limitations of the qBasic system for graphics. To include drawings that I had created in msPaint and Photoshop, I had to save bitmaps and load them into the display directly using the display COM port. However, this process was incredibly slow, as the image would load line by line across the screen.

To speed up the image loading process, I came up with a creative solution. I would update the entire screen palette to black, write the bitmap to the screen, and then restore the palette to show the image. But even with this technique, it still took a long time to load the image.

To solve this problem and achieve animation, I started writing under the veil of darkness, like I mentioned above. After writing out the entire image, I would save it (or portions of it) into memory, and recall it later on in the game. This allowed me to treat the bitmaps like sprites and quickly respond to incorrect guesses by removing limbs from the hangman.

I also added a new dynamic to the game by animating the hangman. When you lose, you are given a few seconds to quickly guess the word before the hangman runs out of breath, adding a sense of urgency and excitement to the gameplay. And if you win, the hangman dances and celebrates your victory.

Through this project, I developed valuable skills in animation, graphics, and problem-solving. While I no longer use qBasic, the skills and techniques I learned creating this game have helped me in what I do today.