JavaScript game of Tron in 219 bytes

http://alokmenghrajani.github.com/tron/

by bhaveshdhupar • 14 years ago

129 50 14 years ago

alokmenghrajani.github.com

cstuder• 14 years ago

The code documentation part is a quite clever use of a slide tool. Very enlightening.

Encountered a bug: When I die, the game keeps counting score as my "dead" player keeps going across land behind the scenes.

objclxt• 14 years ago

It's 219 bytes, it's not that clever! When you die it simply displays 'game over' along with incremented timer. Because the entire logic is inside a `setInterval` call it never gets stopped.

setInterval is set to update in 9 ms intervals - I assume because whilst it's probably more playable (easier) at higher intervals doing so would require additional bytes.

necubi• 14 years ago

It's unfortunate that they decided to save 2 bytes by using onkeyup instead of onkeydown. That choice makes the game nearly unplayable for me. Compare the version in the demo to the one here: http://micahw.com/tron.html (221 bytes).

In any case, this is really impressive. It's always fun to see the tricks people employ to get these tiny sizes (smaller than this comment!).

Natsu• 14 years ago

No wonder the "lag" feels so bad. Also, the area is way too tiny and it needs a way to restart without having to reload the page.

pgsandstrom• 14 years ago

Also it needs multiplayer, achievements and a story mode. No, but seriously, this was not a competition in making a playable game, they clearly specify the rules that they have set for themselves.

alastair• 14 years ago

Your version plays so much better, that was really not a good way to save 2 bytes.

wildtype• 14 years ago

That's why i can reach 1000 point. Its difficult to keydown and keyup immediately.

amenghra6• 14 years ago

I initially thought it was a cool way to "bend the rules" and save a few bytes, but lots of people told me the same thing! In hindsight I would have instead changed our rules to disallow this :)

Tloewald2• 14 years ago

Yes "who cares" means that they didn't care if the game was playable.

Sunlis• 14 years ago

Check out my version, only 10 bytes.

GAME OVER.

It's not very playable, but "who cares"?

squarecat• 14 years ago

While acknowledging that the original post was an engineering exercise, the fact that your improvement required breaking the "rules" beautifully demonstrates how, too often, software designed for humans simply ignores how they really work.

thenonsequitur• 14 years ago

I agree wholeheartedly. I would give it up to them for perfect purity if it weren't the fact that they weren't actually being perfectly pure. They gave up 9 bytes to show the score at the end because it was, in their words, "totally worth it". But then they decide it's a good idea t save 2 bytes at the cost of making the game completely frustratingly unresponsive to the point of unplayability? That's just silly. If you're going to be pure, be pure. If you're going to make concessions, make the ones that matter most first! I'd much rather have a playable game without score than an unplayable game with score.

Rant aside, I actually do applaud them. Impressive bit of engineering here.

epaga• 14 years ago

Clever stuff, thanks!

typos: "exercice" -> "exercise", "brining" -> "bringing"

amenghra6• 14 years ago

thanks for pointing things out, fixed!

dekz• 14 years ago

You have a typo in the first sentence, 'exercice'. I like your presentation of code walk throughs with slides.

amenghra6• 14 years ago

thanks for pointing it out, fixed!

Irfaan• 14 years ago

I think I see a way of shaving another byte:

instead of "0<x%n&", you should be able to do "x%n&&". Works for me on Chrome.

My goal is to shave 2 bytes, so you can change the key handler back to onkeydown. :P

amenghra6• 14 years ago

There are 5 possible collisions: top edge, left edge, right edge, bottom edge and the tail.

Your proposal does not cover the top edge.

itsbits• 14 years ago

219 bytes makes it look gr8 work but lot of bugs...

amenghra6• 14 years ago

not bugs; tradeoffs by design :)

odddogmedia• 14 years ago

It's really cool to see how you've come up with tron in just 219b.

You mention saving 11 bytes, bringing the total to 212. Then another 9 (seemingly making it 203). But go on to say you saved 2 more bytes, making it 219. I'm confused.

reledi• 14 years ago

From 212 bytes, 9 bytes were added (not subtracted) to keep track of the score, making the total 221 bytes. Save 2 bytes and you get 219 bytes.

yowmamasita• 14 years ago

219b for a buggy Tron game. my score keeps going up on game over screen

zrgiu_• 14 years ago

Here's a question for you: how will this look on the new Mackbook Pro with Retina Display ? The tron line is 1px wide, and on that computer's screen the one pixel is too small to see.

eurleif• 14 years ago

Most likely, 1px = 2 device pixels on the retina MBP, like on the the retina iPad and iPhone.

asdfaoeu• 14 years ago

Surely that must have some sort of scaling by default for webpages. Otherwise I would guess nearly all websites appear miniature.

fishbacon• 14 years ago

From what I have heard everything is up-scaled to match the native resolution so things that are not optimized for the new displays just looks kinda bad.

kbutler• 14 years ago

A retina display's claim that individual pixels are small to see means you're not supposed to be able to distinguish individual pixels in an image - so curved lines appear smooth without pixelation.

It doesn't mean that a 1 pixel-wide line is invisible, or that you won't see a single white pixel on a dark background.

creamyhorror2• 14 years ago

I can't see the white line in my browser, just a square of black. I know it's working because I get "game over" if I start the game with i, j, k or l. I'm on Firefox 14.0. Do fix it.

ArcticCelt• 14 years ago

rules: ...the code need only run on Chrome 17.

Works fine on Chrome. Use it. And read the rules next time. :)

creamyhorror2• 14 years ago

Woops, my bad! I'll just skip it then...

dbaupp• 14 years ago

Works fine for me on Firefox Nightly too.

mih• 14 years ago

works well on Opera 12

groaner• 14 years ago

Is this supposed to be Tron or Snake? I distinctly remember Tron being a multiplayer game, with the mechanics such that moving along a wall or trail increases your speed, putting you in position to cut off the other players and make them crash.

tiles• 14 years ago

Calling it "Tron" saves a byte ;)

exDM69• 14 years ago

In the classic Snake game, the tail of the snake moves and the snake grows longer when you eat snakefood. In Tron, the light trail stays there and you try close in your opponents. So this game is definitely Tron, not Snake.

Tron is usually a multiplayer game and the speedup next to light trail you mentioned is missing.

Btw. back in the BBS days there was a Finnish freeware Tron-with-weapons game called "DeLuxe Moposota" (rough translation: moped wars). I have very nice memories of it. It works nicely DosBOX. Here's a youtube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gozt-1BgVrU

vhf• 14 years ago

Score doesn't work properly on my chromium. After game over, hitting keys makes me score more points.

jonasb• 14 years ago

The game is still running in the background. It's just hidden.

AlexFromBelgium• 14 years ago

I read 'j' 'k' 'l' and thought "Sweet! Vim controls"

Not... :(

lucascaton• 14 years ago

LOL!

anoother• 14 years ago

Why are the control reversed (mirrored)? Is that normal?

amenghra6• 14 years ago

the controls are absolute, with: j goes left l goes right k goes down i goes up.

If you are a vim user, you'll be confused and fell like things are reversed. Sorry :(

jules• 14 years ago

Cool, but due to limitations of the human mind it's almost impossible to play without QWERTY.

chrisbroadfoot• 14 years ago

I would save 2 bytes by changing

   n=150,x=11325

   n=632,x=1e6 (or similar)

This increases the board size to 632x632 and saves 2 bytes, which can be used to use onkeydown.

I suppose you only start approximately in the center, though.

bousquetcm• 14 years ago

so... we don't like Chrome? Bc it's not playable and I don't feel like opening FireFox.

ohadpr• 14 years ago

beautiful.

i once participated in a similar competition only that it was in x86 Assembly, my friends and I brought it down to 70 bytes and the winner from Finland did it in 48!

http://myweb.cableone.net/benlunt/hugi/compoold.htm#compo1

JavaScript game of Tron in 219 bytes

Related Stories