C# console tetris programming. Making the pieces move?
Question
I'm trying to make my first game, a console tetris.
I have a class Block, that contains x and y integers. Then I have a class Piece : List<Block>
, and a class Pieces : List<Piece>
.
I can already randomly generate pieces, and make them fall one row per second. I still didn't get to collisions detection, but I think that I already know how to work it out later. The problem is that I don't know how to control the pieces. I've read a bit about keyboard hooking and checked some tetris tutorials, but most of them are for windows forms, which really simplifies events handling and the such.
So... Could you please point me the beginning of the path to controlling the pieces on a console? Thanks!
public class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
const int limite = 60;
Piezas listaDePiezas = new Piezas(); //list of pieces
bool gameOver = false;
Pieza pieza; //piece
Console.CursorVisible = false;
while (gameOver != true)
{
pieza = CrearPieza(); //Cretes a piece
if (HayColision(listaDePiezas, pieza) == true) //if there's a collition
{
gameOver = true;
break;
}
else
listaDePiezas.Add(pieza); //The piece is added to the list of pieces
while (true) //This is where the piece falls. I know that I shouldn't use a sleep. I'll take care of that later
{
Thread.Sleep(1000);
pieza.Bajar(); //Drop the piece one row.
Dibujar(listaDePiezas); //Redraws the gameplay enviroment.
}
}
}
Solution
What you are looking for is non-blocking console input.
Here is an example:
http://www.dutton.me.uk/2009/02/24/non-blocking-keyboard-input-in-c/
Basically, you would check Console.KeyAvailable in your while loop and then move the piece according to what key was pressed.
if (Console.KeyAvailable)
{
ConsoleKeyInfo cki = Console.ReadKey();
switch (cki.Key)
{
case ConsoleKey.UpArrow:
// not used in tetris game?
break;
case ConsoleKey.DownArrow:
// drop piece
break;
case ConsoleKey.LeftArrow:
// move piece left
break;
case ConsoleKey.RightArrow:
// move piece right
break;
}
}
OTHER TIPS
You could use a Low-Level Keyboard Hook as shown here