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Learning Java Through Violence

Posted by michael on from the is-there-any-other-way dept.

Joe writes: "Someone introduced me to a new game called Robocode and now I'm hooked as well as my 17 year old son. We are both learning Java while playing the game or I should say while building our Java robots. The game is setup to teach you how to handle events, how to create inner classes, and other Java techniques to build more sophisticated Java bots. I have a c++ background so I've been helping my son with his bots, but he's catching on very fast. It's turning out to be a cool and easy way to get the kid clued into programming and best of all its free." I'll bet if the little Logo turtles shot at each other, I would have had more fun programming as a kid.

3 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. WHO GIVES A FLYING FUCK? by javabandit · · Score: 0, Troll

    Look...

    /. is a great message board. It provides great content. You don't have to support it. You don't even have to be here.

    Who care what they use? Who cares if they are down now and then? Who cares what database they use? Who cares what language they use?

    GET A LIFE, MORON.

  2. More programming, less game... by hillct · · Score: 2, Troll

    There was a whole range of products out there along these lines back in the mid 80s. I recall one from Origin Systems (back when they were independant) that enphesised the game aspects rather than the programming aspects but nonetheless tought basic programming concepts using a BASIC-like language. As a teaching aid it was somewhat lacking but as a game, it rocked. Battles ere fought in a dufimentry 3D universe set around Origin Systems headquarters in Austin Texas. They even offered the ability to upload your robots for competition against other players where the stats were available on a BBS where members could review their rankings. Granted the online competitions weren't realtime and Blizard's battle.net is a far cooler forum for online gaming, but all that proves is that technology marches on and that Origin Systems was way ahead of their time. I think the game was called OMEGA although I'm not sure.

    --CTH

    --

    --Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
  3. Re:I play that game every time I run Java apps by ~MegamanX~ · · Score: 0, Troll

    Change that for Java applets. Many browsers don't handle them properly.

    Otherwise, java applications run well. Try them. I run JBuilder 5, wich is a full-featured IDE comparable to Visual Studio and such that many people use. It is all java, hence portable. Btw, it does runs on Linux.

    Java gui support is slower than your typical native gui support, it doesn't make Java technology is a whole flawed.

    --
    phobos% cat .sig
    cat: .sig: No such file or directory