ENGG1110 Problem Solving by Programming (2018-2019 Term 2)

Project – Concentration (A Card Game)

_____________________________________________________________________________________

1. Introduction

Concentration, also known as “Match Match”2, is a simple card

game emphasizing a good memory that most of us should have

played in our childhood. In this game, all 52 cards (jokers excluded)

will be laid face down on a surface in orderly rows and columns. A group of players will take turns

to pick two cards at a time and flip the cards to check whether they are of the same rank or not. If

they are of the same rank, the two cards will be removed and kept by the player. If the cards are

not of the same rank, they are turned face down again, and play passes to the next player. The

game ends when the last pair has been picked up. The player who got the most of the cards is the

winner. It is a game to practice one’s memory as good memory can help retrieve those flipped

cards which match in rank.

In this project, your task is to implement the Concentration game using C language. The program

supports two modes: 1. Player vs. Computer, and 2. Computer vs. Computer.

In Mode 1, the program lets the player enter the coordinates of two cards via the console. Error

checking should be implemented to make sure the entered coordinates are valid. Then two cards

will be flipped and the matching result is shown. After that, the computer will pick randomly two

cards and check whether they match or not. The above process will repeat until all cards have been

flipped face up. At that time, the total number of successfully flipped cards by both players and

the winner, if any, will be displayed.

Mode 2 is similar to Mode 1 except that two computer players, i.e. computer 1 and computer 2,

will be used for the whole process. This is actually a simulation. Finally, the winner will also be

displayed as is the case of mode 1.

2. Simplified Rules of the Game

To ease your code design and implementation, we have simplified the rules of the game as follows:

I. Two Players Only: you can always assume that there are only two players (whether human

or computer) playing this game though in reality the game can support more than two players.

II. Matching Ranks Only: Some game rules require the matched pair to be in the same color

(e.g. six of hearts = six of diamonds¨, queen of clubs § = queen of spades a) besides of

the same rank. For simplicity, we won’t consider color matching but rank matching only.

III. One Flip: The original game rules may reward the player who succeeds in matching a pair

with one more turn to flip cards and continue until hitting a mismatch. To make the control

flow simpler, this rewarding scheme is removed. After a player finishes flipping of two cards,

no matter if they match or not, it will be the another player’s turn to flip cards.

1 Image source: https://s.hswstatic.com/gif/how-to-play-concentration-1.jpg.jpg 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_(game)

1

2

3. Requirements

You are required to use the following techniques in this project:

I. Structures in C to represent a card,

II. Random number generator to construct moves from a computer player

Important: Failure to apply both the above techniques will result in mark deduction.

The desktop surface should be shown as a 4 by 13 rectangular array as follows. Note that the cards

are initially represented as “XXX” (card face down; value hidden).

When the game reaches the end, it may look like this picture:

All cards have been flipped face up, showing each card’s rank and suit. Note the following scheme

for representing the rank and suit of each card in the above display:

Rank Shown as

Ace A

2 - 10 2 - 10

Jack J

Queen Q

King K

Suit Shown as

Club § C

Diamond ¨ D

Spade a S

Heart H

ENGG1110作业代写、代做Programming留学生作业、C/C++程序语言作业调试、代写C/C++课程作业

Other detailed requirements on the display and the game logic will be covered in later sections.

4. Detailed Requirements Specification

Your program should perform the following tasks.

I. Display the program menu

Your program should print the following main menu for this game to the screen:

*****************************

* Welcome to Concentration! *

*****************************

Please choose a mode of the game:

1. Human vs. Computer

2. Computer vs. Computer

0. Quit

Your choice:

The user will choose whether he or she wants to play with the computer or just sees the

simulation of the game between two computer players.

3

Important note:

You may assume that the user will only enter a single integer but input validation against

valid choices is still required here. Your program should keep looping to display this menu

and prompt the user for input until a valid menu choice (i.e. 1 or 2 or 0) is entered.

II. Human vs. Computer Mode (II-VI)

If menu option 1 is chosen, the program should display the deck of cards and let the player

input the coordinates of the first card and then the second card being flipped.

*****************************

* Welcome to Concentration! *

*****************************

Please choose a mode of the game:

1. Human vs. Computer

2. Computer vs. Computer

0. Quit

Your choice: 1

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

Please input 1st card:

III. The player should then input the coordinates.

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

Please input 1st card: 0 1

You chose 1st card (0, 1) and it is D 8

Please input 2nd card: 2 2

You chose 2nd card (2, 2) and it is D Q

The program prompts for the row index (0-3) and column index (1-13) of the first card being

picked. It echoes the input and reveals the selected card’s suit and rank. It does the same for

the second card being picked.

Error checking should be done to prevent the following conditions:

1. Invalid coordinates

Ensure that the input row and column indexes are within 0 - 3 and 1 - 13 respectively

(special: we start from 1 instead of 0 for column). If it is not the case, the program should

prompt the user to enter again. A screenshot of an invalid case is shown as follows:

Please input 1st card: 0 18

Row and column must be within 0 - 3 and 1 - 13

Please input 1st card:

Note: For simplicity, you may assume that the user always enters two integers (no nondigit

characters or floating-point numbers). So, your validation is just to check the input

against the specified valid range of integer values for the coordinates.

4

2. The chosen card must not have been flipped before.

For example, in the following snapshot of the game, the two cards located at coordinates

(1, 2) and (3, 4) have been flipped face up. They cannot be chosen anymore. If the human

player chooses either of them, the error message “The card must not be flipped already”

should be displayed.

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX H 6 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX D 6 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

(Some output is skipped here for ease of discussion.)

Please input 1st card: 1 2

The card must not be flipped already

Please input 1st card:

3. The second card must not be the same as the first

If the human player enters the same coordinates for both the first and second cards being

picked, the program should show an error message “The second card cannot be the same

as first” and prompt for the input of the second card again.

Please input 1st card: 0 12

You chose 1st card (0,12) and it is H K

Please input second card: 0 12

The second card cannot be the same as first

Please input second card:

Note: The computer player picks cards by generating a pair of random integers within

the valid row and column bounds. If it encounters an already flipped card or the second

card being same as the first, it will automatically drop the selection and generate a new

choice until it is valid. So, we won’t show all these error messages for a computer’s turn.

IV. The result of the human player should be displayed. The screenshot below shows that if the

player successfully removed two cards from the desktop, the face values of the removed

cards will be kept displayed at their original positions till the end of the game.

Please input 1st card: 1 2

You chose 1st card (1, 2) and it is H 6

Please input 2nd card: 3 4

You chose 2nd card (3, 4) and it is D 6

You got a matched pair!

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX H 6 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX D 6 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

(Recall from Section 2 that the player who successfully matched a pair will NOT be rewarded

one more turn to flip cards in this project. So, it is now the computer player’s turn.)

5

V. The computer will then make its choice for a pair of cards to flip. The choice made by the

computer can be purely random pick (the simplest form of implementation). You may also

take on a challenge to implement a smart one (see the appendix; note: developing a smart

algorithm for this part is NOT a mandatory requirement of this project and does not count

for extra marks. But it is a good self-learning exercise to enhance your programming skills).

Based on the last example, after the human player finishes his/her flip, the computer makes

its selection of two cards on the desktop. The selected cards’ positions and face values will

be printed as shown in the screenshot below. But this time, the pair does not match in rank,

and the cards remain face-down (shown as “XXX”).

Please input 1st card: 1 2

You chose 1st card (1, 2) and it is H 6

Please input 2nd card: 3 4

You chose 2nd card (3, 4) and it is D 6

You got a matched pair!

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX H 6 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX D 6 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

Computer chose 1st card (0, 2) and it is H J

Computer chose 2nd card (0, 8) and it is C 2

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX H 6 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX D 6 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

Flipped cards: 2; You: 2; Computer: 0;

Please input 1st card:

Now, both players have finished one turn each. The state of the game, mainly the statistics

of flipped cards (i.e. cards facing up) made by the human (You) and the machine (Computer),

will be updated and shown accordingly. In this example, the human player got two cards

matched. So the counts next to “Flipped cards” and “You” are both incremented by 2.

The game continues with the human and machine players taking turns to flip pairs. Below is

a later snapshot of the game in which the computer player successfully matched a pair. The

flipped card statistics is updated each time a matched pair is made.

XXX XXX XXX XXX D 2 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

H Q H 6 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX D Q XXX D J XXX XXX S 2 D A XXX XXX S A XXX XXX

D 3 XXX XXX D 6 XXX C J S 3 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

Computer chose 1st card (0, 9) and it is C10

Computer chose 2nd card (3, 2) and it is D10

Computer got a matched pair!

XXX XXX XXX XXX D 2 XXX XXX XXX C10 XXX XXX XXX XXX

H Q H 6 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX D Q XXX D J XXX XXX S 2 D A XXX XXX S A XXX XXX

D 3 D10 XXX D 6 XXX C J S 3 XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

Flipped cards: 14; You: 12; Computer: 2;

Please input 1st card:

6

VI. Successive pick by the computer and human player will continue until all cards have been

flipped. At the end, the program will show a game over message telling the total number of

turns played (one turn refers to the flipping of two cards no matter if they match or not) and

either one of the following messages:

“You win!”

“Computer wins!”

“A tie!”

to indicate whether the human player or the computer has won the game, or it is a tie. Below

is a sample screenshot near the end of a game.

...

(Prior output is skipped here for ease of discussion.)

...

Computer chose 1st card (0,13) and it is H K

Computer chose 2nd card (1, 4) and it is D K

Computer got a matched pair!

S 7 D A D Q C 2 H Q S 8 D 9 S 2 C 6 C 3 H A S 9 H K

D 7 S 5 S J D K C Q XXX D10 S 3 H J C 9 S 6 C 7 H 9

D 6 D 3 D 5 S 4 D 4 XXX C 5 D J C K C J S K D 2 H 2

H 4 C A C 4 S10 S A H10 H 6 H 3 H 5 C10 H 7 S Q C 8

Flipped cards: 50; You: 28; Computer: 22;

Please input 1st card: 2 6

You chose 1st card (2, 6) and it is D 8

Please input 2nd card: 1 6

You chose 2nd card (1, 6) and it is H 8

You got a matched pair!

S 7 D A D Q C 2 H Q S 8 D 9 S 2 C 6 C 3 H A S 9 H K

D 7 S 5 S J D K C Q H 8 D10 S 3 H J C 9 S 6 C 7 H 9

D 6 D 3 D 5 S 4 D 4 D 8 C 5 D J C K C J S K D 2 H 2

H 4 C A C 4 S10 S A H10 H 6 H 3 H 5 C10 H 7 S Q C 8

Flipped cards: 52; You: 30; Computer: 22;

*** End of Game ***

429 turns played

You win!

Please choose a mode of the game:

1. Human vs. Computer

2. Computer vs. Computer

0. Quit

VII. The program then will return to the main menu.

Note: the program does not end after a game finishes. It returns to the main menu to let the

human player decide whether to play another game. The program terminates only when the

menu option 0 is entered. During the course of a game (whether in mode 1 or mode 2), there

is no special input to end the game prematurely. You may press the “Abort” button in the

Code::Blocks IDE, or press Ctrl + C to terminate the running process.

VIII. Computer vs. Computer Mode

If menu option 2 is chosen, the program runs in a simulation mode. Two computer players

will pick their choices of card pairs in turns successively like in Mode 1, but with all choices

automatically generated (without any user attention).

Final desktop configuration

Final game statistics

Game over message

7

Note: When running in Mode 2, we want to make it run faster. So, you should skip printing

the state of the desktop but only the choices made by each player in each turn. Only the initial

and final state of the desktop will be displayed. Below is an example screenshot segment

showing the very last part of a game run.

*****************************

* Welcome to Concentration! *

*****************************

Please choose a mode of the game:

1. Human vs. Computer

2. Computer vs. Computer

0. Quit

Your choice: 2

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX

Computer 1 chose 1st card (0, 2) and it is H J

Computer 1 chose 2nd card (0, 8) and it is C 2

Computer 2 chose 1st card (1, 1) and it is H Q

Computer 2 chose 2nd card (2, 9) and it is S 6

Flipped cards: 0; Computer 1: 0; Computer 2: 0;

...

(Lengthy output is skipped here for ease of discussion.)

...

Computer 1 chose 1st card (1, 1) and it is H Q

Computer 1 chose 2nd card (3, 5) and it is C Q

Computer 1 got a matched pair!

Computer 2 chose 1st card (0, 8) and it is C 2

Computer 2 chose 2nd card (2,13) and it is D K

Flipped cards: 46; Computer 1: 20; Computer 2: 26;

Computer 1 chose 1st card (2,13) and it is D K

Computer 1 chose 2nd card (0, 5) and it is D 2

Computer 2 chose 1st card (0, 7) and it is H K

Computer 2 chose 2nd card (2,13) and it is D K

Computer 2 got a matched pair!

Flipped cards: 48; Computer 1: 20; Computer 2: 28;

Computer 1 chose 1st card (0, 8) and it is C 2

Computer 1 chose 2nd card (3, 9) and it is H 3

Computer 2 chose 1st card (0, 8) and it is C 2

Computer 2 chose 2nd card (0, 5) and it is D 2

Computer 2 got a matched pair!

Flipped cards: 50; Computer 1: 20; Computer 2: 30;

Computer 1 chose 1st card (3, 1) and it is D 3

Computer 1 chose 2nd card (3, 9) and it is H 3

Computer 1 got a matched pair!

D 8 H J S10 C 7 D 2 C 6 H K C 2 C10 H 5 H 2 C K D 4

H Q H 6 D 7 S 9 S K H 8 S 4 S 5 D 5 S 7 S Q H 9 S 8

C 5 D Q C 3 D J C 8 H A S 2 D A S 6 C A S A D 9 D K

D 3 D10 C 4 D 6 C Q C J S 3 H 4 H 3 C 9 S J H10 H 7

Flipped cards: 52; Computer 1: 22; Computer 2: 30;

*** End of Game ***

319 turns played!

Computer 2 wins!

Please choose a mode of the game:

1. Human vs. Computer

2. Computer vs. Computer

0. Quit

Your choice:

In this example, when Computer 1

picks the last matching pair, no more

cards can be chosen by Computer 2

from the desktop. The game is over.

The program should print the final

desktop configuration, the final game

statistics, and the end of game

message telling who has won.

Final desktop configuration

Final game statistics

Game over message

Initial desktop configuration

8

5. Academic Honesty and Declaration Statement

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the

disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations.

Details may be found at https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.

Please put the following declaration statement as the comment in the beginning of your source

code (source file(s) with .c extension) and fill in your information.

/**

* ENGG1110 Problem Solving by Programming

*

* Course Project

*

* I declare that the project here submitted is original

* except for source material explicitly acknowledged,

* and that the same or closely related material has not been

* previously submitted for another course.

* I also acknowledge that I am aware of University policy and

* regulations on honesty in academic work, and of the disciplinary

* guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such

* policy and regulations, as contained in the website.

*

* University Guideline on Academic Honesty:

* https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/

*

* Student Name : <your name>

* Student ID : <your student ID>

* Class/Section : <your class/section>

* Date : <date>

*/

6. Testing Platform

Your submission will be graded by using the Code::Blocks IDE on Windows. Please note that

there may be some problems in opening a project on Windows if the project is created in other

operating systems, such as MacOS and Linux. Therefore, make sure that your project is created on

a Windows platform.

7. Submission

The deadline of the project submission is Apr 15 (Mon) 23:59. Please follow the following steps

to submit your work.

a. Compress your whole Code::Blocks project folder into a file in ZIP format named as:

ENGG1110<your class/section>_<your student ID>.zip (e.g. ENGG1110G_1155012345.zip)

b. Visit Blackboard for CUHK and log in with your OnePass (CWEM) password.

c. Visit the page for ENGG1110 and go to Project / Project Submission.

d. Upload and submit your file prepared in Step a.

e. Download your submission from Blackboard to see if it can be extracted and then opened by

Code::Blocks on Windows successfully.

9

Resubmissions are allowed. But only the latest one will be graded. 10% of the project marks will

be deducted for late submissions within one week, i.e., by Apr 22 (Mon) 23:59. Late submissions

more than one week will not be graded.

Reminder: Double-checking by step e is an important step that you can’t afford missing. We won’t

(be able to) grade submissions that cannot be opened successfully on our systems. In any disputable

case, we stick to the built-in zip file extractor on Windows 10 as the reference for judgment. Please

also note that submissions in other archive formats like .rar or .7z will not be accepted, and requests

to resubmit and override a wrong/corrupted file after the hard deadline will not be entertained.

8. Project Demo and Presentation

The project demo and presentation is scheduled on Apr 17 (Wed) in the lesson. It is conducted in

English. Each student will need to:

1. Compile and execute the program on a lab computer using Code::Blocks on Windows.

2. Explain the code and the program design

This part contributes 10% of the project marks. Marks for this part will only be given during the

project demo and presentation. A student who is absent on that day will get 0 marks for this part.

Therefore, even if your project is incomplete or if you plan to submit the project late, you should

still come and try to get some marks.

10

9. Schedule

To help you with the development, we split the development process into the following stages.

Week Date (Wed) Tasks

10 Mar 20 Structure definition for cards

Display the whole deck of cards

Shuffling of cards using a random number generator

By the end of this week, your program should be able to:

Display the whole deck of cards as a rectangular array

Shuffle the deck of cards and display them

11 Mar 27 User input of coordinates

Error checking for input

Computer pick generation

By the end of this week, your program should be able to:

Play through a complete mode 1 game

Display the winner

12 Apr 10 Mode 2 logic (computer vs. computer)

By the end of this week, your program should be able to:

Perform all functions of mode 1 and mode 2

13 Apr 15 Project submission (by 23:59 on Blackboard)

Apr 17 Project Demo and Presentation (in class)

10. Some Hints and Recommendation

I. Your source code should be properly indented and formatted with consistent styles. They are

important to make your program readable and easier to trace and debug.

II. Effective use of functions can help modularize your program, saving a lot of redundant code

in this project. For example, Mode 1 and Mode 2 are pretty similar except for the way we get

the choices (from the standard input stream vs. from a random number generator) and for the

way we show the output (Mode 2 skipped printing the state of the desktop). Think about how

to make good of functions for better code reuse. Good use of functions could also reduce the

complexity or level of some deeply nested loops.

11

Appendix – Optional Features (Self-Study)

Revisiting Section 4 point V, apart from purely random pick, you may also take on an optional

challenge to implement some artificial intelligence (AI) for the computer player to make smarter

pick of cards. We recommend that you may attempt this advanced part only when you have

finished the baseline version using simply random pick.

The kind of AI needed for this game is relatively simple; things as complex as machine learning

are supposed not involved. The basic idea is to add some array for recording those cards that were

once turned over (whether flipped by the human player or a machine). As we represent a card as a

C structure, the positions and face values of the cards can be found by reading the array elements.

When it is the computer’s turn to flip cards, instead of random pick, it tries to look up from this

array for a matching pair. This array storage mimics the memory of a human being. Each machine

player should have its own copy of this array. The size of this array denotes the memory power of

the player, say using an array of 10 elements can only “memorize” the information of 10 cards

(still facing down) on the desktop. You may control the “smartness” or “memory power” of each

machine player by tuning its own array’s size.

As you may also notice, one good strategy to use with Concentration is not to always turn over the

card you are sure of first. For example, if you know exactly where one Ace of Hearts is, but are

not 100% sure where another Ace is located, you will turn over the “uncertain card” first. This

way if your guess goes wrong, you can then pick a random card and have a chance of getting a

match. A smart algorithm using the abovementioned array could also implement this strategy.

Instead of picking a card that has been recorded in the array, the machine should pick an unknown

one from the desktop for the first card. If its rank can match with any of the memorized cards (in

the array), then this is a successful move. Otherwise, the machine should try to flip a new unknown

to maximize the chance of memorizing new cards by saving them in the array (until the array is

already full).

One more reminder is that you should remember to update players’ arrays according to the latest

changes of the desktop. Say, if the current player’s array has stored some cards which have been

removed from the desktop by the opponent player, then they should be also removed from the

array, freeing up storage space for new cards to be memorized.

We, when assessing your work, can observe the AI by looking at the number of turns (in other

words, the length of output in the console) required to reach the end of the game in Mode 2. Work

with AI implemented should demand much fewer turns to finish a game.

Another possible experiment is to verify the hypothesis that a machine player with “better memory”

(bigger array) is more likely to win over one with “poorer memory” (smaller array).

- END -

因为专业，所以值得信赖。如有需要，请加QQ：99515681 或邮箱： 

微信：codinghelp