Beat The Bugs

By Jam Jenkins

Ever get tired of programming and seeing bugs after bugs in your Java code? 
Fight back!  Beat the bugs!

Take out your frustrations by playing Beat the Bugs, a game developed using the Video Game Package developed at Duke for use in introductory computer science courses.  This game demonstrates the basics of how to write simple video games.  The source code for the game is freely available and you are encouraged to modify the code to suit your own purposes or develop your own game theme based upon the code.  Some ideas for development include:
  • Changing the images
  • Altering the text
  • Changing the sounds
  • Altering the motion of the player and/or enemies
  • Enabling multiple bullets to fire from the player and/or enemy
This is the first release of Beat the Bugs, and there are still some features you should be aware of:
  • Sounds don't always play
  • Bullets somehow appear in the upper left of the screen
If you encounter more bugs (other than the ones you destroy in the game) or beat the bugs in the code (i.e. find the bugs in my code which cause the 'features'), email me so I can post the fixes.

Play the Game (a new window will appear)

Source Code - the game is in tipgame.game.beatthebugs

Source Code Documentation

How to Play:

  • Start the game by pressing the Start button.
  • After starting the game you'll be able to pause and resume the game by pressing the left-most button.
  • The Mute button will allow you to turn the sound on and off.
  • At any time you can begin a new game by pressing the Start Over button.
  • The Help button will show this information.
  • Quit will exit the application (or applet).

Questions?  Comments?

Email me.  I would love to share my work for your own personal or academic use.  For more information on the course I teach, visit the Java for Video Games web page.  The course page contains lecture notes, sample assignments, online resources and more.