Learning Java Through Violence

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.

Yes, there are others

[interiot]

Yes, robocode is not the first, see DMOZ's [google.com] entry. Corewars was perhaps the most famous. Okay, now we can move on to talking about Robocode's merits instead of talking about its family tree.

interview with the developer

[n3m6]

kuro5hin has a much more in depth look at robowars [kuro5hin.org].

Variety Of "Java Robots" out there...

[Tronster]

Java robot-programming systems have been around for a few years. My room mate created one three years ago called
J Robots [mobydisk.com]. His inspiration was the C-Robots which many people have already mentioned in their comments.

There are a few other Java robot systems listed on Dmoz.org [dmoz.org].

intergalactics.net

[Chagrin]

intergalactics.net [intergalactics.net] also allows users to create Java robots to test and play them on the server.

...which is where I wrote my first (and last) java class. Ech.

Re:This is how i learned C, too

[maxxon]

Yes, this game was called Crobots. You can still find copies of it around with some well-placed Web searches.

There's also a more recent type of this simulation called RealTimeBattle [sourceforge.net] which uses a simple text-based protocol so that you can write a bot in literally any language.

Disussion groups, theory and more sample bots

[cvanaver]

Can be found at: http://www.robocode.net/

RoboCode Repository WebSite - Exchange Bots!

[DanLynn]

http://robocode.turbochicken.com [turbochicken.com] - This is a site that me and some of my Java buddies are putting together for fun. We've just started it - but already have most of the back end done. Please stop by and check it out. We're looking for suggestions and ideas before we officially launch it. So, please read the stories on the homepage to see what we have in mind for the site then send feedback to the email address posted on the homepage. Also, I've compiled a list of links to other RoboCode websites, tutorials, and discussion forums. By the way, the upload/download and save features are disabled for a few days. Check back towards the end of the week to start actually exchanging source and class files.

Such a thing exists.

[khaladan]

It's called TopCoder, located at www.topcoder.com (use my name khaladan as referrer if you sign up). You can participate in a contest usually once or twice a week with 7 other programmers trying to solve various problems of increasing difficulty.

It's based on time. Whoever submits code the fastest, gets the most points. Of course, then there's a challenge round where you inspect other people's code for bugs, and if you find one, supply input that will produce bad output (or crasht the program).

It's a greate contest. Currently you can choose either Java or C++ to program solutions in.

Plus, if you get 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in your room (of max 8 people), you get $150, $75, or $25 dollars, respecitively. I myself have not been playing very long but I got 2nd place once, and sure enough, a check came about two weeks later for $75.

So, sign up and try it... use my name, khaladan, as the person who referred you.

Re:learning company-robot game

[techy]

And I thought I was the only one who had played this! It was called Robot Odyssey, I believe, for teaching logic and the basics of electronic components. I actually called them (The Learning Company) to see if I could get a copy. The people that I talked to hadn't even heard of it, and said that there were "no plans" to re-release a game by that name. Currently, the only way that I have found to play it is via Commodore emulator... If anyone has found a way to get a PC version of this, I would also love to hear about it.