I wrote the original Android Nim program for the Radio Shack TRS-80 computer in 1978.  It was well accepted since few graphics programs were done on that machine owing to the low resolution and lack of color. The feature that most people commented about was the android animation which included head and arm movement and eye blinking.  People also liked the bad attitude the computer had when it lost.

The program was written for my 7th and 8th grade students to help them learn about the binary system. Nim can be analyzed mathematically using base two.  With this knowledge, a player can always win.  This characteristic also makes this game a good one to put on a computer since the computer can be taught how to always win. However, this time, I have given the computer an average ability to win.  It won't know how to win every time.

Recently I bought the game-programming software "Dark Basic Pro."  I decided to try to redo Android Nim using Dark Basic Pro and have had a really wonderful time over the last few weeks doing so.  DBP takes care of all the DirectX stuff so I could concentrate on the game ideas.

I invite anyone who would like to, to download the game "Android Nim 2D" and give it a try.  I've tried to put all the animation detail in from the original, but have added much more.  And again, the computer has a very egotistical and nasty reaction to losing.  There's a vocabulary of 80 insulting words to let you know how it feels.  This is NOT an emmulation of the 25 year old program, but a new updated version.

I have added for download the source code file for Android Nim 2D for Dark Basic Pro. I've had various people tell me in the past that they have learned a lot from looking at the code in some of my earlier programs.  I hope this listing can be helpful to DBP programmers.

Please let me know what you think.  And if you find bugs, let me know.

email me at:  computers@leochristopherson.com
 

The downloadable program is zipped using RARLAB's WinRAR.

Requirements: a PC-type computer running at about 2 GHz or better,  a fairly recent HARDWARE 3D Graphics Card, MS DirectX 9.0, and a mouse.

For proper graphics and speed, your computer's  display resolution needs to be set to 16-bit at the Control Panel > Display Properties > Settings > Color Quality.

The MS WORD .doc file posted here is the Android Nim 2D source code listing for Dark Basic Pro.  It can be looked at in WORD and copy/pasted into a Dark Basic Project Editor. It's a 40 page document.
 

ANDROID_NIM_2D
(~ 6 MB)

Android Nim 2D.doc
(238 KB)