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Raspberry Pi Gaming - Second Edition
Raspberry Pi Gaming - Second Edition

Raspberry Pi Gaming - Second Edition: Design, create, and play all kinds of video games on your Raspberry Pi computer , Second Edition

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Raspberry Pi Gaming - Second Edition

Chapter 2. Scratch

This chapter will introduce you to the amazing and fun world of programming. Learning to program and code will allow you to bring your ideas to creation. If you have ever wanted to make a game, but had no idea where to start, this is the place.

In this chapter, you will learn the basics needed to make your own video game on the Raspberry Pi. You will learn how to:

  • Launch Scratch
  • Define your game's objectives
  • Draw a character
  • Make your character interact and move
  • Design and program a Flappy Bird-style game
  • Design and create a 2 player Ping Pong game

What is Scratch?

Scratch is a programming language and application developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an easy-to-use, educational, and fun environment to learn to code and to make video games and applications. It is different from most other programming languages. It is completely visual; rather than typing out lines of code, all you have to do is drag and drop visual blocks to create your program.

Games that might have taken days to be created earlier can be created in minutes, right in front of your eyes. Now, you are going to create some games too!

Understanding the Scratch interface

Before we begin writing our first game, you need to understand the Scratch interface. Scratch is not only a powerful programming language, but also a full-featured application. To write Scratch programs use the following steps:

  1. Open the Scratch application. This is included on all copies of the official Raspberry Pi operating system, Raspbian.
  2. In the command line, type startx to...

Let's build a Flappy Bird clone!

Your first game is going to be a Flappy Bird clone. While this might seem like a complicated task, it really can be broken down to a few easy scripts.

Note

Flappy Bird is a great starting game. It has a clear objective, uses much of the Scratch functionality, is relatively simple to create, and you can use your imagination by drawing your own sprites, backgrounds, and pipes.

What kind of a game is Flappy Bird? It is a game where your goal is to keep on pressing a button to make a bird rise as it is constantly falling while navigating its way through the pipes of varying heights that are coming at it.

It can be broken down as follows:

  • Every button press makes the bird go up on the y axis
  • Every second the button isn't pressed the bird goes down the y axis
  • A pipe starts at the right end of the x axis and moves left toward the bird
  • When the pipe reaches the far left corner without touching the bird, you earn a point and the pipe disappears
  • If the bird touches...

Ping Pong

It's time to go back in time, and recreate a game that helped to launch the video game industry. It has gone by many names such as Pong, Ping Pong, and Table Tennis, but the basic gameplay has stayed the same. Two paddles, one ball, and an epic battle to get the ball past the other player.

So, let's break down this game. We will require:

  • One paddle for the left player
  • One paddle for the right player
  • One bouncing ball
  • Two variables to keep score for each player.

Let's get started!

Making the paddles

After creating a new project, you will be presented with the white stage and a Scratchy sprite.

  1. Right-click on Scratchy and click on delete. Now, click on Paint new sprite.
    Making the paddles
  2. Draw a long black rectangle and click on OK. Name this sprite Left.

    We are going to create three simple scripts for this paddle, as follows:

    Making the paddles
  3. The first script ensures that the left paddle points in the proper direction and then sets its size to 60 percent. You should experiment with the size to determine what feels...

Summary

In this chapter, you learned how to start Scratch, create characters, design, and program two fun games. You have only scratched the surface of what is possible with the Scratch programming language.

While making games is a lot of fun, sometimes you might need to play some for inspiration. Luckily, the Raspberry Pi has some great games and emulators available. The next chapter will introduce you to distributions made just for gaming.

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Description

If you are someone who loves to play games and are interested in learning more about the capabilities of your Raspberry Pi, this book is for you. Basic knowledge of Raspberry Pi programming is expected.

Who is this book for?

If you are someone who loves to play games and are interested in learning more about the capabilities of your Raspberry Pi, this book is for you. Basic knowledge of Raspberry Pi programming is expected.

What you will learn

  • Program games utilizing the Scratch language
  • Install multiple operating systems
  • Set up your Raspberry Pi computer
  • Install and configure game system emulators
  • Control your Minecraft world with the Python programming language
  • Explore different kinds of joysticks, controllers, game pads, and other input devices
  • Install applications in Linux

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Feb 20, 2015
Length: 140 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781784394288
Vendor :
Raspberry Pi
Languages :
Concepts :

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Product Details

Publication date : Feb 20, 2015
Length: 140 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781784394288
Vendor :
Raspberry Pi
Languages :
Concepts :

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Table of Contents

10 Chapters
1. Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Scratch Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Raspberry Pi Gaming Operating Systems Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Emulators Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Ported Games Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Linux Games Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Controllers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Troubleshooting Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
A. Games List Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.3
(4 Ratings)
5 star 75%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
2 star 25%
1 star 0%
Romin K. Irani Apr 17, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The book is compact in size and what I liked about it is that it can also act as a one-stop to get your Pi setup, install the software you want to, set it up with gaming software and then even hardware. From that perspective, I was surprised and pleased to see the range of the topics that this book had. You could even zoom into the topics separately if you wanted to.The book starts off with introduction to the Pi, setting it up with the standard operating system and then zooming a bit in Scratch, which should be the most popular tool being used to teach programming to kids.Once you are done with that, the book zeroes in to special Gaming operating systems for the Pi, which you do have a choice to skip if you want. The next set of chapters focus on Emulators, Games that have been ported specifically for the Pi and Linux Games. It was a joy to get Doom (I played it after 20 years and for someone as old as me, I still love that game!) working on the Pi and then Open Arena too. Yes, Minecraft is there too. For the price of a Pi, getting Minecraft running on it is going to give endless hours of fun , especially if you have kids around. They’ll love it.The book goes one step further and gets you going with getting game controllers (hardware) setup on the Pi too. I believe it would be interesting to get these hardware to work with other applications on the Pi, like some Robotics or Gaming Console projects.Overall, this book did expose me to a lot more that could run on the Raspberry Pi. If you are looking at pushing the limits of the Pi as a gaming device only, this is your book to explore.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Chris Garrett Mar 05, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I bought a pi version 2 especially to use for classic game emulation and this book taught me everything I needed to get started
Amazon Verified review Amazon
BBatt Feb 26, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Excellent book, well written and loaded with helpful information.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Frostic7734 Dec 09, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
I was expecting to receive a book to teach me game programming on a Raspberry Pi. The majority of the book is dedicated to teaching you how to set up a Pi and use it as an emulator. There is nothing in this book about game design. There is only one chapter on game programming.I was hoping this book contained stuff about programming in C or Python and include code examples and perhaps lessons. The book has one chapter on MIT's Scratch programming language. It is an educational language meant as an introduction to programming for elementary school kids. If you are smart enough to read this book then Scratch is probably too rudimentary for you.I should have done more research before dropping money on this book. This book feels like just fluff and filler. It feels like a cash grab. I would recommend buying a different book if you want to learn about the Pi or Pi programming.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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