12. Colors and background

Displaying a background is simple: we would write different symbols before displaying the player, the ghosts and the dots. Later on, we will check collisions with the background, but let's not worry about that yet:

Console.WriteLine("Points: {0} - Lives: {1}");
Console.WriteLine("|----------------------------------------|");
Console.WriteLine("|                                        |");
Console.WriteLine("|   |---|   --   |------|   --   |---|   |");
Console.WriteLine("|   |---|   ||   |--||--|   ||   |---|   |");
Console.WriteLine("|           ||      ||      ||           |");
Console.WriteLine("|-------|   -----   --   -----   |-------|");
Console.WriteLine("        |   |                |   |        ");
Console.WriteLine("        |   |   |---  ---|   |   |        ");
Console.WriteLine("---------   -   |        |   -   ---------");
Console.WriteLine("                |        |                ");
Console.WriteLine("---------   -   |________|   -   ---------");
Console.WriteLine("        |   |                |   |        ");
Console.WriteLine("        |   |   |--------|   |   |        ");
Console.WriteLine("|-------|   |   |---||---|   |   |-------|");
Console.WriteLine("|                   ||                   |");
Console.WriteLine("|   -----   |---|   ||   |---|   -----   |");
Console.WriteLine("|   |-- |   |---|   --   |---|   | --|   |");
Console.WriteLine("|      ||                        ||      |");
Console.WriteLine("|--|   ||   |----------------|   ||   |--|");
Console.WriteLine("|--|   --   |----------------|   --   |--|");
Console.WriteLine("|                                        |");
Console.WriteLine("|----------------------------------------|");
 

And changing the colors will make the background more distinguishable from the other items. For example, we might draw the background in blue, the dots in white, the ghosts in green and our character in yellow, using "Console.ForegroundColor":

Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Yellow;
Console.SetCursorPosition(x, y);
Console.Write("C");
 

The result shold be simple:

/*
  First mini-console-game skeleton
  Version N: Background and colors
*/
 
using System;
using System.Threading;  // For the pause with Thread.Sleep
 
public class Game01n
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        int x=40, y=12;
 
        int amountOfDots = 100;
        int[] xDot = new int[amountOfDots];
        int[] yDot = new int[amountOfDots];
        bool[] visible = new bool[amountOfDots];
 
        Random randomNumberGenerator = new Random();
        for(int i=0; i<amountOfDots; i++)
        {
            xDot[i] = randomNumberGenerator.Next(0,80);
            yDot[i] = randomNumberGenerator.Next(1,25);
            visible[i] = true;
        }
 
        int amountOfEnemies = 4;
        float[] xEnemy = { 15, 40, 50, 60 };
        float[] yEnemy = { 5, 10, 15, 20 };
        float[] incrXEnemy = { 0.4f, 0.35f, 0.6f, 0.3f };
 
        int score = 0;
        ConsoleKeyInfo userKey;
 
        // Game Loop
        while( 1 == 1 )
        {
            // Draw
            Console.Clear();
            Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.White;
            Console.WriteLine("Score: {0}",score);
 
            // Example background, contributed by Karol Campo
            Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Blue;
            Console.WriteLine("|----------------------------------------|");
            Console.WriteLine("|                                        |");
            Console.WriteLine("|   |---|   --   |------|   --   |---|   |");
            Console.WriteLine("|   |---|   ||   |--||--|   ||   |---|   |");
            Console.WriteLine("|           ||      ||      ||           |");
            Console.WriteLine("|-------|   -----   --   -----   |-------|");
            Console.WriteLine("        |   |                |   |        ");
            Console.WriteLine("        |   |   |---  ---|   |   |        ");
            Console.WriteLine("---------   -   |        |   -   ---------");
            Console.WriteLine("                |        |                ");
            Console.WriteLine("---------   -   |________|   -   ---------");
            Console.WriteLine("        |   |                |   |        ");
            Console.WriteLine("        |   |   |--------|   |   |        ");
            Console.WriteLine("|-------|   |   |---||---|   |   |-------|");
            Console.WriteLine("|                   ||                   |");
            Console.WriteLine("|   -----   |---|   ||   |---|   -----   |");
            Console.WriteLine("|   |-- |   |---|   --   |---|   | --|   |");
            Console.WriteLine("|      ||                        ||      |");
            Console.WriteLine("|--|   ||   |----------------|   ||   |--|");
            Console.WriteLine("|--|   --   |----------------|   --   |--|");
            Console.WriteLine("|                                        |");
            Console.WriteLine("|----------------------------------------|");
 
            // Resto of the elements
            Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.White;
            for(int i=0; i<amountOfDots; i++)
            {
                if (visible[i])
                {
                    Console.SetCursorPosition(xDot[i], yDot[i]);
                    Console.Write(".");
                }
            }
 
            Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Yellow;
            Console.SetCursorPosition(x, y);
            Console.Write("C");
 
            Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Green;
            for(int i=0; i<amountOfEnemies; i++)
            {
                Console.SetCursorPosition((int)xEnemy[i], (int)yEnemy[i]);
                Console.Write("A");
            }
 
            // Read keys and calculate new position
            if (Console.KeyAvailable)
            {
                userKey = Console.ReadKey(false);
 
                if(userKey.Key == ConsoleKey.RightArrow) x++;
                if(userKey.Key == ConsoleKey.LeftArrow) x--;
                if(userKey.Key == ConsoleKey.DownArrow) y++;
                if(userKey.Key == ConsoleKey.UpArrow) y--;
            }
 
            // Move enemies and environment
            for(int i=0; i<amountOfEnemies; i++)
            {
                xEnemy[i] += incrXEnemy[i];
                if ((xEnemy[i] < 1) || (xEnemy[i] > 78))
                    incrXEnemy[i] = -incrXEnemy[i];
            }
 
            // Collisions, lose energy or lives, etc
            for(int i=0; i<amountOfDots; i++)
                if ((x == xDot[i]) && (y == yDot[i]) && visible[i])
                {
                    score += 10;
                    visible[i] = false;
                }
 
            // Pause till next fotogram
            Thread.Sleep(40);
        }
    }
}
 

And would would look like this: