MicroSnake

Description

MicroSnake is a minimal x86 Assembly based implementation of the classic snake game designed to fit in the 512-byte MBR (Master Boot Record) of legacy BIOS systems. It is a standalone binary executable file that can be booted with the help of an external device such as a PenDrive or CD/DVD.

In-Game Details

• The game board size is 16x10.
• The snake is initially positioned in the center of the board.
• The snake wraps around the board corners.
• The snake can only grow upto a maximum length of 100, due to file size limitations.

Key Bindings

• W - Move up
• S - Move down
• A - Move left
• D - Move right
• Ctrl + C - Restart game

Getting Started

To enjoy this game, follow the steps below to setup and run the game on your local system.

Prerequisites

• A legacy system based on the x86 architecture with an Intel 80386 CPU or newer that supports BIOS and the MBR partitioning scheme, or an emulator such as QEMU or Bochs.

• Optionally, NASM (Netwide Assembler) to assemble the game. Only if you are manually building it from source code.

Installation Options

You can obtain the game through the following methods:

1. Cloning the GitHub Repository (Recommended):

   This method allows you to access the latest version of the game:

   git clone https://github.com/rahul4732saini/MicroSnake.git
   cd MicroSnake

2. Downloading the Source Code as a ZIP file:

   If you prefer not to use Git, download the source code directly:

   • Navigate to the repository's main page.​

   • Click on the Code button and select Download ZIP.​

   • Finally, Extract the downloaded ZIP file.

3. Directly downloading the Executable file:

   You can also download the executable file directly from the Release page on the GitHub repository. In this case, you can also skip the build process and run it directly using the steps mentioned here.

Building the game

Once you have the source code, you can easily assemble it using the provided Makefile. Note that this would require the make utility to be installed on your system. Once you have it, you can simply execute the make command to build the game.

After the above-mentioned procedure has been successfully completed, a file named snake.bin will be generated in the bin directory comprising the executable code.

Running the game

Broadly, you have two different options to run the game on your local system, which are briefed as follows:

1. Use an Emulator such as QEMU or Bochs:

   Example using QEMU:

   qemu-system-i386 -drive format=raw,file=bin/snake.bin

2. Boot it using an external device such as a PenDrive or CD/DVD:

   Example using a PenDrive:

   In order to boot the game, you would require to make the PenDrive bootable by copying the executable to its 1st sector (512-byte). This step can be performed by using a tool such as dd, an example of which is shown as follows:

   dd if=bin/snake.bin of=<destination-device> bs=512 count=1 conv=notrunc

   Replace the destination-device with the path to the device file based on your Operating System.

   Once written to the MBR, the device can be used to boot the game.

Legals

This project is distributed under the MIT License. Refer to LICENSE for more details.

Call for Contributions

This project always welcomes your precious expertise and enthusiasm! The project relies on its community's wisdom and intelligence to investigate bugs and contribute code. We always appreciate improvements and contributions to this project.