lc3-2048

An implementation of 2048 created using LC-3, an educational programming language.

History

This program was originally written for my final project while taking CS 2810 (Computer Organization and Architecture) at Utah Valley University. A few semesters later, my professor asked if I would be willing to make my source public as a resource to future students, which led to this GitHub project.

Since 2014, I've continued to explore LC-3 and have worked on several related projects. Although the source code remains largely similar to what I submitted for my final project back in 2014, I've made a few modifications to it as appropriate for these other projects.

Along those lines, since I don't use Windows anymore, I haven't tested any of my recent modifications with the official LC-3 client. If you run into issues, I'd recommend looking through the Git history for the original version.

Quick Start

An online version of this program is available as part of my JavaScript simulator.

Assembling and Running Manually

To execute LC-3 programs, they must be assembled into an object file and loaded into a simulator. McGraw Hill's website for the LC-3 includes official tools that can assemble and run programs. Alternatively, you can find numerous third-party assemblers and simulators online by searching for LC-3.

For the best experience with this program, I'd recommend a simulator that's capable of handling ANSI escape sequences. For the rest of this quick start, I'll be using the official *nix tools, but the concepts are similar for Windows and other environments.

1. Download or compile the lc3tools. If you're using Mac, you can easily install them via my Homebrew tap:

   $ brew tap rpendleton/homebrew-tap
   $ brew install lc3tools
   

   Alternatively, you can compile them yourself.

   $ unzip lc3tools_v12.zip
   $ cd lc3tools
   $ ./configure --installdir /path/to/install/dir
   $ make
   $ make install
   

2. After you've installed the lc3tools, you need to download the project and assemble the object file. You can do this using lc3as.

   $ git clone https://github.com/rpendleton/lc3-2048.git
   $ cd lc3-2048
   $ lc3as 2048.asm
   

3. Now that the object file is ready, all that's left is to load it into the simulator.

   $ lc3sim 2048.obj
   ...
   (lc3sim) c
   Control the game using WASD keys.
   Are you on an ANSI terminal (y/n)? y
   +--------------------------+
   |                          |
   |                          |
   |                          |
   |                     2    |
   |                          |
   |   2                      |
   |                          |
   |                          |
   |                          |
   +--------------------------+
   

   After starting the simulator and loading the object file, pressing c will start the program. The game takes advantage of ANSI terminal features, so if you're using a *nix operating system, make sure to press y when prompted. Otherwise, press n to avoid seeing garbage escape sequences.

Related Projects

• justinmeiners/lc3-vm: A tutorial on how to write your own LC-3 virtual machine
• rpendleton/lc3sim-c: A C implementation of the LC-3 virtual machine
• rpendleton/lc3sim-js: A JavaScript implementation of the LC-3 virtual machine