console games

Hello people,

I set out a couple of years ago learning to program games , and people told me i had to learn console mode c++ first before getting into the pretty graphics and what not. I now near enough know the syntax of console c++ and i would like to feel as if i could access the full capabilities of the language.
The one ability of the language that is letting me down is to register the keyboard not to enter a string but to control a character around the screen like an arcade game.
Can anyone point me in the direction of a function that achieves this. For example moving a pacman character or is this only achievable in Windows API?

like do u mean getting key presses and the using them to do something, like pressing up to go up or spacebar to shoot? i cant remember off the top of my head but ill look it up then post some code to get u started.

Geo Fry that is exactly what i mean:)
So far i have only seen tic-tac-toe and connect four in c++ console mode as far as games are concerned can you do space invaders and tetris or pacman?

I've got a simple Windows API example here that shows you how to draw a simple ball and move it around using the arrow keys.

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~u02cll2/windo...movingball.jpg

The program can be downloaded here.

The source code can be viewed in HTML format here.

heres some code, availible in the FAQ

Code:

---

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>

bool Keypress(char &Key)
{
        INPUT_RECORD Event;
        DWORD NumberOfEvents, EventsRead, EventCounter;

        GetNumberOfConsoleInputEvents(GetStdHandle(STD_IN
PUT_HANDLE), &NumberOfEvents);

        if (NumberOfEvents == 0)
                return false;
       
        for (EventCounter = 0; EventCounter < NumberOfEvents; EventCounter++)
        {
                PeekConsoleInput(GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE),
 &Event, 1, &EventsRead);
                if ((Event.EventType == KEY_EVENT) && ((Event.Event.KeyEvent.bKeyDown)))
                {
                        ReadConsoleInput(GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE)
, &Event, 1, &EventsRead);
                        Key = Event.Event.KeyEvent.wVirtualKeyCode;
                        if  (!(FlushConsoleInputBuffer(GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_
HANDLE))))
                                exit(0);
                        return true;
                }
                else
                        ReadConsoleInput(GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE)
, &Event, 1, &EventsRead);
        }

        return false;
}

int main()
{
        char key = 0;
        for (;;)
        {               
                if (Keypress(key))
                {
                        if (key == VK_LEFT)
                                std::cout << "Left\n";
                        if (key == VK_RIGHT)
                                std::cout << "Right\n";
                        if (key == VK_DOWN)
                                std::cout << "Down\n";
                        if (key == VK_UP)
                                std::cout << "Up\n";
                        if (key == VK_ESCAPE)
                                return 0;
                }
        }
        return 0;
}

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i dont think that pacman or space invaders would be possible in console mode, although an extremely ghetto tetris might be. but i would recommand graphics for those kinds of things.