Help with a simple game

I'm trying to learn as I go. I found a simple game in a graphics book that I've been messing with to learn about graphics. The game originally put a ship "<--*-->" (that's the ship) on the very top of a window and you could move it from left to right while stars would pass by making it look like it was moving through space.

I want to move the ship down about 10 spaces to the middle of the console window just to know that I can do it.

It's a console application. Here is the code.

The line that makes the ship is:

Draw_String(player_x,5,"<--*-->")

Instead of 5, it used to be 0 which placed it at the top. The way I have it now does the job somewhat but there is still "residue" leftover and you can still see the ship behind it as it moves. I want to get rid of the leftover graphic from the ship.

Code:

// PROG2_1.CPP - A simple console based game to illustrate // a generic game loop // INCLUDES /////////////////////////////////////////////// #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <ctype.h> #include <conio.h> #include <windows.h> #include <time.h> // DEFINES //////////////////////////////////////////////// #define MAX_X 77 // maximum x position for player #define SCROLL_POS 24 // the point that scrolling occurs // PROTOTYPES ///////////////////////////////////////////// void Init_Graphics(void); inline void Set_Color(int fcolor, int bcolor); inline void Draw_String(int x,int y, char *string); // GLOBALS //////////////////////////////////////////////// CONSOLE_SCREEN_BUFFER_INFO con_info; // holds screen info HANDLE hconsole; // handle to console int game_running = 1; // state of game, 0=done, 1=run // FUNCTIONS ////////////////////////////////////////////// void Init_Graphics(void) { // this function initializes the console graphics engine COORD console_size = {80,25}; // size of console // seed the random number generator with time srand((unsigned)time(NULL)); // open i/o channel to console screen hconsole=CreateFile("CONOUT$",GENERIC_WRITE | GENERIC_READ, FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE, 0L, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, 0L); // make sure we are in 80x25 SetConsoleScreenBufferSize(hconsole,console_size); // get details for console screen GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo(hconsole,&con_info); } // end Init_Graphics /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// inline void Set_Color(int fcolor, int bcolor=0) { // this function sets the color of the console output SetConsoleTextAttribute(hconsole,(WORD)((bcolor << 4) | fcolor)); } // Set_Color /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// inline void Draw_String(int x,int y, char *string) { // this function draws a string at the given x,y COORD cursor_pos; // used to pass coords // set printing position cursor_pos.X = x; cursor_pos.Y = y; SetConsoleCursorPosition(hconsole,cursor_pos); // print the string in current color printf("%s",string); } // end Draw_String /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// inline void Clear_Screen(void) { // this function clears the screen // set color to white on black Set_Color(15,0); // clear the screen for (int index=0; index<=25; index++) Draw_String(0, SCROLL_POS,"\n"); } // end Clear_Screen // MAIN GAME LOOP ///////////////////////////////////////// void main(void) { char key; // player input data int player_x = 40; // player's x position // SECTION: initialization // set up the console text graphics system Init_Graphics(); // clear the screen // SECTION: main event loop, this is where all the action // takes place, the general loop is erase-move-draw while(game_running) { // SECTION: erase all the objects or clear screen // nothing to erase in our case // SECTION: get player input if (kbhit()) { // get keyboard data, and filter it key = toupper(getch()); // is player trying to exit, if so exit if (key=='Q' || key==27) game_running = 0; // is player moving left if (key=='A') player_x--; // is player moving right if (key=='S') player_x++; } // end if // SECTION: game logic and further processing // make sure player stays on screen if (++player_x > MAX_X) player_x=MAX_X; if (--player_x < 0) player_x=0; // SECTION: draw everything // draw next star at random position Set_Color(15,0); Draw_String(rand()%80, SCROLL_POS, ".\n"); // draw player Set_Color(2,0); Draw_String(player_x,5,"<--*-->"); Set_Color(0,0); Draw_String(player_x,4,"<<<<<--*-->>>>>"); // SECTION: synchronize to a constant frame rate Sleep(40); Clear_Screen(); } // end while // SECTION: shutdown and bail printf("\nG A M E O V E R \n\n"); } // end main