Treasure Hunt

What You’ll Build

A real-time game where you move a character around a grid, collecting coins and avoiding hazards. A timer counts down. Clear all the coins to advance to the next level — each one harder than the last.

Why This Game?

Everything you’ve built so far has been turn-based. The computer waits for you to type something, then responds. Real games don’t work like that. In a real game, things happen continuously — the screen updates, hazards move, time runs out.

Treasure Hunt is your first game loop. Instead of waiting for input, the program checks for a keypress on every pass through the loop. If nothing is pressed, it carries on anyway. This is how every real-time game works, from Pac-Man to Fortnite.

What You’ll Learn

• The game loop — input, update, draw, repeat
• INKEY$ — polling for keypresses without blocking
• Character movement — erase old position, draw new
• Boundary checking — keeping the player on screen
• ATTR — reading the colour of a screen cell
• Collision detection — checking what the player walked into
• GO SUB / RETURN — organising code into subroutines
• Lives and hazards — losing a life, resetting position
• Level progression — harder each time
• PEEK timer — reading the system clock for countdowns
• Moving hazards — animated obstacles in the game loop
• Wall collision — using ATTR to detect walls
• Sound effects — BEEP for game events
• Visual design — black background, coloured elements
• Title screens — instructions before the game starts

Prerequisites

Complete Game 6: Quiz Master first. You’ll need arrays, AND/OR, DATA/READ, and RESTORE.

Time Investment

16 units at 45-75 minutes each. Roughly 12-20 hours total.