Saving and loading a file

bar3000

Hi, I am building a checkers game and I would like to have an option of saving and loading the game. I need to save the game state meaning pictureboxes, arrays, stacks etc... I would be glad to be directed to some article that explains how this could be done. Thank you:)

CPallini

See, for instance [^]. :)

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Paul Kettley

Hi Bar3000, I would generally look down the route of Serialization and DeSerialization of a object(s), that will hold you Games details. These can be implemented using the ISerializable interface. Cheers, Paul

Jon Rista

Perhapse better than implementing ISerializable, which is extra work that really is not neccesary...storing your game state in a separate serializable object that is utilized by your game engine would be a better approach. That way, you put all your game state (i.e. a matrix that maintains the state of each cell on the board, etc.) in a single class. That class can then be serialized without the worry of serializing other game state.

Luc Pattyn

Hi, I reckon checkers state is rather limited: to me it is what you see on the board (50 squares being empty, or taken by white, black, white queen, black queen) plus ply (=half move) number. Internally I would be inclined to store the board state in bitmaps (not the GDI ones!_, being long integers where each bit represents one square. Possible variables might be: white, black, queen, and empty (which would be redundant but might speed up things). The advantage of bitmaps is they allow you to generate possible moves in parallel by: - performing shifts, e.g. (newState = oldState << 1) could be a forward move right - then mask or AND to discard moves to non-empty squares, etc. So what is keeping you from saving/restoring those few longs? BTW: I would NEVER use PictureBoxes to render the board of a board game. I'd rather use a single Panel and paint the squares and pieces myself in its Paint handler. :)

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modified on Sunday, June 12, 2011 8:36 AM

PIEBALDconsult · modified on Sunday, June 12, 2011 8:36 AM

Luc Pattyn wrote:

I'd rather use a single Panel

I just use buttons, but I don't need to move anything around.