LCOM Racing Game Project

A racing game developed in C for the LCOM (Computer Laboratory) course at FEUP, built on the MINIX operating system. This project demonstrates low-level programming concepts including device drivers, interrupt handling, and graphics programming.

🎓 Grade: 19.7/20

🕹️ Demo

video demo

🎮 About

This is a complete racing game implementation that runs on MINIX, featuring:

• Custom device drivers for keyboard, mouse, and timer interrupts
• VGA graphics programming with multiple video modes
• Real-time game mechanics with collision detection
• Multiple racing tracks with obstacles and power-ups
• Custom font rendering system

🚀 Features

• Multiple Racing Tracks: 3 different tracks with unique layouts and backgrounds
• Real-time Controls: Responsive keyboard input using custom keyboard driver
• Graphics Engine: Custom VGA graphics implementation supporting different resolutions
• Game Mechanics:
  • Collision detection with track boundaries
  • Obstacle avoidance gameplay
  • Power-up collection system
  • Pause functionality
• Low-level Programming: Direct hardware interaction through custom device drivers

🛠 Technical Implementation

Device Drivers Implemented

• Timer Driver (shared/lab2/timer.c): Handles system timing and interrupts
• Keyboard Driver (shared/lab3/keyboard.c): Manages keyboard input and scancodes
• Mouse Driver: Handles mouse input events
• Video Driver (shared/lab5/video_card.h): VGA graphics programming

Key Components

• Main Game Loop (shared/proj/src/macros.h): Event-driven architecture handling timer, keyboard, and mouse events
• Track System: Binary track data with surface collision detection
• Graphics Rendering: Custom drawing functions for sprites, backgrounds, and UI elements

System Architecture

┌─────────────────┐
│   Game Logic    │
├─────────────────┤
│ Event Handling  │
├─────────────────┤
│ Device Drivers  │
├─────────────────┤
│  MINIX Kernel   │
└─────────────────┘

🏗 Building and Running

Prerequisites

• MINIX operating system
• GCC compiler
• VirtualBox (for running MINIX VM)

Build Instructions

# Navigate to project source directory
cd shared/proj/src

# Compile the project
make clean && make

# Run the game
lcom_run proj

Lab Exercises

Each lab folder contains progressive implementations:

• Lab 2: Timer functionality and interrupts
• Lab 3: Keyboard driver implementation
• Lab 4: Mouse driver (if applicable)
• Lab 5: VGA graphics programming

🎯 Controls

• Arrow Keys: Navigate menus and control vehicle
• Spacebar: Select/Action
• P: Pause game
• ESC: Exit/Back

📁 Project Structure

shared/
├── lab2/           # Timer implementation
├── lab3/           # Keyboard driver
├── lab5/           # Graphics driver
└── proj/           # Final racing game
    └── src/
        ├── tracks/ # Track data files
        └── macros.h # Game constants and definitions

🏆 Learning Outcomes

Through this project, I gained hands-on experience with:

• Low-level Programming: Direct hardware manipulation and register programming
• Operating Systems: Interrupt handling, device drivers, and system calls
• Graphics Programming: VGA mode setting, pixel manipulation, and sprite rendering
• Real-time Systems: Managing timing-critical game loops and input handling
• C Programming: Advanced C concepts including bit manipulation and memory management

👥 Original Team

This project was originally developed as part of a team effort:

• Pedro Lunet
• Bernardo Brandão
• Dinis Noronha
• Mariana Pereira

📜 License

This project was developed for educational purposes as part of the LCOM course at FEUP (Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto).

---

Note: This project requires MINIX OS to run. The game demonstrates fundamental computer systems concepts through practical implementation of device drivers and real-time graphics programming.