Advent-of-Code/2019/13

2019 Day 13: Care Package

Copyright (c) Eric Wastl

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Part 1

As you ponder the solitude of space and the ever-increasing three-hour roundtrip for messages between you and Earth, you notice that the Space Mail Indicator Light is blinking. To help keep you sane, the Elves have sent you a care package.

It's a new game for the ship's arcade cabinet! Unfortunately, the arcade is all the way on the other end of the ship. Surely, it won't be hard to build your own - the care package even comes with schematics.

The arcade cabinet runs Intcode software like the game the Elves sent (your puzzle input). It has a primitive screen capable of drawing square tiles on a grid. The software draws tiles to the screen with output instructions: every three output instructions specify the x position (distance from the left), y position (distance from the top), and tile id. The tile id is interpreted as follows:

• 0 is an empty tile. No game object appears in this tile.
• 1 is a wall tile. Walls are indestructible barriers.
• 2 is a block tile. Blocks can be broken by the ball.
• 3 is a horizontal paddle tile. The paddle is indestructible.
• 4 is a ball tile. The ball moves diagonally and bounces off objects.

For example, a sequence of output values like 1,2,3,6,5,4 would draw a horizontal paddle tile (1 tile from the left and 2 tiles from the top) and a ball tile (6 tiles from the left and 5 tiles from the top).

Start the game. How many block tiles are on the screen when the game exits?

Part 2

The game didn't run because you didn't put in any quarters. Unfortunately, you did not bring any quarters. Memory address 0 represents the number of quarters that have been inserted; set it to 2 to play for free.

The arcade cabinet has a joystick that can move left and right. The software reads the position of the joystick with input instructions:

• If the joystick is in the neutral position, provide 0.
• If the joystick is tilted to the left, provide -1.
• If the joystick is tilted to the right, provide 1.

The arcade cabinet also has a segment display capable of showing a single number that represents the player's current score. When three output instructions specify X=-1, Y=0, the third output instruction is not a tile; the value instead specifies the new score to show in the segment display. For example, a sequence of output values like -1,0,12345 would show 12345 as the player's current score.

Beat the game by breaking all the blocks. What is your score after the last block is broken?