Mario

World 1-1

Toward the beginning of World 1-1 in Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers, Mario must hop over adjacent pyramids of blocks, per the below.

screenshot of Mario jumping over adjacent pyramids

Let’s recreate those pyramids in C, albeit in text, using hashes (#) for bricks, a la the below. Each hash is a bit taller than it is wide, so the pyramids themselves are also be taller than they are wide.

   #  #
  ##  ##
 ###  ###
####  ####

The program we’ll write will be called mario. And let’s allow the user to decide just how tall the pyramids should be by first prompting them for a positive integer between, say, 1 and 8, inclusive.

Here’s how the program might work if the user inputs 8 when prompted:

$ ./mario
Height: 8
       #  #
      ##  ##
     ###  ###
    ####  ####
   #####  #####
  ######  ######
 #######  #######
########  ########

Here’s how the program might work if the user inputs 4 when prompted:

$ ./mario
Height: 4
   #  #
  ##  ##
 ###  ###
####  ####

Here’s how the program might work if the user inputs 2 when prompted:

$ ./mario
Height: 2
 #  #
##  ##

And here’s how the program might work if the user inputs 1 when prompted:

$ ./mario
Height: 1
#  #

If the user doesn’t, in fact, input a positive integer between 1 and 8, inclusive, when prompted, the program should re-prompt the user until they cooperate:

$ ./mario
Height: -1
Height: 0
Height: 42
Height: 50
Height: 4
   #  #
  ##  ##
 ###  ###
####  ####

Notice that width of the “gap” between adjacent pyramids is equal to the width of two hashes, irrespective of the pyramids’ heights.

Create a new directory called mario inside of your pset1 directory by executing

~/ $ mkdir ~/pset1/mario

Create a new file called mario.c inside your mario directory. Modify mario.c in such a way that it implements this program as described!

Walkthrough

How to Test Your Code

Does your code work as prescribed when you input

  • -1 (or other negative numbers)?
  • 0?
  • 1 through 8?
  • 9 or other positive numbers?
  • letters or words?
  • no input at all, when you only hit Enter?

You can also execute the below to evaluate the correctness of your code using check50. But be sure to compile and test it yourself as well!

check50 cs50/problems/2021/spring/mario/more

Execute the below to evaluate the style of your code using style50.

style50 mario.c

How to Submit

  1. Download your mario.c file by control-clicking or right-clicking on the file in CS50 IDE’s file browser and choosing Download.
  2. Go to CS50’s Gradescope page.
  3. Click “Problem Set 1: Mario (More)”.
  4. Drag and drop your mario.c file to the area that says “Drag & Drop”. Be sure it has the correct filename!
  5. Click “Upload”.

You should see a message that says “Problem Set 1: Mario (More) submitted successfully!” You won’t see a score just yet, but if you see the message then we’ve received your submission!