Hacking Minigame
In this game, the player must hack a computer by guessing a seven-letter word used as the secret password. The computer’s memory banks display the possible words, and the player is given hints as to how close each guess was. For example, if the secret password is MONITOR but the player guessed CONTAIN, they are given the hint that two out of seven letters were correct, because both MONITOR and CONTAIN have the letter O and N as their second and third letter. This game is similar to Project 1, “Bagels,” and the hacking minigame in the Fallout series of video games.
hacking_minigame.py
1"""Hacking Minigame, by Al Sweigart al@inventwithpython.com
2The hacking mini-game from "Fallout 3". Find out which seven-letter
3word is the password by using clues each guess gives you.
4This code is available at https://nostarch.com/big-book-small-python-programming
5Tags: large, artistic, game, puzzle"""
6
7# NOTE: This program requires the sevenletterwords.txt file. You can
8# download it from https://inventwithpython.com/sevenletterwords.txt
9
10import random, sys
11
12# Set up the constants:
13# The garbage filler characters for the "computer memory" display.
14GARBAGE_CHARS = '~!@#$%^&*()_+-={}[]|;:,.<>?/'
15
16# Load the WORDS list from a text file that has 7-letter words.
17with open('sevenletterwords.txt') as wordListFile:
18 WORDS = wordListFile.readlines()
19for i in range(len(WORDS)):
20 # Convert each word to uppercase and remove the trailing newline:
21 WORDS[i] = WORDS[i].strip().upper()
22
23
24def main():
25 """Run a single game of Hacking."""
26 print('''Hacking Minigame, by Al Sweigart al@inventwithpython.com
27Find the password in the computer's memory. You are given clues after
28each guess. For example, if the secret password is MONITOR but the
29player guessed CONTAIN, they are given the hint that 2 out of 7 letters
30were correct, because both MONITOR and CONTAIN have the letter O and N
31as their 2nd and 3rd letter. You get four guesses.\n''')
32 input('Press Enter to begin...')
33
34 gameWords = getWords()
35 # The "computer memory" is just cosmetic, but it looks cool:
36 computerMemory = getComputerMemoryString(gameWords)
37 secretPassword = random.choice(gameWords)
38
39 print(computerMemory)
40 # Start at 4 tries remaining, going down:
41 for triesRemaining in range(4, 0, -1):
42 playerMove = askForPlayerGuess(gameWords, triesRemaining)
43 if playerMove == secretPassword:
44 print('A C C E S S G R A N T E D')
45 return
46 else:
47 numMatches = numMatchingLetters(secretPassword, playerMove)
48 print('Access Denied ({}/7 correct)'.format(numMatches))
49 print('Out of tries. Secret password was {}.'.format(secretPassword))
50
51
52def getWords():
53 """Return a list of 12 words that could possibly be the password.
54
55 The secret password will be the first word in the list.
56 To make the game fair, we try to ensure that there are words with
57 a range of matching numbers of letters as the secret word."""
58 secretPassword = random.choice(WORDS)
59 words = [secretPassword]
60
61 # Find two more words; these have zero matching letters.
62 # We use "< 3" because the secret password is already in words.
63 while len(words) < 3:
64 randomWord = getOneWordExcept(words)
65 if numMatchingLetters(secretPassword, randomWord) == 0:
66 words.append(randomWord)
67
68 # Find two words that have 3 matching letters (but give up at 500
69 # tries if not enough can be found).
70 for i in range(500):
71 if len(words) == 5:
72 break # Found 5 words, so break out of the loop.
73
74 randomWord = getOneWordExcept(words)
75 if numMatchingLetters(secretPassword, randomWord) == 3:
76 words.append(randomWord)
77
78 # Find at least seven words that have at least one matching letter
79 # (but give up at 500 tries if not enough can be found).
80 for i in range(500):
81 if len(words) == 12:
82 break # Found 7 or more words, so break out of the loop.
83
84 randomWord = getOneWordExcept(words)
85 if numMatchingLetters(secretPassword, randomWord) != 0:
86 words.append(randomWord)
87
88 # Add any random words needed to get 12 words total.
89 while len(words) < 12:
90 randomWord = getOneWordExcept(words)
91 words.append(randomWord)
92
93 assert len(words) == 12
94 return words
95
96
97def getOneWordExcept(blocklist=None):
98 """Returns a random word from WORDS that isn't in blocklist."""
99 if blocklist == None:
100 blocklist = []
101
102 while True:
103 randomWord = random.choice(WORDS)
104 if randomWord not in blocklist:
105 return randomWord
106
107
108def numMatchingLetters(word1, word2):
109 """Returns the number of matching letters in these two words."""
110 matches = 0
111 for i in range(len(word1)):
112 if word1[i] == word2[i]:
113 matches += 1
114 return matches
115
116
117def getComputerMemoryString(words):
118 """Return a string representing the "computer memory"."""
119
120 # Pick one line per word to contain a word. There are 16 lines, but
121 # they are split into two halves.
122 linesWithWords = random.sample(range(16 * 2), len(words))
123 # The starting memory address (this is also cosmetic).
124 memoryAddress = 16 * random.randint(0, 4000)
125
126 # Create the "computer memory" string.
127 computerMemory = [] # Will contain 16 strings, one for each line.
128 nextWord = 0 # The index in words of the word to put into a line.
129 for lineNum in range(16): # The "computer memory" has 16 lines.
130 # Create a half line of garbage characters:
131 leftHalf = ''
132 rightHalf = ''
133 for j in range(16): # Each half line has 16 characters.
134 leftHalf += random.choice(GARBAGE_CHARS)
135 rightHalf += random.choice(GARBAGE_CHARS)
136
137 # Fill in the password from words:
138 if lineNum in linesWithWords:
139 # Find a random place in the half line to insert the word:
140 insertionIndex = random.randint(0, 9)
141 # Insert the word:
142 leftHalf = (leftHalf[:insertionIndex] + words[nextWord]
143 + leftHalf[insertionIndex + 7:])
144 nextWord += 1 # Update the word to put in the half line.
145 if lineNum + 16 in linesWithWords:
146 # Find a random place in the half line to insert the word:
147 insertionIndex = random.randint(0, 9)
148 # Insert the word:
149 rightHalf = (rightHalf[:insertionIndex] + words[nextWord]
150 + rightHalf[insertionIndex + 7:])
151 nextWord += 1 # Update the word to put in the half line.
152
153 computerMemory.append('0x' + hex(memoryAddress)[2:].zfill(4)
154 + ' ' + leftHalf + ' '
155 + '0x' + hex(memoryAddress + (16*16))[2:].zfill(4)
156 + ' ' + rightHalf)
157
158 memoryAddress += 16 # Jump from, say, 0xe680 to 0xe690.
159
160 # Each string in the computerMemory list is joined into one large
161 # string to return:
162 return '\n'.join(computerMemory)
163
164
165def askForPlayerGuess(words, tries):
166 """Let the player enter a password guess."""
167 while True:
168 print('Enter password: ({} tries remaining)'.format(tries))
169 guess = input('> ').upper()
170 if guess in words:
171 return guess
172 print('That is not one of the possible passwords listed above.')
173 print('Try entering "{}" or "{}".'.format(words[0], words[1]))
174
175
176# If this program was run (instead of imported), run the game:
177if __name__ == '__main__':
178 try:
179 main()
180 except KeyboardInterrupt:
181 sys.exit() # When Ctrl-C is pressed, end the program.