Trip into the Future


In this game, you're told how far in the future you want to go. You then input the distance of the trip (in light-years), and the speed of the ship from 0 to 1, where 1 is light-speed and 0 is a dead stop. According to Einsteinian physics, the universe will age more quickly (relative to you) the faster you go.

Example: With light-speed 1 and a distance of 20 light years, you would age 20 years, but the universe would have aged infinitely. With light-speed 0.9 and a distance of 20 light years, you would age 22.2222... years while the universe would age 50.98 years. And so on.

Note that you cannot enter light speeds of 0 or 1 into this program, as that would either not move, or age the universe infinitely. Always choose a number between 0.00001 and 0.9999.

The purpose of the game is to travel forward in time to within five years of the target date, without aging more than fifty years (at which point you die). Basically, fiddle around with the numbers until you get the idea.

In the above image, from top to bottom, the text boxes are named txtSpeed and txtDistance; and the 4 labels are named lblIntroMessage, lblTimeInside, lblTimeOutside, and lblStatus. The clock image at the top is a PictureBox, using Visual Basic\Graphics\Icons\Misc\Clock02.ico.

For the button marked GO!: 
' Get speed and distance from the appropriate text controls
speed = Val(txtSpeed.Text)
distance = Val(txtDistance.Text)

' Calculate number of years you've aged and number of years the universe has aged
TripTimeInside = Int(distance / speed)
TripTimeOutside = Int(TripTimeInside / Sqr(1 - speed * speed))

' Display those two values
lblTimeInside.Caption = Str$(TripTimeInside)
lblTimeOutside.Caption = Str$(TripTimeOutside)

If TripTimeInside > 50 Then ' More than 50 years have passed
  lblStatus.Caption = "You died on the way."
ElseIf Abs(t - TripTimeOutside) > 5 Then ' Over 5 years difference
  lblStatus.Caption = "Not even close!"
Else
  lblStatus.Caption = "You arrived on-time."
End If
For the button marked New Game: 
' t = between 25 and 125 years, as target
t = Int(Rnd * 100 + 25)
' Display the introductory message
lblIntroMessage.Caption = "You wish to return" + Str$(t) + " years in the future."
txtSpeed.Text = ""
txtDistance.Text = ""
lblTimeInside.Caption = ""
lblTimeOutside.Caption = ""
lblStatus.Caption = ""
For the Form_Load procedure: 
Randomize Timer
' t = between 25 and 125 years, as target
t = Int(Rnd * 100 + 25)
' Display the introductory message
lblIntroMessage.Caption = "You wish to return" + Str$(t) + " years in the future."
For the (General) (Declarations) section: 
Dim t As Double
Dim speed As Double
Dim distance As Double
Dim TripTimeInside As Double
Dim TripTimeOutside As Double
For the Exit button's Click procedure: 
Unload Me

Extra Improvements:

  1. Add checks into the code which will make sure the user only enters in a valid number for the speed. In other words, the value of txtSpeed.Text should be greater than 0, or less than 1. If the user enters an invalid number, clear txtSpeed.
  2. Include a label, which gives the user instructions in how to play the game.
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