Demystifying Popcorn Tycoon using the C Programming Language

In the Amazon Alexa skill, Popcorn Tycoon, popping 4143 kernels per second yields 248580 kernels per minute. The kernel of truth will pop 1491480 kernels in 90 seconds.

Hello World! As a computer science project, I’ve decided to research a very popular Amazon Alexa skill, called, “Popcorn Tycoon” while avoiding gaming addiction at the same time. The first thing I noticed, is the announced popping rate does NOT match the computing rate, when computing for a minute. I believe that’s an intentional flaw from the game developers, solely to influence gaming addiction. Here is my C source code: ☺️ 

#include <stdio.h>


int main(){

float rate;
unsigned int minute, truth;

rate = 4143.00;
minute = (int)((rate * 60) );
truth = (int)(rate * 4 * 90);

printf("In the Amazon Alexa skill, Popcorn Tycoon, ");

printf("popping %.0f kernels per second yields %d kernels per minute. ", rate, minute);

printf("The kernel of truth will pop %d kernels in 90 seconds.", truth);

return 0;

}

From my posted source code, changing the rate variable will automatically compute the minute & truth formulas. I made the rate variable into a float to handle .25, .50 & .75 decimals that are announced on mostly earlier rates, as when starting the game, etc.

Thanks for reading my latest blog post! Have a Great Day!

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Published by Marcos 🇵🇭🇺🇸

Happily-Married, comfortably poor, permanently disabled and totally BLIND. A Terrorism SURVIVOR that's still SURVIVING Terrorism + post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Scientist since 1977, Acoustician since 1979, Computer Scientist/Programmer since 1982, Seismologist since 1988, Criminologist (Behavioral Scientist) since 1992, and many more! Also, had worked in two civilian and one military virology labs in the USA between 1993 and 2003. A Generation X, Filipino-American US expat, living in The Philippines, whom was naturally-born in Boston, grew up mostly in Seattle, some in Chicago, and have lived in Anchorage & San Francisco. Became permanently-disabled in 2003 due to health-related illness, ending my moonlighting career as an independent private investigator in the USA. RETIRED independent developer of computing & electronics technologies after 35 wonderful years, including 20 wonderful years in GNU/Linux development & 8 wonderful years as an independent embedded systems developer of digital electronics. Former speech synthesis systems developer of 30 wonderful years, specializing in foreign language phoneme-to-speech synthesis. Also was a beta tester of third-party software-based speech synthesizers. Former FCC-licensed amateur radio operator of 20 wonderful years, beginning with 2m packet-radio & AmSat communications between Anchorage & Manila. Former member of Anchorage Amateur Radio Club and Mike & Key ARC in Seattle. Learned 10-finger QWERTY touch-typing on a manual typewriter in 1980 at a US-based elementary school. Mastered 10-finger QWERTY touch-typing without looking at the keyboard in 1986. Now have osteoarthritis in both of my hands from all that touch-typing! My primary computer programming language is C, which I learned in 1990. My secondary programming language is B.A.S.I.C., which I self-learned in 1982. Prior to my sight-loss, I used to program in LISP/CLISP and Prolog for my early development of artificial intelligence & machine learning programs. Daily, to compensate/facilitate my sight-loss, I am actively using Apple iOS VoiceOver, Google Android TalkBack and Amazon Fire OS VoiceView screen-readers, in addition to my external Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard and sometimes, my Orbit Writer Braille keyboard, as HOBBIES.

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