Craps Game • Zach Dennison

This is a simple craps game that lets players create an account and make bets with virtual credits. Accounts are created with a starting balance of 1000 credits. Alternatively, if a player doesn’t want to create an account, they can play a single round without an account.

This assignment was the final project for my Introduction to Web Programming course, and is presented as an example of my work in my ePortfolio. I am sharing it as a historical document of my student work. While it’s an example of my best work in the context of the course, it is very basic and uses several bad practices that should not be used outside of a learning environment. Some examples of these bad practices are:

Valid html and css are not used.
There is minimal error checking used. Account balances are allowed to go negative.
Passwords are not hashed, and are stored in a plain text file.

This game is very basic. Security and design were not considered. Among other issues, this game stores passwords in plain text!
Do not use this script in a public environment.

How to Play

This script creates a simple implementation of craps. To play craps, you roll 2 dice and take to total.

On the first roll:
- If you roll a total of 7 or 11, you win.
- If you roll a total of 2, 3, or 12, you lose.
- If you roll a different total, that total becomes the point, and you roll again.
After the first roll:
- If your total equals 7, you lose.
- If your total matches the point, you win.
- If you roll a different total, you repeat this step.

Directory Structure

This is an example of a basic directory structure for this game. This example only shows the files and folders relevant to this game. It has the game in the craps subdirectory on the web server, allowing you to have other documents on the same domain.

The cgi-data directory is where the data files are stored. This is a special directory located outside the html directory for security purposes. If running the apache2 web server, the www-data user account requires read and write permissions to this directory in order to create, read, and write data files.

www
├─ cgi-data
└─ html
   └─ craps
      ├─ index.html
      ├─ cgi-bin
      │  ├─ adduser.pl
      │  ├─ bet.pl
      │  ├─ login.pl
      │  └─ roll.pl
      └─ images
         ├─ dice1.gif
         ├─ dice2.gif
         ├─ dice3.gif
         ├─ dice4.gif
         ├─ dice5.gif
         └─ dice6.gif

Source Code

index.html

This is the entry point to the game. It lets players create an account, login, or play a single round. It also explains the rules of the game.

<html>
<head>
<title>Craps Game</title>
</head>
<body style="background: lightgray">
<h1 style="text-align: center">Play Craps</h1>
<div style="border: 1px solid #000; width: 50%; margin: auto; padding: 1em; background: #f5f5f5">
<h2 style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000; margin-top: 0">Rules</h2>
Craps is a dice game. This is a simple implementation with few rules. To play, you roll 2 dice and add the total.
<ul>
<li>On the first roll:</li>
<ul>
<li>If you roll a total of 7 or 11, you <b>win</b>.</li>
<li>If you roll a total of 2, 3, or 12, you <b>lose</b>.</li>
<li>If you roll a different total, that total becomes the <b>point</b>, and you roll again.</li>
</ul>
<li>After the first roll:</li>
<ul>
<li>If your total equals 7, you <b>lose</b>.</li>
<li>If your total matches the point, you <b>win</b>.</li>
<li>If you roll a different total, repeat this step.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
</div>
<table cellspacing="0" style="border: 1px solid #000; margin: 2em auto; background: #f5f5f5">
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="padding: 1em 1em 0; ; border-bottom: 1px solid #000; text-align: center">
<h2 style="margin-top: 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #000; text-align: left">Play a Round</h2>
If you wish, you may create an account and make a bet with each round. If you already have an account, you may login below.<br/><br/>
If you would like to play a round without using an account, click the button.<br/>
<form action="cgi-bin/roll.pl" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="first_roll" value="yes" />
<input type="submit" value="Play a Round!" style="border: 1px solid #aaa; background: #fff; padding: .25em; margin: .5em; font-size: 110%; margin-bottom: 0" />
</form>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-right: 1px solid #000; width: 50%">
<form action="cgi-bin/adduser.pl" method="post" />
<table align="center">
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<h2>Create an Account</h2>
</td></tr>
<tr><td>Username:</td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="username" size="12" maxlength="12" style="border: 1px solid #000" /></td></tr>
<tr><td>Password:</td>
<td><input type="password" name="password" size="12" maxlength="12" style="border: 1px solid #000" /></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">
<input type="submit" value="Create Account" style="border: 1px solid #aaa; background: #fff" />
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value="1000" />
</td>
</tr></form></table>
</td>
<td>
<form action="cgi-bin/login.pl" method="post" />
<table align="center">
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<h2>Login</h2>
</td></tr>
<tr><td>Username:</td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="username" size="12" maxlength="12" style="border: 1px solid #000" /></td></tr>
<tr><td>Password:</td>
<td><input type="password" name="password" size="12" maxlength="12" style="border: 1px solid #000" /></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2">
<input type="submit" value="Login" style="border: 1px solid #aaa; background: #fff" />
</td></tr></form></table>
</td>
</tr></table>
</body>
</html>

cgi-bin/adduser.pl

Creates a new user account.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI ':standard';

print header, start_html(-title=>"Account Created",-BGCOLOR=>"#f5f5f5");

# Pull in headers from html
$username   = param( 'username' );
$password   = param( 'password' );
$amount     = param( 'amount'   );
$amountfile = $username . "-winnings.txt";

open( FH, ">>../../../../../cgi-data/passwords" ) or die "Can't open passwords file.";
print FH "$username $password $amountfile\n";
close( FH );

open( FH, ">../../../../../cgi-data/$amountfile" ) or die "Can't open amount file.";
print FH $amount;
close( FH );

print "Put $amount in account for $username.<br />";
print "<a href=../index.html>Login</a>";

print end_html;

cgi-bin/bet.pl

Confirms the bet amount, then sends the player to roll the dice.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI ':standard';

print header, start_html(-title=>"Select Bet Amount",-BGCOLOR=>"#f5f5f5");

$bankfile = param('bankfile');

print "<center>";
print "<form method=post action=roll.pl>";
print "Your bet: ";
print "<input type=text name=bet>";
print "<input type=submit value=Roll>";
print "<input type=hidden name=first_roll value=yes>";
print "<input type=hidden name=bankfile value=$bankfile>";

print "</form></center>";
print end_html;

cgi-bin/login.pl

Logs a player in, and asks them to place a bet.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI ':standard';

print header, start_html(-title=>"Login",-BGCOLOR=>"#f5f5f5");

$login_name = param( 'username' );
$login_pass = param( 'password' );

open( FH, "../../../../../cgi-data/passwords" ) or die "Can't open passwords file, guess you can't login. :(";
while( ( $username, $password, $amountfile ) = split( " ", <FH> ) ) {
    if( $username eq $login_name && $password eq $login_pass ) {
	print "<center>";
	print "Welcome, $username<br />";
	
	open( BH, "../../../../../cgi-data/$amountfile" ) or die "No bank for this user.";
	$amount = <BH>;
	close( BH );
	print "You have $amount in your account.<br/>";
	print "<form method=post action=bet.pl>";
	print "<input type=submit name=submit value=Bet />";
	print "<input type=hidden name=bankfile value=$amountfile>";
	print "</form>";
	print "</center>";
	exit( 0 );
    }
}
close( FH );

# Still here? Guess we don't know you...
print "We've never heard of you. Are you sure you're at the right place?";

print end_html;

cgi-bin/roll.pl

Roll the dice! This is where the magic happens. It generates the rolls, and depending on the roll total and whether it’s the first roll, tells the player if they won or lost, or lets them continue playing. If they won or lost, it processes the bet amount and updates their account total, and tells them their new credit total.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI ':standard';

print header, start_html(-title=>'Roll the dice',-BGCOLOR=>'#f5f5f5');

$first = int(rand(6))+1;
$second = int(rand(6))+1;
$total = $first + $second;

$first_roll = param("first_roll");
$point = param("point");
$bet = param("bet");
$bankfile = param("bankfile");

if ($first_roll eq "yes") {
	print "<center>This is your first roll</center><br />";

	if ($total == 7 || $total == 11) {
		print "<h1 align=center>You Win!</h1>";
		$diff = $bet;
		$all_done = 1;
	} elsif ($total == 2 || $total == 3 ||$total == 12) {
		print "<h1 align=center>You lose!</h1>";
		$diff = -$bet;
		$all_done = 1;
	} else {
		$point = $total;
	}

} else {
	if ($total == 7) {
		print "<h1 align=center>You Lose!</h1>";
		$diff = -$bet;
		$all_done = 1;
	} elsif ($point == $total) {
		print "<h1 align=center>You Win!</h1>";
		$diff = $bet;
		$all_done = 1;
	}
}

print "<table style=\"background: #000; border-radius: 5px\" cellspacing=1 align=center>";
print "<tr>";
print "<td style=\"border-radius: 10px\"><img src=../images/dice$first.gif></td>";
print "<td style=\"border-radius: 10px\"><img src=../images/dice$second.gif></td>";
print "</tr></table>";
if ($all_done != 1) {
	print "<center>";
	print "<form method=post action=roll.pl>";
	print "<input type=hidden name=point value=$point />";
	print "<input type=hidden name=bankfile value=$bankfile />";
	print "<input type=hidden name=bet value=$bet />";
	print "<input type=submit name=submit value=Roll />";
	print "</form>";
} else {
    open( FH, "../../../../../cgi-data/$bankfile" ) or die "Can't open bank file.";
    $amount = <FH>;
    close( FH );
    
    $amount = ($amount + $diff);
    
    open( FH, ">../../../../../cgi-data/$bankfile" ) or die "Can't open bank file.";
    print FH $amount;
    close( FH );
    print "<center>Balance: $amount<br />";
    print "<form action='bet.pl' method='post'>";
    print "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"bankfile\" value=\"$bankfile\" />";
    print "<input type='submit' value='Play Again' /></form>";
}

print end_html;

Images

Images of dice representing each side of a six-sided die.

images/dice1.gif
images/dice2.gif
images/dice3.gif
images/dice4.gif
images/dice5.gif
images/dice6.gif

Data Files

In addition to these files, the game will automatically create data files as needed. These will be placed in the cgi-data directory. The following files will be created:

passwords: A plain text file with the list of user accounts and the password for each one.
<username>-winnings.txt: One of these files is created for each user account. This file contains the current credit balance for the player. For a player whose username is john, this file would be named john-winnings.txt.

View the Craps Game »

Zach Dennison

Technology Enthusiast

How to Play

Directory Structure

Source Code

index.html

cgi-bin/adduser.pl

cgi-bin/bet.pl

cgi-bin/login.pl

cgi-bin/roll.pl

Images

Data Files