[RESOLVED] Check For Win Help

I have recently taken up .net game programming and have been through a few tutorials but have now decided on a project of my own. I've drawn up a plan for my project but cant figure out the best way to check for a win.

Game Background
Basically each level will have a certain amount of random coloured blocks at the top of the screen. These blocks are created in a class I have created which has four parameters (Size, Location, Colour1, Colour2).

Each block on the screen is stored in a two dimensional array of my block class.

The user will control a shooter at the bottom of the screen which will generate a random coloured block. When the block is shot and stops i need to test the two blocks above and two blocks to the left and right to see if they are the same colour. Then if they are this will be a win and the blocks will disappear.

The problem i have is how to check for the win.

Any help will be appreciated

How would you define a state where the player has won?

It would be three of the same colour block either vertically or horizontaly

Brute-force wise, you can loop through each element in your array and check the surrounding elements. Here's a simple example:

Code:

---

    Private Sub CheckForWin()
        Dim SizeOfBoard = 10 'For a 10x10 board
        Dim block(SizeOfBoard - 1, SizeOfBoard - 1) As Color 'make a 10x10 board

        For i As Integer = 0 To SizeOfBoard - 1
            For j As Integer = 0 To SizeOfBoard - 3
                'Check horizontal the first line, check vertical the second line.
                If (block(i, j) = block(i, j + 1) AndAlso block(i, j) = block(i, j + 2)) OrElse _
                  (block(j, i) = block(j + 1, i) AndAlso block(j, i) = block(j + 2, i)) Then

                    Console.Write("YOU WIN!!!")
                    Exit Sub
                End If
            Next
        Next
    End Sub

---

Notice the first loop cycles 10 elements but the second only cycles 8. This is because you're always checking j+1 and j+2. If the second loop went to 10 as well, then it would crash because j+1 would eventually = 11. Our array doesn't have an 11th element.

Thanks for your help on this one Jenner