Introduction
Breakthrough! is a lock solving game based on using a range of tools from a number of different toolkits to crack the challenges associated with each lock. You will have a Hand of five cards, each of which can be a file, a key or a pick. Each tool will come from either toolkit a, b or c. The cards are represented by a capital letter for the type of tool (F, K or P) and each toolkit by a lowercase letter – so when combined give cards such as 'K a' (key from toolkit a) or 'F b' (file from toolkit b).
To solve a challenge, cards are played to the Sequence and must be played in the order of the cards for the challenge. Challenges themselves can be solved in any order. The only other rule is that you cannot play two cards of the same tool type (e.g. two files) consecutively. When a player cannot make a useful move, you can discard – which is to your advantage, because when all the challenges for a lock have been solved, this discard pile is shuffled into the Deck ready for the next lock.
This resource aims to help you get to grips and help you prepare for the A Level Paper 1 examination for summer 2022, which is partly based on the Breakthrough! pre-release material.
It consists of the following sections:
Code breakdown: a detailed technical overview of the skeleton program, describing in detail each class and method in turn – including their purpose/function, parameters and return values. Note that this only intended as helpful reference document, and not as a substitute for exploring the code in a practical manner.
UML class diagram activity: requires you to study the program and fill in the gaps with the missing identifiers and data types.
Video: a quick overview of the Breakthrough! game mechanics – intended as a visual aid to accompany the notes in the official AQA pre-release material.
Theory questions: designed to test your understanding of the skeleton program. These questions require access to the program, but no modifications need to be made to the program. Write-on (with answer lines) and non-write-on versions are available.
Coding tasks: there are 15 modification tasks to test your programming skills - as well as an additional 15 modification ideas that you may also want to try as extension tasks.