This is a little test program that I made to demonstrate (really, to learn) the path-finding technique using the A* (A-star) algorithm.

Also, it uses a small implementation of binary heaps (to speed up the processing), that are something like a mixture between arrays, stacks, and "almost" sorted binary trees.

Just in case you don't know much about A* algorithm, I'll give you a quick description of what it is, so you know exactly what I am talking about before you download the path finding demo. If you have a fast speed Internet like broadband you will have the demo in minutes, so before you do that I would recommend just quickly reading this.

A* algorithm is a method for solving problems where you have to search a path between two points using a cost-function. It finds the least-cost path with a given cost heuristic: path cost + distance to the target point. The distance to the target point must be calculated with an admissible heuristic (sqrt, manhattan distance, etc.)

Download:
Path Finding Demo
Portable source code (with Allegro) and Windows executable (includes alleg42.dll)