Making a moving bar

Question

I'd like to make a box move back and forth in a bar. I know this sounds vague, but I'll try to draw a picture:
|                   [ ]                 |Now, I want that [ ] to move back and forth a varying speeds as I want to make a game where you have to try to press a button as it is in a specific area, kind of like this:
|        [ ]   |    here    |           |So when the box passes through that area and the player presses a button, they will get a point. Now, my question is, how do I go about to making that? As of now, my idea is very inefficient but I'll explain it anyways.
I'll make several images of this bar and box with the box in a different position each time. Then I'll make a loop with a timer and it'll go through to make the box go one way, switch to another loop and make it go the other way. When the player presses a button, it'll record what number the loop is at (like a for loop for example, and the counter) to determine if it's in the area or not. As the player consecutively hits the area, the timer's increments will be changed.
Now, I assume there's a easier way, but I could be wrong. If there's another way to do this, could someone just explain how to do it? Thank you very much in advanced.

Answer 1

* MovingBar.java
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.Timer;
import javax.swing.border.*;
public class MovingBar extends JFrame implements ActionListener{
    public MovingBar(){
        setTitle("Moving Bar");
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
        bar = new Bar();
        mainPanel.add(bar);
        getContentPane().add(mainPanel,BorderLayout.CENTER);
        btn.addActionListener(this);
        toolbar.add(btn);
        results.add(label);
        getContentPane().add(results,BorderLayout.NORTH);
        getContentPane().add(toolbar,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        setSize(500, 130);
        setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        setVisible(true);
        bar.setPosition(0);
        Timer timer = new Timer(1,this);
        timer.start();
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new MovingBar();
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent evt){
        if(evt.getSource() instanceof JButton){
            if( newGame ){
                label.setText("");
                points=0;
                newGame = false;
            if( position>200 && position<300 ){
                if(speed<=11){
                    points++;
                    speed++;
                    label.setText(points+" points     ");
                    if(speed==11){
                        label.setText(points+" points       Game Over");
                        speed = 1;
                        newGame = true;
            }else{
                if(speed<=11){
                    points--;
                    label.setText(points+" points     ");
            return;
        if(rightDirection) position += speed;
        else               position -= speed;
        if( position >480 ) rightDirection=false;
        if( position <0 )   rightDirection=true;
        bar.setPosition(position);
        bar.repaint();
    private boolean rightDirection = true;
    private boolean newGame = true;
    private JPanel toolbar = new JPanel();
    private JPanel results = new JPanel();
    private JButton btn = new JButton("Hit");
    private JLabel label = new JLabel();
    private Bar bar;
    private int position, points;
    private int speed = 1;
* Bar
class Bar extends JPanel {
    public Bar() {
        setPreferredSize(new Dimension(10, 30));
        setBackground(Color.red);
        setBorder(new LineBorder(Color.BLACK));
    public void setPosition(int position){
        setLayout(null);
        setLocation( position, 0 );
}