BlockBuster

Blockbuster is an application containing two games aimed at children in the four
to seven age group. It was written primarily as an exercise in my ongoing efforts
to learn Pascal, and the Toolbox, especially using off screen ports to hold
images for screen updates and using GSOS to load files of images, then
manipulating them as screen images. It is very simple in concept but holds the
interest of my four year old grandson well, because of the color and flash, and
the fact that it talks to him.

For those of you interested, I will upload the code in the Developers forum.
Unfortunately, it was written in Complete Technology's pascal, which is no longer
supported, but translation to Orca pascal should be straight forward, since no
unique CTI code is used except for GSOS class 1 string translation, which is
really a simple set of record assignments. The code is generously commented
(primarily for my benefit in future efforts) and can serve as a tutorial in
Pascal and many aspects of Desk Top and Tool Box programming. The sound is
generated by the old TML 'Speech Tool Kit', with an interface built to support
the TML II --> CTI system. The program has been tested using the Byte Works
'Talking Tools' and seems to work well, so either set of speech tools installed
on your start up disk will allow the IIGS to talk to you in this program.

The 'Cups and Balls' game is a simple hidden ball game. The user selects the
number of cups the IIGS uses to hide the balls under in the 'Goodies Menu' in the
'Change Game Level...' item. The game level is the number of cups painted in both
the horizontal and vertical screen plane, and so the total number of cups is the
square of the 'Game Level', and can be from one to one hundred. The number of
balls to hide under the cups is selected in the 'Goodies Menu' under the 'How
Many Balls...' item. The user can select from one to one hundred balls to hide,
but cannot select zero balls and cannot select more balls than there are cups to
hide them under. The game is started by opening the 'Game' menu and selecting the
'Find the Ball' item. The IIGS then paints the selected number of cups (default
is Game Level of five or twenty five cups), and hides the selected number of
balls (default is five balls) under the cups. The user then simply clicks on the
cups to see if there is a ball hidden underneath. If there is no ball, the cup
simply scrolls off into bit heaven. If there is a ball hidden underneath the cup,
the cup scrolls off and is replaced by the hidden ball. After all the hidden
balls are found, a push button control appears in the center of the screen
allowing the user to restart the game. If the user wants to change the number of
cups and/or balls before starting a new game, he can go to the 'Goodies Menu' and
make the desired changes before clicking on the 'Play It Again' button. The user
can also start a new game by opening the 'Game' menu and selecting the 'Find the
Ball' item again. In fact this can be done at any time without cancelling the
game in progress. The user can have as many different games going at once, with
as many different levels of cups and balls, as you have memory to support, and
switch back and forth at will by moving windows out of the way and clicking on
the one you want to play.

The 'Color Blocks Game' is the more educational of the two games and the one
which will speak to you if you have either the TML Speech tools, or the Byte
Works Speech tool kit installed. The IIGS generates the 'Game Level' squared
number of blocks and fills them with a color. Since the purpose of this game is
to teach toddlers their colors only basic colors are used. The 'Lilacs' and
'Periwinkle Blues' are left out of the color set used to generate the Colored
Blocks. The number of blocks generated is selected in the 'Goodies' menu under
the 'Game Level' item. The user may have from one to one hundred colored blocks.
The colors are selected randomly as to which colors and how many of each appear
in a screen full of blocks. Therefore it is possible, though not likely, to have
a hundred blocks of the same color on a given screen. The user should be able to
play many, many games at any given level without seeing the same pattern of
colored blocks more than once. The 'How Many Balls..' item under the goodies menu
is not functional when using this game. The game is started by selecting the
'Color Block Game' item under the 'Games' menu. A screen full of colored blocks
is generated, with a larger 'Target Color Block' at the top of the window
containing the 'color word'. The user is asked to click the blocks which are the
same color as the color Word in the target block. If he clicks a block of the
same color as the color word, the block scrolls off screen. If the user clicks
the wrong color block, the IIGS tells him what color he selected, and also what
color he is looking for. If the user doesn't know or forgets what the color word
means, clicking on the Target Color Block changes the color of the Target Color
Block to the color of the Color Word and the IIGS tells the user the color word,
reinforcing the meaning of the color word visually, and audibly. When all the
colored blocks of the color word color have been 'clicked off' the color word is
replaced with the next color to be found, and the IIGS tells the user what the
new color word is. When all the color blocks have been selected and scrolled off
the screen, a push button control appears allowing the user to start a new game.
The number of blocks to be generated can be changed in the 'Goodies' menu before
starting a new game. As in the Hidden Balls game, the user can have many
different Color Block games at different or the same levels going at the same
time, by selecting the 'Color Blocks Game' item from the 'Games' menu to start a
new game. In fact any mixture of Hidden Balls Games and Colored Blocks Games can
coexist at the same time.

There is a simple 'Help' Menu which briefly describes the playing of each game,
and how to modify the game settings. The  'Goodies' menu item 'Game Level...'
sets the number of color blocks or cups to be generated, using a set of Radio
Button controls, and clicking a 'Do It' Push Button Control to confirm your
choice, or a 'Never Mind' Push Button control to cancel your selection. The 'How
Many Balls...' item uses a scroll bar control to set the number of balls to hide
under the cups. It has no effect on the color blocks game. The user can click the
page-up or page-down control to change the number of balls by tens, or the
arrow-up or arrow-down control to change it by ones. The thumber can be used to
change the number of balls in random increments. The confirmatory Push Button
control's title shows the current setting of the scroll bar's value and sets the
new level if clicked. The 'Never Mind' button cancels the selection. That's all
there is to it.

If you run into any problems with this program, please let me know by E-Mail to
'Esky' on AO or by surface mail to:

	J. A. Geer, DVM
	850 Moon Glow Court
	Gahanna, Ohio 43230

P.S. You can customize the appearance of the title screen, the cup, or the ball
used in the game with any Paint program that can save files in the SHR or SCR
format. Be careful not to change the size or location of the item being changed,
or the program will not know where to find the image when it is needed. Of
course, you can't change the filename either!