Programmed by Michael Abramowicz in Lightspeed Pascal
About MacSimon: MacSimon is based on the classic Simon game. In writing MacSimon, I have attempted to maintain the original game’s addictive simplicity. At the same time, I have been determined to give the user a great deal of control over the game environment, and to make the game’s computer interface natural, intuitive, and conformant to Macintosh User Interface Guidlines. After finishing the program, I put it through extensive user testing and refined it to insure that it worked the way a user would expect. To sum it up, I have tried to make MacSimon a smooth implementation of a simple, but addictive game.
The Game Itself: The rules to the classic Simon game are not complex. The computer displays four buttons on the screen. In the first round, the computer lights up one of those buttons. The user then must then press down that button. In the next round, the computer lights up the same button, and a new button. The user, after the computer is done, must then press down both of those buttons. In the third round, the computer lights up the same two buttons, and one additional button. The user must again repeat the three buttons. The game continues in the same manner, with one new button in each new round, until the user makes an error in repeating the sequence, which quickly becomes complex.
MacSimon maintains the essence of the original game, but adds the following features:
Variable number of buttons: Instead of being constrained to the usual four buttons, the user may change the number of rows and buttons, resulting in “boards” with as few as two rows by one column, or as big as six rows by six columns. In the testing process, users seemed to enjoy frequently changing the size of the board in between games. The rows and columns can be changed at any time, except of course during a game, with the Options... command.
Variable response time: In addition to giving the user control over the number of buttons, the user may change the maximum response time that he/she is given to play the next button. The default, two seconds, is actually fairly generous. For a more fast-paced game, the user can play with a maximum interval between buttons of one second, or, if the user is slow with the mouse, can select a very, very generous interval of five seconds. The maximum response time is also settable with the Options... dialog, and can be changed at any time.
Score compensation: The user’s score depends in part on the difficult level that the user has set for him/herself. In particular, the user scores one point for each button correctly pressed, but receives an additional bonus at the end of each round which depends on the number of buttons and the maximum response time that the user has set. The formula for determining this bonus was meticulously adjusted until users seemed to be scoring at about the same level regardless of the difficulty level they set for themselves. A lack of this feature would cause users to almost certainly not take advantage of the large number of buttons available to them.
Built-in help: By selecting Help... under the apple menu, or by hitting the Help... button in the About... box which comes onto the screen at the beginning of the program, the user receives a scrollable window of help text. The text describes the Simon game itself, as well as all of the commands in the MacSimon implementation. All of the help text is stored in a resource so that the user will not have to crowd his/her disk with lots of files. The scroll bar in the help box functions as all Macintosh scroll bars should, and includes support for the Extended Keyboard’s keys, like home, end, page up, page down, as well as the arrow keys. In addition, the user can jump to a topic of interest through a convenient pull down menu at the top of the dialog. One of the items the user might jump to would be Score Equivalents, which equates various scores with different intelligence levels. For computers which do not support pull-down menus (pre-Mac Plus), a less sophisticated, but still informative, Help dialog is presented. In both the sophisticated and primitive dialogs, a button is presented which allows the user to toggle between the Help and the About dialogs. The About box contains information about Shareware registration.
High Scores: MacSimon maintains a list of up to ten high scores. The user can view this list at any time through the Show High Scores... command. The Clear High Scores... command will clear the high scores if the user clicks OK in a dialog which warns that clearing the high scores is irreversible. The MacSimon program insures that if the program is locked via the Finder by the user, the high scores will be restored to their original state when the user quits.
Sound: MacSimon uses simple, but pleasant sounds which often help the user in remembering the sequences the computer has played. When the board is set to its maximum size, the 36 buttons play 36 different sounds which are, in order, the 36 white and black notes of the three central octaves of a piano. The setting of the sound to these familiar frequencies makes the sound a pleasant rather than an annoying addition to the program. The user can also use the buttons as a “piano” while not playing the game. The volume of the sound can be changed by the user through the Control Panel, and sound can also be turned off altogether in the Options dialog.
Pause and Resume support: The user can pause the game and resume it as appropriate at any time using the Pause and Resume Game commands.
Complete window handling: The user can open and close the game window at any time. Closing the game window during a game will automatically pause the game. Being able to open the game window without going to New Game... makes it easier for the user to use the program’s buttons as a sort of piano. The user can change the size of the window by using the grow icon in the bottom-right hand corner of the window. The size of the buttons will automatically conform to the proper window size. The window-orientated nature of this program also means that it will be compatible on monitors of all sizes when used in conjunction with the MacII.
Complete desk accessory compatibility: A user can call a desk accessory at any time. An edit menu will be added when the DA is chosen (many DA’s require an edit menu) and removed when the user returns to the game. That way, the normally extraneous edit menu will not confuse the user during normal game play.
Multifinder compatibility: This program works fine under both the Finder and Multifinder. Under Multifinder, it ordinarily does not take up too much of the processer’s time, meaning that users can play the game while doing background tasks like printing.
Event-oriented programming structure: Many shareware games are unfortunately not event-oriented. When the user goes to New Game, for example, the game begins, but in most programs the user cannot get out until the game is over. This is actually a violation of the Macintosh User Interface guidlines. Users should be able to do whatever they want whenever they want to do it. It is quite difficult, however, to make a program that will allow the user such control. MacSimon is completely event-oriented. During a game, a user can end the game or quit immediately. He/she can also see the high score list, clear the high scores, call a desk accessory, temporarily close the game window, switch to another application under Multifinder. When the user finishes, the game immediately resumes. At many times while writing the program, I was tempted to stray from this design. However, users feel much more comfortable using a program over which they really do have complete control, and I stuck with it.
Graphics: The graphics in MacSimon are simple enough so that they do not violate the integrityof the original Simon game, but complex enough so that they are attractive. The buttons look three dimensional, and are presented against a gray background. More importantly, the buttons respond like normal Macintosh buttons. When the user clicks in them, they highlight and make noise as long as the mouse button is still over them. The score to the game sits unobtrusively but prominently on the bottom of the screen to the left of the grow icon. The score as well as the round number are displayed, and the a brief message informs the user when the game is over, and when time has run out.
Compatibility: MacSimon should be compatible with all Macintosh computers, from the original 128K machine up through the Macintosh II, the Mac Portable, and beyond. It takes up only 96K of memory.
Error Protection: MacSimon has been programmed to anticipate a number of forseeable error conditions, including damage to its resource file and the unlikely event that a user should insert a non-Macintosh disk into the drive during the game. (Many games ignore that, and users are forced to resort to using paper clips to eject their disks.)
Source Code: Users who register will receive the full Lightspeed Pascal source code, which was designed to be quite portable to other programs.
That sums up all of MacSimon’s features. I am considering making a new version which would add color and give the user even more control over the program’s environment. I am now moving onto bigger projects, however, and do not anticipate finding the time to do that for at least another year.
