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CD School House 10
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CD School House - Education and Games (10.0) - Wayzata Technology (1995).iso
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HAPPYGME
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HAPPY.DOC
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1994-02-25
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10KB
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284 lines
****************
* *
* HAPPYGAMES *
* *
****************
Copyright (C) 1987, Ruth Edwards Grove
Portions Copyright 1982, '83, '84, '85, '86,
Microsoft Corporation
All Rights Reserved
*
DEDICATION
These games are dedicated to my three wonderful (most of the
time) children, Ryan, Risa, and Rustin, all of whom have
inherited their mother's love for pushing buttons. They are
my inspiration, my motivation, and my testing grounds for
the programs that I write.
INFORMATION
HAPPYGAMES is marketed under the "Shareware" concept -- if you
(or your children) enjoy these programs, and plan to use them from
time to time, then please register your copy by sending a donation
of $15.00 to:
Ruth E. Grove
(HAPPYGAMES)
Route 1 Box 273
Somerville, TX 77879
In return, I will send you two labels, one with your serial number
on it, and two "special" diskette jackets. (One for your original
copy and one for your backup copy.)
Feel free to copy these programs and pass them along to your
friends. The only requirements are:
1) The copies must be distributed free of charge
2) The programs must not be altered in any way
3) All of the files on this disk must be included
The HAPPYGAMES were written on an IBM PCjr. (Yes, they DO still
exist!) They should work on any IBM PC or compatible, with 256K or
more, a color (CGA or EGA) monitor, and at least one joystick.
(Two joysticks are required in order for two players to play the
WIGGLEWORMS game.)
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free
to write to me at the address above. (I love to get mail!)
*
INSTRUCTIONS
To print a copy of this document, make sure your printer is
ready, then enter the following command after the DOS prompt:
"PRINTDOC". (Do not type the quotation marks.)
To play the games, simply type "HAPPY". An opening screen
will be displayed. Press any key to go to the Menu. Six options
are available on the menu, and they are described below.
COLOR SORT
Colorsort is the easiest of the three "sort" games on this
disk. It displays a set of four colored shapes, and waits for the
child to respond with one of the letters, A through D, associated
with the four shapes. The object, as in all of the "sort" games on
this disk, is to find the shape that is different from the rest.
My reason for using the letters A-D rather than, for instance, the
numbers 1-4 or the joystick was that I found with my children that
it encourages them to try to find the right answer rather than
just quickly running through all four answers to see which one was
right. To further encourage this, I included a "scoring" system.
For each right answer, the child is awarded a happy face. For each
wrong answer, a happy face is removed. When the child accumulates
five happy faces, he is rewarded with a short song, and the scoring
starts over. This system seems to discourage guessing without
being discouraging to the child.
SHAPE SORT
Shapesort is played just like colorsort, except that the
four objects displayed are all the same color, but one is a different
shape than the other three. It is a little harder than colorsort,
because it takes the concept of "the same shape" a little farther.
In shapesort, shapes can appear in several different orientations,
but they are still regarded as the same shape. For example, a
triangle might appear with its point down, or up, or to the right or
left -- but it is still a triangle. The object is still to find the
one that is a different shape from the others, and the same "scoring
system" is used as in colorsort.
SUPER SORT
Supersort was actually the first of the "sort" programs.
It wasn't until I had it up and running, and tried to play it for
the first time, that I realized how difficult it really was. At
first, I thought the logic equations I had written must have been
incorrect, because sometimes there seemed to be two right answers
for one group of objects. I had to go back to my own equations
and work through them again to learn how to play the game! What I
learned was that my approach to playing was wrong. I had been
looking for one object that was different from the other three.
Now there's nothing wrong with that, except that in supersort,
there are situations where at first glance there seem to be two
objects that are different. What you have to do is to "fine tune"
your reasoning a little bit. It helps to think of the Sesame Street
song that says something like "one of these things is not like the
others; three of these things are kind of the same..." The key is
KIND OF the same. In supersort, you have to use a "process of
elimination" approach. First, find three things that have something
*
in common. Then you know that the remaining one is the one that is
different. For example, you might have a combination like this:
RED SQUARE GREEN TRIANGLE BLUE SQUARE BLUE SQUARE
A B C D
At first glance, it seems that there are two answers -- A and B.
But using the "Sesame Street" approach, we can see that A, C, and
D all have something in common -- they are all squares. So B is
the correct answer. I would recommend not introducing your child to
supersort until he or she has mastered colorsort and shapesort,
almost to the point of being bored with them. Then he is ready to
take his reasoning powers one step further! The scoring system is
the same as in the other two games, but the songs are a little bit
fancier, since it's a lot harder to get five happy faces in supersort!
WIGGLEWORMS
Though not an "Educational Game" in the sense of teaching
letters, numbers, or shapes, WIGGLEWORMS is valuable in helping to
develop hand-eye coordination. It is the only arcade-style,
two-player game written for children that I know of -- after all,
why should grownups have all the fun? It was inspired by my two
older children's eternal battle over whose turn it was to "play the
computer!" (Rustin is just now getting old enough to realize that he
should get to play too -- so WIGGLEWORMS, at least in my household,
is a temporary solution at best! Since I know of no way to connect
three joysticks to the same computer, I guess the ultimate solution
would be to buy another computer. Much as I like the sound of that,
though, I fear it is a solution that lies far in the future for us!)
WIGGLEWORMS requires at least one joystick. For two
players, two joysticks are necessary.
Before you run WIGGLEWORMS for the first time, you will need
to align the joysticks (press "J" from the menu) in order for the
program to work correctly. It is only neccessary to do this once,
as the program will create a small data file on the disk, JSDATA,
which contains the joystick information needed by the program. If
you get new joysticks later on, just use the "J" option to save the
new values. If you only have one joystick, follow the instructions for
joystick `A', then press F1 and ENTER when prompted for joystick `B'
(without doing anything to a joystick), and null values will be
entered for `B'.
NOTE -- it is recommended that WIGGLEWORMS be played with
the joysticks in the "free" mode -- that is, when released, the
joystick does not spring back to the center, but remains where
it is.
Once you have aligned your joysticks, you will be returned
to the opening screen. This time, press "4", and the game will
begin. The computer will ask how many players, 1 or 2 -- just enter
the number, followed by "ENTER".
The object of the game is to get your worm to eat the most
apples. Scores are kept in the upper corners of the screen, in
colored boxes -- green for the green worm, and yellow for the yellow
worm. The worm's head follows the movement of the joystick -- if
you move the joystick, the worm will crawl in the direction that it
*
was moved, and his speed will correspond with the distance that the
joystick was moved. If the joystick remains in one position, the
worm will eventually come to a stop, and will appear as a green
or yellow spot on the screen. This is just because of the way
the program works in making the worm move about, and he will
stretch out to his usual length as soon as the joystick is moved
again.
To eat an apple, position your worm's head on an apple, and
press the joystick button. When all 25 apples have been "eaten",
a message will appear announcing the winner, and the game will
start over. (This is to save poor Mom from running back and re-
starting the game every few minutes!) To exit the game, simply
press F10. WIGGLEWORMS is mildly competitive, but not too much
commotion is made over the winner, so as not to discourage
younger and less skillful players.