Algodoo

Clever game. I did notice a flaw which is easily fixed. When the circle is found, and then clicked on, it gets selected and remains selected the next time it tries to hide, giving away its position. By automatically switching Algodoo to "play mode", will eliminate that issue.

Olly Olly oxen free! Come out, come out wherever you are!

Thanks for bringing up the problem and solution. You can use AlgoSound to solve the puzzle even with the display turned off. I would suggest using headphones.

The next version of AlgoSound (not posted yet) has left and right volumes for the tones and I have made a scene similar to this that uses the left/right speaker balance to determine the circle x position. The next AlgoSound version will also automatically download sounds from the scene creators suggested web location which will be in an Algodoo generated text file. It's fast, and the user would never notice that he was originally missing the file.

Autodownload sounds dangerous, if it can download anything...
For example, download is allowed only from your algoboards site, where you can add database of sounds

Thanks for the comment. I can put a filter on it, so it can only download .wav, .mp3, or .mid files. Would that be OK? Do you have any other ideas? Next time state the problem and solution like Xray did above. Why can't you be more like your brother?

I thought of a couple of ideas that would enhance this game, as follows:

1. Implement a scoring system. The challenge would be not only to find the hidden circle, but to see how CLOSE to its pos that a player can get. It can work like this: While searching for the circle, colored squares, like the ones currently in the game, will steer the player toward the circle. When the player thinks that they are on-target, they can click the mouse button which would show the actual distance from the mouse to the circle pos. That value could be added to the score. The challenge is to end up with as LOW a score a possible (like in Golf). After, say ten tries, the results are tallied. A perfect score, of course, would be ZERO.

2. Provide a selection between colored squares and grayscale squares (for people who are color-blind).

3. If you decide to add sound to this game, you could use varying tones to locate the circle. Maybe the left speaker could be the X position, and the right speaker could be the Y position. The target tone could be something like a 500 Hz sinewave, and the distance could be registered by playing a second tone along with the first, giving a heterodyne effect. Maybe the target ton will need to be different between the left and right speakers.

There are a lot of other possibilities which could branch off of this basic game, and I already thought of quite a few. I may tackle one or two of them as my time permits.

Regarding "a couple of ideas", they are all good ideas, but I'm not sure I'll do any of them.

Regarding "If you decide to add sound", it was always there, you just need to click your heels (really all you need is to start AlgoSound and use headphones).

Regarding "I may tackle one or two of them", good idea. Use whatever you want from this scene.

P.S. I tried a black & white version and it's easier for me than the color version. I will post it in 24 hours if you don't post a similar scene or one that provides a selection between color & b&w before then.

OMG, those tones nearly drove me crazy! I'll stick with just the colored squares from now on. They are much less eroding to my nerves.

Now that I'm retired, you would think that I would have a lot more free time on my hands to "play", but that's certainly not the case. Besides wifey giving me plenty of "Honey do" jobs, I am now catching up on the list of odd jobs that I have been ignoring for the past few years. Even that old 5-tube Zenith radio collecting dust in the basement might finally get fixed.

By the way, I recently purchased a new metal lathe and a mill for making hobby projects. They will be used during my play time, and I'm quite excited about doing some machining on and assembling model steam engines. FUN STUFF!

Regarding "those tones nearly drove me crazy", (4) tones is a lot to handle, and the click at the start of each tone is annoying. The only plus thing was that beat frequencies would help give away the position. The two tone, left/right balance was a little bit better, but Algosound does not support it yet.

Regarding "that old 5-tube Zenith radio collecting dust", I used to remove the speakers and then hose down tube radios and TVs (and then allow them to dry) before fixing them. Cleaning with a vacuum cleaner or compressed air is probably a better idea. Tubes and capacitors seemed to be the first things to go. The volume control is a good test point since it is usually easy access and cuts the radio in half.

Regarding "machining", I haven't done much of that, but it sounds like fun.

I started repairing "tube type" radios and TV's during high school when I worked for a TV repair shop circa 1964. I never did "hose down" those old sets, and it doesn't sound like a good thing to do. In fact, it sounds rather risky. I totally agree that compressed air is a much better idea!

Thanks

(I'm done rambling)

It sounds like you were fixing customer TV sets while I was fixing TVs that were being thrown out. At any rate, you probably know more about that stuff than I do.

I worked part-time for a TV repair shop during my senior year in H.S. and that's when I started learning how to repair them. I started learning electronics around age 13 or 14. My parents gave me a subscription to Electronics Illustrated magazine, and that is what began my love for electronics. I built an oscilloscope from a kit when I was 16 or 17 (it was a 3 inch Eico brand, vacuum tube, recurrent-sweep type). In my mind's eye, I still can see my bedroom thick with solder smoke from the many hours of work that I put into building that thing. And after finding a couple of minor wiring errors, it actually worked! I switched from building things with vacuum tubes to transistors about the time I joined the U.S. Navy in '66. The Navy is where I learned about microprocessors and assembly language programming. I can't tell you any more than that because I had a T.S. security clearance. I worked with some very "interesting" equipment.

Okay, enuff about me. Would you mind telling me a bit about your early history? I think that I'm older than you are, but I know that you are not a kid (based on that picture of yourself that you once posted in a scene (I think it had something to do with PID control).

CORRECTION: Not PID control. It was titled "Dancing Man".

I started learning electronics around age 26. Before that I went to college 2 years, dropped out, worked roofing for a year, got an associate degree in mechanical engineering in 2 years, worked drafting for a year, got a BSME in 2 years. Bought my first car after roofing, and did all the repairs myself. I wanted to be able to fix anything electronic myself so I started in the kids section of the library and read all the electronics books there, then I bought a Radio Shack 150 in 1 kit for half price and did all 150 projects while taking notes and trying variations, then somebody gave me a free electronics course (based on tube technology) and an old tube oscilloscope. I read every book cover to cover. I then started getting TVs and radios from the dump and fixing them. I would get the SAM's photofacts from the library if I needed to. I bought college electronics textbooks and read them cover to cover. I designed an built a sampling oscilloscope that had a speaker for output (a square wave would be two alternating tones, a sine wave would sound like a police siren at that time). I modified the sampling oscilloscope for TV display using some ICs and a modulator from some early video game. I then got a z80 4 chip computer and started playing with A/D, D/A, digital inputs and outputs, and the counter/timer chip. After that I started getting into software. I wrote a shareware program many years ago for troubleshooting TV sets. It started by treating the TV as a single block with inputs and outputs (the first question was "Is the TV plugged in?"), and ended by identifying the section (usually associated with a single tube or transistor) with the problem. Even though I'm a ME, I did work a few years as a software engineer. I'm now employed as a ME, but also do software and electrical design.

Cool! You and I took similar paths in our early years except I did not get a college degree. Back in the 1970's and 1980's a person could get an engineering job without a degree, but with a proven track record of employment, and sometimes just by convincing the employer that you are smart, have good character, and are capable of doing good things for the company. Not so much today of course. Most companies won't even consider hiring someone without at least a 2 year, and in many cases, a 4 year degree. I was fortunate enough (and smart enough) to get my foot in the doors of industrial manufacturing companies, and I worked along side degreed engineers as an EE and software engineer. During times when I worked on a project that required calculus or advanced Trig, there were plenty of people there who were willing to help me figure out what I needed. I learned a lot in the school of hard knocks.

When you mentioned SAM's Photofacts, that brought back a lot of memories from my Radio-TV repair days because we kept file cabinets full of photofact schematics and alignment procedures. Those things were worth their weight in gold.

I retired toward the end of last year, and now I have a new hobby doing machining on a fairly good quality low-cost mill and a lathe. I'm learning a lot from watching YouTube videos.

Sorry, if i had knew, i would do that, i fixed that now by editing
"Why can't you be more like your brother?"
Are you trying to tell me that X-ray is my brother?

Regarding "Why can't you be more like your brother?", it was meant as a joke, since that's something you should never say to your kids. The reason I suggested stating a solution along with the problem is because I was surprised that Xray did that in the comment before yours. "Why can't you be more like your brother?" isn't something that I would normally say, but seemed to be an amusing thing to say, considering the sequence of events. I apologize if it seemed rude.

You can criticize anything I do, and you don't need to give solutions. I rather get feedback, good or bad, than not hear anything. I did put a download filter on the AlgoSound program (the new version is not posted yet) and I do have the program check the AlgoSound site for missing sounds.

I like your elegant coding and design. Keep up the good work.

- nah, it is fine
- easy math: comments>rating for me too
- Coding is not elegent, it is as simple as simple-minded I am