3D
3D Photo Gallery (Part 1)
3D Photo Gallery (Part 2)

Audio
Poor Man's MIDI
Make A Metronome
iPod Tricks (Part 1)
iPod Tricks (Part 2)
iPod Tricks (Part 3)
Laugh Track Machine
Audio Player with Reverb
Shepard Melody
RB Phone Home
Build a Drum Machine

Custom Controls and Windows
Double Click Listbox
Draggable Metal Window
Double Click Canvas
Custom Buttons
Custom Buttons Part II
iTunes-style Listboxes
Custom Controls


General RB
Scrolling Windows
Using Mesage Dialogs
Case-Sensitive Word Finder
Introduction to Stacks
Wiggle Window
JPEG in PDF
Listbox Checkboxes
Background Applications
Listbox Auto-Find
Virtual Volumes
Time Tracker
Software Distribution (Part 1)
Software Distribution (Part 2)
Software Distribution (Part 3)
Software Distribution (Part 4)
Exceptions
Tips and Tricks
Text Clippings Made Easy

Graphics
Drawing a Simple Gradient
The SpriteSurface: Space Game
Image Spinner
Cropping Graphics (Part 1)
Cropping Graphics (Part 2)
Cropping Graphics (Part 3)
Cropping Graphics (Part 4)
Shimmer Graphics
Lissajous Figures
Simple Screen Capture
Vector Graphics
Kaleidoscope Images
Stegonography
Spirals!
Image Table
RB Magnifying Lens
Screen Capture
Color Picker Tutorial

Hacks
Ghost Grab
Speedy Mouse Extension
iTunes Plugins
iTunes Skinner

Mac OS X
Global Hot Key Event (Carbon Events)
Login Welcomer (Carbon Events)
Add/Remove Buttons
Resizable Sheets
Mac OS X Preferences Window
Using Sheets in REALbasic
Build a Bundle (Part 1)
Build a Bundle (Part 2)
Dock Your Passwords
Mac OS X Debugging
REALbasic Mac OS X Icon Tutorial
Animate Your Dock
RB and the Command Line

Menus
Window Menu
Templates Menu
Listbox Menu

Novelty
Guessing Game
Calendar Trivia
Tile Mixer
Zip Code Finder
Happy Valentine's Day
Merlin Simulator (Part 1)
Merlin Simulator (Part 2)
Merlin Simulator (Part 3)
Buzzword Machine
AppleSoft BASIC

Printing
Print to PDF

Registration
Registration Code Validation
Network Registration Codes

Resources
Picture Extractor (Part 1)
Picture Extractor (Part 2)

Serial
Caller ID (Part 1)
Caller ID (Part 2)
Caller ID (Part 3)

Speech
Speech Recognition

Socket Communication
Easy Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
MacPAD Version Checking
Display Web Image In Canvas
HTML IMG Tags
Version Tracking
Even Smarter Instant Messaging
Web Tiler
JavaScript and REALbasic
Stock Ticker (Part I)
Stock Ticker (Part 2)
AIM Mate

XML Manipulation
Simple XML Introduction

Video
Big Brother Video Capture

Note: All articles without a byline were written by Erick Tejkowski. When cleaning the site I removed them because the code differed from page to page, and I have yet to put them back in.

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REALbasic Merlin Simulator Part III 01-24-02

Back in the late 1970's, Parker Brothers introduced a great handheld electronic game machine called Merlin. This week we continue with Part 3 of our Merlin Simulator project and continue adding functionality to the simulator.

Interface

If you'd like to start where we left off last week, download the project. Then, launch REALbasic and open Window1. Drag a Timer control from the toolbar and add it to your Window1 interface. It doesn't matter where you drag it to in the interface, since it will be invisible when the application executes. Change the properties of the Timer to match the following image:

Add the Code

Next, double click Window1 to open its Code Editor and make sure you have all of the following properties

Then, add a new method to Window1 as follows:

Method Name:PlayGameEcho
Parameters:indx as integer

To this new method, add this code:

dim i,n,index as integer index = indx //******************************* // Play Game: Echo //******************************* if NOT(gameover) then if gamestarted then if index = NoteArray(currentmove) then //****************************** //user pressed correct next number //****************************** MusicMachinePlayNote(NoteArray(currentmove),TRUE) currentmove=currentmove+1 if currentmove>ubound(NoteArray) then //*************** //game is over //*************** gameover=TRUE if errorcount=0 then noteplayer1.instrument=127//applause MusicMachinePlayNote(60,FALSE) noteplayer1.instrument=1//piano MsgBox "You win. No errors!" else//errorcount>0 MsgBox "Game over! Press OK to see error count." for i=1 to len(str(errorcount)) n = val(mid(str(errorcount),i,1)) MusicMachinePlayNote(n,TRUE) next end if//error else //*************** //game still playing //*************** end if//if currentmove>ubound(NoteArray) then else//if index = NoteArray(currentmove) //user didn't press correct next number noteplayer1.instrument=59//tuba MusicMachinePlayNote(50,FALSE) noteplayer1.instrument=1//piano errorcount = errorcount+1 end if//if index = NoteArray(currentmove) else//if gamestarted //for game # 3 //only buttons between //1-9 are valid choices if index>0 and index < 10 then redim NoteArray(index) gamestarted=TRUE //fill array with a random pattern for i=1 to index //find a random number between 1-9 inclusive //and store it in the array NoteArray(i)=rnd*(9)+1 MusicMachinePlayNote(NoteArray(i),TRUE) next currentmove=1 errorcount=0 end if//if index> 0 and index < 10 end if//if gamestarted end if//if NOT(gameover)

This method takes of the game play for the next game we are implementing for Merlin. This week's game is game number 3: Echo. In this game, Merlin plays you a certain number of sounds, which you must replay to him. At the end of the game, Merlin tells you how many errors you entered before repeating the exact sequence.

Now, you need to "wire" the game into the interface. This is accomplished with the MouseUp events of the NumButton and UtilButton control arrays. Expand the NumButton control array in the Code Editor and add this code to it:

dim i,n as integer //************************** // // START GAME // //************************** if newgame then //which game? select case index case 2 //*********************** // start game: music machine //*********************** newgame=FALSE gamenumber=2 redim NoteArray(0) MsgBox "Music Machine game starting." case 3 //*************** // start game: echo //*************** newgame=FALSE gamenumber=3 //flash 0 and 10 to show game starting numButton(0).ButtonOn numButton(10).ButtonOn //start timer to turn these lights off GameThreeTimer.mode=1 gamestarted=FALSE gameover=FALSE else end select else //************************** // // CONTINUE GAME // //************************** select case gamenumber case 2 //********************** // play game: Music Machine //********************** NoteArray.append index //no lights on here, because we have //already lighted the button using the //control's mousedown/up mechanism MusicMachinePlayNote(index,FALSE) case 3 //********************** // play game: echo //********************** PlayGameEcho(index) end select//case gamenumber end if//if newgame

Next, expand the UtilButton control array in the Code Editor and add this code:

select case index case 0 //*********** //new game //*********** newgame = TRUE case 1 //*********** //same game //*********** select case gamenumber case 2//music machine newgame=FALSE gamenumber=2 redim NoteArray(0) case 3//echo //*************** // start game: echo //*************** newgame=FALSE gamenumber=3 //flash 0 and 10 to show game starting numButton(0).ButtonOn numButton(10).ButtonOn //start timer to turn these lights off GameThreeTimer.mode=1 gamestarted=FALSE gameover=FALSE end select case 2 //*********** //hit me //*********** case 3 //*********** //comp turn //*********** select case gamenumber case 2 MusicMachinePlaySong end select end select

Finally, add these two lines of code to the GameThreeTimer:

numButton(0).ButtonOff
numButton(10).ButtonOff

As you probably can guess, this code turns off numButton(0) and numButton(10). Why do this? Well, Merlin momentarily lights these two lights at the start of the game to show which keys are not allowed for a game level choice. Since they get turned on at game startup, we use the Timer to turn them off a certain amount of time later.

Conclusion

Well, that's it for this week. Select Debug-Run to test your work. If you encounter any difficulties with the code or don't feel like entering it all, you can download the completed project. See you next week!

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