Merlin78!

Copyright (c) 2006 by Brendan Bellina.

All Rights Reserved.

Table of Contents

Overview and Special Features


Inspired by the handheld electronic device "Merlin" by Parker Brothers in 1978 which used 11 lights and 20 sounds to play six different games of chance, strategy, memory, logic, and skill and simple tunes.

"Merlin GS", a HyperCard GS stack published by Brendan Bellina in 1995 emulated and enhanced Merlin's original 6 games, allowing two-player gaming, and adding three games - Ship Hunt, High Low, and Concentration. The following year "Merlin GS" was converted to the Macintosh platform as "MacMerlin". Much of the "Merlin GS" code has been converted from HyperTalk to Javascript to be used in Merlin78!.

Just like the original Merlin, Merlin78! uses 11 lights and the same vocabulary of 20 electronic sounds to play several games. in addition to the six original Merlin games: (1) Tic Tac Toe, (2) Music Machine, (3) Echo, (4) Black Jack 13, (5) Magic Square, and (6) Mindbender, Merlin78! plays the three additional games from "Merlin GS": (7) Ship Hunt (based on classic Battleship!), (8) High Low, and (9) Concentration, and a new game written for Merlin78! (10) "Sound Puzzler". Merlin78! also has a sleep mode activated with the HIT ME button and a Screen Saver that is activated with the COMPUTER TURN button. Both the sleep mode and the screen saver can also be activated from the context menu or automatically activated after a period of inactivity.

For the most part Merlin78 behaves and sounds exactly like the original Merlin. Some enhancements to the interface and gameplay have been made. Enhancements to the games are documented in the individual game sections below.

In keeping with the simple button-and-light interface of original Merlin, all of the new games and enhancements to existing games have been made using the same sounds and buttons that the original Merlin games were limited to. Merlin78! makes use of button tooltips to display additional information. Tooltips are activated by hovering the mouse pointer over a button.

The word "MERLIN" near the top of Merlin is itself a button. When double-clicked it opens Widget preferences. When hovering over it its tooltip will appear. The tooltip provides information about what you are doing with Merlin at the time.

Merlin78! is best played on a screen of at least 800x600 resolution so that Merlin is entirely visible.

Keyboard Options for Merlin78!:

The keyboard can be used to perform all Merlin78! functions. In all cases both capital and lower-case letters can be used.

? or I or / - Information/Help
X - Close the Widget
M - Put Merlin Away (Minimizes Merlin78! and ends current game)
N or O - Press NEW GAME button
S or P - Press SAME GAME button
H or L - Press HIT ME button (see below for info on this much improved interface object)
C or ; or : - Press COMPUTER TURN button
0 - Press button #0. If preference "Open Preferences with Button 0 (zero)" is selected then this opens the Merlin78! preferences
1,2,3 - Press buttons #1, #2, and #3 (or buttons #7, #8, and #9 if preference Use Inverted Keypad Rows is selected)
4,5,6 - Press buttons #4, #5, and #6
7,8,9 - Press buttons #1, #2, and #3 (or buttons #7, #8, and #9 if preference Use Inverted Keypad Rows is selected)
-,_,* - Press button #10


The Multi-Talented HIT ME Button:

The HIT ME button was severely under-utilized in original Merlin. It was used only in the Black Jack 13 game and only to perform the "Hit Me" function. Merlin78! addresses this deficiency by making the HIT ME button multi-functional and useful in all games:

- Sleep Mode: When no game is in progress pressing HIT ME causes Merlin to go into a paused state in which it shuts down its lights and halts its internal timers. In this mode Merlin78! looks just like Merlin did when shut off. Press HIT ME or any other button to reawaken the sleeping wizard. Sleep Mode can also be activated from the context menu.
- Export a Tune: In Music Machine (game 2) the HIT ME button is used to export a tune to the Export preference for saving.
- In Black Jack 13 (game 4) the HIT ME button operates as in original Merlin, and selects an additional "card".
- Show Score: In Magic Square (game 5), Mindbender (game 6), High Low (game 8), and Sound Puzzler (game 10) the HIT ME button displays the number of moves that have been taken (up to 55). In Concentration (game 9) it displays the number of matched pairs for each player. Press HIT ME a second time or any other button to return to the game. Hovering the mouse pointer over the HIT ME button will cause the tooltip to be displayed which will have the score (even if over 55) and other useful game information.
- Display Alternate Screen: In Ship Hunt (game 7) press HIT ME to show the alternate screen that shows how close Merlin is getting to your ships. On this screen a hit by merlin on your ships is indicated by a flashing light. A miss is indicated by a solid light. Your ships are also indicated by a solid light. Tooltips show the difference between your ship and misses. Press any Merlin button to return to the main screen.


The Merlin78! Screen Saver:

When the Merlin78! Screen Saver is activated Merlin displays a series of entertaining light patterns. To start the screen saver press NEW GAME and then COMPUTER TURN. To stop the screen saver press any Merlin button.

The screen saver can also be activated from the context menu or activated after a period of inactivity.

(Note: The screen saver will not initiate while a Music Machine tune is playing or while a Game Score screen or the Ship Hunt Merlin screen is being displayed.)

Tooltips:

Tooltips are often used to provide information that would otherwise require extra text fields on the screen. Creating text fields would have prevented Merlin78! from looking like Merlin. To display a tooltip hover your mouse pointer over a button.



Tic Tac Toe



Object: To be the first to occupy three squares in a row - horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. With the Tic Tac Toe "Y" preference enabled (by default it is not) winning can also be done with any of the four possible horizontal and vertical "Y" patterns.

Relevant Game Preference Settings:
- Allow "Y" patterns to win. By default this preference is not selected.
- When playing Merlin have Merlin automatically take his turn instead of waiting for the COMPUTER TURN button to be pushed. By default this preference is not selected.


To Start: Press NEW GAME. Then press #1. The 0 and 10 lights will blink, indicating that you need to tell Merlin the number of players - 1 (against Merlin) or 2 (against someone else).

To play against Merlin press #1.

For a two-player game press #2. Merlin uses button #10 to show whose turn it is by blinking or being steadily lit. By default blinking always goes first, but pressing button #10 before the first move will allow solid to go first so that players can take turns going first.

Playing:

Opponents take turns selecting one square at a time. To take your turn click on any unlit button 1 through 9. Press COMPUTER TURN to allow Merlin to take a turn. When Merlin plays Merlin's selections are always solid and the human opponent's are always blinking.

If you prefer to avoid having to press COMPUTER TURN after each of your turns, there is a preference setting to have Merlin automatically take his turn following yours.

The winner is the first to occupy three squares in a row (or a "Y" shape if the "Y" preference is enabled). If a human opponent wins the WIN sound will play and light 10 will blink. If Merlin wins the LOSE sound will play and light 10 will be steadily lit. If a Cat game occurs the TIE sound will play.

Game button #10 will indicate the winner by either blinking or being steadily lit.

After the game is over press SAME GAME to start another game. Press NEW GAME to start a different game.

Differences from the original Merlin:

- Original Merlin did not allow a two-player game.
- Original Merlin did not use button #10 to display whose turn it is or the winner.
- Original Merlin did not have a preference for allowing "Y" patterns to win.
- Original Merlin did not allow Merlin to automatically take his turn.


Music Machine



Object: To teach Merlin a tune and then be entertained as he plays it back to you.



Relevant Game Preference Settings:
- Flash the lights during playback. By default this preference is not selected.


To Start: Press NEW GAME. Then press #2. The 0 and 10 lights will blink, indicating that you need to tell Merlin whether you want to compose a new tune - Button #1 - or you want to load one of Merlin's Favorites or one of your own saved tunes into Merlin's memory - Button #2.

Playing:

Buttons 2-9 are the musical scale: so, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do.
Button #1 is low "sol".
Button #10 is high "re".
Button #0 is a rest - each time you press it Merlin will pause 1 beat. (Because it's a rest, this button makes no sound when you press it, but it will blink when pressed.)


Merlin78! can learn a tune of up to 1024 notes and rests. While you're composing, Merlin will count the notes and will let you know with the LOSE sound when you've exceeded the limit. You can continue pressing notes after that, but only the first 1024 will be remembered and played back.

After you've finished composing, press COMPUTER TURN to hear the tune played back. Pressing COMPUTER TURN again will play it again. Pressing any key during playback will interrupt the tune.

To permanently save a tune press the HIT ME button and it will be saved to an export preference field. You can then copy the contents of the export field into one of the nine available Tune preference fields so that it will not be overwritten and can be loaded and replayed. You can also enter liner notes about your tune. The liner notes are displayed in a tooltip when selecting a tune for playback.

To compose a different tune press SAME GAME, press #1 and start composing again.

Playing a saved tune:

Saved tunes include Merlin's Favorites (01-20), the export preference (00), and the 9 Tune preference fields (21-29). To load a tune from any of these locations into memory for playback, select #2 and then enter the two digit code of the tune. Use buttons #0 and #1-#9 to enter the codes, do not use Button #10. After the code is entered Merlin will beep indicating that the tune can be played by pressing the COMPUTER TURN button. After loading a tune Music Machine automatically switches into composing mode, so you can add to a saved tune and re-export it using the HIT ME button.

Tip: The tune title or liner notes will be displayed in a tooltip when selecting a tune. The tooltips will appear only after the first digit of the tune code has been entered.

In order to watch Merlin's lights during tune playback turn on the preference setting to display lights during playback.

Editing a saved tune:

The preference fields can be updated manually in order to edit your songs. A song is just a list of characters. 0 is a rest. 1-9 and A (high "re") are notes.

Merlin's Favorites are:
(01) A Rovin'
(02) Auld Lang Syne (lengthened by B. Bellina)
(03) Beethoven's 9th
(04) Blow the Man Down
(05) Clementine
(06) Cockles and Mussels
(07) Frere Jacques
(08) It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
(09) Jingle Bells
(10) Knick Knack Paddywhack
(11) London Bridge
(12) Mary Had a Little Lamb
(13) Old Folks at Home
(14) On Top of Old Smokey
(15) Red River Valley
(16) Row Row Row Your Boat
(17) Shenandoah
(18) Silent Night
(19) Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
(20) We Three Kings


To see the notes for any one of these songs, load it into memory by selecting #2 and then entering its 2 digit code and then press HIT ME to save it to the export preference field.

Special note: The preference to have the Button #0 automatically open the Widget preferences is ignored in Music Machine. This is because the 0 button is used to enter rests when composing and used to enter the song codes when selecting a saved song.

Differences from the original Merlin:

- Original Merlin only allowed 48 tones and rests in a tune. Merlin78! allows up to 1024.
- The 20 tunes (Merlin's Favorites) were published in the manual and had to be hand-entered to hear them.
- Original Merlin did not allow tunes to be saved or edited.
- Original Merlin did not flash the note buttons when pressed.
- Original Merlin did not have an option to flash the note buttons during tune playback.
- Original Merlin did not provide a way to stop a tune during playback except by turning Merlin off.


Echo



Object: To repeat a tune of random notes that Merlin plays to you.

To Start: Press NEW GAME. Then press #3. Both the #0 and #10 lights will blink, indicating that the level of difficulty, the number of notes in the tune, needs to be selected. To do this, press one button from 1 to 9. Then press COMPUTER TURN and Merlin will play the tune.

Playing:

As Merlin plays the tune he will flash each light in turn. Watch the lights closely. When Merlin stops playing, try to enter the tune, pressing each light in turn.

If you press a button in the correct order, it will light and play its sound.

If you press a button that is out of order the buzzer will sound and Light #10 will blink. Continue guessing with the next note until you've pressed the correct number of buttons in the tune.

If all of your notes are in the correct order Merlin will play the WIN sound and blink Light #10.

If a note is not entered correctly Merlin will make the LOSE sound and will light a button indicating how many errors were made. Press COMPUTER TURN to hear the tune again.


Black Jack 13



Object: The game is a series of hands in which you try to acquire the highest hand of 13 or less. You start with five chips and with each hand you win you gain one chip; with each hand you lose you lose one chip. The game is won when you reach 10 chips, and lost when you reach zero.

To Start: Press NEW GAME. Then press #4.

Playing:

In this game the buttons 1 through 10 represent a deck of 10 playing cards with values 1 through 10.

Merlin is the dealer. Both of you start the game with a hand of one card. The blinking light is your hand; the steady light is Merlin's. You may choose to take a "hit" or "stand".

When you take a hit Merlin will deal you another card. If your hand total exceeds 13 then your hand is a "bust" and you lose the hand. You may take as many hits as you like until you've gone bust or decide to stand. To take a hit press the HIT ME button.

When you are satisifed with your hand total you should decide to "stand". This means that you are finished taking cards and it is now Merlin's choice whether to take a hit to his own hand or stand. When you want to stand just press the COMPUTER TURN button.

Merlin will decide to take a hit or stand based on the following strategy:
- if his hand is less than 10 he will take a hit.
- if his hand is 10 or more he will stand.


After Merlin stands his total and yours are compared and the player with the higher score of 13 or less is the winner of the hand. If Merlin won, the LOSE sound will play; if you won the WIN sound will play; if the scores are tied the TIE sound will play.

To play the next hand press the SAME GAME button. Merlin will briefly light a button indicating how many chips you have, and then deal the new hand.

If you accumulate 10 chips you break the bank and win the game. If you lose all of your chips you go broke and Merlin ends the game. To start a new game press NEW GAME, then press #4. You'll start again with five chips.


Magic Square



Object: To form a square of eight blinking lights by lighting buttons 1,2,3,4,6,7,8, and 9, while button #5 (the middle button) is off.

Relevant Game Preference Settings: (do not select both of the following at the same time or the middle will not flip at all)
- Do not flip middle when corners are pressed. By default this preference is not selected.
- Do not flip the pressed light. By default this preference is not selected.
- Play in "Lights Out" mode in which to win all lights must be off.


To Start: Press NEW GAME. Then press #5. Merlin will briefly show the Magic Square. Then a random display of blinking lights will appear. (It is possible that the random pattern will be that all buttons 1-9 will be off, in this case button #10 will blink to show that the game is in progress.)

Playing:

Press buttons 1-9, in any order, until you've formed the Magic Square (or if playing with the "Lights Out" preference on play until all lights are out). When the Magic Square is formed Merlin will play the Win sound.

(Historical note: "Lights Out" was created by Hasbro after Merlin introduced Magic Square in 1978.)



To see how many moves you have taken (since NEW GAME or SAME GAME was last pressed) press the HIT ME button. The number of moves is displayed using the lights. To determine the number of moves add the number of each lit button (0-10). If the number of moves exceeds 54 then all lights including 0 will be lit. Press any Merlin button to return to the game. The tooltip for the HIT ME button also displays the score.

Hint:

There is a pattern to the changes that occur when you press a light, it is not random. Each puzzle can be solved in 9 moves or fewer.

To play the game after winning or to restart the game press SAME GAME.

Extra Challenge for two players:

Once you have formed the Magic Square you can press the buttons to take the square apart. Try challenging an opponent to put the square back together in the same number of moves that you used to dismantle it or less._end

Differences from the original Merlin:
- Original Merlin did not display the number of moves.
- Original Merlin did not have options to not flip the corners or not flip the pressed button.
- Original Merlin did not have a "Lights Out" mode


Mindbender



Object: To discover the mystery code in Merlin's computer brain. The code will consist of from 1 to 9 digits from 1 to 9. The length of the code depends upon the difficulty level selected.

To Start: Press NEW GAME. Then press #6. The 0 and 10 lights will blink, indicating that you need to tell Merlin what level of difficulty from 1 to 9 to use. The level of difficulty determines the length of the code you need to figure out to win. For each level of difficulty there will be one digit from 1 to 9 in the code.

Playing:

Try to discover the mystery code by entering guesses that correspond to the length of the number. For example, if the mystery code is length 3 then enter each guess by pressing three buttons from 1 to 9 in any order that you prefer. For example, you might guess 2-8-3, or 9-7-7, or 5-6-4, etc.

Merlin will then report how accurately you guessed using blinking and steady lights.

If you guessed the correct digits in the correct order, Merlin will make the WIN sound and will flash a light for each digit in the number.

If any part of your guess was incorrect Merlin will make the LOSE sound and will show you how close your guess was:
- If none of the digits in your guess is a part of the number, Merlin will blink the #10 light.
- For each correct digit that is also in the correct order, Merlin will show a blinking light.
- For each correct digit that is not in the correct order, Merlin will show a steady light.


For example, if the secret code is 4-6-4:

(1) and you guess 1-2-3, Merlin will play the LOSE sound and blink the #10 light indicating that there are no 1's, 2's, or 3's anywhere in the code;
(2) or you guess 4-5-6, Merlin will play the LOSE sound and blink one light because the digit 4 is correct, and have one steady light because the digit 6 is in the code but is not in the correct order. Merlin will not tell you which of your digits was wrong or right, you will need to deduce that.
(3) or you guess 4-4-6, Merlin will play the LOSE sound and blink one light because the first digit 4 is correct, and have two steady lights because the second 4 and 6 are the correct digits but are not in the correct order.
(4) or if you guess 4-6-4, Merlin will play the WIN sound and flash three lights because all three digits in the code were correct and in the correct order.


After you break the code and win the game, pressing SAME GAME will briefly shine a light to show the number of guesses you took, up to a maximum of 10. Alternatively pressing HIT ME will display the number of guesses up to 55 until HIT ME or any other button is pressed. Calculate the total number of guesses by adding up the lights. If the number exceeds 54 then all lights will be lit. The tooltip for the HIT ME button also displays the score.

Competing against another player:

After you have won the game, pressing SAME GAME will allow the game to be replayed with the same code. In this way two or more people can compete in trying to break the same code in the fewest steps. If you want a new code press NEW GAME and then #6

Differences from the original Merlin:
- Original Merlin did not display the number of guesses using the HIT ME button.


Ship Hunt

Object: To find and sink Merlin's ships before he finds and sinks yours.

Relevant Game Preference Settings:
- Use green lights when showing your ships on the alternate screen. By default this preference is not selected.
- Do not display the instruction dialogs. By default this preference is not selected.
- Use sounds from Apple's HyperBattleship. By default this preference is not selected.
- When playing Merlin have Merlin automatically take his turn instead of waiting for the COMPUTER TURN button to be pushed. By default this preference is not selected.


To Start: Press NEW GAME. Then press #7. Merlin will ask you to place your first ship on the board. The first ship has a length of two spots and can be placed on any two non-diagonal adjacent spots from 1 to 9 (if you change your mind after selecting the first spot, select a second spot that is not adjacent to the first and the second spot will be the new first spot). After placing your first ship Merlin will ask you to place your second ship. The second ship is one spot in length and can be placed on any open spot from 1 to 9. After a pause while Merlin places his own ships, button #10 will flash, indicating that you can either take your turn or press COMPUTER TURN to let Merlin go first.

Playing:

The main board is used at first to place your own ships, but during game play the main board is used to target Merlin's ships. Your own ships will be displayed in an alternate board accessed by pressing HIT ME. In the alternate board solid red lights indicate Merlin's misses and your ships, flashing red lights indicate Merlin's hits on your ships. To distinguish between misses and your ships hover the mouse pointer over the light and the tooltip will indicate whether it is your ship or open water. There is a preference that will allow your ships to be displayed as a solid green light on the alternate screen. By default this preference is turned off because original Merlin did not have any light colors except red.

To attempt to hit one of Merlin's ships press a button from 1 to 9 on the main board. If one of Merlin's ships is hit the WIN sound will play and the button will flash; if it misses the LOSE sound will play and the button will shine steadily. To allow Merlin to attempt to find your ships press the COMPUTER TURN button. Merlin's attempts can be displayed on the alternate board accessed by pressing HIT ME. If Merlin hits one of your ships the WIN sound will play and the spot on the alternate board will flash; if Merlin misses the LOSE sound will play and the spot will shine steadily.

If you sink one of Merlin's ships button #0 will flash and the WIN sound will play. If you sink the second ship both button #0 and button #10 will flash and the long WIN sound will play. If Merlin sinks both of your ships button #0 and button #10 will flash and the long LOSE sound will play.

If you prefer to avoid having to press COMPUTER TURN after each of your turns, there is a preference setting to have Merlin automatically take his turn following yours.

Alternate sound effects:

There is a preference option to allow Ship Hunt to use sound effects imported from Apple's HyperBattleship stack which was developed in 1991 and freely distributed by Apple.

Differences from the original Merlin:
- This game was not included with original Merlin and was created by the author for Merlin GS and ported to MacMerlin and Merlin78!. In the Merlin GS and MacMerlin versions the alternate board was a mini-board displayed on screen and there was no preference option to use sounds from HyperBattleship.


High Low

Object: To guess the number in Merlin's computer brain.

Relevant Game Preference Settings:
- Preference to reverse high and low indicators so that button 0 indicates low and button 10 indicates high. By default this preference is not selected (i.e, button 0 indicates high and button 10 indicates low).



To Start: Press NEW GAME. Then press #8. The 0 and 10 lights will blink, indicating that you need to tell Merlin what level of difficulty from 1 to 9 to use. The level of difficulty determines the length of the number you need to figure out to win. For each level of difficulty there will be one digit in the number. The number will not have leading zeroes. For example, at level 1 the number will range from 1 to 9; at level 3 the number will range from 100 to 999; at level 5 the number will range from 10000 to 99999.

Playing:

Try to discover the mystery number by entering a number between the possible low and high numbers.

Merlin will then report whether your guess was high or low. If your guess was high then light #0 will blink. If your guess was low then light #10 will blink. (There is a preference to invert these so that button #0 indicates low and button #10 indicates high.)

If you guessed the correct number, Merlin will make the WIN sound and will flash light #0.

To see how many moves you have taken (since NEW GAME or SAME GAME was last pressed) press the HIT ME button. The number of moves is displayed using the lights. To determine the number of moves add the number of each lit button (0-10). If the number of moves exceeds 54 then all lights including 0 will be lit. Press any Merlin button to return to the game. The tooltip for the HIT ME button also displays the score, the current Low and High values, and the last guess entered.

Competing against another player: After you have won the game, pressing SAME GAME will allow the game to be replayed with the same code. In this way two or more people can compete in trying to guess the same number in the fewest steps. If you want a new number press NEW GAME and then #8.

Differences from the original Merlin:

- This game was not included with original Merlin and was created by the author for Merlin GS and ported to MacMerlin and Merlin78!. In the Merlin GS and MacMerlin versions the score (only up to 10) was briefly displayed after pressing SAME GAME, the High and Low buttons were reversed, and the sounds normally played for button 1-10 were shifted to play for buttons 0-9.


Concentration

Object: To find the matching pairs of sounds before Merlin or your human opponent does.

Relevant Game Preference Settings:
- When playing Merlin have Merlin automatically take his turn instead of waiting for the COMPUTER TURN button to be pushed. By default this preference is not selected.


To Start: Press NEW GAME. Then press #9. The 0 and 10 lights will blink, indicating that you need to tell Merlin what level of play from 1 to 9 to use.

For levels 1 to 5 all 10 lights are on and there is one matching pair of sounds per level. For example, at level 3 there are 10 lights on and 3 pairs of matching sounds to find; the remaining 4 lights do not match one another.

For levels 6, 7, and 8 there are 2, 3, and 4 pairs of matching sounds, respectively. There are no extra non-matching lights. For example, at level 7 there are 6 lights on consisting of 3 matching pairs of sounds.

Level 9 has 5 pairs of matching sounds (just like level 5 does), but at this level instead of playing against Merlin, two human opponents can play.

Playing:

Try to find more matching pairs of sounds than Merlin or another human opponent finds.

To take your turn click on any 2 of the buttons 1 through 10 that is steadily lit. Listen to the sounds that are played. If you find a matching pair Merlin will play the WIN sound and turn off the lights you pressed. If you find a matching pair you should take another turn, otherwise you should press COMPUTER TURN so that Merlin can try. If Merlin finds a matching pair he will automatically take another turn. During the game light #0 will indicate whose turn it is by being either steadily lit (human or Player 1) or flashing (Merlin or Player 2).

If you prefer to avoid having to press COMPUTER TURN after each of your turns, there is a preference setting to have Merlin automatically take his turn following yours.

To view the current score press the HIT ME button. If you are playing Merlin then the number of steady lights indicates the number of pairs you have found, and the number of flashing lights indicates the number of pairs Merlin has found. If you are playing against someone else then the score of the first player will be shown with the steady lights and the score of the second player will be shown with the flashing lights.

Once all of the pairs have been found the game is ended and Merlin will flash light #10. Merlin's score is compared to yours and if you found more pairs the long WIN sound will play, if Merlin found more pairs the long LOSE sound will play, otherwise the TIE sound will play. Light #0 will indicate the winner by being steadily lit (human or player 1) or flashing (Merlin or player 2) or in case of a tie be off.

After the game is over press HIT ME to view the score screen or SAME GAME to start another match. Press NEW GAME to start a different game.

Differences from the original Merlin:

- This game was not included with original Merlin and was created by the author for Merlin GS and ported to MacMerlin and Merlin78!. The Merlin GS and MacMerlin versions had a few bugs involving the certainty calculations that have been corrected in Merlin78!. Merlin78! flashes light #10 when the game has ended.


Sound Puzzler

Object: To sort 8 sounds in ascending order by shifting them around.

To Start: Press NEW GAME. Then press #10. Merlin will briefly display the solution and play the 8 sounds in order. Merlin will then randomly place the 8 lights on its screen.

Playing:

Shift the sounds around the board until they are in ascending order. Flashing lights are in the wrong place. Steady lights are in the correct place. Press on any on light that is vertically or horizontally adjacent to the off light to move the on light and its sound into the off space. To hear a sound press on any light. Press COMPUTER TURN to play all of the sounds in button order. When the lights are in ascending order and the off light is in the bottom right corner Merlin will play the long Win sound and button #0 and button #10 will flash. Hover the mouse pointer over a light to display the tooltip which will show the number from 1-8 where that sound should be.

To see how many moves you have taken (since NEW GAME or SAME GAME was last pressed) press the HIT ME button. The number of moves is displayed using the lights. To determine the number of moves add the number of each lit button (0-10). If the number of moves exceeds 54 then all lights including 0 will be lit. Press any Merlin button to return to the game. The tooltip for the HIT ME button also displays the score.

Competing against another player:

After you have won the game, pressing SAME GAME will allow the game to be replayed with the sounds in the same positions. In this way two or more people can compete in trying to solve the puzzle in the fewest steps. If you want a new number press NEW GAME and then #10.

Differences from the original Merlin:

- This game was not included with original Merlin and was created by the author for Merlin78!.


The Making of Merlin78!



Much of the original code base of Merlin78! is rewritten from the MerlinGS HyperCard stack created in 1995 by the author and available here but in addition a number of tools were needed to convert it from a HyperCard stack to a Yahoo! Engine Widget.

Sounds:

The sounds for Merlin78! come from two sources. The first source is the original Merlin itself. Using a microphone and the software HyperStudio on an Apple IIGS I captured the sounds directly from the Merlin speaker. I then used HyperCard GS and a stack called SoundConvert to import the sounds from HyperStudio format to HyperCard "rSnd" format allowing them to be attached as resources to Merlin GS. I later used Apple's freeware HyperMover stack to dissemble the stack and convert the sounds to be used for MacMerlin. At some point in the process I converted the sounds to AIFF format which is compatible with Yahoo! Widget Engine.

The second source is Apple's free HyperBattleship stack. The HyperBattleship stack allowed playing battleship between two computers running Mac OS HyperCard across an AppleTalk network. With Apple's abandonment of HyperCard it seemed a shame not to be able to make use of the sound effects, so I converted them. First I used HyperMover on the Mac (running in Classic since HyperCard is not OS X native) to dissemble the HyperBattleship stack. I then used the Mac OS X Apple IIGS emulator "Sweet 16" by Eric Shepherd (available at www.sheppyware.net) as the platform to create a hard disk image that I mounted and initialized in HFS and then copied the dissembled stack onto. I then used Apple's HyperCard GS stack "HyperMover GS" to rebuild the stack on the IIGS. As a result of this the sounds were converted to "rSnd" format and attached to the new stack. I then used a shareware IIGS application called "rSounder" (version 3) by Paul Benson to open each resource sound in the new stack and save them in AU format. Then I copied the AU sounds from the disk image to the Widget resources folder.

Graphics:

Most graphics were taken from websites or other Widgets and then edited using Seashore and GraphicConverter.

The large and small Merlin images were taken from the website Virtual Merlin by Shane Monroe.

The button number images were taken from Apple's Dashboard widget "Calculator". I created the "10" key by merging "0" and "1".

The other small buttons were taken from other widgets and websites.

The Sounds and Music Preference Group icons are from James Marshall Allen posted at the Konfabulator Wiki.

The Appearance Preference Group icon is from "wwarby" posted at the Konfabulator Wiki.

Instructions text:

Much of the instruction text, where accurate, was hand-entered by the author from the original Merlin instruction book, as are the 20 built-in Music Machine tunes.

Game Logic:

The game logic for all of the games except "Sound Puzzler" was developed by the author in HyperTalk for HyperCard GS in 1995. Duplication of Merlin's behavior was arrived at by testing with my original Merlin. Not knowing exactly what Artificial Intelligence algorithms Merlin used for "Tic Tac Toe" I developed my own which is intended to provide a challenge but allow Merlin to be beatable. Original development time for Merlin GS was approximately 120-160 hours.

The game logic for "Sound Puzzler" was developed specifically for Merlin78! by the author.

Conversion of the HyperTalk to Javascript required approximately 50 hours. In all it has taken about 80 hours to develop Merlin78!.

Version History

v1.0: September 21, 2006 - Originally submitted to Yahoo! Widget Gallery

v1.1: October 3, 2006

  • Corrected problem with lights in Echo and other games not displaying properly in Windows
  • Keep track of whether to open minimized or maximized based based on last state

v1.2: October 5, 2006

  • Replaced updateNow() statements with resumeUpdates() and removed the updateNow() statements added in v1.1. This is the correct way to handle updates.