TELL THE TIME V1.2 By Mike Austin. This program was written using AMOS and Compiled with the AMOS Compiler. Thanks to Francois Lionet for developing AMOS. I decided to write this program as I realised recently that there is a surprisingly high amount of Children, including my own, that have difficulty in telling the time. I have found that my own Children have had benefit from using the program and I am sure that others could as well. INSTRUCTIONS. ------------- TELL THE TIME is based purely on helping Children to learn to tell the time and consists of five levels. Rather than follow the normal trend where certain levels have to be completed before moving on, this program allows the `User' to decide which level he/she wants to do and for how long. By pressing the ESC(ape) key at certain times during a level, you will be returned to the Level Screen. The program runs best if your machine has 1 MEG of ram but it should work on a half Meg machine. In any case, please make sure that you switch off or disconnect any external drives or printer before switching on your Computer if you do not have more than 1 MEG of RAM.. To load the program, switch on Computer and insert the disk. Wait for Workbench to load and Double-Click on the disk icon and again on the `TellTheTime' icon. Please leave the program disk in your drive at all times when running this program. LEVELSCREEN. ( MENU ). ---------------------- Here you will see a wall which goes up in steps representing the different levels. At each step there is a sign showing the Level number. Putting the Mouse pointer onto a sign will reveal a small plaque which briefly describes the Level. Clicking the Left Mouse button once on a sign will call up that Level. Pressing the ESC(ape) key will close down the program and return you to the Workbench. LEVEL 1 - Easy. --------------- This is the easiest Level which has a 12 hour clock. You will see a large clock face and the hands on the clock will rotate automatically and stop randomly. In this Level the hands will show the time as either o'clock, 1/4 past the hour, 1/2 past the hour or 1/4 to the hour, ranging from 12 o'clock to 12 o'clock. When the hands stop spinning a row of buttons will appear at the bottom of the Screen. Use these buttons to tell the Computer what time is showing on the clock. This is done by selecting 2 of the buttons ( a number button and either o'clock, 1/4 past, 1/2 past or 1/4 to ) and clicking the Left Mouse button once on each in turn. EG: If you think the time is 1/4 past 3 click once on the 1/4 past button and once on the 3 button. You will be told if you are correct or not and you have 2 chances to get the right answer. If you are wrong on your second attempt the Computer will show the correct time, and after pressing the Right Mouse button, will rotate the hands again for another go. Pressing the ESC(ape) key while the hands are spinning will return you to the LevelScreen after showing the scores for Level 1 - Easy. LEVEL 1 - Hard. --------------- This Level is slightly harder than Level 1 - Easy. Still a 12 hour clock but the hands can stop spinning at any 5 minute interval of any hour. EG: 5 past, 10 past, 1/4 past, 20 past etc; You will see the same clock face as in Level 1 - Easy and the idea here is the same. The hands will rotate automatically and stop randomly. The row of buttons is slightly more complex. Still only 2 types of button but there are more of the `something past the hour' type buttons. EG: If you think the time is 25 past 5, click once on the twenty-five-past button and once on the 5 button. The process from here is the same as for Level 1 - Easy. LEVEL 2 ( Digital Breakout ). ------------------------------- Selecting Level 2 from the Level Screen ( Menu ) takes you to the Digital Breakout intro screen. From here, you can select either the easy or the hard level or you can return to the Level Screen. Level 2 - Easy. --------------- On this level, you get to play a game before telling the time. As the title suggests, you will tell the time using a digital type clock. This level uses a 12 hour digital clock. Anyway the game is a short version of the old classic ping pong type game where you control a ball, using a bat ( attached to your mouse ) and knock out blocks from the screen. In this game there are 80 blocks, coloured black and white which are covering our digital clock. You must direct the ball to remove all 80 blocks. Your bat is situated a short way from the bottom of the screen and can only move left or right by moving the mouse in the appropriate direction. Below the bat is a blue panel which shows your score and a number of items that you can pickup with the bat. These items are as follows :- OBJECT EFFECT ---------------------------------------------------------- Yellow Hex shaped Disk Big/Small Bat Blue Rectangle 20 Bonus Points Red Auto Disk Computer control of bat Diamond Shape Slow or Normal speed ball Blue Ball Big/Small ball ---------------------------------------------------------- Pressing F1 turns on turbo speed and F2 turns turbo off. If the computer has control, engage turbo speed and see if you can follow the ball. Good luck if you try turbo speed under manual control. The screen will flash when the computer takes control and flash again when computer control is about to end. For each block cleared you get 2 points but for each time you miss the ball you lose 2 points. However, you can increase your score considerably depending on how many times you can catch the 20 point bonus rectangle. If you miss the ball then any item you gained, such as a large bat or ball, will be lost. When all blocks are cleared you are reminded of your score and told how long you took to clear the blocks. You now have to answer 10 questions before either playing the game again or returning to the Intro Screen. You will be given a message similar to below: Make the clock say ( 12 O' Clock ) The time in the brackets is a random time chosen by the computer. You answer by clicking the buttons on the digital clock beneath the numbers. There are 2 Hour buttons and 2 Minute buttons. To answer the question above you would click the first Hour button until it showed the number 1 and click the second Hour button until it showed 2. Click on the Minute buttons till they both show zero's. Tell the computer you have finished by clicking on the DONE button. You will then be told if you are correct or not. To the right of the screen is a HELP button. Clicking on this will open up a help screen. If you are having problems then use this to try and work out the answer but if you are really stuck click on the little brown door in the middle top of help screen, which will reveal how the digital clock should look for the given question. Clicking on the top right hand side will close the help screen allowing you to continue. When all 10 questions are answered you have the choice to play again or return to the Intro Screen. Click Yes or No. Level 2 - Hard. --------------- This level works exactly the same as Level 2 - Easy, except that the Digital clock uses a 24 hour format, ie: 1 O' clock in the afternoon should read ` 13 : 00 '. The questions asked in this level are similar to below :- Make the clock say Eg:- 1 ( Twenty-five to 5 in the afternoon ) Eg:- 2 ( Twenty-five to 5 in the morning ) The clock in the first example should read 16 : 35. The clock in the second example should read 04 : 35. If you press the ESC(ape) key while playing the game, you will be returned to the games intro screen. Pressing ESC(ape) while answering questions will return you to the Level screen ( Main Menu ). LEVEL 3. -------- This Level also uses a digital type clock in a 24 hour format. The Level revolves around a train that has to travel to different stations. Getting an answer correct will allow the train to travel to the next station. At the bottom right of the Screen is a Digital clock which shows the time as it is in this scenario. To the left of this, in the message panel, you will be given a question that will read... ` The train will take ( Eg: 56 ) mins to reach the next station. What will the time be when the train arrives. Click box of your choice. ' The amount of minutes shown above will be a random amount chosen by the Computer. Underneath the message there will be 3 boxes, each showing a different time. Only one of these boxes contains the correct time and it can be in any one of the 3 positions. Look at the current time on right hand side of Screen and work out what the time will be by adding the minutes from the question to the current time. Next, click once with the Left Mouse button on the box that you think ( or know ) contains the correct answer. If you choose wrongly, the outline of the box will turn black, reminding you of it's postion. You will then be given one more chance to get the correct answer. If you are wrong on your second attempt, you will be told and the correct box will be highlighted by a flashing outline. A HELP Screen will then appear to show the working out of the question. Pressing the Right Mouse button here will close the HELP Screen and present you with another question. To assist in the Child's comprehension of what the 24 hour clock means, the program will try to simulate day and night. The sky will be blue from approx; 6.30 AM and will turn black, showing stars from approx; 19.00 PM. Pressing the ESC key before answering a question will return you to the LevelScreen, after showing your scores for Level 3. LEVEL 4. -------- This Level is a kind of a `Space shoot-em-up'. The Level starts with you sat in your spacecraft ready to do battle. Unfortunately, your phaser weapon has no power. You have to answer questions until your Phaser is fully charged. The questions involve the adding together of three sets of random minutes. You have to work out the hour(s) and minutes that these minutes make. As in Level 3, there are 3 boxes displayed beneath the question and only one of them contains the correct answer. select your answer in the same way as Level 3. To shoot enemy spacecraft, point the crosshair, using Mouse, at enemy and `Click' the Left button. NB: Keeping the button pressed will drain your phaser power quickly and weaken it's effect so it will not be able to destroy the enemy. Remember, just point and click. A warning alarm will bleep when your energy is getting low. When your phaser is discharged, you will have to answer more questions to be able to fight again. Pressing ESC(ape) at any time will return you to the LevelScreen, after showing your scores for Level 4. LEVEL 5. -------- This Level contains a game called Clock Catcher. No questions to answer here, just a bit of fun. You have to help a Troll called Herman around the various platforms, on the 4 Levels of the game by walking, climbing ladders, jumping onto or over obstacles and collecting clocks that are scattered around. Take care not to touch the spinning wheels or you will be placed at the start of the Level. There are 6 clocks to find and collect on each Level. See the game's intro Screen for control instructions. Pressing ESC(ape) at any time will return you to the LevelScreen. Although this game is mainly for fun, it does have some educational value. A Childs coordination skills can be developed by using a joystick. The Child has to think about such things as, `which way to move, when to move or jump and how to avoid obstacles'. I do hope that you enjoy this program. Best Wishes Mike Austin. If you have any suggestions or bug reports regarding this program or any other problems, please feel free to contact me at the address below. Mike Austin 10 Birchgrove Parc Avenue Caerphilly Mid Glamorgan South Wales CF8 3BG.