Loadstar 233/233.d81/t.chord

Text File | 2022-08-26 | 8KB | 269 lines

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    C H O R D C E N T R A T I O N

  Program and Text by Travis Parker


    CHORDCENTRATION is a variation on
the classic game of Concentration
(also known as Memory in one of its
commercial forms). Many variations
have been -- pictures, words, math,
(match problem and answer), fronts and
backs, et cetera, ad nauseam. I
decided to do things a little
differently by using something you
can't put onto a real card: Sound.

    In the virtual world of a
computer's memory, however, anything
goes. Each 'card' has a series of
three musical chords on it (tonic,
subdominant, dominant). When the card
is turned over, the chords are played,
courtesy of the SID chip. If 'show
chords' is turned on (see below), the
chords are also represented by three
symbols. The symbols are always the
same, but the colors change.  Here is
the color code:

     Red       - C  major
     Lt. Red   - C# (Db) major
     Green     - D  major
     Lt. Green - D# (Eb) major
     Cyan      - E  major
     Blue      - F  major
     Lt. Blue  - F# (Gb) major
     Orange    - G  major
     Yellow    - G# (Ab) major
     Gray      - A  major
     White     - A# (Bb) major
     Purple    - B  major


 GAMEPLAY
 --------

    The game is played on a 6 x 4 grid
using 24 cards. You can choose the
computer or a second player as your
opponent. After the cards are shuffled
and dealt, turn over two cards. If
they match, they will be removed from
the board and you will score a point
(see SCORING SYSTEM, below). If they
do not match, the cards are turned
back over and the other player gets a
turn. Play alternates whenever a match
is not made. The game continues until
no cards are left. When the game is
over, the player with the most points
wins.


 SCORING SYSTEM AND STRATEGY
 ---------------------------

    CHORDCENTRATION's scoring system
is not like other versions of
concentration. To the left and right
of the game board are two score
meters. The left meter is for player
1, the right meter is for player 2 or
the computer (blue for player 2, white
for the computer). When a match is
made, the player scores a point and
the appropriate meter rises. However,
the two meters are like a balance.
When a player's meter rises a notch,
the other player's meter falls a
notch. If the other player's meter is
zero, it stays zero (no negative
scoring). Therefore, to win the game,
it is important to be able to make
multiple matches in one turn, so you
can build your meter up.


 HIGH SCORE
 ----------

    If you defeat the computer with a
higher score than the one in the Hall
of Fame, you will be asked to enter
your name. Your name, score, and level
will be saved to disk when you quit. A
score in the HARD level will always
beat a score in the EASY level, no
matter what it is. It seems Knees
Calhoon already has a score of 2-EASY
in there. Will somebody please destroy
his ego?

    After the game is finished
loading, a brief musical title
sequence will appear, followed by the
main menu. The options are as follows:

 F1:START GAME - Press F1 to start
    the game. Player 1 can also press
    FIRE to start.

 F3:1P VS... - Press F3 to toggle
    between the computer and a second
    player for an opponent.

 F4:SHOW CHORDS - Press F4 to turn
    the chord symbols (see above) on
    and off.

 F5:LEVEL - selects difficulty level,
    EASY or HARD. These refer to the
    computer opponent's intelligence.
    Actually, the levels should be
    called HARD and YOU HAVE TO BE
    PSYCHIC (or at least, PSYCHOTIC).
    Unless you are a concentration
    pro, be prepared to be humiliated
    on the HARD level. The computer is
    even tough to beat on the EASY
    level.

 F6:JOYSTICKS - This selects the
    number of joysticks being used.
    Normally this option is set to 2,
    meaning player 1 will use a
    joystick plugged into port #2, and
    player 2 (if applicable) will use
    a joystick plugged into port #1.
    If this option is set to 1, both
    players will share a joystick in
    port #2.

 F7:SEE HIGH SCORE - Pressing F7 will
    pop the high score Hall of Fame up
    on the screen. Press any key to
    exit.

 F8:CLEAR HIGH SCORE - Pressing F8
    will clear the high score Hall of
    Fame. A message will say this has
    been done. Press any key to return
    to the menu. If the Hall of Fame
    is called up after it has been
    cleared, it will be "grayed out."

    NOTE : If you are not in
    CHORDCENTRATION, you can clear the
    high score by scratching the file
    "cc.hiscore".

 STOP:QUIT - Pressing the STOP key at
    the menu will cause a window to
    appear asking you if you want to
    quit the program. Press N to
    return to the menu, or press Y to
    quit. When you quit the program,
    the high score is saved to disk,
    so make sure the disk is in the
    drive. After saving the high score
    file, CHORDCENTRATION will attempt
    to return to LOADSTAR. If it
    can't, it will exit to BASIC.

    When the game starts, the board
will appear and the cards will be
shuffled. Pick a card by moving the
cursor with the joystick or CRSR keys.
Turn the card over by pressing FIRE or
RETURN. You can also pick a card and
turn it over by typing the letter on
the back of the card. The vertical
message in the top left of the screen
shows who is up.  When the computer is
up, it will think for a few secords
and then automatically pick two cards.
Unlike many games, you do not have to
press a key after the computer
chooses. When the game is over, a
window will appear announcing the
winner. Press any key and the main
menu will reappear. During the game,
if you wish to quit and return to the
main menu, press the STOP key.

    My thanks go to Jeff Jones for
TOOLBOX #117, Johnny "The Mad Gamer"
Harris for RACKETMEISTER, and the late
Joe Garrett for SONGSMITH.

 TP


 [FENDER'S POSTMUMBLE]: I don't know
how many times I've had people with
perfect pitch come up to the bandstand
and berate me for doing "Louie Louie"
in G, when everybody knows the
Kingsmen did it in A." If I had only
had CHORDCENTRATION!

 Travis has done an excellent job of
taking a bunch of our tools and
blending them with a good idea to come
up with a tough, LOADSTARish puzzle
that rewards those who have a good
memory and musical ear. I guess my ear
has gone to the dogs because the only
way I can get any matches is by
remembering the colored patterns.

 If you find that you can remember the
"feel" of a chord, you may have
"perfect pitch" and not know it. From
what I've read, some people have
perfect pitch (the ability to
recognize a musical pitch WITHOUT
having to compare it to some other
known pitch) and the rest of us don't.
If it's possible to develop, or
exercise perfect pitch, then
CHORDCENTRATION seems to me to be one
of the very best ways to practice.

 Dave Barry of the Miami Herald
recently wrote about the fact that
people at basketball games
instinctively chant "air ball" in the
key of F. Check it out the next time
you are watching a game with a
keyboard nearby. I tend to believe
everything that Dave Barry says so
maybe you'd better not take my word
for it. Dave has been known to stretch
the truth a bit. For example, he once
described the LOADSTAR Tower as a
"massive 215-story edifice made
entirely out of Gouda cheese." Hell,
everybody knows the Tower's only 135
stories tall.

 FT


 [DAVE'S TURN]: Well, we are way over
215 floors now, and this is as Gouda
as it gets! My son's brother-in-law, a
music major at Colorado University and
now a music teacher, said he was glad
Professor Baldwin never subscribed to
LOADSTAR. Otherwise, a major part of
their Music Transcription and
Dictation class grade would have
depended on beating the computer at
CHORDcentration!

 DMM