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FUNNELS & BUCKETS Version 2.00 User-Supported Educational Software from Data Sage Yale Station 2902 New Haven, CT 06520 ------------------------------------------------------------ For: IBM PC with PC-DOS Requirements: Eighty-column display, one diskette drive, 96K random access memory (RAM) Files Used: FUNNELS.EXE, FUNNELS.DOC, FUNNELS.INV FUNNELS.SCR (created by program) ------------------------------------------------------------ Over dinner one evening, eight-year-old Jed said, "You were right, Dad, when you told me learning math would pay off." His father raised a questioning eyebrow. "What do you mean, son?" he asked. "A boy in our class said he would give anything if someone would do the last row of problems on his math assignment. So I did and he paid me a dime." The dime was only the beginning of the payoffs Jed will get from the time and effort he invests in learning arithmetic. Someday he may become an accountant or financial advisor and charge hundreds of times that amount for essentially the same work: solving number problems. Whatever he does, his mastery of arithmetic will mean he has some useful tools to achieve his personal goals. Unfortunately, his classmate may never be able to use those same tools, unless he overcomes his distaste for arithmetic. Funnels & Buckets is a computer program meant to help people like Jed and his classmate learn and enjoy arithmetic. Although it is aimed at children, it can help adults polish their skills. BACKGROUND Funnels & Buckets is a learning game. Playing it improves your skill in adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. The object of the game is to POP equations by solving them as they fall from a funnel. The funnel glides across the ceiling of a room called The Cleaning Closet. Funnels & Buckets Users Guide As a player, your job is to type in the correct answers to the equations before they reach the buckets. That will POP them, and the more you POP, the higher your score. At fast speeds, POPping will challenge even an adult. The dastardly villain Burglar runs the funnel. He wants to fill all the buckets in The Cleaning Closet with equations. Burglar gets his name because he tries to steal the points you earn from typing in an answer. Even worse, if you type the wrong answer when he's around, he steals TWICE the points. To avoid losing points, never type an answer when he's around. Meggie, the cleaning woman, is the game's heroine. This is her cleaning closet, and the buckets belong to her. She's busy cleaning, but she drops by often to reward you with bonus points for stopping Burglar. If you type in the correct answer when she's around, you get TRIPLE the points. When you don't know an answer, Meggie will help you. (Her cleaning job is just a money-making sideline. In real life she is a math teacher.) Press the <space bar> when an equation is falling and she'll show you how to get the right answer. You can remember it for the next time Burglar drops that equation. START UP To start Funnels & Buckets, place the diskette into your logged disk drive and type: FUNNELS <enter> A title screen will appear. Press the <space bar> to get the main menu. SETTING UP THE GAME Funnels & Buckets allows you to set up the game the way you want. You control the type of problems (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or mixed). You control whether you want sound effects. And you control how fast the game will go. The game has already made its own choices. They appear in parentheses to the right of the menu selections in the middle box on the screen. If you want these choices, just press the <space bar> to start playing. If you want to change a choice, press the number key beside it on the menu. Copyright (C) 1984 by Data Sage 2 Funnels & Buckets Users Guide To change the type of problem, press <1>. A menu of choices will appear in the bottom box on the screen. Choose whether you want to add, subtract, multiply, divide, or solve a mixture of problems. Difficult problems earn more points than easy ones: Addition . . . . . . . 5 points Subtraction . . . . . 10 points Multiplication . . . . 15 points Division . . . . . . . 20 points To choose whether you will have sound effects, press <2>. A menu will appear in the bottom box on the screen. Select quiet or sound. To choose how fast the equations will fall, press <3>. There are six options, ranging from FASTEST to SLOWEST. You may choose the speed you want. The computer will automatically speed things up as you get better and your score gets higher. You may get short instructions from the main menu by pressing the <enter> key. You may quit by pressing <esc>. PLAYING THE GAME When you have chosen how you want the game to work, press the <space bar>. Then use either set of number keys to enter answers. If you make a mistake typing the first digit of a two- digit number, press the <backspace> key to start over. Keep an eye out for Meggie and the Burglar at the top of the screen. If Meggie comes, try to answer the question right away to get bonus points. If Burglar comes, stop typing until he leaves. Otherwise you'll lose points. To get an explanation of a problem, press the <space bar> when an equation is falling. Meggie will show how to solve it. You may change the speed, the sound, and the type of problems anytime. This will not cause you to lose points. Press the <esc> key to interrupt play. Make the changes you want. Then press the <space bar> to continue play. EXITING The <esc> key always takes you back to the previous screen. You may end the game at any time by pressing the Copyright (C) 1984 by Data Sage 3 Funnels & Buckets Users Guide <esc> key several times. The game will also end by itself if Burglar succeeds in filling all the buckets. The computer will compare your score with that of previous players. If you beat all previous scores, it will ask you to enter your name as the new record holder. Then you may decide if you want to play again. GETTING THE MOST FROM THE GAME The value of Funnels & Buckets is that it makes learning fun. Some people like the excitement of outpacing the burglar. They lose track of time as they POP equations. Others prefer the gentle explanations Meggie gives when they press the <space bar>. A player learns best by playing the game in his or her own way. That keeps it fun without becoming threatening or boring. Many children between the ages of four and seven prefer to watch Meggie's explanation instead of playing for points. Older children usually prefer both explanations and play. Note that the game is designed so you only have to use the numeric keypad, the <space bar>, the <backspace> key and the <esc> key. The <esc> key, which is used for exiting, is separated from the playing keys to prevent accidental use. For children this will make play easier. SHAREWARE Funnels & Buckets is a "user-supported" program. User- supported software, sometimes known by the name "shareware," is an experiment in software distribution. It is based on three principles: 1. You are the best judge of how useful a program is. By using it on your own computer, you can you see whether it meets your needs. If it doesn't you shouldn't have to pay for it. 2. The creation of personal computer software can and should be supported by the computing community. If you use someone else's work, you will want to contribute a small share of the cost, just as someone who uses your work should do for you. Supporting a software author helps him or her create more software and improve what is already available. Copyright (C) 1984 by Data Sage 4 Funnels & Buckets Users Guide 3. Copying and sharing software is a good thing that should be encouraged. Distributing "user-supported" software reduces the cost of marketing, advertising, manufacturing, packaging, and copy-protecting. It costs less to distribute, so you pay less. (This is one way your users group or bulletin board operator saves you money.) When you use a shareware program, the author trusts you to send your fair share to help support the program. We've tried to make Funnels & Buckets as high-quality as any professional program you can buy. Please give your fair share. For your convenience, we've included an invoice (FUNNELS.INV) on the disk. You can print it out and send it with your check. ============================================================ > > > SUGGESTED CONTRIBUTION < < < $10 Schools and organizations, please contribute $25 per building. ============================================================ We encourage you to copy and share Funnels & Buckets with others, if: 1. You do not change the program or the documentation. (If even a few persons made changes, there would soon be several different versions and it would become difficult or impossible to fix problems.) 2. You copy all three files: FUNNELS.EXE FUNNELS.DOC FUNNELS.INV (The score file FUNNELS.SCR is optional; the computer will create it if it is not there.) 3. You do NOT charge any fee or consideration, but inform the person to whom you give a copy that this is a shareware program. (User Groups may charge their normal library fee.) Copyright (C) 1984 by Data Sage 5 Funnels & Buckets Users Guide SUGGESTIONS WELCOME If you have suggestions or comments about Funnels & Buckets, we'd appreciate a letter. There's also room for comments on the convenient invoice. Thank you for your support. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Stan W. Merrill, Ph.D., created Funnels & Buckets and programmed the IBM PC version. An earlier version appeared in PC Disk Magazine (Volume I, Number 7). An Apple II version, programmed by Paul Ravina, appeared in A+ Disk Magazine (Volume I, Number 4). Many people have helped test it, including JoLynn Bennett, Denise Dillman, Tracy Gibbons, Erica Merrill, Jed Merrill, John Roeder, Scott Roeder, and Tommy Roeder. * * * Copyright (C) 1984 by Data Sage 6