Little Ben BILINGUAL Apple II CLOCK GAME

["Bill Buckels" <bbuckels@mts.net>]

Little Ben(C) Version 2.0
Chez l'horloger(C)
A BILINGUAL CLOCK
For The Apple II
(C) Copyright 1989-2008 Bill Buckels
All Rights Reserved.

Written in Apple33 Manx Aztec C65 Version 3.2b
Windows XP Cross-development environment for DOS33

Available for Download at: http://www.clipshop.ca/Aztec/Ben33.zip

PDF User's Manual with Screen Shots at:

http://www.clipshop.ca/Aztec/Ben33.pdf

Program Description

Little Ben is a bilingual clock program for children from 6-12. It is 
intended to be used as a teaching aid for children learning to tell time. 
Little Ben consists of a single screen display of a clean and simple 
old-fashioned clock with hands and a face. This is an activity (a Time 
Display Program), and NOT a competitive game.

Time is displayed in Digital, Graphical, and Written Formats (in English or 
French). Time is advanced or retreated minute by minute and hour by hour 
with the keyboard.

The 3 activities supported by Little Ben (in English and French) are:

Hourly Review

Minute Review - 5 Minute Interval Blocks

Round The Clock Review - 1 Minute Intervals

This version of Little Ben is free and you are encouraged to give Little Ben 
for the Apple II away to anyone you please. The more kids that enjoy Little 
Ben, the merrier! See the licence Agreement below for more details.

I am distributing Little Ben with complete source code for this release. 
Read the licencing section if you are inclined to use source code. All of 
this will all be included in the next Aztec-C Website update which may 
already be done by the time you read this. Until then you will not be able 
to build Little Ben because the libraries have changed with additional 
routines that Little Ben uses.

History

I originally wrote Little Ben on the IBM-PC and the Apple II versions came 
after their respective IBM-PC Versions. There is no real difference between 
this version of Little Ben and the IBM-PC Version 2.0 released in 1999 which 
was also FreeWare.

I formatted Little Ben for the Apple II's 280 x 192 graphics mode which is 
close enough to the IBM-PC's CGA Graphics that no extreme layout changes 
were necessary between computers. Hoping to run on the oldest Apple II's 
possible as well as the newer ones, I chose DOS 3.3 for this version. Apple 
II Version 1.0 was written for ProDOS and was never publicly released and 
vanished from the planet, lost in the sands of time. This version was mostly 
written from the ground-up since very little source code could be used 
between the IBM-PC and the Apple II.

Program Details

Getting Started

The child must be reading at about a Grade 2 (Age 7-8) level to use this 
program. An explanation of the parts of the clock including "the little 
hand" and "the big hand" must be done in advance of using "Little Ben".

Time Display - Digital, English, French, and Graphical

The Time that is displayed on the clock is given in English or French at the 
bottom of the screen (i.e. "Twenty-nine Minutes after Three", etc.) and in a 
the now-familiar digital format (i.e. "3:29") at the top of the screen. The 
clock is controlled by the user. As the time is advanced or retreated, the 
hands of the clock move. The positions for the minutes and the hours are 
clearly marked and the hours are each properly identified.

Since the display is updated every time change, the result of the clock 
hands can be visually verified in usually-familiar digital terms, and in 
usually not-so-familiar traditional terms (of clock face and hands, and of 
written time in English or French).

Commands and Navigation

E and F - English and French Toggle

The Display is switched back and forth between English and French by 
pressing the "E" key for English or the "F" key for French. This means that 
the time can be verified by immediately translating to and fro.

Arrow Keys

Up and Down Arrows - Hours

The Hours are advanced or retreated with the down-arrow and up-arrow keys.

Left and Right Arrows - 5 Minute Intervals (Time Blocks)

The minutes are advanced or retreated in 5 minute intervals with the 
left-arrow and right-arrow keys.

The Advantage of 5 Minute Intervals (Time Blocks)

Using 5 minute intervals (as opposed to 1 minute intervals) means that the 
clock can be visually cycled forwards or backwards by larger units in the 
hope of more easily building a logical association between minutes and 
hours.

When the minutes are being advanced with the arrows, they jump to the 
nearest 5 minute interval. Since most kids at this age (7-8) understand the 
principles of "counting by 5's" and primary multiplication, the quicker 
visual translation of minutes to hours using time blocks of 5 minutes may be 
easier to grasp visually.

All Other Keys - Round The Clock Review

Aside from the Escape Key which exits, the other standard keyboard keys 
advance the clock minute by minute, and permit a "round-the-clock" review (1 
minute intervals).

Licence Agreement

Little Ben(C) Version 2.0 for the Apple II is distributed as FreeWare. No 
fee whatsoever may be charged for it or for its distribution. Little Ben for 
the Apple II is free for anyone to use even in a commercial setting like a 
daycare, etc. Little Ben is (C) Copyright 1989-2008 Bill Buckels. All Rights 
Reserved.

All my work is copyrighted and belongs to me. This program is not derived 
from anything by anyone and is my own work in its entirety.

I herewith grant you a non-exclusive and conditional licence to use this 
program and its source code for whatever use you deem fit, provided you do 
not take credit for my work, and that you leave my copyright notices intact 
in all of it.

If you augment or otherwise use my work you must always also include your 
own personal copyright notice but it may never be a GNU public licence or 
anything else that resembles fascism or totalitarianism and world-domination 
or a commercial or educational licence either. You can use my stuff 
commercially or for GNU with my conditions intact if they let you (they 
should since copyright is for authors and the public and I belong to both 
groups) but you must never copyright my work with any company copyright 
whatsoever; just your own personal copyright like mine and leave mine in 
place. That is the way copyright is intended to work and that is the way 
that it will work with my stuff unless I selectively decide otherwise.

In addition you must agree that I am not liable in any way shape or form for 
any damage from the use of any of this in any way whatsoever.

If you do not agree with all of the aforementioned conditions of use or if 
your use is not Fair then remove all of this from your computer now.

Redistribution

This program is distributed with source code. You may distribute this 
software freely, providing none of the files are missing, and preferably in 
their original distribution archive.

Bill Buckels
bbuckels@mts.net
May 2008