Full Disclosure: the free Android smart phone application is available for download.
You cannot play (or even see) this Java applet on the Android
smart phone default web browser (surprise!). I have no idea if
there is another Android web browser that is Java enabled. I
assume that this is a security issue. You should be able to play
with this game on a Java V1.5 (AKA Version 5 [blame marketing])
enabled browser on a desktop or laptop computer.
If you have any other problems with this game, please let me know so that I can fix them.
This is a prototype for a series of games that use the Instrumentation language. The 'glyph' (the big round thing) is an ideogram that represents a 'term' (one or more English words) depending on its 'aspect' (how it looks).
Right clicking anywhere near the glyph will display a
cheat sheet for the buttons on the left side of the page. Some of
the functions are only explained there. The more
complicated or less obvious details are belabored below.
Left clicking on the *center* of an 'element' (a line or the triangle) will make it disappear or reappear. For the 'laths' (the curved elements), the *center* is where the lath touches a 'spoke' (they look like spokes). Enter a '-0' (a negative zero) in the Index field and press the "Index" button to make all elements vanish. The dots show where the *centers* of absent elements would be if you hadn't just made them vanish. The 'hub' (the small innermost circle) around the 'plug' (the central triangle) never disappears. Please stop clicking on the hub.
After clicking, the layer counts and pronunciation at the top of the page, the Basic and Syntax parts of a term (above the drop-boxes at the bottom left) and the Index (in the "Layer, Index, Add, Find" field on the right) will all change to reflect the new aspect of the glyph.
The "Layer, Index, Add" counts are hexadecimal (or base 16, the
digits are '0' to '9' and 'A' to 'F'). You can generally ignore
the counts. The 'Find' button will search within the drop-boxes
for an entered string. 'Find' ignores case.
The four layers of a glyph are:
Basic terms (singular nouns) are Created by combining the base meanings of the inner spokes. Inner spoke #7 means 'self' when the hub is plugged and 'not self' when unplugged. Self plus time is 'life'. Self plus thought is 'mind'. Self plus time plus thought is 'agenda'. Time plus thought is 'history'. The basic terms for Creation are here.
The inner laths modify (or Describe) these 256 basic terms to create 65 thousand nouns or 32 thousand adjectives or 32 thousand adverbs. This is explained here. We don't actually have all 65 thousand terms nailed down just yet, but you get the idea. You can help add terms, see game #7 below.
The outer spokes add grammar and syntax with prepositions, pronouns, articles, conjunction and verb conjugation. An Articulated term is ready to be part of a sentence. The terms for the Articulation layer are here.
The outer laths will add eight and a half billion Specialized terms such as penicillin. That might take a while. In the meantime, try to stay healthy. Example specialties for the Specialization layer are here.
The 'Hint' button displays the eight Type meanings and provides hint colors for each of the four layers in turn. The hint colors have the following meanings:
In other words, click on a yellow or blue element to see a nearby term.
'Add' will add the number in the "Layer, Index, Add, Find" field
to the value of the current Index. You can use this to step past
consecutive terms and only show one type of term. If you 'add' a
negative number (such as -1) you can step backwards.
For example, if you enter 8000 in the "Layer, Index, Add, Find" field and then press 'Index', you will see the term "be". If you then change the "Layer, Index, Add, Find" field to 100 and press 'Add' repeatedly, you can step through the "Dog Verbs".
Alternately, you can enter 3E01 and then repeatedly add 1, to see
the majority of the current conversational phrases. If you set the
'Hint' to layer two, you can also see if there are any 'Active' or 'Plural' versions
of the phrase shown. This is the best way to see how the phrases
are arranged.
The 'Demo' and 'Review' buttons can be used to view examples of the Instrumentation language
in action.
If you press 'Demo', you will be presented with a list of the
current demos. A Demo listed as Reserved is not available
for viewing just yet. I will be adding more demos for various
situations from time to time.
If you press 'OK' on the demo selection panel you will be placed at the start of the selected demo. If you press 'Cancel' you will retain the current location in the current demo. If no demo has ever been selected, you will view the very first demo. The demo glyphs are not actually displayed until you start pressing 'Review'.
Each time you press 'Review', the next glyph will be shown. The
first glyph displayed always contains "Start Paragraph" to let you
know that this is the beginning of the demo, because the demo
starts over when it reaches it's end.
You can go directly to a specific glyph within the demo by
entering a question mark followed by the glyph number (like '?11')
before you press 'Review'. This function is mostly intended to
help me locate changes within the demo text, but you’re welcome to
use it if you can think of a reason.
The game will also display the name of the 'speaker' to the right
of the term. The numbers following the speaker's name are:
(current glyph) / (end of this speaker's 'turn')
Hopefully, these numbers will help you to follow the
flow of the conversation.
You can play with just the inner spokes and then add the other
layers as you become familiar with the game. Enter 1, 2 or 3 as
the "Layer" before you press "Bee", "What?" "Score" or "Hint" to
limit the elements in that game.