It’s hard to believe I did this two years ago. That was right after I got my first iPhone.

The whole reason this came about was because there was no good, true-to-the-original version of Mastermind in the app store. Some looked the same, some were wildly different. Some had new rules, some didn’t use all the rules, some were just broken.

None had what I wanted: the perfect recreation of the original. Six colors, four slots, use as many duplicates as you like. I still haven’t found a good, faithful version for my iPhone. There is one (called CodeFinder, I believe) that you can play the original rules, but you have to set the difficulty to hard everytime you start the app or else it won’t use duplicates, or something.

So, I set out to make one in Flash. (Two years ago, I was under the mistaken assumption that if I could make something in Flash it would be easy to make the same thing on the iPhone. I know. Ha ha ha ha.) But that’s what I did. This is entirely Actionscript 3, no library objects or timeline stuff, which was a big deal for me at the time, and one of the challenges I set for myself. I succeeded with that part.

I started to add in stat tracking, to keep track of your average number of guesses over time, and was going to tie that into a leaderboard and such. Sounds cool, huh? It would have looked like this maybe:

Then my second kid was born. End of project.

I miss you, Mastermind Incomplete. Maybe we will meet again some day.

For some reason that I haven’t time to track down right now, the instruction text file isn’t loading (maybe I used the font InvisibleInk? hmmm … copyright 2010 Jeff Culbertson!). Here are the missing instructions:

• The objective of this logical thinking game is to guess the sequence of four colored pegs the computer has selected at random (crack the secret code).

• Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to select the colors that you think are in the secret code. Left and right arrow keys move the cursor left and right. Up and down arrow keys cycle through the six colored pegs.

• You must fill in each hole in a row to make a valid guess.

• Press the Enter key on the keyboard to submit your guess.

• The computer will compare your guess to the secret code and place markers in the small holes next to your guess to give you hints to how close you are.

• Each black marker means you have placed one correct color peg in the correct position. Each white marker means you have placed the right color peg, but in the wrong position. No markers means you haven’t guessed any of the right colors.

• There is no relation between the position of the markers and the position of your pegs.

• You have ten guesses to crack the secret code.

• Good luck!

In addition to typography, heraldry is another of my hobbies. I had this idea for a coat of arms generator. You click a button and you get a randomly generated heraldic shield with blazon. I’m creating it in Flash using Actionscript 3. It’s pretty basic so far, but coming along nicely.

Version 6 features:

• many field divisions
• all of the common tinctures, colors and metals
• several uncommon colors (stains and colors particular to certain countries or regions)
• five furs
• all of the common honorable ordinaries
• all of the above weighted to rarity—for example, common colors appear a certain percentage more often than rare colors
• a blazon for the arms that is working … pretty well

I need to add more charges, but I haven’t quite figured out how to manage multiples of a charge or how to determine whether those charges are within an ordinary or over it, etc. I also need to add subordinates. Sigh … so far this is still fun. The presentation also looks leaves a lot to be desired, but that can be fixed later.

UPDATE!!

I’m posting a functional version 8 on here, even though it isn’t really finished. by not finished, I mean not every design generated will look very good or even be “right” according to the rules of blazoning. the blazon is pretty good except for the stupid a/an article determination. Oh and it doesn’t have a pre-loader, so just be patient.

If you are wondering what happened to version 7, I had added some textures, but it was too much. Version 8 has the proper font embedded and I fixed the ermine texture. Still not happy with the vair however. I think I’m going to start over and do this a little differently and give the user some control, not just randomly generate the arms. I’m working on the flow but it’s kind of a bitch; field divisions, line decorations, ordinaries charged or not, etc. Stay tuned.

Without further ado: