Shoot a Math Teacher
Original Author Unknown
Implementation By Dr. Gary Kerbaugh
The original version of this game is an old program written for ancient desktops. That program was called "Green Globs" because your targets were just globs. With modern computers I can display a picture (of, say a math teacher) for you to target. (I thought that you might enjoy taking pot shots at a math teacher) This is not your usual "Shoot-'em Up" though!
In this game you shoot the target by drawing a line that passes through the it. (When you do, you get the pleasure of seeing the target explode, along with sound effects. Moreover, as in any proper computer game, you get a score at the end!)
Of course, this is a math game. Thus you must draw the line by entering its equation. The equation is written by putting numbers into the text boxes where the slope and y-intercept should be. You must type a decimal number or proper fraction into these text boxes. You then hit the enter key or click on the "draw line" button. When you do, the line will begin to draw from left to right. When it passes through a teacher, he "explodes". There are sound effects with this, but they only work with a Netscape Navigator, version 3.0 or better. If you view this on Internet Explorer, you will get an error message, but the program should run.
The goal of the game is to "explode" all of the teachers. When this is done, the "score" appears on the right-hand panel. The score is simply the number of lines you had to draw to explode all of the teachers. Note that if you are playing a friend, a LOW score is the winning score. The person who wins is the one who can shoot all the teachers with the fewest number of lines.
At the end of the game, you may play another game by clicking on the "new" button. There is a "surprise" that comes then. It includes a sound file that is large and is the reason why the program takes so long to download. I apologize for this, but I think that you will find it worth the wait.
Hints
To draw the lines accurately, you should actually do some calculations. Choose two points that you wish the lines to pass through. figure the "rise" and the "run" between these points. The "teachers" are drawn centered at integer points so computing these differences can be done in your head. The slope is of course the "rise" divided by the "run". This calculation may require a calculator, but some approximation can be done. Of course, you know how to compute the equation of a line.
The line does not have through the center af the picture. The line may miss by half of the width of the "teacher", so you may draw a line that passes through any part of the picture. This allows you to draw a line that "explodes" a number of "teachers". This also allows for the approximation referred to above. Finally, you do not have to wait for one line to draw before drawing another. The program is multithreaded and can handle simultaneously drawing any number of lines.
I hope that you enjoy the game and the sound effects that go with it!