Noah!™ and Troposphere™ are trademarks of Troposphere Software. All other trademarks are held by their respective owners.
Packing List:
Noah!™
Noah!™ 1.0 Documentation
Noah! Software License
Register
You should have received all of the above items in the distribution archive. If not, then please visit Noah!’s home page at <http://www.proaxis.com/~ferris/software/noah.html> for the full archive.
If you have not yet read the software license, please do so now, since by using Noah! you are agreeing to be bound by the terms of that license.
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What is Noah!?
Noah! is a game that I wrote for my son (his name is Noah, if you haven’t guessed that already). It responds to your child’s keystrokes and mouse clicks by displaying pictures and making sounds.
Noah!’s main purpose is to entertain children, but it has some nice side effects. Noah! familiarizes kids with the basic use of computers, a skill that’s becoming increasingly important these days. Noah! also does wonders (in my unprofessional opinion) to improve hand–eye coordination, as well as teaching a cause and effect principal. When the child hits a button on the keyboard, a picture appears and a sound is played. These actions have caused something to happen, and once the child learns that, he’ll have twice the fun.
Noah (my son, not the program) has loads of fun with Noah! (the program, not my son), and I hope your child will too.
Based on my experience, I would recommend Noah! for children ages 6 to 36 months, varying on the amount of exposure your child has had with computers.
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Quick Start
Running Noah!
Double click on Noah!’s icon. You will see Noah!’s “about box.” After reading the message, click on the close button. After the welcome message closes, you will be presented with Noah!’s main screen. The letters “n o a h !” will appear. Sit your child on your lap, and let him or her go! Every key press or mouse click will be returned with a sound, and a colorful picture or shape.
Nap Time
Quitting Noah! might seem impossible at first glance, since the menubar is hidden and the standard “quit” short cut (Q) doesn’t do anything. Don’t despair! Move the mouse cursor up to where the menubar normally is, and it reappears. To quit, select Quit from the File menu.
For full documentation on changing Noah!’s settings, including whether the menubar is hidden, or whether menu keyboard short cuts are active, see “Configuring Noah!” below.
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System Requirements
• Any Macintosh, Power Macintosh, or MacOS Compatible computer capable of running System 7 (minimum Mac II, 4MB RAM)
•Color Quickdraw capable machine (no Macintosh 128K, 512K, Plus, PowerBook 100, Classic, or SE)
•700–1000KB of free memory, depending on your system configuration
•700KB of free disk space for Noah! and it’s documentation
System Desirements
•256 Color monitor and 20MHz or faster processor for best performance.
•Stereo capable Mac with external speakers to get the full flavor of Noah!’s sound effects.
Features
•4–Channel asynchronous stereo sound effects (on capable hardware)
•Hand–painted 256–color graphics.
Compatibility
Noah! was designed with maximum compatibility in mind. As far as I can tell, Noah! will work properly on any Macintosh computer that has been built in the last 10 years. Black & White–only Macintoshes are not supported, though support may be added in a future release, if there are enough requests for it.
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Noah! Is $15.00 (US) Shareware
Shareware works like this: You download and evaluate shareware software for a reasonable amount of time (usually a few weeks), at no cost, to decide whether it is the right program for you. If that is indeed the case, then you support the program author’s efforts with a “registration fee.” Because shareware is usually distributed at no cost to the author via the Internet, the prices for shareware programs are typically less than 50% of the cost of an equivalent program sold in stores. More than that, support for shareware programs is excellent, because support is almost always provided by the person who wrote the program, not the distributor or publisher.
For a unique viewpoint of shareware, you might want to hear from the man who started it all, the “Father” of Shareware, on the web at <www.halcyon.com/knopf/jim/>
Registering Noah!
Payments for Noah! are handled by Kagi Shareware. Run the Register program and fill out it’s form. You need to enter your name, email, postal address, and the program that you’re registering. Register accepts VISA, Mastercard, American Express, US Check, Money Order, Cash from a variety of countries, and Invoice (to be given to your accounts payable department). After that is done, send it to Kagi. Either email the data generated by Register or print it and send it via postal mail or fax. Credit card information is encrypted by the Register program.
The relevant addresses are listed below:
Email: <shareware@kagi.com>
FAX: +1 (510) 652 6589
Postal Mail:
Kagi Shareware
1442-A Walnut Street #392-W3
Berkeley, California, 94709-1405
USA
If you have any questions about the registration process, Kagi maintains a comprehensive FAQ (frequently asked questions) at <www.kagi.com>.
Email registrations are typically processed in 3–4 days, faxes about 6. Postal mail can take a week or two.
After I receive the notice that you have paid, I will send you your registration code. The registration code is a method of telling the program that you have paid, so Noah! can pay the appropriate attributes to you.
Entering Your Code
Launch Noah! and when the “about box” comes up, click on the Register button. You will be prompted to enter your name and registration code. Enter your name and registration code exactly as they appear in your registration notice, and click the “Enter Code” button.
You may also enter anything you like in the “Organization” field. This will be displayed underneath your name in the “about box” after you have registered.
The standard registration dialog assumes that you ordered one single user license. If that is not the case, you need to hold down the Option key while clicking on the Register button. This will allow you to specify the type of license you ordered and the number of copies.
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Configuring Noah!
Noah! is highly configurable. The options available range from whether the menubar is hidden to what kind of colors to use.
To change Noah!’s settings, launch Noah! and select Preferences… from the Edit menu. When you are finished configuring Noah!, click on the OK button to close the dialog box and save your changes, or the Cancel button to close it without saving your changes. See below for a full description of all the available options.
Interface Preferences:
Show Full Apple Menu
When this box is checked, the normal Apple () menu will be available, with all the contents of the Apple Menu Items folder. When unchecked, the only item in the Apple menu is the About Noah!… item. The default setting is off. Usually this should be off, in case your child accidentally selects something from the Apple Menu, gets access to the Finder, and starts renaming all the files on your desktop, something that has happened to me more than once while I was developing Noah!.
Command Keys On Menus
When this box is checked, menu selections will be available via command key shortcuts. When off, you have to select items from the menus to activate them. The default setting is off. Keeping this off is a good idea, because when it’s on, Noah! can be quit with Q, and when an excited 12 month old is hitting every key on the keyboard, Q tends to happen often.
Show About Box At Startup
Sets whether the “about box” should be shown when Noah! is launched. The default setting is on. Normally, you’ll want to turn this off, so you can just launch Noah! and go. The “about box” is always available from the About Noah!… menu item in the Apple menu.
Sound
When checked, Noah! will play sounds every time a button is pressed or the mouse is clicked. The default setting is on. Noah! is much more exciting when sounds are played, but there may be times when you would rather have them off.
Don’t Hide Menubar
Sets whether or not to hide the menubar. When checked, the menubar will never be hidden. The default setting is off, with the menubar hidden. The menubar always becomes visible if you move the mouse where the menubar should be. If you prefer to have the menubar always visible, check this box.
Lightning Effects
Turns the “lightning” effect on or off. The default setting is on. When active, clicking the mouse causes lightning to strike the shape that is shown. It’s kind of neat.
Clear Screen
When checked, Noah! will erase the screen after the specified number of shapes have been drawn. The default is on, with a clear setting of 10 shapes. Usually you’ll want this on to reduce screen clutter. After a while, the shapes and pictures no longer stand out.
Graphic Preferences
This section describes the changes that you can make to the appearance of Noah!’s graphics.
Note: the size settings (pen size and picture size) are relative to your monitor’s dimensions. The sizes are roughly equal to 2/5, 3/5, and 4/5 of your monitor’s size, plus a random variation.
Pen Size: Teeny, Average, Really Big
Pen size affects the size of lightning and shape boarders. The default setting is Average.
Picture Size: Little, Medium, Gargantuan
This describes the size of the shapes and graphics, and to some extent the size of the letters. The default setting is Medium.
The letters that are drawn respond to this setting. If upper case is selected, then the letters appear in capitols, regardless of whether shift or caps lock is down. If lower case is selected, then the letters appear in lower case. If keyboard setting is selected, then the letters follow the shift and caps lock keys, as they would in a word processor. Keyboard setting is the default.
Color Preferences
This preference allows you to choose the kind of colors that Noah! uses. These selections only apply to drawn shapes and letters, not to pictures.
Primary
When selected, Noah! uses primary colors, bright reds, yellows, and blues.
Secondary
When selected, Noah! uses secondary colors, orange, green, and violet, in addition to the primary colors.
Tertiary
If you really want to, you can also add tertiary colors, and Noah! will show red–orange, yellow–orange, yellow–green, blue–green, blue–violet, and red–violet.
Black, White, and Red Only
If this is selected, Noah! will only show shades of gray and red. This option is available because some people believe that very young children can only perceive black, white, and red, and don’t develop the ability to distinguish between other colors until they are older.
The default color setting is Primary and Secondary. The tertiary color option is probably not necessary, as children tend to like primary colors better. The black, white, and red option is likewise probably not necessary, mainly because I think the black, white, red theory is silly. But it is an option nonetheless.
Preview
The preferences dialog also has a preview box in the lower right corner. At any time while changing Noah!’s settings, click in this box to see how it will look.
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Troubleshooting
Memory
Here are some tips for getting the 800 KB needed to run Noah!
• Set your monitor to display in a lower resolution, or to display a fewer number of colors. The ideal settings are a resolution of 640x480 and 256 colors/grays.
• Quit all open applications.
• Use the Extensions Manager to disable any unneeded extensions and restart. Having a lot of active extensions can really take up memory, especially if you’re running on an 4MB or 8MB machine.
• Remove some fonts from your Fonts folder. Fonts take up memory just like any extension or control panel, and if you’re like me, your fonts tend to multiply. 30-60 fonts seems to be about right to me, depending on how fast your machine is and how much memory it has.
• Turn off all your extensions. Restart your computer and hold down the shift key until you see the “Extensions OFF” or (“Extensions Disabled” under MacOS 7.6). This has the most effect on your available memory, but also has the side effects of not being able to use any of your extensions! This means no receiving faxes, no CD-ROMs, etc.
Replacing damaged copies
Occasionally, programs can be damaged, and become unusable. This happens VERY rarely, so it shouldn’t be a concern for most people. If Noah! every reports that it is damaged, please follow the instructions below to replace your copy.
Replacing Noah!
If you still have the original disks and/or downloaded archive, just re-install Noah! from the original. Otherwise, you’ll need access to the Internet. Noah!’s web site address is <http://www.proaxis.com/~ferris/software/noah.html> On that site you will find Noah!’s downloading archive, the online version of Noah!’s documentation, updates, news, and everything relating to Noah!.
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More Information
All the latest updates, documentation, and information can be found on Noah!’s Web site: <www.proaxis.com/~ferris/software/noah.html>
Contacting the Author:
Email: <seth@kagi.com> (preferred)
FAX: +1 (541) 327–1547 (answers from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM PST, Monday through Friday)
