Programs to Download |
Here are two programs for you to download and play with. Both will run under Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 and they are both written by Alan Simpson. If you enjoy them or have any suggestions for improvements please email Alan.
Atoms is an educational program demonstrating the Kinetic Theory of
matter. It provides a simulation of a set of atoms on your computer screen.
Watch the atoms interact in a gas, combine to form molecules, and eventually
crystalise into a solid.
Atoms can be used as a stand-alone program, or as a fascinating screen saver. Version 2.14 gives you variable size atoms and the ability to save and re-load your favourite set-ups. |
Kings lets you play a game of the "Hare and Hounds" type, in which three Pawns have to trap a King on a board of eleven interlinked cells. The unusual aspect of this program is that the computer starts knowing the rules of the game, but with absolutely no idea how to win. At this stage it is really easy to beat! However as it plays, it learns and pretty soon it gets better. It does not need your help to learn, it can manage perfectly well by playing against itself. (And since it can complete 10 games a second it can learn quite quickly). You can change the learning process, plot graphs showing how fast it learns, or just sit back and watch it playing at any speed you choose. Like Atoms, Kings comes as both a normal program and as a screen saver. The latter option allows it to be learning its strategy when the computer is waiting for you to return. |
Click on the heading of either program, to download it as a single .zip
file. You should save this in a temporary directory on your hard disk.
Then use pkunzip or a similar "unzipping" program to extract the files from
this archive.
One of these files is called install.exe. Run this and it will
automatically set the program up for you in a directory of your choice.
You can then delete everything from the temporary directory.
Both programs contain detailed help, explaining the program and including instructions for removing it from your hard disk, in the unlikely event that you don't like it.
Note:
Don't attempt to unzip both programs into the same temporary directory at the
same time. Several filenames (e.g. install.exe) appear in both archives and the
later one will overwrite the earlier.
Copyright © Alan Simpson 1999, 2000 | Back to index. | Last Updated 2000-05-03 |