Introduction
Shannon's Game is like Hangman – except that:
it works sequentially, from left to right
you are given the beginning letter of the word or phrase.
The user's task is to discover the complete word or phrase.
The game can be played:
by individuals against the computer
by competing pairs or teams
as a whole class activity.
The program picks a word at random from a list of your choosing. Some word lists are provided so that you can see how the programme works. You can add your own lists (see Using the Shannon's Game Editor) and give them whatever title you like.
When a puzzle has been solved, you are rewarded with a firework display.
Installation notes
When installing Shannon’s Game for the first time you will be given the option of also installing
a selection of languages. Languages may be installed at any time. To add a further language after installation:
Run Shannon’s Game.
Hold down the SHIFT key and insert the original CD (holding down the SHIFT key prevents the CD from auto-booting).
Press CONTROL + F3 and Shannon’s Game will rerun the Installer with the option of installing other
languages.
Keyboard shortcuts
While Shannon’s Game has been designed to be driven by a mouse or similar device, you can control the selection process on the Title screen from a physical keyboard by using a combination of the TAB, Cursor and ENTER keys.
ESCAPE |
will always take you back |
ENTER |
will take you on. |
CONTROL + F1 |
This opens the About box. Use this shortcut to update your serial number or to check your licence details. |
CONTROL + F2 |
Opens the Editor, used to change Wordlists and other settings of the program. |
CONTROL + F3 |
You can add other languages at any time to support EAL and MFL. |
CONTROL + F5 |
Toggle the cursor on and off. This can be useful when using the software with a whiteboard or touch-sensitive monitor. |
The letter and punctuation keys can be used for character entry, provided the character is also available in the on-screen keyboard. (The on-screen keyboard is editable – see Keyboard.)
Getting started
The program starts with a display of folders (green bars and centred names) and User Wordlists (cream bars and titles ranged left or right). Folders can contain lists focusing on specific topics or lists belonging to a named teacher.
How it works
When you have chosen a list, the screen will show:
a Hangman style word with just the first letter and a number of blanks representing the missing letters
a group of 10 fireworks; this is the scoreboard
an on-screen keyboard.
The task is to discover the whole word, a letter at a time, working from the first letter. For example,
an initial k can be followed by a small number of letters; the third letter could be part of a
larger number of possibles.
Click a button on the screen or press a key on the keyboard to enter letters. The program then checks a
combination of entered letters and word length against all the words in a Master Wordlist.
If you choose an impossible combination, for example, kz or kg, the letter chosen will appear under the
heading Not in my list and you will lose a firework. A letter which combines to make a
possible combination, for example, ka, ke, ki etc will be listed under the Possible heading
provided a match is also found for the length of the word.
If you guess the second letter correctly, the game moves on to the third letter. Continue to click on an
impossible series of letters to see what happens.
In the example above, the word could have been knave, knows, knife, knits, knobs and
so on. These words are not wrong – they’re just not the word we’re looking for here. The
word could be knead, kneel, knell or knelt. Although we’re trying
to find one word, we’re also exploring a network of words related by their spelling.
When you have solved the puzzle, you are rewarded with a firework display based on the number of fireworks
left in the box. When the display is over, you can continue with the game and guess a new word.
Playing in teams or larger groups
The game can be played simply against the computer or a team element can be introduced. Teams can either alternate in choosing a letter or in solving a complete word, seeing how many letters are accumulated in the 'Possible' and 'Not in my list' columns before the word is guessed. (You might score 1 for a Possible, 3 for a Not in my list and 10 for a failure to solve the word; the team with the fewest points winning, of course.)
Shannon's Game can be played by a group of any size. It can also be used by a single player. There are many ways to organise the playing. In some cases, a free-for-all actually works well, as long as the mouse or keyboard operator is reliable! Otherwise, strict turns on choosing a letter is probably the best system.
When the teacher is working with a group, the children will suggest the next letter in the word. If a pupil suggests a letter which is possible, the question can be posed, 'What word were you thinking of?' If the pupil is unable to think of a word, then the team could incur a points penalty. Finding a word that the computer doesn't recognise should be rewarded (the Master Wordlist isn't comprehensive). You might then want to add new words to the Master Wordlist.
Literacy work using Shannon's Game
Some uses of Shannon might be to:
revise vocabulary (Let's see if we know all the words to do with weather)
investigate word patterns (What do these words have in common?)
explore unfamiliar words (What can we guess about how this word will be spelled? What combinations of letters are worth trying?)
encourage discussion about language (What word were you thinking of? Do we know any other words like that?)
As well as to:
practise spellings
practise position of apostrophes in contracted forms
enjoy playing with words
pass a wet playtime constructively
For example:
KS1
investigating rhyming words, CVC words and initial consonant clusters
spelling compound words
embedding spelling patterns
learning and practising irregular spellings
KS2
using visual skills, e.g. recognise common letter strings and check critical features (i.e. does it look right, shape, length, etc?)
building from other words with similar patterns and meanings, e.g. medical, medicine
spelling by analogy with other known words, e.g. light, fright
identifying misspelt words in own writing; to keep individual lists (which can be entered into Shannon's Game).
KS3
learning and revising spellings of common and useful words including high-frequency words, longer polysyllabic words, complex clusters, e.g. ought and word derivations and families, e.g. sign, signature, signal
mastering pluralisation, including -es endings, and words ending in y, f and vowels
working with word endings, including vowel suffixes such as -ing; consonant suffixes such
as -ful
and
prefixes, including antonym prefixes, e.g. ir-, un-
modifying words ending in y or e; making choices between similar endings such as -cian, -sion and -tion
KS4
learning and revising subject specific key words
attempting more adventurous words
Other languages
Shannon’s Game can also be used to help with learning or revising vocabulary in other languages. A number of languages are available on the CD which can be installed at any time and you can create your own language packs.
Using the Shannon's Game Editor
The Shannon’s Game Editor lets you change settings, Master Wordlists (used to check spellings) and create and edit User Wordlists. Start the Editor by either pressing CONTROL + F2 on the Title page or selecting Editor from Start > All Programs > Resource > Shannon’s Game.
Please note that all files are common to all users: any changes to settings in Language folders or Options will affect everybody using Shannon’s Game.
Click the + next to a folder name to open the folder. Click any of the file names to open the file in the right-hand pane for editing.
You will be told if any file is being edited by another user; such a file can be opened for viewing but not changed and the word will be greyed. You can copy all the words in a file being edited by another person, create a new file and paste the list in the new file.
The Languages folder
About language files
When you install Shannon’s Game, British English is always the default language and the program uses data found in the uk folder for the Title screen, User Wordlists in English and the Editor. You cannot rename this folder. Other language resources supplied on the CD can be installed at any time. To add a further language after installation:
Run Shannon’s Game.
Hold down the SHIFT key and insert the original CD (holding down the SHIFT key prevents the CD from auto-booting).
Press CONTROL + F3 and Shannon’s Game will rerun the Installer with the option of installing other languages.
You can set up a completely new Language yourself. You will need a very large word collection to make the Master Wordlist – the English one has over 20 000 words.
Language folders are labelled with Language Identifiers which are used by the User Wordlists. Where possible, we’ve used international internet country suffixes as Language Identifiers, but you can use any name that you find suitable; this is the name that is used in the drop-down list when editing User Wordlists. The form of the Language Indicator is not critical, but the reference in the User Wordlists must be identical to the title of the Language folder.
de |
German |
fr |
French |
it |
Italian |
la |
Latin |
ne |
Dutch |
scg |
Ghàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic) |
se |
Swedish |
sp |
European Spanish |
uk |
British English |
us |
North American English |
Each language folder holds:
a Font file
a Keyboard file
a Language file
a Master Wordlist
Right-click the Languages folder to:
Make a New language folder
All necessary files are created with default data in the font, keyboard and language files, and an
empty Master Wordlist file.
Import a Language folder created on another computer (see Export below).
You can right-click any language folder to:
Delete
This will remove the entire Language folder. It will not remove the Language Identifier in any
of the User Wordlists. You cannot delete any file within a Language folder.
Rename
This will allow you to change the name of the Language folder. It will not alter the Language Identifier
in any of the User Wordlists. You cannot rename any file within a Language folder
Duplicate
Makes a copy of the selected Language folder.
Export
This command should be used if you have made a language folder to be used on another computer. All
the files are packaged into a document using the Language Identifier: for example, a second French Language
folder labelled fr2 would be exported as fr2.sgl.
Font
Information added after the equals signs (=) is used by Shannon’s Game. You must not change any text up to and including the = sign.
[FontA]
Do not change this header: it’s required by the program.
Name=verdana
We use Verdana as a default because it is bold and clear on the screen and contains the characters
required in most alphabets. Some languages may require specialised fonts. If such a font has been installed
on your computer, you can make Shannon’s Game use this font when a language needs it. Type in the name
of the font as it appears in font selection lists.
The font setting in the uk folder will be used in all references to that Language Identifier: the main
title and folders on the Title screen. The names of the User Wordlists on the Title screen will use the
font in the language of that wordlist: User Wordlists in Urdu will display in the Urdu font. This is the
font used on the word-building screen. The Editor will use the font specified in the Language folder for
words in the User Wordlist being edited.
ComputerKeyboardInput=1
Setting this to 0 turns off the computer’s keyboard so that only the on-screen keyboard can be used.
This can be useful where the characters in the Language used either cannot be generated by the keyboard
or the required keystrokes are not obvious.
Keyboard
The Keyboard files are used in the construction of the on-screen keyboard. Lower-case letters are matched to their upper-case equivalents. Keyboard files can be defined in different ways to meet users' needs:
Case 1 |
A native English speaker practising French may not have ready access to accented characters as the computers are set up for UK or US English with matching keyboards. To support these users, the default setting does not show accented characters on the screen, but pops up an additional keyboard display when a character with diacritical marks could be required.
Pressing the 'a' key or clicking the associated on-screen button will present the root character and
the additional characters for selection. This is represented in the Keyboard file as: The rightmost character on the bottom row represents a space. To add a space character to your Keyboard file (key.txt), type a single space on a line on its own. |
Case 2 |
The native French speaker, using a computer set for French and with a French keyboard, will have direct access to these characters and they could be directly available in the on-screen keyboard.
In this instance the Keyboard file is defined like this: |
As the language and keyboard is called by the wordlist, it is also possible to run both systems. For example, a teacher might prefer to have all accented characters always available on-screen for some pupils and not for others. To meet such a need:
Duplicate the 'fr' Language folder and name the copy 'fr2'.
Edit the enclosed Keyboard file to meet Case 2 requirements.
Create new wordlists (or duplicate and rename existing lists), making the Language Identifier 'fr2'.
If you are using a language that has non-Western characters, such as Hebrew or Arabic, you might wish to set your computer’s keyboard layout to match to ensure that the key pressed matches an on-screen character.
Language
This can be used to modify screen messages. Translations added after the equals signs (=) will appear
on the screen to replace the English that appears before the =. You must not change any text up to and including
the = sign.
The important student message areas are:
Possible=
Not in my list=
This is the text on the left and right of the working screen.
Would you like to close Shannon’s Game now?=
This message only appears if ALT + F4 is pressed while trying to build a word. If you press ESCAPE while on this page, you will be returned to the Title screen.
Yes=
No=
Master Wordlists
Words can be added or removed from the list in the right-hand pane. Our Master Wordlists have been compiled from a variety of sources and are not guaranteed to contain every word you might need to be checked, but they are editable.
If the game reports a Not in my list to a suggestion that should be correct, it means that the word is not in the Master Wordlist and you can add it at any time. If you create a new User Wordlist (see below), words that are not in the Master Wordlist are added automatically.
The list does not need to be in alphabetical order, but it might keep the list clear for multiple editors if order is maintained. Try typing a word into the Search box to see it is already in the Wordlist. You can copy and paste words into the list and if alphabetical order is an issue, you can copy the entire list into a word processor for sorting and paste it back.
If you are adding words with a definite article, you should keep a copy of the word without a determiner to retain consistency with other lists.
If you close the Editor or choose another list, you will be asked if you want to save.
User Wordlists
Right-click the Wordlists folder to:
Make a New folder
Folders can be given suitable names – Class 4, Year 7 German, Mrs Jones, Hard
words – to identify the content; this is the title displayed in the green bars on the Title screen.
Make a New wordlist
New Wordlists are created in the highlighted folder. User Wordlists are edited in the same way as Master
Wordlists. You can add words singly or paste a list copied from elsewhere.
You can’t use accented characters in file names in older versions of Windows. This can be a limitation if all the words in your new list feature à and you need to tell users this, so Shannon’s Game distinguishes between the file name and the list title, which is stored inside the file. You can call a new file anything you like – the filename can only be seen in the Editor – but it should be something that has meaning for you that isn’t going to confuse the operating system.
The list Title is shown in a cream bar on the Title screen and is stored in the first line of the file. It can have any character except ‘¬’. Long names will be cut short on the Title screen menu.
The program needs to link each User Wordlist to a Language: the drop-down list contains
the names of all installed language resources.
Shannon’s Game treats each line of your wordlist as a complete word and you can add or remove words
to meet your needs.
You can also use spaces and punctuation. This can be useful if you wish to show foreign words with a definite or indefinite article, or use phrases that include a hyphen or space.
If you are including words or phrases with spaces, apostrophes or hyphens, you should ensure that all the characters used in your wordlist are available in the on-screen keyboard: no letter can be entered from the keyboard unless it can be found in the on-screen keyboard (see Keyboard file).
If you want to really challenge your pupils, Shannon’s Game can be set to present words beginning with the last letter of the work and work towards the first. Click the Last to first box and Shannon’s game will do just this, whatever the orientation of your alphabet.
If you close the Editor or choose another list, you will be asked if you want to save. This may take a little time as all words new to the installed language are added to the end of the Master Wordlist.
Import a wordlist
Wordlists created an another computer and prepared for Export (see below) can be imported into the highlighted folder. Words new to the associated Master Wordlist will be added automatically.
Clicking on a folder or file within the Wordlist folder give additional commands of Delete and Rename. You can also Hide (or Show) any wordlist or folder so that it doesn’t show in the Title screen but is still ready for use in the future.
The Export feature will process any Wordlist so that it can be transferred to another machine as a (filename).sgw file.
Options
Full screen
Shannon’s Game runs in a fixed-size window of 800 x 600 pixels. If Full screen is on, the computer's
monitor is reset to this size and Shannon's Game – and any other open program and window – will
also be showing at this size.
If Full screen is off, Shannon's Game will run in an 800 x 600 window with the Desktop showing behind.
Border
If Full screen is off, you can mask the Desktop with a border. You can still use ALT-TAB to switch
to another program.
Sound
Some children, particularly those who have come into the country from disturbed parts of the world,
can be unnerved by the explosions in the firework display. Clear the tick box to turn all sound off.