Baby Bash by Russell Haines
Copyright 2001, Russell Haines

Visit the Baby Bash web site for updates.
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About Baby Bash:
This game was first written when my son was about six months old. If the baby you want to entertain is old enough to reach for things, he or she will probably love this game. The basic mode is that after the baby hits a key a sound is played and a shape is displayed.

As the baby gets older, you may find that he or she mimics the sounds that are played. The advanced modes can be varied as the baby develops. When your baby becomes interested in looking at the screen and not just hearing the sounds, you will want to find and/or scan pictures for him or her to look at. As they start to make more structured noises, you will want to add words to go along with what is happening on the screen (the first words my son really understood were circle, square, and triangle).

System Requirements for Baby Bash:
Quick time is required to play sounds or display pictures. Get it at www.apple.com.
This will run on an iMac 233 quite well. I currently use OS X, so versions 8 and later may not ever be tested on a pure "classic" again. The windows version runs a bit slow (meaning a delayed response with a sound and/or picture after a key is pressed) even on an 800MHz Pentium III.

Known Issues in Baby Bash:
The windows version does not play words.
The Carbon Mac version of Baby Bash has a striped background and displays rectangles poorly on Mac OS 10.2 and up. I don't have a newer version of RealBasic, so this won't get fixed soon. If you have a newer version of RealBasic and would be willing to compile it for me, E-mail Russell Haines (Baby Bash is not open source).

Instructions for Baby Bash:

Baby Bash Step 1:
Clear an area where the baby can get to the keyboard but not get to anything else. If you are at a desk, you certainly want to move any important papers out of the way. Depending on how old your baby is it may want to reach for other things on your desk. My baby was particularly interested in the phone cord. If your baby is old enough to sit on their own, you can put the keyboard on the floor by them.

Baby Bash Step 2:
Let the baby at the keyboard! You can expect the baby to bash the keyboard with its hand, use its fingers to explore the individual keys (our second baby will pop the keys off of our pismo keyboard), and pull and/or lift the keyboard. You will definitely want to closely monitor what the baby is doing because they may press keys and key combinations that you would never press (Mac users, the way to get out of the debug window is g -finder). My baby likes to pick up and pull on the keyboard so I have to hold the keyboard down. Unless the baby is reaching the keyboard from the floor you need to hold him or her in your lap. Obviously, you shouldn't leave a baby on a chair or desk unless he or she is within arm's reach, even for a second.

Baby Bash Step 3:
When you are finished, select allow quit from the options menu. This will allow the program to quit using command - Q (ctrl - Q on Windows).

Options for Baby Bash:
The default options are probably most appropriate for a baby younger than twelve months. At twelve to eighteen months, my baby liked to find certain pictures of himself. Now, he calls this game and any apple logo he sees "circle game." This is a summary of what the options do:
Shapes: The program will randomly display either a circle, triangle, square, star, oval, rectangle, octagon, or diamond.
Pictures: A random picture from the pictures folder will be displayed.
Numbers: The program will display a random number.
Letters: The program will display a random letter.
Notes: Instead of playing a sound, a piano note roughly corresponding to the key that was pressed on the keyboard will be played instead.
Words: The sound file in the words folder with the same name (including the extension) as the object displayed will be played. If there is no corresponding file, a random sound from the sounds folder will be played.
Colors: The shape or letter will be displayed in a random color.
If more than one of the shapes, pictures, numbers, or letters options is on, the program will pick randomly which to display.
Allow Quit: When this option is checked, the program will be allowed to quit using command-Q.
Quit: The program will quit. This menu item does not appear in the options menu in OS X (quit from the program menu).

Configuration of Baby Bash:
I have included a few sounds and pictures that I assume are in the public domain. You are encouraged to add your own. You can add new sounds to the sounds folder that are in a format that Quicktime understands. Likewise, you can add new pictures to the pictures folder. Pictures larger than about 100 X 100 pixels will result in an out of memory error for classic mac users (you can add to the preferred memory size if you wish to use larger pictures). Larger pictures will delay responses. Pictures, shapes, and letters are scaled up or down to 1/5 of the screen width. Words need to have exactly the same name as the item they are referring to. I have included word files for the shapes, the number one, and the letter A. If the word file needs to refer to a picture, it needs to have exactly the same name. A picture of mommy named mom.jpg would play a sound file in the words directory named mom.jpg. Make sure that you are showing extensions if you are in windows or Mac OS X.

Disclaimer:
When you give a baby access to your computer, there is an inherent risk of damage to your computer, your files, and your baby. You are responsible for properly supervising your baby while it plays this game. The programmer of this game takes no responsibility for damage to your computer, your files, your baby, or anyone in the area while you are running this game.
If your baby likes this game, you can expect him or her to want to play it. You can expect them to cry, beg, and/or try to use the computer any time it is on. This means any time (especially when you are working on it).

More Disclaimer:
The Baby Bash program is provided "as is" and without warranty, express and implied, including but not limited to any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will Russell Haines be liable for any damages, including lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages, or for any claim by you or any third party. All products mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

This program is freeware until further notice.