Attributed to Newton

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The BASIC 10 liner competition for 2022 is open for entries until Sunday 26th March. This year I’ve submitted a Sharp MZ-80K program in the PUR-80 category called ‘Attributed to Newton’. It’s based on a nonsense game my eldest daughter invented some years ago to annoy and confuse her parents.

My implementation of this family favourite turns it into a game of judgement and skill. A bit like Wordle, but better. If the New York Times is reading, then it’s yours for £2m.

Whoops. My guesses haven’t been very good so far.

There is some skill involved, honestly. If a randomly generated phrase (from 33 words) scores 18 points or more it is attributed to Newton. The points for each word are randomly assigned at the start of each game but remain constant. A better than chance wisdom score is anything over 50%.

If you’d like to play the game, the file and instructions are in my Sharp MZ-80K github repository.