EagleAliens

(for Macintosh)
James Gips and William Ames
Boston College
August 2012
The EagleAliens program is a simple video-game used to calibrate the user and develop control
of EagleEyes. It has been the first video-game that many EagleEyes users have ever played, and
is often played at the start of sessions.

Generally you start up the game using the mouse. When this initial screen is reached, the mouse
pointer becomes a red crosshair. Switch control of the mouse over to the user. Wait until the
user has sufficient control with EagleEyes. Then you can press the Spacebar (Space key) and the
game is begun.
When the Spacebar is pressed an alien invader appears. The user must use EagleEyes (or the
mouse) to move the crosshair on top of the alien within the time limit, which causes the alien to
explode. (If you dont want the child to blow up aliens, feel free to skip this game.) No mouse
click is needed. The grey bar at the top of the screen displays the time left for the current alien,
and the current score.

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After each wave of 10 aliens, the users score and average time appears. To start another game,
press the Spacebar.

To customize the game to a specific user one can adjust the time limit, the level of difficulty,
sound, and picture of the alien. These options are explained in the following menu-bar
descriptions.
We generally consider a user to have proficiency with EagleEyes if the person can shoot down 9
or 10 aliens consistently.

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Menu Items
EagleAliens
About EagleAliens

Display message About EagleAliens

Quit EagleAliens

Exit the EagleAliens program

Game

New Game

Abandon current game and start a new game

Time

5, 10, 15
Enter Time Limit

EagleAliens Manual

Set time limit to 5, 10 or 15 seconds. This is how long you have to

shoot down the alien before the program goes on to the next alien.
Enter any number of seconds as time limit

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Difficulty

Easy

Large-sized stationary aliens

Medium

Medium-sized slowly-moving aliens

Hard

Small-sized moving aliens

Options

Sound

If this option is checked, sound is enabled

If unchecked, sound is disabled

Change Alien

Open a window that allows one to select a new

image to be used in place of the default alien. EagleAliens
automatically will adjust the size of the picture on the screen. A
popular choice is a brother or sister.

Restore Default Alien

Change the alien back to the original alien image

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Help

Manual

Display this Manual. We hope it is helpful.

Distribution
The program and this manual are both Copyright 2012 Trustees of Boston College.
Both the program and the manual may be distributed freely.
For more information please email james.gips@bc.edu
Thank you for using EagleAliens.

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