Brain Games

We've selected a handful of online games that will entertain and challenge young and old minds alike.

Animal Memory

Pictures provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Tips
You can use this application to practice memorization techniques and track their effectiveness.
• Try saying the name of the animal out loud each time you flip over a card.
• Imagine that each column is a different room in your house. As you flip over a card in that column, imagine the animal in that room in your house.
Try playing a few games and see how you score.

Mastermind

Objective:
Guess the sequence of four colored pegs the computer has selected at random.
Hints:
• You can make the game more or less challenging by increasing or decreasing the number of colors in play.
• The computer can select any combination of colors.
Controls:
• Before starting the game, highlight the color pegs you wish to play with by clicking on them. You can use between 2 and 6 colors.
• Click the start button with your mouse.
• Click the color peg you would like to play and then click the location that you think it belongs.
• To help you deduct the sequence, the computerwill respond by giving you one peg for each correct color - black if yourguess was also in the right place, otherwise white. By Karl Hornell

Sokoban

Objective:
Push the crates into the designated spaces.You can not pull the crates, and you can only push one at a time.
Hints:
• Don't put crates in corners.
• Plan your moves before you start.
• Use you're undo button if you find yourself in a jam.
• If this level is too easy for you, click the > button to advance to a more challenging level.
Controls:
• Use the arrow keys to move the worker.
• Press [Ctrl]-R (or click the X button) to restart the game.
• Press < to go to the previous level.
• Press > to go to the next level.
• Press [Ctrl]-P (or the << button) to move ten levels back.
• Press [Ctrl]-N (or the >> button) to advance 10 levels.
• Press Backspace (or the U button) to undo you're last move(s). 1999 Aug by Riza Purwo Nugroho

Tangrams

Words In The News (week 5)

These words have been gathered programmatically from the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. The program selects words that it believes are not commonly used, but not so rare that it isn't worth learning them. If you are interested in seeing more of these, please let me know by sending email to host@familytimes.com.


neural
unsmilingly
caddied
unenthusiastically
lifebelt
discomfit
nonentities
unorthodoxy
expectorate
gorier
cassocks
hubristic
soothsaying
uncoiling
For the study, Miesenböck and Lima focused on a specific set of neural circuits, called the giant fiber (GF) system, involved in escape. (discovery.com)
I'm doubting it will happen," said Mataruse, her eyes fixed on the floor as her youngest daughter, 6-year-old Florence, sat unsmilingly beside her, wearing a white dress. (washingtonpost.com)
The family belonged to the old Indian Springs Club in Maryland, where Bobby and his older brother, Jimmy, played during the week and caddied on weekends. (washingtonpost.com)
In an episode certain to be scrutinized anew, Joseph Ratzinger was briefly and unenthusiastically a member of the Hitler Youth in his early teens, after membership became mandatory in 1941, according to a biography by John L. (nytimes.com)
According to firsthand accounts, he spent his final hours urging passengers to wear their lifebelts and to board the rescue boats. (discovery.com)
This is a difficult moment for the civil rights movement, which is understandably fearful of taking positions that would discomfit the teachers among its supporters. (nytimes.com)
This experience will never be dearer now that Massachusetts has come up with the misbegotten idea of introducing virtual horse racing - a bloodless, computer-generated cycling of nonentities aping thoroughbreds on a TV screen. (nytimes.com)
McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame, said Ratzinger's homily indicated that he believes the pope's role is to "protect the sheep from the prowling wolves of unorthodoxy and relativism. (washingtonpost.com)
With saliva, all a patient has to do is expectorate. (nytimes.com)
For "Private Ryan," Lines cut out some of the gorier moments from the movie's 24-minute depiction of the landing at Omaha Beach on D-Day. (washingtonpost.com)
All were dressed in their traditional red-trimmed black cassocks, their waists wrapped in scarlet sashes and their heads bobbing beneath scarlet skullcaps. (washingtonpost.com)
DeLay began building his megamachine with a breathtakingly hubristic "pay to play" system. (nytimes.com)
In other words, betting patterns often make for good, unconscious soothsaying. (nytimes.com)
On Tuesday he stayed ahead in the count, and for the first time in his career, Nomo confounded Yankees batters with his twisting pitching motion that takes a lengthy pause just before uncoiling and delivering. (washingtonpost.com)
Move your mouse over the words on the left to see how they were used in the news.



Word Search

Objective:

Just as you remember, find all the words listed on the right hand side in the grid.

Hints:

• The game is timed, so speed counts.
• Words with spaces in them have the spaces deleted in the search.
• Words may be placed in a diagonal, or spelled backwards.
• For a game that's been around forever, I don't have many good tips. If you've got them, please add them below!

Controls

Using your mouse, click on the first letter of the word and drag to the last. Then release the mouse button.
by Mike Hall

MarbleWhacker

Objective

Remove balls until only one of each color remains.

Hints

• You're marble will change directions if it hits a wall.
• By aiming for a wall, you can remove columns of same colored marbles.
Controls
• Use your up and down arrow keys to aim you're marble.
• Use the enter key to release the marble.
by Riza Purwo Nugroho