Black Box Hc

Black Box is a HyperCard implementation of the classic deduction board game, submitted to Info-Mac in October 1996 by Georg Schulze Icking-Konert of Forschungszentrum Juelich. Players fire imaginary rays into a hidden grid and reason from how the rays exit (or vanish) to deduce where invisible obstacles are placed.

Origins

The board game Black Box was designed by Eric Solomon in the 1970s. This Mac version follows the same rules, presenting the grid as a HyperCard stack with simple but readable graphics.

How to play

The player chooses an entry point on the edge of the grid and shoots a probe. The probe may pass through, deflect, or be absorbed by hidden balls. By comparing entry and exit points across many shots, the player narrows down the configuration inside the box.

HyperCard implementation

Because the game is a HyperCard stack, it requires HyperCard or the HyperCard Player on a Classic Mac OS system. The interface is mouse-driven and the stack is small enough to run on modest hardware.

Author note

The author describes the project as a simple HyperCard puzzle written for personal interest, released to Info-Mac for free distribution.