Ultimate Mastermind Copyright © 2009 by Logical Deduction Games

Introduction

Ultimate Mastermind is a game of logic and deduction. The goal of the game is to crack a Secret Code consisting of a sequence of colored pegs. At the highest level there are 10,000,000 possible Secret Codes.

Ultimate Mastermind is available at Apple App Store.

How to play

You are a Code Breaker whose objective is to crack a Secret Code that is created by the iPhone. The code is cracked when you duplicate the exact colors and positions of the secret code.

To crack the Secret Code, you make a series of guesses with colored Code Pegs to which the iPhone will respond with clues in the form of colored Key Pegs.

There are three different types of colored Key Peg clues:

"Right Color, Right Position" - A black Key Peg indicates that a colored Code Peg in your guess is the same color as a Secret Code peg and is in the correct position.

"Right Color, Wrong Position" - A white Key Peg indicates that a colored Code Peg in your guess is the same color as a Secret Code peg, but that it is in the wrong position.

"Wrong Color" - A vacant hole indicates that a colored Code Peg in your guess does not match the color of any of the Secret Code pegs.

From these clues you deduce aspects of the Secret Code and then make a new guess. Crack the Secret Code in the alloted number of guesses and you win!

Important Points to Note

• The Secret Code may contain duplicate colors.
• There is no relationship between the position of the Key Pegs and the position of your guess Code Pegs.
• Each guess Code Peg will generate at most one Key Peg - even if a single guess Code Peg matches multiple Secret Code Pegs.

Making Guesses

To make a guess simply fill in the current guess row with colored pegs. There are a number of different ways to move pegs to the guess row:

1. You can tap on any colored peg in the palette which will fill in the first empty position in the guess row with that color.

2. You can drag pegs from the palette into the guess row.
3. You can copy any peg from a previous guess to the same column in the current guess by touching that peg.
4. 4You can copy any peg from a previous guess to the current guess by dragging and dropping that peg into position.
5. You can copy all of the pegs from a previous guess row to the current guess by touching the "up arrow" icon to the left of that guess row.

6. You can change the color of a guess peg by tapping on it. Each tap will change the color of the peg to the next color in the palette.
7. You can move a peg around in the guess row by dragging that peg onto any empty hole in the guess row.
8. You can exchange two pegs in the guess row by dragging one peg and dropping it on top of the other.
9. You can delete a single peg from the current guess row by dragging that peg and dropping it somewhere above the current guess row.
10. You can delete all of the pegs from the current guess row by touching the 'x' icon to the left of the current guess row.

When the guess row is completely filled in an OK button will appear.
Click on OK to make your guess. After you click OK the iPhone will display colored Key Pegs clues to the right of your guess:

• A black Key Peg will be placed in a key peg hole for each guess Code Peg that is the same color and in the same position as one of Secret Code Pegs.
• A white Key Peg will be placed in a key peg hole for each secret Code Peg matched in color but not position.
• A vacant key peg hole will appear for each colored Code Peg in your guess does not match the color of any of the Secret Code pegs

Code Cracking Strategy

The following is one strategy for attempting to crack the Secret Code. There are other more complex strategies, but this one is a reasonable one that can be emplyed by mere mortals.

1. Choose pegs of all one color for your first guess.
2. Based on the number of Key Pegs revealed, repeat that number of the first color and fill out the rest of your guess with a second color.
3. Add a new color for each guess until all the colors in the palette have been used.

4. In addition to adding colors, move around some of the Code Pegs each turn to try to get white Key Pegs to be black Key Pegs.

Locking Part of a Guess

To assist you in cracking the secret code, Ultimate Mastermind has a feature that allows you to "lock" a peg when you are sure it is in the right position.

• When you determine the correct color and position for a code peg you can 'lock' that peg into position. To lock a peg into position, touch and hold a guess code peg for half a second. A lock icon will be superimposed on top of the peg to indicate that the peg is locked.

• To unlock a locked peg, touch and hold a locked code peg in the guess row for half a second. The lock icon will disappear to indicate that the peg is no longer locked.
• When a peg is locked it may not be moved or replaced by any other move.
• All locked pegs will automatically be copied into the guess row each turn.

Deducing Which Parts of a Guess can be Locked

Two White Key Pegs

Scenario - When your guess has one peg of one color and all the rest of the pegs of another color and the iPhone responds with two white Key Pegs. Deduction - You can deduce that the position that has the one peg of a color must be the other color. You can therefore lock that peg into position.

All Black Key Pegs

Scenario - When you add new pegs of the same color to your guess and the iPhone responds with all black Key Pegs Deduction - You can deduce that all of the colors other than the new one you added are correct and can therefore lock those pegs into position.

Black Key Pegs Increase by 2

Scenario - When the only difference between two guesses is that you swapped two code pegs and the number of black Key Pegs increases by two. Deduction - You can deduce that both of the swapped Code Pegs are correct and can therefore lock those pegs into position.

Black Key Pegs Decrease by 2

Scenario - When the only difference between two guesses is that you swapped two code pegs and the number of black Key Pegs decreases by two. Deduction - You can deduce that both of the swapped Code Pegs were correct before the swap and can therefore lock those pegs into their previous position.

Other Logical Deductions

This is just a few of the things that can be deduced from the clues. There are other kinds of deductions that you can learn to make as you play the game.

Options

Touching this button will open the options window which allows you to do several things:

Code Size Picker

Pick

• The Code Size Picker allows you to choose the Code Size you want to crack,

Buy

• When a code size is locked you can unlock it by clicking on the "Buy" button to purchase an Unlock Key for that level.

Score History

Most of the categories are self explanatory, but one needs further explanation:

Rating

• Ultimate Mastermind computes a separate rating for you on each level.
• You start with a rating of 0 before you have any wins on a level.
• A rating of 1000 is produced by achieving an average number of moves equal to what a smart computer program would do.
• A rating of over 1000 is possible, but is extremely unlikely over a large number of games.

Info

Touching this button will display a series of screens with more information about Ultimate Mastermind

Replay Options

After a game is finished you have a choice of two replay options:

Replay - Touching this button will cause the iPhone to select a new Secret Code for you to crack.

iPhone Replay - Touching this button will cause the iPhone to attempt to crack the Secret Code you just finished solving. This is fascinating to watch and allows you to compare your abilities to a smart computer algorithm. It also allows you to learn new code cracking techniques from the iPhone.

Support

Support email address: gamemaster[at]logicaldeductiongames.com

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