Dr. Mysto The Mindreader

Dr. Mysto The Mindreader is a single player, brain training, game only the 'brain' being trained is the computer's and not the player's. It is similar to Animal Vegetable Mineral game which itself is based on a "Twenty Questions" which is both a parlour game and a UK radio show of old, centred on answering Yes or No to series of questions.

Dr Mysto is a program with five brains, namely databases for specific categories, each of which has a limited vocabulary. It asks the player to think of a word in that category and then it tries, by a series of Yes/No questions to guess the answer. If it gets the answer wrong it will ask 'How can I tell the difference between my answer and your word?' to which the player responds with a question the program could have asked. This is then filed and the program builds up an ever increasing library of words and questions that distinguish between them.

For example: in the countries category the player's country was Zimbabwe. Dr Mysto asked:* Is it in the Western hemisphere? Answer No

• Is It In The Northern Hemisphere? Answer No
• Is it in Africa? Answer Yes
• Is It North Of Nigeria? Answer No
• I Think I know this, Is it South Africa? Am I right? Answer No
• I know I am close, Please tell me your word. Answer Zimbabwe
• Type a question that will help me tell ZIMBABWE from SOUTH AFRICA. Answer 'Is it landlocked?'
• Does 'Is it landlocked?' describe Zimbabwe? Answer Yes

Return to the 'Think of a word' prompt. There are five categories that Dr. Mysto comes pre-programmed with, Countries, US Presidents, US States, Words, and Xtra —a blank database the player can set up for themselves. There are optional sound effects and game controls with mouse/keyboard combination.