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Magic 8 Ball - App Inventor 2 - Intermediate Tutorial

 

An 8-ball was used as a fortune telling device in the 1940 Three Stooges short, You Nazty Spy, in which it was referred to as a "magic ball". While Magic 8 Ball didn't exist in its current form until 1950, the functional component was invented by Albert C. Carter, who was inspired by a spirit writing device that was used by his mother, Mary, a Cincinnati clairvoyant. When store owner Max Levinson was approached by Carter about stocking the device, he called in his brother-in-law Abe Bookman, a graduate of Ohio Mechanics Institute.

 

In 1944, Carter filed for a patent for his device, assigning it to Bookman, Levinson, and another partner in what came to be Alabe Crafts, Inc. (Albert and Abe) in 1946. Under the Alabe name, they marketed and sold the device as The Syco-Seer. Carter died sometime before the patent was granted in 1948.

 

Bookman soon made improvements to the Syco-Seer and in 1948, it was encased in an iridescent crystal ball. Though unsuccessful, the revamped product caught the attention of Chicago's Brunswick Billiards.

 

In 1950 they commissioned Alabe Crafts to make a version in the form of a traditional black and white 8-ball.

 

This Tutorial will guide you through building a “Magic 8-Ball” app with App Inventor. When activated, your 8-ball will deliver one of its classic predictions, such as “It is decidedly so” or “Reply hazy, try again.”

 

With the Magic 8 Ball app, you can:

 

After completing this app, you will be able to:

 

  • Navigate the App Inventor environment: designer, blocks editor, emulator and/or physical phone

  • Correctly use the following App Inventor components: accelerometer sensor, image, list-picke

 

What You’ll Learn

 

This tutorial introduces the following concepts:

 

  • Random Selection for set comments

 

  • Using the AccelerometerSensor as a form of control

 

  •  Controlling screen layout with arrangement components

 

  •  Adding media (sounds and images) to apps by uploading them from your computer.

 

  • Using the Blocks Editor to assemble blocks that define the components’ behavior.

 

 

 

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