The BBC and Master Computer Public Domain Library

THE DATING GAME

 

 

Professional, Originally Released On Cassette Only

 

Game Type          : Quiz

Author             : Dr Glenn Wilson

Standalone Release(s)   : 1983: THE DATING GAME, Acornsoft/Ivan Berg, £9.95

Compilation Release(s)   : None

Stated compatibility    : Electron/BBC Dual Version

Actual compatibility    : Electron, BBC B, B+ and Master 128

Supplier            : IVAN BERG, Dunluce House, 4-8 Canfield Gardens, LONDON

                    NW6 3QT

Disc compatibility     : CDFS E00, DFS E00

 

 

Instructions

This amusing and possibly controversial program uses data specially provided by Doctor Glenn Wilson of The Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, and has four functions.

 

The first and most powerful feature is 'THE DATING GAME' - a Computer Dating and Compatibility Program for up to 40 people catering for all sexes over the age of consent. A General Compatibility option is also  available within the program for non-sexual compatibility (between friends, colleagues, workmates, etc.)

 

The second program deals with 'LOVE STYLE' and will tell you what kind of Lover you are and, if you wish, compare you with a chosen partner.

 

Next comes 'PREFERRED RELATIONSHIP'. Four aspects of male/female relationships are measured in this program and your position on the result scales will give you a good indication of what to look for in a partner. Again you may compare your results with those of a partner or prospective partner.

 

The last program is 'DATING SKILLS' which examines your social skills in dating and mating. You can assess your overall level of sophistication and chances of success.

 

WARNING: The Author and publishers accept no responsbility whatsoever for the success or failure of any existing or future relationship recommended or examined by this series of programs.

 

Introduction

What kind of lover are you? What type of relationship would suit you best? How do you fare in love and sex? Are you compatible with your present partner or would you be better off with someone else? Who could you live with without amorous involvement? These are important questions in anyone's life, and this package is designed to help you answer them.

 

Love, sex and friendship are sources of great amusement and delight to us all. They can also be harbingers of great distress and woe. Accordingly, these tests have been designed not just to entertain but also to educate. If treated seriously, and answered honestly, the questions will provide feedback that may be of considerable value in helping you understand yourself and your relationships. The programs will not provide a comprehensive and foolproof set of solutions to all your problems, but

they may, nevertheless, provide a helpful guide to the conduct of your love life.

 

There are five options within this package which may be called upon independently for different purposes. These are described in turn:

 

Option 1 : The Dating Game

In this test, more than one person must answer the questions before compatibility scores can be computed. The minimum of people is two, but your answers can be held in memory or saved on a cassette file (you will need a blank cassette for this purpose) for comparison with up to a maximum of 40 people.

 

One fairly straightforward use of the Dating Game is to assess your compatibility with your current partner or spouse, or with someone you are considering having a relationship with. Another application is to ask a group of people (for example, six couples at a dinner party) to answer the questions and let the computer decide who should be with whom. Since the program will not necessarily pair established couples, make sure your friends are willing and broadminded before you begin!

 

The program is set up to assess the compatibility of heterosexual couples. It will, however, function quite satisfactorily for homosexual pairings if one person arbitrarily designates themselves as a member of the opposite sex. The program will not tell you whether you should be matched with a person of your own or the opposite sex - this you must decide for yourself in advance. Members of the same sex may often appear to be more compatible than opposite-sex pairs because they are more similar, but this is irrelevant to the heterosexually-oriented person.

 

The sort of information that is used to assess compatibility in this test is much the same as that used by parents, marriage counsellors and computer dating companies. Actual love matches are also determined by a less easily defined 'chemistry' which includes all kind of little things like eye colour, depth of voice, gestures, or even whether the other person reminds you of a favourite aunt. These things, of course, are impossible to account for. But what a program such as this CAN do is go some way towards predicting how long the match will survive. It's difficult to tell people with whom they WILL fall in love - but much easier to assess the relationship's chances of long-term success.

 

Option 2 : General Compatibility

This test is the same as that used in Option 1 except that questions which assume that the couple will be sexually involved have been eliminated. The purpose of this is to assess the compatibility of two or more people who are not contemplating sexual involvement but who nevertheless might spend a lot of time together e.g. flat mates, business partners, holiday companions, parents and children, or relatives in general.

 

It is, in fact, somewhat easier to be compatible with another person on a non-sexual basis because the relationship tends to be more open and there are fewer sources of possible conflict. Age, build and sex-drive become largely irrelevant, for example, and jealousy less destructive. Still, it is not easy to share one's life intimately with another person and this test may prove useful information to anyone contemplating it.

 

Option 3 : Love Style

This section tells you what kind of lover you are. Research by social psychologists has identified three major dimensions of loving which are called 'serious versus playful', and 'cool versus passionate'. Although there is some verlap among these concepts, they do represent the major orientations or types of love. An individual's position on these scales reveals a great deal about his characteristic inclinations. Once you have answered all the questions about your habits and preferances, the

computer will present your personal profile, revealing where you stand with respect to these primary styles of love.

 

Generally speaking, we are happier with a partner who is similar to us in terms of these three scores. Gross differences may help to diagnose a major source of tension in your relationship. However, small variations are not important, and it should be appreciated that there are some characteristic differences between men and women. Women are on average more practical than men (which means more sensible and compassionate) and men tend to be more playful than women (i.e. more casual and

pleasure-seeking). Men and women are about equally passionate (i.e. romantic, emotional and possessive).

 

Many relationships begin as playful but evolve into something more passionate, while passionate relationships may end up as practical after a long period of time. This does not present any problems as long as the two partners are not grossly out of step through these transformations.

 

While some control can be exercised over our behaviour, it is doubtful whether we can do very much about our basic love styles except to know and understand them.

 

Option 4 : Preferred Relationship

Whenever two people interact, each adopts a certain role in relation to the other. This section will help to reveal the kind of relationship preferred and your position within that relationship.

 

There are four aspects of relationship measured by this section and the program will reveal your position within them. They are as follows:

a) Giving versus taking

If you score towards the 'give' end of this scale, your are a generous, unselfish person. This does not refer specifically to money, but to less tangible things like your time, your help and your emotional support. If, on the other hand, you turn out to be a 'taker' in your relationships, you had better make sure you find a partner who is naturally a giver. Generally speaking, men are usually the takers and women the givers, but if the feminist movement has anything to do with it, this may not continue to be the case.

 

b) Committed versus free

This is another pair of opposite preferences which is important for compatibility. The committed person seeks a relationship that is close, intimate and exclusive. This can be a beautiful thing, if you can avoid being too clingy and possessive. The 'free' lover likes a relationship that is open and unfettered. This can keep things fresh and exciting, but there is always a danger that the bird might fly off one day and not come back.

 

c) Boss versus slave

Your position on this scale tells you whether you like to 'wear the pants' and be the dominating partner in the relationship, or whether you derive greater pleasure from serving your partner and tending to his or her pleasures. The distinction bears some similarity to giving versus taking. Once again, men often prefer to be the boss and women the slave, but we can all think of noteable reversals on this pattern. The boss or slave role in sex is often a reflection of these positions in general life, but then again some striking exceptions occur. Some men who are tyrants in the office come home and submit totally to their wives.

 

d) Quiet versus exciting

On this scale, you should look for someone who score similarily to you. Quiet, retiring, introvert personalities are frequently better off with people who are similarily inclined. They can share subdued interests such as reading or gold. Extraverts, on the other hand, like plenty of hustle, bustle and excitement going on about them - very trying to a partner who is not so inclined.

 

It is worth noting your position on these four important factors, and keeping them in mind when considering your likely compatibility with other people you meet. Remember that for two of them (giving versus taking and boss versus slave) you want somebody who is opposite to you. For the other two (committed versus free and quiet versus exciting) you should be seeking someone who is like yourself. Thus in some ways we find that 'opposites attract', and in other that 'like likes like'.

 

Option 5 : Dating Skills

This section examines your social skills in dating and mating. Are you going about finding a suitable partner in the most effective way, or are you boorish and socially incompetent? This test will assess your overall level of sophistication and perhaps give you pause for thought about how to conduct yourself socially with someone whose love you would like to gain or maintain.

 

The results screen will tell you how you fared overall on the test and will also give you feedback on your performance, item by item, in case you want to go back and try again to improve your performance. Studying your deficiencies might well be a useful, educative experience.

 

Running THE DATING GAME

1. You will initially be asked 'DO YOU HAVE A DATA TAPE? (Y/N)'.

 

2. a)  If you are running The Dating Game for the first time, you will of course have saved no data yet, so type N and press RETURN. You are asked whether you wish to run the questionnaire. Type Y and press RETURN.

 

  b)  If you have a data tape which you wish to use, type Y, press RETURN and you will be asked to enter the name of your file. You must also tell the computer whether your cassette deck has motor control or not, by typing Y or N and pressing RETURN.

 

3. You are now asked to enter your personal details. After you have typed in each entry, press RETURN.

 

4. This is the first question in the Dating Game:

 

HEIGHT AND WEIGHT: Which description suits you best?

1    Tall and slim

2    Small and ample

3    Quite large overall

4    Small and slim

5    Average

 

Read it carefully and select whichever of the suggested answers is nearest to your own response. Then type in the number next to the answer which you chose. Your choice will not appear on screen: your answers are completely confidential.

 

The next question will appear automatically.

5. When you have completed the questionnaire, you are given the option to run it again. Simply type Y then press RETURN. A second person can then answer the questionnaire.

6. As soon as two or more people have completed The Dating Game, a compatibility check can be made. The option to do this is given when the second person has finished the questionnaire and you do not wish to run the questionnaire again.

 

Follow the screen instructions. You can check the sexual or general compatibility of any of the people on the list, by typing the number next to their name. You are given a percentage rating and then a more detailed analysis if you request it.

 

Saving Your Results

When you have finished the questionnaire, you will be asked 'DO YOU WISH TO SAVE THE NEW DATA? (Y/N)'.

 

If you want to save the data of the people who have just given their answers, type Y and press RETURN. You will need your own blank tape on which to save your results.

 

You need to choose a name for your data file, say DATA1, so that the computer will recognise and load the file when you want to refer to it again.

 

Place your tape in the cassette deck. When the message RECORD THEN RETURN appears, press the record and play buttons on the cassette deck, then press RETURN. The message NEW DATA BEING SAVED NOW will appear. When saving is complete, you will see NEW DATA SAVED. Press SPACE as requested and the program ends.

 

To re-run the program, type RUN. You will enter the program at the point where you are asked if you wish to load a data tape.

 

Note : You may save up to 40 names on any one file.

 

Loading And Running Love Style, Preferred Relationship And Dating Skills

If using the cassette version, load cassette two instead of cassette one.

 

Type CHAIN"PROG2" if you wish to load Love Style, CHAIN"PROG3" if you wish to load Preferred Relationship and CHAIN"PROG4" for Dating Skills.

 

Press RETURN.

 

In each of these programs, you will see the title and credits screen, and hear the "Dating Game" theme tune.

 

You can answer Love Style and Preferred Relationship either on your own, or with another person to compare resuts. In Dating Skills, only one person can take the questionnaire at a time.

 

When you have completed your entries, an instruction screen is displayed. Read it carefully before you answer the questions.

 

If two people are doing a questionnaire, all the questions are displayed for one participant, and then in turn for the other. When both have completed their answers (or when a single participant finished his answers), the question 'DO YOU WANT TO PRINT OUT YOUR RESUTS? (Y/N)' is posed.

 

If you answer N and press RETURN, the score screen is displayed. If you answer Y, you are asked to turn on your printer, and your results are printed out as they appear on screen.

 

 

Instructions' Source   : THE DATING GAME (Acornsoft/Ivan Berg) Booklet and Back Inlay

 

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