CBL Classic

Classic Edition

My current project is to port the game from its original form (written in JavaFX) to its True Form in the Unity game engine. However, it’s going to take me years to finish the port, so if you want the original version of the game — the one I used to teach symbolic logic to college students — you can download that version here (files housed on my personal website).

If you are not on an iPhone or iPad,* you can click here to download a zipped file (from my personal site). That file contains:

  • The Chambergon Battle Logic program (Classic Edition).
  • The Chambergon Battle Logic “textbook.” [Click here for just the PDF, without all the other stuff.]
  • The Chambergon Battle Logic User’s Manual. [Click here for just the PDF, without all the other stuff.]
  • The syllabus for “Elementary Logic” (the course for which I wrote the program and textbook) [Click here for just the PDF, without all the other stuff.]
  • Supporting files for the program (a generic “Character File,” 355 game files [Levels 0 through 9], and a logo file).

This is what Characters in the game look like. Aren't they cute?

This is what Characters in the game looked like in the classic version. They’ll get an update in the new port, but weren’t they cute?

[Teachers: In addition to downloading the zipped file above, download this zipped file as well. It contains a “teacher character,” with all the games already completed. You can use it as an “answer key” for teaching logic to your students.]

The four chambergons in the game: a quasi-rhombus representing disjunction, a rectangle representing conjunction, a triangle representing conditionals, and a star representing biconditionals
This is what Chambergons looked like. Get it? PolyGONs divided into CHAMBERs?

Once you have downloaded the file, unzip it (or “extract” the files, as Windows says nowadays). If no one ever taught you how to unzip files, don’t worry; a simple Google search for “unzip file” + whatever version of Windows, MacOS, Linux, etc. your computer is running should help you figure things out.

These are cards. Given the first card, you could play the second, and given the second, you could play the third. (This is what logicians call a "proof.")
These were cards in the classic version of the game. Believe it or not, these three cards form what logicians call a “proof.”

Once you’ve unzipped the file, I would suggest you do the following:

  1. Read the “Course Description” in the Syllabus PDF file to get a feel for what this is all about.
  2. Take a look at the User’s Manual PDF file so you’ll know where to look later if you need hints, FAQs, and troubleshooting help.
  3. Maybe take a look at the Textbook PDF file. Reading it will give you hours of delirious enjoyment, as well as helping you figure out what is going on with this whole logic thing.
  4. Give the program a try.** It’s a .jar file/”Executable Jar File” (there are three of them; use the first one), so it should run on any computer that has Java already installed. (If you don’t know whether your computer has Java, try this link.)
    1. If you’re on a Mac, you’ll need to:
      1. hold down the CTRL button while clicking on the file icon,
      2. then select “Open” from the list that pops up,**
      3. then tell it that, yes, you really do want to open it.** (Apple doesn’t know who I am, so it doesn’t know if it can trust the stuff I make. PCs don’t care. They trust everyone.)
    2. If the program tells you your “Character File” is missing, try opening one of the other .jar files/”Executable Jar Files” (Each .jar file is the same program, but with different “debugging” settings.) Java is supposed to run on all systems, but sometimes it takes a couple of tries for a Java-based program to get its bearings and figure out where everything is.

The eight basic characters (blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, and brown) arranged in a kind of circular rainbow.
If you arrange the game’s Characters in a circle, they form a pretty color wheel, which is pretty.

*The classic edition is a Java-based program. However, the iOS operating system refuses to run Java (last I checked) and iPhones and iPads use that operating system.

**The program is “in beta,” and is provided “as is.” By downloading and running the program, you accept responsibility for whatever happens next — including the hours of fun you may have learning and playing the game, and the logical prowess you may obtain in the process.