1.
Click on "New user" if you want to register and store your ranking between games. If you don't want to register, click on "Guest" (note: in this option you will not be able to be listed on the "Top 25" if you get a good result).
2.
Design your character by clicking on the arrows under "Choose body parts" and "Choose colour".
Fill in your user name and password and click on "Register".
3.
Click on "Book of life".
4.
Here you have two options:
a) you can buy the book of life for 200 points
b) you can get the book of life after performing an experiment
If you want to buy the book of life, click on "Buy". If you want to perform an experiment, click on "Get book of life".
5.
Click on "Next" to perform the experiment and follow the instructions given.
6.
Remember the three-letter tag at the top of the beaker on page 9 (in this case "Arg").
7.
Choose the correct amino acid in the drop down menu (the correct amino acid is the one you can see on page 9 of the experiment).
When you have choosen an amino acid click on "Close" in the upper right corner.
8.
Now you can either choose to play the "Crack the Code" game, by clicking on "Challenge computer", or you can challenge another player on line by clicking on a particular user in the player list.
9.
Click on the spot where you want to place your marker. Your aim is to get five markers in a row before the computer or the other player does.
10.
When you click on a square to place your marker, a frame appears in which you will see a three-letter codon in pink and a scrollable list of amino acids below. Look up the three-letter codon in your Book of Life (located to the left of the grid on pages 1, 2 or 3) and try to find the amino acid that it codes for. When you have found it, go back to the frame and click on the correct amino acid in the list. Be quick! You only have 45 seconds to complete this task for every marker.
11.
You can view the top 25 players by clicking on "Exit" in the upper right corner of the five in a row game area, and by clicking on "View top 25".