Since the publication and release in late 2012, the State Identification Game became one of the most popular downloads on MapForums.
The State Identification Game was developed using Excel VBA and MapPoint.
The MapPoint version must be at least 2010 as it was in this version that you were first able to manipulate map layers and turn off labels.
Excel versions tested include 2007 and 2010, but I don't see a reason why it should not work with earlier versions of Excel.
Since the released of the compiled game, several developers have asked, and I have previously shared the code privately, but now for the first time in this article, we are now making the full source code for the game available for public download.
Launching the Game The download link with the game uncompiled and with full source code as an Excel macro-enabled (.
xlsm) file is at the bottom of this article.
When opened, the macro immediately kicks off the game by using the Workbook_Open method of the ThisWorkbook object.
This is set as shown in the screenshot below.
This is the initial code which opens (instantiates) MapPoint, sets the toolbars, and triggers the form.

Public APP As Object Public MAP As Object Public Sub StateIdentifier() InstantiateMapPoint frmStateIdentifier.
Show End Sub Private Sub InstantiateMapPoint() Set APP = CreateObject("MapPoint.
Application") APP.
Visible = True APP.
WindowState = geoWindowStateMaximize Set MAP = APP.
ActiveMap APP.
PaneState = geoPaneNone APP.
ItineraryVisible = False Dim tool As Object 'in particular need to hide the Location and Scale toolbar or it basically gives you the answer! For Each tool In APP.
Toolbars tool.
Visible = False Next End Sub All of the remaining code and game logic are contained in the form object.
Opening The frmStateIdentifier UserForm When first opened, the form declares several module-level variables, turns off the MapPoint labels, and begins the game.

Private s(3) As Integer Private i, Correct, Answer, Round As Integer Private stateTXT As String Private resultTXT As String Private wks As Excel.
Worksheet Private Sub UserForm_Activate() Set wks = Excel.
ActiveWorkbook.
Sheets("US States") Application.
WindowState = xlNormal Application.
Height = 50 Application.
Width = 50 TurnOffAllLabels PlayGame End Sub You can see that the code also shrinks the Excel Application in order to keep it out of the way.
One of the first challenges in using Excel and a separate instance of MapPoint, was to get Excel out of the way, and let the form with the buttons float over the map.
This is accomplished with the WindowState, Height, and Width properties of the Application object.
The TurnOffAllLabels code was discussed in the MapPoint Game Setup article.
Setting up the Rounds The PlayGame subroutine sets the initial variables and calls SetupRound.

Private Sub PlayGame() cmd1.
Caption = "" cmd2.
Caption = "" cmd3.
Caption = "" cmd1.
Visible = True cmd2.
Visible = True cmd3.
Visible = True Round = 1 SetupRound End Sub SetupRound randomly determines three candidate states, and then randomly picks among those three as the state to show on the map.
All three states are show as button captions.

Private Sub SetupRound() lblStatus.
Caption = "Round: " & Round Dim loc As Object Randomize 'Do While...
Loop's ensure unique states are chosen s(1) = Int(Rnd(Time) * 50) + 2 s(2) = Int(Rnd(Time) * 50) + 2 Do While s(1) = s(2) s(2) = Int(Rnd(Time) * 50) + 2 Loop s(3) = Int(Rnd(Time) * 50) + 2 Do While s(3) = s(1) Or s(3) = s(2) s(3) = Int(Rnd(Time) * 50) + 2 Loop cmd1.
Caption = wks.
Cells(s(1), 1) cmd2.
Caption = wks.
Cells(s(2), 1) cmd3.
Caption = wks.
Cells(s(3), 1) 'now pick one of the three states Answer = Int(Rnd(Time) * 3) + 1 stateTXT = wks.
Cells(s(Answer), 1) If stateTXT <> "New York" And stateTXT <> "Washington" Then Set loc = MAP.
FindPlaceResults(stateTXT & ", United States")(1) Else Set loc = MAP.
FindPlaceResults(stateTXT & ", United States")(2) End If loc.
Select loc.
Goto MAP.
Altitude = MAP.
Altitude * 1.
4 frmStateIdentifier.
cmd1.
SetFocus End Sub If the stateTXT is New York or Washington, the Results collection actually has the City first, and the State second, so the second item in the collection is chosen.
I think you might be able to discard this bit of nastiness by using the FindAddressResults method and explicitly passing in the State in the Region parameter.
Now the game simply waits for one of the buttons to be pressed.
Tallying the Answers When one of the buttons is pressed, the respective method is called, and the value 1, 2, or 3 is passed to TallyAnswer.

Private Sub cmd3_Click() TallyAnswer (3) End Sub Private Sub TallyAnswer(ans As Integer) Round = Round + 1 If ans = Answer Then Correct = Correct + 1 Else resultTXT = resultTXT + "You picked " & wks.
Cells(s(ans), 1) & ".
The correct answer was " & wks.
Cells(s(Answer), 1) & ".
" & vbNewLine End If If Round <= 10 Then SetupRound Else MsgBox (Correct & " out of 10 Correct!") & vbNewLine & vbNewLine & resultTXT,, "Results" 'reset variables resultTXT = "" Correct = 0 cmd1.
Visible = False cmd2.
Visible = False cmd3.
Visible = False frmStateIdentifier.
Hide MAP.
Saved = True APP.
Quit Application.
Parent.
WindowState = xlMaximized End If End Sub If the correct state was chosen, the score, as stored by the variable Correct, is incremented and if the Round is still 10 or less, SetupRound sets up the next round.
If incorrect, the string resultTXT stores the result to display at the end of the game.
After the last round, a message box pops up with the result, and MapPoint is closed.
What's Next? Thus far we have Excel VBA instantiating and manipulating MapPoint, a simple Excel form with buttons, and basic logic for setting up game rounds, tallying the answers, and reporting the results.
As far as what's next, I'll leave this in other developer's capable hands.
Some obvious directions to go would be to adopt this game to work with Countries or possibly Cities around the world.
It would be nice if you could Play Again without having to close the game and re-opening it.
A MapPoint control could be used directly on the Excel UserForm to make a more seamless user experience (rather than having the form float above MapPoint).
Also, it would be pretty cool if the results were timed and posted to a simple leaderboard on a web page so you could, for instance, make it a challenge to try to be the fastest to get all 10 correct.
Speaking of the web, you might consider just using MapPoint to create the map images, and implement the game entirely as a web app.
What do you think? Download the code for the MapPoint Game and hack away and share your enhancements with the community by posting below.
Have fun and Happy Mapping!