US Presidents Memory Game

Meteors fall toward an old town, and each one carries the name of a president of the United States. One launcher stands below, over six chambers that each hold a rocket and a number. Tap the chamber with the president's place in the order, such as 16 for Lincoln, and its rocket is loaded and fired. The numbers change chambers every wave, so you learn the number and not the button. A second mode turns it round: numbers fall, and the chambers hold the names.

How to play

1. Choose a mode: name to number, where names fall and the chambers hold numbers, or number to name, where numbers fall and the chambers hold names.
2. Each wave puts six presidents in the chambers. You have 2.5 seconds to read them before the first meteor appears.
3. The lowest meteor is the target, with a ring round it. Tap another meteor to aim at it instead.
4. Tap the chamber that holds the target's answer. Its rocket is loaded and fired, and the right one destroys the meteor.
5. A wrong answer fizzles. The meteor drops a step, the launcher jams for a moment and says Jammed, and the right answer shows under the meteor.

The first waves go by era: wave 1 holds presidents 1 to 10, wave 2 holds 11 to 20, and so on up to wave 4. From wave 5 the eras mix, and presidents you got wrong, or that landed, come back with the numbers in new places.

Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and the 24th president, and Donald Trump the 45th and the 47th, because each served two terms that were not in a row. Either of their numbers is right.

A wave has more meteors than chambers, 7 in the first wave and up to 12 later, so a president falls more than once and no chamber can be ruled out. A meteor takes 14 seconds to reach the ground in the first wave and a little less in each wave after it, down to 7 seconds.

When the game ends, the game over screen lists every president you got wrong or that landed, with his numbers and what you picked instead, so you can go over them before you play again.

You have three shields, and a meteor that reaches the ground costs one. On a keyboard, press 1 to 6 for the chambers as they are numbered, and the left and right arrows to change the target. Escape or Space pauses.

Scoring

The sooner you know the answer, the more a meteor is worth.

• A meteor destroyed with no wrong shot scores 100, plus up to 100 more for how high it still is.
• A meteor destroyed after a wrong shot showed its answer scores 20.
• A wave with no wrong shot and no landing adds 250.

Your five best scores for each mode are saved in this browser, with the wave each game reached. In practice, a meteor that lands costs no shield, so the game goes on until you end it from the pause screen. Practice games are not saved.

Which presidents are in the game

All 47 presidencies, from George Washington, the 1st, to Donald Trump, the 47th. They were held by 45 people, since Grover Cleveland and Donald Trump each held two. A name that two presidents share carries initials, such as J. Adams and J. Q. Adams, or A. Johnson and L. B. Johnson.

How to remember the presidents by number

Give each number from 1 to 47 a picture of its own, with a peg system such as the Major System, and link the president to it. With the Major System, 16 is a dish, so you might picture Abraham Lincoln washing a dish with his tall hat. The presidents listed on the game over screen are the ones worth making an image for first. See how to create mnemonic images for more ways to build them, and the wiki page on memorizing the US presidents for more ideas.

Try our other free memory games, such as Capital Cannon for world capitals or Major System Blaster for the Major System.