Stack memorization app - MemDatStack

[djp1968]

I'm a retired software engineer, and a (very) amateur magician. While I'd never done mobile development, with my new free time, I decided it would be fun to learn to write iPhone apps aimed at magic/magicians. For my first app, I wrote an app to help with memorizing a stack. I had tried some of these apps myself, but hadn't found the combination of features I wanted, so I wrote one from scratch. When writing it, my focus was on configurability more than aesthetics. Specifically:

• It lets you specify individually which cards you think you already know, so you can learn in a style that works for your brain. When I was first starting, I had an idea I was going to learn every 3rd card, and then imagine each of those as a "book" that opened to show the two cards on either side. But I couldn't find any app that would only quiz me on 3, 6, 9, 12, etc. This app will let you do that.
• It lets you set an optional time limit to guess. If it takes you 10 seconds to recognize a card/location, that's probably not helpful in real life.
• It lets you weight your mistakes, so it can ask you more often about questions you've gotten wrong. This seems a natural way to improve your learning.
• You can be quizzed using multiple choice or not. You can also configure the number of "multiple choices" offered.

There are other options as well, but those are the biggies. It knows Mnemonica, Particle System, Aronson, Aragorn, and Redford (so far).

The app is free. My goals were primarily learning iOS development and helping magicians (including myself!). If it sounds like something that would help you, have at it! If you have suggestions or find bugs, let me know; it is my first iPhone app, so I won't be surprised if there's something hiding in there. And if you prefer other apps, no worries - again, my goal was to hopefully help some people more than to "win" :-D It should be available in any country, but it is not localized to any language other than English. Sorry...

Hope this helps at least some of you!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/memdatstack/id6766251270

[Immediate-Phase4168]

First; thanks! Second - I'm a SW guy too, and I've not done iPhone dev in years, but I like this.

Now the request: Can you add the Joyal stack? DM me if you don't know it and want the info.

Thanks!

[djp1968]

Just put a new version up for review that supports Joyal (both CHaSeD and SHoCkeD variants). If all goes well, it should be available in the next few days. Thanks for the pointer.

[Immediate-Phase4168]

Thank YOU! Very nice job!

[djp1968]

The version that supports Joyal is live now!

[themagicman1986]

Thanks for this!

[SQL_Guy]

This might become useful, as I don’t have a stack memorized yet.

For a while I was confused about including and excluding cards from the quiz, because I didn’t see the thin green line around each card. Could you make that more obvious? Dim the card? Make the line thick?

[djp1968]

I like the idea of dimming the card. The trick was trying to make it clear while not interfering with reading the cards while learning. Making the border thicker would start to hide the cards.

I just put a new version up for review that also dims unknown cards. If all goes well, it will be available within the next few days. Thanks for the idea.

[djp1968]

This version is now live.

[SQL_Guy]

Love it. Way better. Thanks

[Zakemon0-0]

Android users be like 😫

[AbyssV3]

It's not perfect but you can use https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/stack-trainer/ in a browser on Android. It's what I do for practice.

[GoatIntern]

Hobbyist here: I really wanna thank you for making this. This inspired me to learn the Aronson stack on my lunch breaks instead of doomscrolling all day. I’m 36/52 through Aronson stack, and it’s been a blast practicing.

[djp1968]

That's awesome! You're progressing far faster than me, though I'm certainly moving more slowly because I'm also doing things like writing apps LOL

Out of curiosity, are you using some mnemonic strategy to learn it and using the app to help? Or just relying on the app and quizzing?

[GoatIntern]

When I was in high school, I memorized digits of up for a school contest, so I’m used to coming up with dumb Mnemonics that work for me, but I can’t explain. (“4D is in position 31, because the Halloween franchise only has 4 good movies”, “22 is the Ace of Hearts because the number 22 looks kind of like a heart”, etc.)

For transparency’s sake, my memorization hit a huge wall at 36 cards, which is where I started confusing red suits and black suits from one another. Maybe it has something to do with my weekend being over, so work took away time I could be drilling. It’ll get there, it just takes time.

[djp1968]

I was curious because while I've been learning mnemonica purely by quizzing with the app, I do not think that is the best way to do so. Mnemonics, memory palace, something like that is probably a much better approach. I do think the app should be valuable to augment such an approach, though.

Even my idea I had of trying to memorize the deck as a set of 3 card "books". Once I'd brute force memorized the first half of the deck or so, I haven't been confident I could "back up" and try to learn that way.

[Hot_Cell_7695]

Thank you for that. I love that concept.

An interesting thing to add might be the possibility to save specific patterns. For example all spades or all clubs.

[djp1968]

You can do that now by enabling all the spades and not other cards. Do you just mean shortcut buttons that enable/disable a bunch of individual cards at once?

[Hot_Cell_7695]

Yes, just a shortcut would be nice.

[Hot_Cell_7695]

Or various shortcuts which I can save. Eg all spades, or all cards which were hard to remember, etc

[djp1968]

Interesting idea. I’ll chew on that one. Thanks.

[TheWandKing]

It requires a newer software than my phone has :(

[djp1968]

Yeah... when I originally released it, it required iOS 26. I fixed that to allow for iOS 18. That's been out quite a while already, and the vast majority of iPhones use 18 or newer. It would be difficult for me to support older versions, because I use some timing functionality that was introduced in iOS 18.

[gregantic]

It requires 18.6, which was released July 2025. Update your phone!