| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 504.1 | A B Zoo | REGENT::LOMICKA | Roy Lomicka | Tue Jun 13 1989 14:59 | 6 |
| My 3 year old son has "A B Zoo". He used it to help learn where the
various letter keys are on the keyboard. It has 2 sets of 26 animal
pictures, 3 levels of difficulty, and musical rewards. Considering
the general lack of kidware for the ST around here, it's pretty good.
It must have been pretty hard for them to think of animals starting
with all 26 letters. X is xiphosuran!
|
| 504.2 | Kidprogs Free On START Disk | AQUA::ROST | She moves me, man | Mon Oct 08 1990 09:47 | 24 |
|
The "Preschool Kidprogs" mentioned in .0 is included on the disk with
the Oct. 90 START magazine...lots cheaper than paying $25+ for it at a
store.
My 3 year old grasped it in about two minutes, so I guess it's well
programmed. The only problem she and her 5 year old sister have is
that they tend to twist the mouse 90 degrees, then have trouble moving
the cursor becaue the direction they are moving their hands in is not
the direction the cursor is moving...oh, well.
I've heard lots of good things about "First Shapes" from First Byte,
but have only found it mail order so far, does anyone know if it's
copy-protected? For kid's use, I like to see disks I can backup, for
obvious reasons.
Also, has anyone seen any of the Disney games that Sierra put out
(Winnie the Pooh, Donald Duck's Playground, Mickey's Space Adventure).
I don't see them advertised anymore in the mail order ads. Also
wondering if they are too much for 3-5 year olds (i.e. do they require
reading?).
Brian
|
| 504.3 | First Shapes and Winnie the Pooh | REGENT::LOMICKA | Roy Lomicka | Mon Oct 15 1990 05:04 | 27 |
| re: .2
re: First Shapes
I have several of the First Byte programs. First Shapes is the best of this
rather sorry bunch of programs. The gimmic of these programs is the voice.
But the speech quality is so poor you might have to repeat what the computer
is saying for your child to understand it. The biggest problem is that the
graphics are excruciatingly slow. Attention span is a problem. My kids still
like the matching game in first shapes, which has reasonable response time
once loaded. The First Byte programs are copy protected, and will run from
hard disk with a key disk. I used Procopy to make the key disks and keep the
original disks filed away. Also, when I complained by letter to First Byte
about problems with First Shapes, including a complaint about the copy
protection, they sent me an unprotected version of First Shapes in exchange
for my original disk. So for that program, I no longer need to use a key disk.
That was 3 years ago though, and First Byte has since dropped support for
Atari. Also, the street price (mail order) of their ST programs has dropped
to about $15 each.
re: Winnie the Pooh
This program was well liked by my daughter at first, but after playing it a
few times the cuteness wore off and it has been occupying space on my hard
disk ever since. Definitely run this one from ram disk or hard disk, otherwise
slow floppy I/O will slow it down too much. Reading is required, at about 2nd
grade level. Copy protected - uses key disk.
|
| 504.4 | Well, It Does The Job | AQUA::ROST | She moves me, man | Wed Oct 17 1990 11:22 | 30 |
| re: .2, .3
I got some answers on my own by picking up "First Letters and Words"
from First Byte, and ordering "First Shapes" direct from them (hasn't
come in yet).
I agree that the speech is poor, it's like a TI Speak and Spell, but it
seems to be understandable by both my kids. Since they can't read yet,
the speech idea makes the game more usable.
My disk was definitely not copy-protected. As far as dropping Atari
support, FB no longer is distributed by Electronic Arts, so the dealers
who think of FB as an EA product will tell you it's out of print. I
called EA to bitch (particularly since FB games were listed in a START
educational SW article that came out this month) and found that FB
still exists, but has terminated their relationship with EA. So I
called FB direct, they still sell the Atari packages and will direct
mail (at list...$30). They have gained a new distributor, but that
house will be selling SW *only* in IBM format, no Mac, no Amiga, thank
you veddy much.
As far as speed of the games, I also agree, but then again,my kids have
never seen Nintendo, etc. so don't have any expectations of whiz-bang
graphics.
Bottom line is there is not a lot of stuff out there in the kids'market,
the FB stuff seems to be pretty well designed and my kids like it, so I
guess it was worth the money.
Brian
|
| 504.5 | more on First Byte | REGENT::LOMICKA | Roy Lomicka | Thu Oct 18 1990 03:50 | 4 |
| The former list price of FB ST products was $50. A good discount price
was $35. So I guess the price reduction to $30 accounts for the much lower
discount prices I've seen advertised. I thought the lower prices were just
liquidation prices.
|
| 504.6 | Atari's "Bentley Bear" | REGENT::LOMICKA | Roy Lomicka | Mon Oct 29 1990 21:55 | 43 |
| "General Store" and "Spelling Bee"
Here are reviews of two of the "Atari MEGA and ST Scholastic Series, Bentley
Bear At-Home Tutor" programs. I took a chance buying them for $20 each at
the Atarifest, with no chance to try them before buying, based only on reading
the package.
On average I did OK. General Store is very good and well worth the price.
Spelling Bee is not so good, and definitely not worth $20. I consider the
difference a donation to a needy Atari dealer.
General Store
This program is nothing like any other I've ever seen. It provides an
animated simulation of running your own store and teaches a variety of concepts
in a colorful fun environment. My 9 year old daughter loves it. So does
my 5 year old son, although he can't handle the math. Believe it or not,
this program teaches planning, ordering and reordering inventory, selecting
items to display based on change of seasons, competitive pricing, dealer
cost/markup, handling customer purchases/returns, making change, receiving
monthly utility bills, advertising, and borrowing from the bank, all in an
easy to understand and fun manner. I've never seen my daugher have so much
fun practicing her math! To give you an idea of the variety in this program,
I'll note that the instruction book is 32 pages long, and is well written
and illustrated with over 20 different screen images.
Spelling Bee
This is not a spelling bee at all. The program is terribly misrepresented
on the packaging as "presenting exercises in spelling in a game playing
environment."
The program is actually a "Hangman" game. Nothing more. The children do not
have to spell the words. They need only guess the letters in the word, in any
order. Instead of the gallows, they get to see a lazy bear lounging in a
swimming pool, about to drink a "honey" cooler. If you don't guess all the
letters in the word with less than 10 wrong guesses, a crow steals the Bear's
drink. (Please guess the letters correctly, kids, so Bentley can get soused!)
The book for this one is a grand total of 5 pages long, and is mostly on things
like how to stick the disk in the drive. As a Hangman game, it's not too bad,
but I've seen better in the Macintosh freely distributed software archives.
At least you can put your own word lists in it using any editor.
|
| 504.7 | Fun School 2 (from UK) | AQUA::ROST | Neil Young and Jaco in Zydeco Hell | Tue Oct 30 1990 09:05 | 50 |
| I also picked up a new package at the Atarifest, it's a UK program
called "Fun School 2", for under 6s. The dealer also had a FS3. I
paid $20.
It's a non-protected two disk set, written in STOS Basic. Disk one has
the STOS files, disk two the actual .BAS files. The manual suggests you
can go in and muck with the sources if you like. You also get a cute
button, but with two kids and only one button.....
The program autoboots so the kids (and my low-tech wife) can start it
up OK. It runs in low res and consists of eight games, some of which
are better than others.
"Teddy Bear Picnic" is a simple maze game, with three levels of
difficulty. Level one is almost a giveaway, and then the mazes get
pretty hard. A big hit with my kids.
"Teddy Count" has some bears parade around the screen, the child types
in the number of bears they see. Nice, three levels.
"Colour Train" has a train and multi-colored stations. You hit the
spacebar when the train reaches the station whose color matches. Then
the train changes color. No levels.
"Mole Hunt" has five molehills, numbered in order of size. The child
has to guess where the mole is. They are prompted "bigger" or
smaller". No levels.
There are two spelling games. One is a hangman type, you are shown a
picture and have to type in the letters. The other shows a word, and
you have a teddy bear walk to the correct letters on an alphabet chart
to spell out the words. The latter is easier, obviously.
There is a letter writing program using a teddy bear as a cursor. Not
too exciting if the kids can't spell, since it is really teaching them
to type.
"Shape Snap" is truly bizarre. Pairs of (large) letters come on the
screen. The child hits the spacebar when they match, any other key
otherwise.
None of the games are mouse-driven, which confused my kids at first
(although you *select* games from the menu with a mouse). They require
basic keyboard skills (finding letters and numbers) and there is no
speech to assist, all prompting is by text...not too good for
non-readers. Some of the programs were not intuitively obvious and
required reading the instruction book. Overall, a decent value for the
price, my kids like some of the games, glad I bought it.
Brian
|
| 504.8 | Seeking Info On Some Programs | RICKS::ROST | Electric music for mind and body | Tue May 19 1992 15:52 | 18 |
| Eighteen months on, looking for more advanced educational software, as
my youngest is now 5 and my older one 7. I've found a mail-order source
for some, but without a chance to even see the package, buying is a
crapshoot. I'm interested in hearing from anybody who knows anything
about any of these:
Math Blaster Plus: this seems to be a good seller in other formats, I
have never seen an ST version myself.
Bentley Bear: what are these? Besides the two mentioned in .6, there
are about a half dozen others available.
Fun School: as mentioned in .7, I have Fun School 2. Apparently 3 and
4 exist *and* they are available scaled by age group. The one I have
is for under 6, curious about the versions for over 7 yrs.
Brian
|
| 504.9 | Bentley Bear & Math Blaster Plus | REGENT::LOMICKA | Roy Lomicka | Sat May 23 1992 11:46 | 16 |
| re: Bentley Bear (.6)
update: It's over a year later & my kids still use both .6 Bentley programs.
I don't know anything about the others.
re: Math Blaster Plus
Contrary to instructions, can be installed on hard drive; uses key disk
This has been a good investment. I think the latest PC version is slicker than
the Atari version, but given that you're looking for Atari sw, it's a good
"math flash card" program. It includes an entertaining fast paced multiple
choice game that the kids love. It does not formally support changing the
problem sets too easily, so I wrote a little C program to help me do it. I
changed the easiest addition set to make it even easier for my son when he
was 3 or 4. If you want the program I wrote let me know by email.
|
| 504.10 | Fun School 3 | RICKS::ROST | Frankensteinberger | Mon Jun 01 1992 11:40 | 72 |
| More on the Fun School series:
I just bought Fun School 3 for over 7 yrs. With it came some brochures
for the other volumes (I already had #2 for under 5). There are
currently nine versions, Fun School 2, 3 and 4, each having versions
for under 5, 5-7 and over 7. Each version is unique, i.e. the games
are *not* the same across the age versions. The under 5 sets use a
Teddy Bear icon throughout, the 50-7 a frog and over 7 a robot.
The graphics of the #3 and #4 sets are vastly improved over #2. Use
of color shading to give a 3D look is applied throughout. #3 is also
largely mouse driven unlike #2 which required a lot of keyboard entry.
This was supplied on a DS disk with a coupon provided to order two SS
disks if needed; this is in contrast to #2 which supplied two SS disks.
The games in #3 for over 7s are:
Wordsearch
This is the old game where words are hidden in a grid of letters. The
player clicks on the first and last letters to highlight the word, then
click on the same word in a list posted to the side of the grid. There
are three levels, level 1 has only horizontal and vertical strings,
level 2 adds diagonals, level 3 adds backwards spelling. The user can
add new word lists with a supplied editor.
Planetmath
A math drill disguised as a video game. Problems pop on the screen,
the player has to type in the answer before the numbers crash into the
force field. A correct answer fires rockets into the force field and
explode it. Multiple levels and the choice of addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division. Each type of problem may be at a
different level. Nit for US users: the highest level has money
problems in pounds.
Sentences
This prints a sentence on the screen which has spelling, punctuation
and grammar errors. The player selects the offending word or
punctuation mark and then corrects it. If the player has no idea, the
game will provide a clue by highlighting each error. The user may add
new sentences by creating files with a word processor. Nit: some of
the spelling errors will confuse kids in the US, for instance "tire"
was considered an error, the program wanted "tyre"!
Treasure Map
A navigation game. You have to choose direction and distance to move
around on a map. Similar to navigating a Logo turtle.
Robot Draw
Actually a modified version of Logo. The drawings can be "recorded"
and played back to provide animation.
Data Base
What it says, a simple database program for the kids to store whatever
they want.
The documentation is pretty good, hints for the parents are provided,
etc. Based on this and Funs School 2 for under 5s, I would recommend
this series wholeheartedly althought the UK bias in some of the games
is unfortunate for US kids. For example, the games involving money are
in pounds. The brochure shows one fascinating game where kids ahve to
go into a store and pay for things, but UK coins and values are shown
on the screen. One nice thing about this series is that the programs
are originbally written on the ST then ported to the other machines
that are supported (IBM, C64, Amiga, Amstrad, BBC, Spectrum, etc.)
Brian
|
| 504.11 | The Knowledge Vine | RICKS::ROST | Frankensteinberger | Mon Jun 01 1992 13:45 | 68 |
| Knowledge Vine is the name used by programmer Ken Kressin. He has
created a series of shareware programs for young children. I
downloaded four of these from the Terminator archive at UMich.
All these programs run in low res color and use the mouse for
manipulations. Kressin has used GFA Basic and Cyber Paint to create
these. The graphics are good if not earth-shattering. Some of them
allow adding additional files so that the user can create more game
situations himself.
Here are the programs that I know of:
KV_ME1ST ME FIRST learn by putting stories in order
KV_ME2ND ME FIRST 24 more stories
KV_PARK_ Butterfly in the Park, Animated Puzzle
KV_HOUSE About the House, a Childrens Adventure
KV_GEO_1 Hypertext Geography, the Solar System
KV_GEO_2 More Hypertext, subject?
KV_FONIC Phonics Puzzle Game
Me First is similar in concept to D.A. Brunleve's Kidmixup in that the
player must correctly order four pictures to create a story. The twist
is that the pictures are then run in order to create a primitive
animation. The user may add additional sequences.
House is a graphics adventure similar to Manhole for the Mac. The
player manipulates a butterfly with the mouse. Placing the butterfly
on certain features of a picture cause the program to jump to a new
picture. This one is a lot of fun, especially for younger kids.
Fonic is a three-way puzle game. The first screen has outlines of
objects with letters superimposed on them (the letters being the first
sound of the object's name) and the player must match the objects up
with the outlines. The second screen shows the same objects and the
player matches the letter(s) to the objects. The third screen is a
concentration game, again the object and letter(s) must be matched. At
the end of each set, the player may continue to the next set, play the
same set again or quit.
Geo_1 is a hypertext game about the solar system. the player clicks on
objects on the screen and boxes with text information pop up. Clicking
on highlighted text in these boxes jumps to another picture. There is
a quiz feature and also a find feature (entering the name of an object
causes it to be highlighted on the screen).
These games are well-programmed in general and my kids (5 and 7) liked
them, although GEO_1 requires reading at about a second grade level if
the child is to play it without assistance.
Apparently Knowledge Vine maintains a BBS so you can download these
programs directly.
Ken Kressin
The Knowledge Vine
500 4th Ave. S.E.
Waseca, MN 56093
BBS: 507-835-2272 24Hr. 12/2400 baud.
GEnie K.KRESSIN, Category 29, ST RT.
Brian
|
| 504.12 | Are the KV_* files on the net? | YNGSTR::WALLACE | | Mon Jun 01 1992 13:58 | 9 |
| If you have these files can you make them available?
> KV_ME2ND ME FIRST 24 more stories
> KV_PARK_ Butterfly in the Park, Animated Puzzle
> KV_FONIC Phonics Puzzle Game
Thanks,
Ray
|
| 504.13 | UK Software For 8-12 Year Olds? | TECRUS::ROST | Fretting less, enjoying it more | Fri Dec 03 1993 16:47 | 14 |
| OK, now that my kids are getting older (6 and 8) they are outgrowing
the preschooler software we have.
As an alternative to buying a Mac (and spending $1000 or so!) to run
the crop of educational games available here in the US, I'm wondering
what sort of titles are available in the UK for the 8-12 age group.
I'm interested in programs with games that require the player to
exercise spelling and math skills. The only UK programs I know of are
the Fun School packages. Can some UK noters comment?
If anyone knows of a US dealer importing this kind of thing, I'd love
to hear about it.
Brian
|
| 504.14 | also edu-programs in there | UFHIS::BFALKENSTEIN | | Mon Dec 06 1993 07:17 | 10 |
|
take a look into
muccs1::tmpdos:[falkenstein.atari.sharewar.science]
Bernd
P.S. I'm not sure right now, could also be "bfalkenstein"
|
| 504.15 | Fun School 2 For Over 8s | TECRUS::ROST | Fuzzbox Voodoo | Tue Jan 25 1994 09:36 | 67 |
| A copy of Fun School 2 for Over 8 arrived yesterday. I must say it's
frustrating to try to find anything for the ST in this area. I tried
to also get the Fun School 4 package, and it's back-ordered until after
Armaggeddon, as are the <Bentley Bear titles...sheesh, makes ya wanna
buy a Mac or (gulp) an Intel box 8^(
Anyway, we had been using the 3-5 version of FS2 for a few years and
this one is much the same in appearance. Graphics are primitive and
the mouse is inactive in the games. But the games themselves are
*very* challenging.
BRIDGE This is a puzzle game; the player must insert the pieces in the
correct locations to build a bridge. Even younger kids could handle
this one OK.
UNICORN This is a maze game with the added feature of having the
player move a worm, apple and bird to the far end of the maze before a
forest fire burns trhough the trees. The trick is a variation of the
old missionary and cannibals riddle; if you leave the worm alone with
the apple, it eats it, the bird will eat the worm, etc. Of course, you
can only move one at a time.
PASSAGE OF THE GUARDIANS The player moves along a passageway and meets
the Guardians, monsters who ask you to unscramble a word. For some
reason only the highest level allows editing the word list, and you
cannot do this from within the program as far as I can tell (despite
the instructions suggesting ctrl-W will let you), but I was able to
modify the file in a word processor to plug in new words.
CODE BOX Truly bizarre. A binary number is printed on a box, the
player must "guess" the number of objects inside. OK if you want kids
to learn binary numbers, I guess.
MYSTERY MACHINE The player is confronted with five coded commands.
The "code" is nothing more than the ASCII character set mapped into the
extended graphic set (i.e. add 128 to the ASCII code for a letter to
get the coded character). Anyway, the player must guess the letters to
decode the commands, then follow the commands to operate the machine.
SOUVENIRS This is sick. You leave the UK and visit a handful of
European countries. You start with 30 pounds, in each country you buy
souvenirs and have to convert the currency to make purchases. The
idea is to visit each country only once, and to return to the UK with
no money left. You can only get to adjacent countries, so no hopping
from Italy to the UK, thank you. It requires a few passes to figure
out how to budget the money so you end up in one of the Benelux
countries to spend your last few pounds before you hop home to the UK.
I tried five times and couldn't get it!
LOGIC DOORS A maze game with colored keys that you can pick up. Each
key works on a door of the same color. At level 1, you don't need the
keys so you can wander about trying to figure out what the maze looks
like. Each "room" has three walls; the screen represents the door you
just passed through. Red doors are one-way; you can come into the room
via one, but not leave that way. This requires a pencil and paper to
draw a map out...pretty challenging. I couldn't get myself out 8^)
ESCAPE As you complete each game, you are told a "magic word". Sadly,
the words are the same every time you play. Of course, maybe your kids
will forget that the magic word for the bridge game is "bridge" 8^)
Anyway, this is sort of a repeat of the Logic Doors game, except you
now use the magic words as keys.
All in all, not an incredible package, but it has some stuff that
should keep my kids busy for awhile and at least I could buy a copy.
Brian
|
| 504.16 | Educational SW Situation Is Terminal | TECRUS::ROST | Fuzzbox Voodoo | Wed Jan 26 1994 16:14 | 18 |
| Got off the phone with a few dealers today trying to track down copies
of the titles I have back-ordered at Toad.
The Bentley Bear series appears to be in or out of print depending on
who you talk to. One dealer said it had been out of the last few
catalogs from his distributor, but had recently reappeared. In any
case, noone has any copies on the shelf. Considering that Atari
publishes it, I suppose that's no surprise 8^(
Despite the fact that Davidson now distributes the Fun School packages
for the PC, supposedly the fun Schools can no longer be ordered for the
ST.
%^&*&^%^&&**(*
See you in Mac-land 8^(
Brian
|
| 504.17 | | PRNSYS::LOMICKAJ | Jeffrey A. Lomicka | Thu Jan 27 1994 16:28 | 3 |
| > See you in Mac-land 8^(
Drop me a line when you get there. :-)
|
| 504.18 | Order a back issue | CECEHV::NAGEL_E | Erlend Nagel | Thu Feb 03 1994 11:12 | 20 |
|
Since this seems to be an active topic I thought I'd add a few bits of
info myself.
Rainbow Educational software:
shapes and colours (7.99 UK pounds)
first letters (7.99 UK)
Lander software:
Count and Add (25.99 UK)
Coombe valley software
fractions goblins (14.99 UK)
maths dragons (14.95 UK)
TCA
target maths (19.99 UK)
money matters (19.95 UK)
These are just a few from the March 1993 Atari ST User (UK) issue. I'm
sure that backissues will still be available.
Erlend.
|