Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!sri-spam!ames!elroy!cit-vax!ucla-cs!flowers From: flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: PC software for children Message-ID: <9750@shemp.UCLA.EDU> Date: Mon, 7-Dec-87 20:49:20 EST Article-I.D.: shemp.9750 Posted: Mon Dec 7 20:49:20 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 13-Dec-87 09:12:38 EST References: <437@xios.XIOS.UUCP> Sender: root@CS.UCLA.EDU Reply-To: flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU (Margot Flowers) Distribution: na Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department Lines: 41 "My ABC's" is great. Has six games: - one finds letters on the keyboard - one finds single letters in a given word - one finds letter pairs in a given word - one has dancing pictures in response to hitting the right letter or number - one is a counting game - one is a match-up game (what you probably played as a kid with a deck of cards called "memory") The graphics are amazingly good under CGA. The music is too. The game has a sense of fun and delight that my daughter enjoys. The author of the game did a really good job. It lists I think for about $30 or $35. My two-1/2 year old now knows where most of the letters are on the keyboard, and can navigate from game to game using space bar, escape, return, and can read some of the words (with some help from the pictures). Paperback software, who distributed it, were real asses when I called them for help. It is distributed on 5-1/4 inch disks, and my machine has only 3.5inch diskettes (with an external 5-1/4 disk at work that I use to convert). Well, it only runs on A:. So I called them for help. Totally unhelpful, and they refused to refund my purchase price even though the fine print specifically says their liability is limited to refunding purchase price (which should have allowed them to do that for me). Fortunately, CopyIIPC was able to make a runnable copy on the smaller disks that allowed me to run it. For a child who has outgrown My ABCs, Reader Rabbit is pretty reasonable. It is not quite as well done, and the graphics are cruder and look like something done on graph paper. Most of the games involve various aspects of letter recognition in various three-letter words, and one "memory" game also with a slightly larger grid, and a variation where you match a picture to a word. It seems pretty good and a reasonable value. (That one is also copy protected, which presented problems for running on my system, but I was able to figure a way around it). It is a little harder and requires a bit more concentration (which is probably appropriate as a kid gets more skilled). Margot Flowers Flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU ...!{ucbvax|ihnp4}!ucla-cs!flowers