48k disk/cassette .... written by M.
White ....
Alphabet is a pre-reading
program for the average four to five year old very similar to Atari's My
First Alphabet but written in this country and therefore without any
problems of `Americanisms'. The program was originally accepted by Atari
to be released in a line of home produced educational software but
following the takeover, Atari decided not to publish it and it is now
sold direct by the author.
The program presents a
series of pictures for the child with a caption such as `a is for apple'
and the letters of the alphabet underneath for the child to identify the
correct letter with which the word begins or ends. Generally the program
is very good. There are one or two not so good points but more of those
later. Firstly let's look at the good points.
The manual is excellent. It
has been written in conjunction with a primary school teacher and, apart
from explaining the program in detail, it contains a guide for you as a
parent on how to use the program in conjunction with your child to get
the most benefit. It makes it clear that learning with a computer
requires active participation from both child and parent and proper
encouragement whether the answers given are right or wrong. The program
itself contains a picture for each letter of the alphabet with a
corresponding word and a series of options for choosing a letter in that
word. The order suggested by the authors is First letter of the word
highlighted, last letter highlighted, either letter highlighted (at
random), first letter normal (not distinguished from the rest of the
word), last letter normal, either letter normal, first letter missing,
last letter missing. Following this progression it becomes more and more
difficult for the child but he/she should be able to tackle each level having learnt the last Further options allow the pictures to
be presented alphabetically or at random. Prior to playing, the game can
be put in an autorun mode to enable the child to get used to the
program.
When a picture is shown, the caption beneath will state, for example, 'j
is for jam' and the child must use the joystick to move an arrow above
the letters of the alphabet to choose the letter j. If he is correct the
background of the screen flashes and a rabbit on the left hand side will
be redrawn closer to a carrot. Each correct answer will move the rabbit
nearer until he reaches the carrot when a nursery rhyme will be played.
If the letter chosen is wrong, the program will give the correct answer
and move the pointer to the correct letter.
The actual teaching side of
the program has been well thought out and the pictures are very
colourful. Graphics 10 has been used for extra colours but this does
tend to make many of the pictures somewhat blocky. What of the other
niggles? The sound could, and should, be a lot better. As each picture
is drawn it is accompanied by a monotonous single rising or falling tone
that aggravates, at least to adults, after two or three times. The
rabbit is redrawn each time, slowly, whereas player missile graphics
could have been used to add more interest and better movement. Getting
out of a picture if the wrong one is chosen is by holding the option key
but it is far too slow to react. Finally the packaging is pretty basic
to say the least. Whilst there is no need to go to Atari extremes of
selling more box than program, I feel that better presentation would add
greatly to peoples acceptance of the program.
The educational value for
the child cannot be faulted and it is on this that the program should
finally be judged. Personally I prefer My First Alphabet but Alphabet is
half the price and it is written in England. It is also available on
cassette whilst My First Alphabet is only on disk.
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