Turn the tables is a counting game
intended for young children of age three upwards that can also be
used as a memory test for older children.
Parents will need to help young
children and the program can be explained as a 'fairy tale' thus:
You are travelling through a strange land when you come to a kingdom
where the ruler challenges 'Build a Castle and you may stay in the
Kingdom. To do this you must count correctly all the items on the
Magic Table. Each time you do so correctly the items will be turned
into diamonds with which you may build your castle. If you are wrong
the items will turn into Bugs which are no use to anyone. Tell me
your name and the Court Piper will play a tune for you'.
The program is used with a joystick
except for setting the initial options and typing in the player's
name. The player uses the joystick to move an arrow to a number
between 1 and 11 in response to an on-screen question. When the
arrow points to the number which the player thinks is correct, the
button is pressed and either diamonds or bugs appear. As the player
acquires enough diamonds for the next stage of the Castle, the Castle
built so far appears in the centre window. This can be cleared by
pressing the joystick button. When the Castle is completed pressing
the button will re-run the game.
The score is shown at the top and
the number of diamonds needed is shown in the upper text window.
In the normal game the table remains on the screen for the child
to count the items but in the memory game, the table disappears
after a selected number of seconds.
OPTIONS
Various options can be selected
at the beginning of the game by the parent.
RANGE - The number of different
items from 4 to 7. The more items there are, the fewer of each will
appear.
BASE - The number of diamonds at
which the first part of the Castle appears.
MEMORY TEST - If chosen, the number
of seconds (in multiples of 5) that the table stays on screen may
be selected.
Jim Flewker is Head of Languages
at Sir John Nelthorpe School, Brigg, South Humberside. He also sent
in a number of programs designed to teach children French and German
which may be of interest to some parents.
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