Mix and Match with Maggie

Sinclair User

Overall 79%

It's back to school time again and although most of you may not like the idea lets face it, things could be worse... You could be facing a firing squad or being horribly tortured with some matches and a pair of pliers, or, even more terrifying, forced to watch a Bob Monkhouse TV show with special guest stars Bruce Forsyth and Jeremy Beadle. See, going back to school isn't THAT bad. Although Mr. Brown in 4C with the long nose, dandruff and bottle bottom spectacles might be a boring old fart there are in fact far more enjoyable ways of learning. One of which is right here on your Speccy - educational software. It's puzzling, informative and fun, and best of all, it gives you an excuse to play on your Speccy during time normally allotted for homework without incurring the wrath of your elders. (It also gives you a chance to slip in the odd arcade game for mental stimulation, though don't tell your mum I said this.) There are a wide variety of educational games available so here, to help you choose, is a selection of those currently readily available and a quick guide to their usefulness. MIX AND MATCH Lander Software Phone: (041) 357 1659 Tape: £12.99 Disk: £15.99 Designed for children at pre reading age. Lander's Mix and Match introduces young'uns to the concept of matching similar objects, picking the odd one out of a set and memory recall tests. It does so with the help of a character named Maggie. Maggie looks a bit like the Loch Ness monster - very strange. This type a of learning helps children develop recognition techniques essential to reading. Mix and Match is definitely only for the younger kids but it certainly reaches it's goal in a fun way plus it gets those young hands used to computers at a formative age.

Sinclair User

Graphics 77%

Sound 75%

Playability 86%

Lastability 72%

Overall 77%

Ian Watson 77%

Steve Keen

Label: Scetlander Memory: 48K/128K Price: £10.99 Reviewer: Ian Watson Educational software tries to put the fun into learning for kids. Our kid, Ian Watson, improves his spelling, counting and shape and colour recognition and finds it's not all Child's Play. The first in the closely linked series of three educational programs designed for the basic tutoring of the under fives and upwards. Hooray For Henrietta is a maths program that couples basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems with a storyline that involves a clueless fiancee, various items of clothing and a vat of custard. The four screens also feature a different activity (climbing, rowing, hurdling and demolition) and with 8 levels and separate questions for 5-8 yr olds and 9- 12 yr olds you can't really go wrong. A lot of thought seems to have gone into the staggering of the levels and the fabulous graphics and enjoyable sound all make for a fine program. Hooray for Henrtetta! Next up is Henrietta's Book Of Spells, in which Henrietta has to brave a wicked witch, find some magic letters, turn her hapless husband back into a human xxandxx tackle some word games. Blimey! There are five games in all (complete the word, unscramble the word, remember the word flashed on the screen, hangman and crack the code) and two skill levels (7-10 yr olds and 11-14). Other features include a variable word length, a range of libraries, and a high score table. My only grumble about this and HFH is that the keyboard seems to be fairly sluggish, something that's sure to upset an unconfident chid, and both programs' tendency to crash if left for even a short time - most annoying! Otherwise a fine effort. Lastly there's Mix And Match, a program for the under fives that helps to develop recognition, discrimination and memory skills with games such as Two Of A Kind, Odd Man Out and Forget Me Not, where using the space bar the child has to pick the relevant symbol. There are five different types of symbols to choose from (pictures, shapes, numbers, small case letter and large case letters) and despite the lack of any discernable storyline the program should prove to be more than enticing. The only down point is that the Spectrum version does not include progress recorder, switch facility, clock and calendar and results monitoring service. But it does come with a rather fine glossy badge, as do all the games. And if that doesn't entice you to buy the games nothing will. Kids eh? Who'd have em!?!

Castle Spellalot - Lowers the drawbridge of fun educational learning for young children and the BIG kid Spectrum owners.

Mix and Match - A Perfect way to test knowledge with not one mutant Ninja turtle in sight.

Spellalot - Enter the rooms of knowledge deep within the castle.

Two of a kind - unmatched, a perfect picture of fun learning and education for kids. Better than school!