Picture Book

Sinclair User

Graphics 70%

Sound 70%

Playability 76%

Lastability 75%

Overall 72%

Alan Dykes

Steve Keen 72%

Label: Triple R Education Memory: 48K/128K Price: £12.95 Tape Reviewer: Steve Keen One of the best things about the Spectrum is that it's hereditary. Parents pass them on to their kids just like their big noses, embarrassing birth-marks and smelly feet! So what better introduction to the world of computing than a simple tutorial concerning the keyboard? After all the Spectrum doesn't consist solely of the Return button, Load " and Enter. There are four programs on the tape; Alphabet Book, Snap, Spell it and Count 'Em. The first is basically an electronic ABC book, utilizing bright, colourful pictures and animations. Many of which can be played again and again without reloading by pressing the diagram's corresponding letter. The second is a version of a classic card game, while the third uses all the pictures in the collection and asks the child to enter the corresponding number to the pictures displayed. The final game is a basic letter understanding test which involves children reproducing the letters of a word underneath the ones displayed on the screen. Later they must spell the words completely unaided. This collection is a worthy attempt at language, letter and number association games. However, it's only for the very young and it's doubtful that babies of that age will pay much attention to a program like this. They'd be just as interested in seeing how many times they could press the reset button before the machine broke!

Give the clown some money - and he'll go away.

Your Sinclair

Life Expectancy 8/10

Graphics 7/10

Addictiveness 7/10

Instant Appeal 7/10

Overall 7/10

Dave Golder 7/10

SPEC SCHOOL Remember how you conned you mum and dad into getting you a Speccy? "I won't just play games on it, honest, mum! Computers are an essential part of the modern world, and you wouldn't want me growing up deprived and technologically backwards, would you?" And ever since it's been one long round of blasting, leaping, joystick-waggling and generally mind-rotting your-mother-wouldn't-like-it fun! So, just to keep 'em from whinging about you wasting your life, why not check out a couple of educational programs (said through gritted teeth). No, honest, they're not as bad as they sound. The bunch reviewed here are all for under-eights, so for most of you they'll only be any good if you've got a kid brother or sister. Still, they'll keep your mum happy and keep little Johnny from using your Kylie records as frisbees. That's if you trust him with your Speccy, of course! PICTURE BOOK Triple R Education £12.95 cass Reviewer: Dave Golder A is for apple and B is for books are blimmin' borin'. Turning over pages is such a drag, and the pictures are so, well, static. Could Picture Book, a four-program package that aims to file traditional paper picture books next to Bros, as a thing of the past, be the answer? The main program is Alphabet Book, and is basically an animated picture book. There're 26 pics, which is handy as each of them is of an object starting with a different letter. You type in a letter on the keyboard and a piccie of an object that starts with that letter pops up on screen, along with its name. The advantage it has over traditional picture books is that the piccies are animated - the sails on the windmill go around, the apple has two great chunks taken out of it, that sort of thing. According to the packaging the graphics were designed by a bloke with a degree. What did he get his degree in, crapness? it certainly wasn't in designing Speccy graphics. Look up blocky in a dictionary and the definition will probably say, "Check out Picture Book on the Spectrum." Colourful, yes. Distinguishable, no. The eggs looks like disembodied eyeballs. The other three games all make use of the same 26 pictures, worse luck. Snap is based on the traditional card game. Up to three players can take part. All it involves is the computer displaying two pictures and if they're the same you have to press your allotted key on the keyboard before anyone else. A bit dull if you play on your own, with two or three people it can get quite frantic, and quite good fun. There are three levels. In level one you just have to match pictures. This is handy as you don't have to know what the object is supposed to be - if two orange blobs come up on-screen then you know they're supposed to be a match. In levels two and three you have to match a word with the object. In Count 'Em you have to, um, count em... A number of objects appear on screen and you have to tot 'em up and type in the number on your keyboard. Simple enough, but it makes good use of colour and there's a brill farty sound when you get the answer wrong. In Spell it you have to, um, spell the name of the object pops up on screen (lots of thought went into the titles here). A nifty screen layout, bold colours and big bright text spruce things up no end. Picture also comes with what the packaging proudly boasts to be 'revolutionary keyboard overlays'. Are they telepathic? Do they tell you when Neighbours is on the telly? Nope, they are just little polythene things that have the letters printed in lower case and in alphabetical order. Wow. Picture Book is dead easy to use - a four year old could hack it which is lucky since that's who it's aimed.

OK, the names of the games aren't exactly exciting, but Picture Book's not bad.

TEN THINGS THEY DON'T TEACH YOU AT SCHOOL How to be a millionaire pop star. Advanced cheese and onion crisp appreciation. What to tell your mum when she catches behind the bikeshed with Susie Barnes. How to eat three shredded wheat. How to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. Where to buy peanut butter, candyfloss and banana milkshake-flavoured toast toppers. Who won the FA cup in 1962. How to stop all the little scaley bits from the kettle getting into your tea when you don't have a tea-strainer. How Extreme manage to make such crap records. Why Spiderman's face goes absolutely smooth when he puts his mask on.