Crunch is a good example of a well thought out program. It apparently took over nine months to develop and write and this is reflected strongly in the presentation of the program.

Crunch is an educational program designed to teach and improve numeracy skills in children. The program can be used one child at a time or in pairs where the participants compete against each other.

On running the program you are presented with a menu offering a choice of subjects. These are Addition, Subtraction, Division, Multiplication, Mixed Numbers and Directed Numbers. Depending on which one of these options you take you will be presented with another screen which allows you to set the level of the problems, or within what range of numbers the problems should be based around. The final frame asks for an indication of your ability, which can range from weak to super-champ.

Once the level has been selected the game will commence. The question is printed up on the screen and above it is displayed a magenta coloured bar. This bar shows the time you have left to complete the questions. There are 20 questions in all. If you get an answer wrong or take too long in answering it then the question will be held as a correction. If you still have time remaining when you have completed the 20 questions, you will be allowed to go back to any questions you have got wrong and re-answer them. When the time has run out you enter the corrections phase. In this the computer will keep cycling through the questions you failed to answer correctly until you get all of them right.

When this has been completed, your score is calculated. If you manage to score 100% then you are immediately placed up a level and the process starts again.

The program is fully error trapped. Only the keys which are necessary to the operation of the program remain active and the Return key isn't implemented to make the program easier to use for non-computer-orientated people.

This program offers enough variation and challenge to make it a very useful educational tool.