Answer to that 'if only' question

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Have you ever heard a teacher saying about your child: "If only he would learn to concentrate"? If you have, then Hide and Seek is the program for you.

Like all tapes from Applied Systems Knowledge loading is simple, reliable and quite fool proof. The child has a choice of three related but different activities, the first being Find It.

In this game, six pictures appear one at a time at the bottom of a screen. They are then automatically transferred into one of the six boxes forming a block in the main part of the screen.

When all the boxes have been filled and the child has therefore seen some objects for a considerable number of seconds, delightful candystripe blinds roll down over each box, with appropriate sound effects.

When all are covered, and the child has pressed the space bar, a clone of one of the six objects is drawn below the block and the child has to decide which box contains its twin.

This is simply done by pressing the space bar to move the black marker around the boxes. Pressing Return removes the blind and the child finds whether or not he had chosen correctly.

If the pictures do match, that blind remains open, and the process is repeated. An incorrect choice is once again covered up and the child has one further option to choose correctly before the correct box is revealed.

Our younger children spent a long time on this program, but when they felt more secure they moved on to Seek It.

This is similar, but there are further options in the program which determine how long the child sees each picture in its box, and whether the shutters closed all together or individually.

Eventually some hardy souls will try their hands at the final choice, What's Missing? This allows the student to brush up either reading or spelling.

Both games are similar, but in one the child has to decide which word appearing on screen tallies with the object mysteriously removed from the set of six.

The other game requires the child to select the correct name and then spell it correctly.

Two added bonuses — the cassette is compatible with the BBC and the Electron, and for disc owners, there is at last a disc copy available.

Phil Tayler