The Giddy Game Show isa suite ofearly learning programs
based around the characters used in Yorkshire
Television's popular series. The principal aim is to get
children to recognise the shapes of letters and the
sounds they represent.
Program 1 is an alphabet book with 26 pages, one for
each letter. An object is displayed and its name is
written in large and well-formed text with the initial letter
picked out in a different colour.
It looks very impressive but does nothing that a book
can't. You turn the pages one at a time by pressing the
spacebar and there is no option to go backwards.
Game 2 is a jigsaw puzzle in which the child must
assemble letters of the alphabet. Again the visual
quality is good and children are led sensibly through a
sequence of operations.
The reward for success is a screen full of Giddies. It's
a pity the programmers didn't take off the keyboard
repeat, which makes it hard for heavy-handed
youngsters tocontrol themoving cursor.
Game 3 requires children to fly Giddy on his magic
wand towards food that Gorilla wants. The name of the
food is clearly shown and various pictures of it appear
with appropriate initial letters.
If the child gives the right answer Gorilla eats the word
while the picture vanishes down Giddy's wand. Selecting
a wrong food causes Gorilla to growl and frown.
This program is great fun but because the cursor keys
are used there is a real danger of pressing Break in
error.
The final program is a maze game in which chidren
can help to rescue the King who is imprisoned in a
castle. They do this by guiding Princess Galaxzena
around the maze past five objects.
The child has to hit the spacebar when the required
option is highlighted. Inevitably, youngsters are going to get
the wrong options asthe highlight moves on.
The package is very attractive, and the minor niggles
can easily be remedied by any Basic programmer. One
other complaint is that the instructions are barely adequate,
but overall I recommend the program.