Test Your Typing

Learning your way around the micro's keyboard can be a tiresome business. So anything which helps the learning process and gives a bit of fun is to be commended. This simple program has you bashing at the keys, trying to destroy letters and words which 'attack' you from the top of the screen. Hit the right key and the invading letter will disappear.

It's a ludicrously simple idea, but very well thought out. There are ten levels of play: at the easiest, you have only to deal with capital letters on one line of the keyboard; at the toughest, you're attacked by capitals, lower case and figures, as well as a motley collection of four- and five-letter words. At each level you can choose between four speeds of play, from slow to frantic. Each session lasts three minutes - a great test of concentration - and at the end you can enter your score and your name in a hi-score table.

Graphically, it's a pretty primitive mode 7 affair, and the sound doesn't amount to much (just a squelch when you destroy a letter), but that doesn't matter. This isn't meant to compete with arcade action games. At its simplest, it can be played by very young children who've only just learnt the alphabet. At its hardest, it's a tough test for even an experienced touch-typist. A nice idea, well executed and especially valuable, I would have thought, in the classroom.

Jeffery Pike