Giant Killer

If you fancy an adventure with a different approach altogether, you might consider Topologika's Giant Killer. It makes a good adventure game primer, but its real purpose is to give you a feast of mathematics in an entirely digestible form.

The adventurer wears the mantle of Jack (or Jackie) in the age-old story of Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack is given a groat by his Mum and sent to the market to buy a pig. All the pigs have been sold, so Jack has the option of going home without one or trying to make his groat turn into something more worthwhile.

With a bit of luck and some elementary maths, the groat may be turned into a penny, then a guinea and finally a magic bean. After this you must explore everywhere and find all the other treasures. Each is associated with some mathematical puzzle.

The game was originally aimed at 10 to 14- year-olds, but a growing number of adults have found the challenge just as fascinating. The program has proved an admirable vehicle in schools for teaching problem solving.

Topics covered in the early stages include simple calculations, an understanding of spatial relationships (mazes) and co-ordinates. Later on more complex problems are encountered.

The 24 page booklet with the game introduces the idea of adventuring and also has some notes for teachers and parents. There are notes covering what is intended to be learnt from the puzzles and how to solve them - but not necessarily the answers! Regardless of your age and adventuring skill, you will certainly learn something from Giant Killer, if only that your observation and common sense were not quite so well honed as you thought.

I suspect that some of the younger members of the family may well score better marks than those ancients that left school all of five (or more) years ago.

Thoroughly recommended (even if it does not understand the word EXAMINE).

Giant Killer