Wordgames

For children age 6 years upwards

Can you make learning to spell easier and more fun for your child? Yes, if you can present educational games which are exciting and interesting to use.

Wordgames is a cassette containing two computer programs, Wordgames and Agranams, which apart from being fun to play also aid learning. Both programs are very flexible, containing more than 800 words in memory. You can also tailor the program to suit your child by entering your own list of up to 20 words.

Each program stretches and motivates the young learner. Just follow the instructions in the booklet provided and let Wordgames make spelling entertaining and fun.

Griffin & George have over 150 years of experience in supplying equipment to education. Their expertise includes a broad knowledge of selling micro-computers and software to schools. Griffin Software is designd with the help of teachers to bring you the best in educational programs for use in school and at home.

Wordguess

Age Range: 6 years upwards.
Educational Objective: This program helps to teach spelling by means by a word guessing game.
Loading: CHAIN"" (RETURN)

The program runs automatically when loaded.

After loading, a menu will be displayed. To select one of the otions, just press the number that is shown in blue on the left hand side of the screen.

Press 1 for a mystery list.
Press 2 to enter words one at a time.
Press 3 to enter your own word list.

The options are described more fully below.

Option 1: With this option, the computer will select a word from a list of over 800 that it holds in memory. The guessing game will then begin with this word and continue with words chosen at random until it is stopped.

Option 2: This option enables the user to enter a word and play the guessing game immediately using the word that was just entered. After selecting this option you will be asked to type in your word and then press RETURN. The word can have between one and thirteen letters. When you have finished entering your word, press RETURN to tell the computer to continue.

Option 3: This option is similar to option two except that you do not enter single words, but whole lists of words. Again, each word is entered one by one, you must remember to press RETURN at the end of each word. When you have finished typing in your list, just press RETURN on its own, the message "LIST COMPLETE" will then appear followed by a short pause.

The guessing game begins with the first word in the list (the first word you entered) and will continue until the last word has been reached, at which point you will be returned to the options list. Note that the computer can only hold twenty words in a list at a time so that when you have typed in your twentieth word the guessing game will automatically start.

Playing The Game

Independent of the option, you choose (either 1, 2 or 3) playing the game is the same. Firstly, you will be told how many letters there are in the word you are trying to guess, you should remember this, as it is not shown again.

The computer will then display the message "...GUESS...", which means that it is waiting for you to try and guess the word. The word that you are trying to guess can be a mystery word (see option 1), the word you just typed in (see option 2) or a word from the list you just entered (see option 3).

To attempt to guess the word, just type in the letters that you know or think may be in the word. When you have entered the correct number of letters, the computer will automatically continue, you do not have to type RETURN.

When the word has been entered, it will be checked. To begin, a Red "Space Invader" will take out all the unwanted letters and throw them in the waste bin; a Green "Space Invader" will re-arrange all the letters that are in the word but are in the wrong place. Then the re-arranged word will be displayed with dots showing the places where letters are missing.

You will then be asked to re-enter the whole word.

User Notes: Pressing the ESCAPE key at any time will return you to the menu, but pressing BREAK will ruin the program and you will have to re-load it (a message will be displayed to remind you).

Agranams

Age Range: 6 years upwards
Educational Objective: This program helps to teach spelling with the aid of anagrams.
Loading: CHAIN"" (RETURN)

After loading, a title page ot text will be displayed. Pressing SPACE will remove this text and display the menu.

To select one of the options, just press the number that is shown in blue on the left hand side of the screen:

Press 1 for a mystery list
Press 2 to enter words one at a time
Press 3 to enter your own word list
Press 4 for words up to four letters

The options are described more fully below:

Option 1: This option selects words from a mystery list of over 800 words that the computer has in memory. The word will be picked at random and the length of the word will be unpredictable.

Option 2: This option enables the user to enter a word and play the game immediately using the word that was just entered. After selecting this option, you will be asked to type in your word and then press RETURN. Your word can have between two and ten letters, a word with one letter will not be accepted. When you have finished entering your word, press RETURN to tell the computer to continue.

Option 3: This option is similar to option 2 except that whole lists of words are entered, not single words. Again, each word is entered one by one, you must remember to press RETURN at the end of each word. When you have finished typing in your list just press RETURN on its own, the message "LIST COMPLETE" will appear followed by a short pause.

The guessing game will begin with the first word in the list (the first word you entered), and will continue until the last word is reached, at which point you will be returned to the menu. Note that the computer can hold only twenty words in a list at a time, so that when you have typed in your twentieth word, the game will automatically start.

Option 4: This option is exactly the same as option 1 except that no words with more than four letters are used. This option has been included for younger children or children with a reading difficulty.

Playing The Game

Independent of the option you select playing the game is always the same. The word you are trying to guess will be displayed as an anagram at the bottom of the screen. A box for each letter will appear at the top o the screen; this is where the letters are to be put, in the correct order.

A "Space Invader" will move over the anagram from right to left; when it is over the letter you want to place simply press the SPACE BAR (you may have to hold it down slightly); the letter will then appear under one of the boxes and start moving towards the right, all you have to do is press the SPACE BAR when the letter is under the box you want to put it in. If it is in the correct place, it will be left there and the "Space Invader" will re-appear at the bottom of the screen and you should repeat the above procedure again. If it is in the wrong place then it will be removed, changed in colour and replaced in the anagram where it came from.

When you get the correct answer you will be told, and depending upon the option you had chosen of the number of words left in your word list, you will be either returned to the main menu or given another anagram to solve.

User Notes: Pressing ESCAPE at any time will return you to the introductory page of text and then, after pressing SPACE BAR, back to the menu.

Pressing BREAK, however, will ruin the program and it will need to be re-loaded.

Loading

CHAIN"" (RETURN)