This game is aimed at children of 7 years and above and aims to teach eight different spellings of the sound 'er'. When a word appears at the bottom of the screen the player must shoot the invader which correctly fills the middle of the word.
The player has only 13 bullets to shoot all the correct invaders, and can select from eight difficulty levels, beginning with 'er' and 'ir' at level 1, and progressing to 'ear', 'ir', 'ur', 'or', 'ar', 'our', and 'ure' at level eight. At the easiest level, words such as 'thirteen' 'mirth', 'serve' and 'term' must be completed correctly.
The graphics and sound effects in this game are very appealing to children, and the ratings of performance range from 'Not bad' to 'Super-Hero' . This is an enjoyable program apart from an annoying bug which sometimes occurs when the player shoots from the edge of the screen, causing the game to crash. This bug appeared in my review copy, but I have been assured that it has been spotted and removed.
The following 'testimonial' was written by one of Jo's dyslexic pupils: 'This game is not an average 'shoot them up'. It combines a space invader game with an education game. Most things which teach spelling are very boring but this is very addictive and is a joy to play.'
Control keys: 1, 2 or 3 to move left; 8, 9 or 0 to move right; V, B or SPACE to fire
COMMENTS
All of the IEC Software programs are very attractive and easy to use. Jo Westwood has used her experience as an educational psychologist to devise games which children will enjoy playing and which will keep them interested and motivated long enough to improve their skills. Children with learning difficulties often become bored and frustrated by their lack of success, but these games give them a real chance to do well. Matthew Wilkes, too, has used his talents to great effect, and I look forward to seeing more of his work in the future.
REVIEW BY: Rosetta McLeodBlurb: MATTHEW'S STORY
To my mind, one of the most interesting educational applications of the micro lies in its potential for helping those with specific learning problems. Few publishers, however, have directed themselves to this area.
Now IEC Software has come up with some programs useful both with children experiencing certain problems, and with very young children. IEC was set up by educational psychologist, Jo Westwood, who turned to computers to find ways of helping children affected by dyslexia, often known as word-blindness, Dyslexic children have great difficulty in learning to read, tending to confuse letters such as b and d. Jo decided her pupils needed practice in observing the differences between letters without being distracted by their similarity. A game involving discrimination between two letters linked to pictures and associated words beginning with the sound was needed, The game element had to be particularly strong to sustain the children's interest, so that they would practise.
Jo, however, was not a programming expert, so the task of writing the game fell to teenager Matthew Wilkes. Matthew came to Jo's notice when, having been fooling around in class, his teacher asked him to write 50 lines - 'I must learn to use my good brain wisely'! The lines were duly done, but were not handwritten on school paper. They had been printed from a computer using an italic script! Jo seized the opportunity, and channeled Matthew's 'good brain' towards writing a program to her design, and so IEC Software was conceived.
Unfortunately, the company is finding it difficult getting its games accepted by the retailers, who seem to turn down small software firms on principle, regardless of the quality of their product. I hope IEC succeed in their aim of getting on the shelves of the High Street stores, but if you have problems tracking down the games, they can be obtained direct from IEC at 77 Orton Lane, Womboume, Wolverhampton. WV5 9AP. The retail price of each of the cassettes for the 48K Spectrum is £8.95
Rosetta McLeod
Transcript by Chris Bourne
