1.

TITLE: Al Bunny

PUBLISHER: Sun Moon

AUTHOR: Ming Kao

COPYRIGHT: c. 1994-95 Sun Moon, USA, All rights reserved

2.

As this particular package is shareware, a fee to register is not required, however if you wish to register for Al Bunny's Maths and Science, a $10.00 fee is required. Therefore price versus educational worth is irrelevant, but if a fee was required to obtain this particular package then it would most definately be worth while.

This package was very easy to use, however if one is having trouble there is easy on-line instructions to follow which is a feature that makes this particular package user friendly. Installation was also no problem due to the well structured pattern which the user follows.

3.

The following information has been taken from the package information.

How to use "Al Bunny's Typing Class" or How to play "Al Bunny's Typing Class"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

It's pretty easy to use "Al Bunny's Typing Class". After the program is opened, the user can see arrays of holes in the middle of screen. At the lower-left corner of each hole, there is a small tag which have two characters on it. The arrangement of these holes is designed to match the arrangement of the keys on the keyboard. The tag indicates to which key the hole corresponds. Besides, these holes are located in different color strips. Each strip corresponds to a finger the player is suggested to use. For example, if AL BUNNY show up in the blue strip, the left index finger is suggested to use. The following table lists the color strips and the corresponding fingers.

Red strip right index finger

Blue strip left index finger

Light Blue strips middle fingers

Magenta strips ring fingers

Light Green strips little fingers

Light Blue strips thumb (only used to press SPACE bar)

Before you use MOUSE to click on the PLAY button. There are several choices you can make from the MENU BAR:

<<SPEED>> The SPEED option is about how fast the next key will appear. You can select from five predefined speeds, or define your own speed by choosing the menu item "user-defined". In the dialog box, you can type in your desired speed. The user also can choose "Adaptive speed". In

"Adaptive speed" mode, the next key will not appear until the user enter the correct key.

<<SOUND>> You can choose your desired speaker loudness.

<<KEY SETS>> The user can choose the menu item "User-defined Key Set" to input the keys he/she want to practice. The user also can choose any predefined key set in the submenu "Predefined Key Sets". There are 18 predefined key sets in this submenu. The key set in LEVEL 1 is " r f v u j m " which should be easy for the beginners to practice since only the index fingers are used. As the level increases, more keys are added to the key set and more fingers have to be used. Up to LEVEL 18, all the keys(except the function keys and the system keys on the keyboard) will be used and virtually every fingers should be used for most of people. In all the predefined key set, an extra key "SPACE" is added. You also can use < Open Text File > to input a ASCII text file to do an

exam. One restriction is that those special characters ( requires pressing Option key, Control key, or Apple key) can not be included in the text file you want to input.

<<PLAYER>> The user can choose from <Beginner>,<General Player>,or <Skilled Player>.

If <Beginner> is selected, the user must reach 90% accuracy to get a bonus level. There is

no deduction in score if wrong key is pressed. If <General Player> is selected, the required

bonus accuracy is 93% and score will be deducted as wrong key is pressed. For <Skilled Player>, the required bonus accuracy is 95%. In addiction to the score deduction for wrong key, every three wrong keys will cost one carrot. The user also can check the option <Show hand> . As <Show hand> is checked, there will be a "hand drawing" appear on the screen to guide the user which finger to use. Note that the drawing is only for indicating which finger to use, the relative positions between fingers are not suggested. <Show hand> is automatically checked

when the user select <Beginner>.

After the user click the PLAY button, the user has about 3 seconds to put their fingers on the keyboard. As the game begins, AL BUNNY will appear and hold a blackboard in front of him. The character the player has to type in is printed on the blackboard. Note that the hole where small AL BUNNY appears corresponds to the key on the keyboard the player has to press. The player can easily figure out which finger to use and which key to press. If the player presses the correct key(of course, the player also has to press SHIFT key for the uppercase characters ), the player can see a HAPPY AL BUNNY. If the player presses the wrong key, this wrong key will appear at the corresponding hole on the screen. By this way, the player can adjust his/her finger position to press the correct key WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE KEYBOARD. Since we are talking about game, we have to say something about the game rules. The rules are listed below:

1. Pressing the right key, the player gets 5 points. But in <adaptive speed> mode, the sooner the

player enters the correct key, the more the points he/she gets.

2. Pressing the wrong key, the player looses 5 points.

3. If the player fails to press the correct key before small AL BUNNY moves to another hole, one

carrot will be lost. When all six carrots are gone, game is over. In <adaptive> speed mode,

three wrong keys will cost a carrot.

4. If every key in the active key set is pressed right for four times, the player can advance to the

next level where a new key set is activated. If the starting key set is USER KEY SET, the active key set will not be changed, but the SPEED will be faster.

5. During the game, typing accuracy is also calculated in each level. If the accuracy is higher than the bonus accuracy as that level is finished, the player will be offered a bonus game. The

bonus game is designed to enhance the typing speed of the player. The player has to type in

the string appears in the CARROT PANEL correctly before 30 seconds run out. Once the

right string is keyed in, the timer will stop, and every second left is worth of 5 points.

As the player can see, there is a big AL BUNNY sitting on top of the carrot panel. The character that the player has to type in is shown on his blackboard, too. The player is suggested to look at the big AL BUNNY after he/she can get high scores and high accuracy in a given key set. If the player presses the wrong key, the ears of the big AL BUNNY will hang down.

<< Racing Game >>

Under the <Game> menu, you can find the <Play Racing Game> menu item. This is a new

feature in version 1.3. Al Bunny is racing with the turtle and other competitors but there

are lots of obstacles in his way. Your mission is to clear up the obstacle by entering the

characters under the obstacle correctly. There are three kind of obstacles which are

stone, trunk, and tires. Watch out the tires, you surly don't want Al hit them.

Apart from the abillity to change the degree of difficulty and speed the user is very limited in altering the content of the package.

4.

The package begins with asking the user to choose the degree of difficulty, once this has been done, two hands appear which show the position of the fingers in reference to the keyboard. The player then uses the mouse to press the start button, certain letters appear in a box in the centre above the key board. On seeing these letters the user then must hit the same letter on the keyboard before the prescribed amount of time expires. The amount of time allowed to press each key can be changed by altering the degree of difficulty.

5.

The student I watched using this particular package found the instructions easy to follow and therefore found the software easy to use. I found it interesting that the child found Al Bunny so much fun and easy to use. I thought that the student after a few games would tire of simply typing, but the challenge to keep improving his time kept him intrigued and therefore improving his typing all the time.