Except for the fact that it doesn't print, Humpty Dumpty is a full working version of the first in Topologika's brand new Talking Rhymes series. It is supplied by Archimedes World'as is', and Topologika can accept no responsibility for it in any way.
Printing has been disabled in this version, which explains why some screens will appear to have a 'hole' in them where the print icon would normally appear. The full version, of course, allows screen prints at any time.
The following Rhymes are available:
Humpty Dumpty
Little Miss Muffet
Georgie Porgie
Litte Jack Horner
They cost £12 each plus VAT = £14.10, or £40 plus VAT for all four = £47.00
Postage (just one or all four) - £2.50 inc VAT.
Four more rhymes will be published later in the year.
Orders or requests for our full colour catalogue to:
The Talking Rhymes series was designed by Brian and Madeleine Kerslake.
Coding by Ben Warner and Jason O'Broin.
Graphics by Glenn Burnett, Ion Larruzea and Irune Izagirre.
Sound sampling by Armadeus (Clares Micros).
Featuring the 'slightly tweaked voice' of the remarkably patient and ever enthusiastic Vicky Cheeseman.
Problems?
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In case of difficulties contact Topologika on 0733 244682.
Hardware
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!Humpty will run on any machine fitted with RISC OS 2 or 3.
It needs at least 2 mb of memory.
It runs in mode 15, restoring your default mode on exit.
Fonts
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!Humpty uses the Jotter font (supplied).
Loading
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Double click on !Humpty to start it. If you have problems, close other applications down to give sufficient memory to run !Humpty.
Startup
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On start up the program splits a picture into four rows.
Speech is initially disabled.
You have a move counter, and various icons:
The Quit icon (top left) - allows you to quit the application via a confirmation sequence.
The Eye icon - lets you see what the picture should look like. It will also blink and chalk up a move if you leave too long before your next move!
An invisible (Printer) icon. (See above.)
A Grid icon - lets you switch the red grid on and off.
A Picture icon - click on this to switch text on (the words of the rhyme will be superimposed on the picture).
A Text icon - if you switch the Picture icon off, or click on this Text icon, the words of the rhyme appear on the screen.
Combinations of Text and Picture icons enable you to have words, picture or both on the screen at any time.
Playing the game
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Click Select on a piece of the puzzle and either (i) drag it to its destination or (ii) into the spare black area (scratchpad).
If you click Select on a piece with Text on, the piece will 'speak' until you release the Select button.
If it isn't loud enough for you, plug a stereo headset into the mini jack socket at the back of the computer, or a pair of Walkman type active speakers or - best of all - your hi fi!
If you click Select on the Eye with Text on, you can hear the whole rhyme. This does, however count as a move.
As soon as each piece is in its correct place, the picture will expand to fill the whole screen. Whether or not you had Text on, the rhyme will be spoken in full, followed by a wondeful animation (by Glen Burnett) which you can control using the tape recorder buttons at the top of the screen.
When you've enjoyed the animation, click on the Grid icon to get back to the puzzle, or on the X icon to quit.
Changing the Options
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Press Escape or click on the Quit icon and answer N to the 'Do you want to quit? prompt. This brings you to the 'Teachers Page' at which you can change various settings, eg volume, whether you want the children to work with picture, text or picture and text clues, and how you want the rhyme splitting up. To change the latter, just click Seclect on the Rows icon, and you can have columns or squares. In the latter mode, words are, as far as possible) spoken individually.
