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  Reviews Of CP
Although CP is only in an early stage there have already be many requests from all of the worlds main Amiga magazines for permission to review the software.

We turned down these requests as CP Version 0.25 will really be so much better than CP Version 0.206 and we felt that a review of CP at this stage wouldn't do it much justice.

We were unaware however that the Australian Amiga Gazette had already reviewed the software, so we have included this review below...


From the January 1998 issue of Australian Amiga Gazette (AAG):

KID'S CORNER -
CP REVIEW PAINT PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN

by Jenny Burak
(wife of Michael Burak, publisher and editor of AAG)

"CP" is a shareware program for children which enables them to paint/draw on a scrolling screen. The Guidefile states that "Currently it consists only of an early version of the paint package but will go on to include many games, utilities and educational tools, all fluidly integrated into the one great package". The crippled version is easily obtainable from the website of Mystcorp, being located at www.mystcorp.u-net.com.

After following the easy downloading instructions from the website, my children and I were treated to a delightfully simple paint program which encourages self expression and fun. Large, brightly coloured "buttons" are featured in order for the child to choose colours, drawing tools, drawing shapes and stamps. "CP" was then handed over to my two child consultants, who were more than happy to play for an hour each (which is a long time for a child).

The Guidefile states that "... yet is so simple to use that even a four year old can use it" - this is certainly true and I would of course drop this age to three. Child consultant number one is, in fact, 2.5 years old and has limited experience using a "puter", as he calls it. Firstly, he was dead keen when the graphics appeared and was delighted at the verbal greeting which CP offered. After waiting patiently for 40 seconds for the arrow to be offered (giving time for adults to read the warning notes), the appropriate buttons were clicked on various screens to start him off.

Like most toddlers and new computer users, he had difficulty in the manipulation of his mouse. This he conquered after about ten minutes. After realising he needed to lift his finger off the mouse button in order to access the palette, child consultant number one settled down a bit and started to draw. This is one little aspect that would be useful to correct if the authors wish to target very small children; i.e. that it doesn't matter if the child is holding down the left mouse button when trying to move from the "drawing screen" to the palette.

All-in-all, consultant number one found the button sizes no problem to manage and, in general, he felt in control of the program, even though he missed several fun features such as the stamp. Also greatly enjoyed was the fact each colour, when clicked, gave an audio colour recognition; i.e. "dark red" was heard when that particular coloured button was clicked. The drawing screen occupies the top half of the screen and scrolls left or right - a feature much used and enjoyed. Other buttons enabled erasing, removing the last doodle drawn, viewing the whole picture at once and a few other palette options to enable brushing, spraying and multi-coloured effects to name a few.

After consultant number one became thus occupied in the sand pit an hour later, consultant number two (being 6.5 years old) lent her opinion to the program. This consultant has Deluxe Paint experience and currently enjoys creating animations. Fearing she would become bored quickly, I was pleasantly surprised to find that she, too, had become "CP hooked".

Being older and more experienced, consultant number two took to CP easily and readily availed herself of features which the previous consultant had been too busy to notice. Stamp, cut and paste, multi-coloured doodling was embarked upon at once and she found the scrolling screen button size and audio feature "good". Consultant number two also appreciated the colourful screen transitions and background and overall rated the CP program as "good".

Unfortunately, consultant number one was only able to rate the program by screaming at consultant number two, "Get off the 'puter - that's my CP!". I think most parents would take that as thumbs up from the kids.

Registration by email of this program is required by Mystcorp in order for you to avoid the time restriction, access many more tools, and to receive updates. The cost for the Hardrive Version is 8 pounds (English Sterling in P&P) for Australians (Rest of World) plus an extra 2.50 pounds for additional versions (if delivered by disk - EMail is free!).

The commercial version lists many impressive features, which include: full animation, fully customisable with each user having their own preference file, many stereo tracks, animated help system, slideshow/book generator, games and utilities to name a few. The commercial version will be released as soon as it is finished.

Overall Rating:
Installation50%
User Interface90%
Documentation60%
Speed of Operation90%
Value for Money90%
Overall Performance 80%

For more info about the AAG, check out their website...

http://www.acay.com.au/~aag/ This is just a lot of random text used to prevent incompatiblites with Netscape and IBrowse so that the proper table widths are used. If you can read this text, something's gone wrong!!

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