Typing Tutor

It's remarkably hard to find any concrete information about this exceptionally rare game. Game publisher Edutaning America first proposed a typing cartridge in 1979, but interest was muted at best. The idea lay fallow until textbook publisher Havaport, Rice, Scholastica approached Edutaining America with a grand idea: A series of Atari games aimed at classroom use.

For the most part, the Edutaning Our Children series was a hit -- many of today's Internet gurus cut their programming teeth on such Edutaining Americas titles as Omaha Smith Vs. the Object-Oriented Functions and Oh Say, Can You C? But Typing Tutor never connected with its audience the way the other games did.

Perhaps it was because of the interface. Instead of a keyboard, Typing Tutor users hunted and pecked on a onscreen keyboard. To simulate an actual typing situation, the game used two joysticks, one for each hand. It enforced proper typing style by locking users into using the correct fingering. For example, typing a j with the left joystick was minus three points. Typing a P with the left was minus 10.

Typing Tutor never went into wide production. A number of schools in Silicon Valley used it for a couple of years, but it never caught on and was quickly dropped. It's possible to still find high-priced copies of the game in Northern California swap meets, but Edutaning America disavows any knowledge of it.

Back to
Stick It In The Slot