HOKIANGA EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE  

			        NEW ZEALAND  

		      reviewed by Spiro Stefanatos



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    Hokianga Software is a New Zealand Software company that produces
  educational software for the Amiga computer.the programs reviewed are
  aimed at pre-school and primary school children. The company says that
  it has sold its programs to Canada the United States and is negotiating
  rights in Australia.

	The three programs reviewed here are :
	(a) Nimble Numbers
	(b) Kim
	(c) Clockworks

    All three programs take advantage of the Amiga's graphics, mouse
  operation and voice synthesizer. The Voice used is a "New Zealand
  woman's voice" not the usual American robotic Amiga voice. All programs
  boot up in a full PAL screen, something American educational or kids'
  software never seems to do. I am not sure if they run in WB 2.04 but
  they do run well in 1.3WB.

    The programs all come on separate bootable disks with large warnings
  about software piracy. Disks are not copy protected. Each program
  starts by clicking on the box swearing that you are not a software
  pirate!

NIMBLE NUMBERS

    This program is available in English, Swedish or Maori language
  editions. It is a Maths program designed to quiz younger children in
  addition, subtraction multiplication and division. A child can use
  numbers from 1to 5, 1to 10, 1to 15 or 1 to 30 as part of their quiz. If
  an incorrect answer is given the player is shown the correct answer. If
  a correct answer is given the computer congratulates the player. Rewards
  are given for perfect scores and the computer plays an animated sequence
  with digitized sounds when all 50 are correct.

    My 10 year old son Terry enjoyed this disk whereas 4 year old son Lee
  found it a bit too hard.


KIM

    This is basically a memory improvement game which the Authors say is
  based on the "Kim's Game" by Rudyard Kipling.  Players are shown various
  objects eg numbers, shapes, animals, flags etc and then have to
  identify what was displayed. Points are given for correct answers and
  points are subtracted for incorrect ones. Questions can be either
  selected as pictures or as words. Parental supervision is needed for say
  four to five year olds to drive menu selection choices.

    My kids like the game however I don't know if you can win the game.
  Despite some 45 minutes of intensive playing we still couldn't get to
  the computer's perfect score. The winning score needed increased with
  each go no matter which difficulty level you played the game at.


CLOCKWORKS

    This is another bootable disk which helps children up to eight years
  old tell the time. There are four clock types:

*Digital clock
* Cuckoo clock -where the Cuckoo comes out
* Westminster _ this is model on Big Ben in London
* Modern Analog Clock- modelled on Grand Central station in New York

    This program is very handy for helping children to learn to tell time
  by traditional and modern timekeeping methods. Adjustments can be made
  of time in minutes and hours.

OVERALL

    The programs are well thought out. Price for each program is
  approximately $40NZ.

    I don't know what improvements if any have been made since 1989 when
  the review copies were written but the publishers seem dedicated to
  continual product improvement. These programs are a welcome addition to
  Amiga software. Particularly when there is still some American
  children's software on offer for the Amiga with not much useful value
  and a high price tag.


Contact Hokianga Software
PO BOX 67 Rawene
Hokianga, Northland
New Zealand
Phone 0011 64 940 57761


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