The screen display shows a princess in a castle. One at a time, each word is flashed onto the screen and the child must type it back correctly.

This done, one of ten soldiers starts to build a tower to rescue the princess. Get it wrong twice and the soldier is either zapped, or captured by a vampire.

Overall success brings the graphic rescue of the princess, fail and the wizard appears. In any event, the ZX Printer prints a certificate with your score.

The program has ten different sets of words, classified in "families". You can put your own words into the relevant data statements.

Does seeing a word and typing it back constitute "spelling"? Not in my opinion. Spelling entails understanding word meaning in context and translating it into a written symbol, or hearing a sound, understanding meaning in context, recalling the written symbol, and transcribing it.

The meaning in context is vital if you are to differentiate between "stake" and "steak" for example. No meaning can attach to the words in this program. The program tests visual discrimination and short term memory only.

D.M.