Reader Rabbit Maths Ages 6-9

Reader Rabbit Maths Ages 6-8 is an edutainment game that teaches basic maths to children.

The game is story driven; the story here is that Reader Rabbit and his friend Sam the lion enter a race in Sam's new yacht. They get lost before being wrecked when taking a shortcut. They must search for parts so that they can build a new boat and escape and re-enter the race, but the island they have landed on is a pirate island and the pirates have hidden all the boat parts. Luckily, Reader Rabbit's friend Penelope the parrot lives on the island too, and it is she who guides Sam and explains each puzzle to the pupil. In order to get the parts they need, the friends must solve puzzles to either win pieces from the pirates, or else please the island's monkeys who will give up a piece to show their appreciation.

Each puzzle is in the form of a mini game, and the game has a practice mode where the player can familiarise themselves with the puzzles with no pressure at all. In story mode, these games are played more than once and they become harder as the player progresses through the game. The mini games in this title are:* Don't Wake The Pirates: There's a basic sum at the bottom of the screen. From the top of the screen, monkeys drop numbered coconuts, and the player, controlling Sam, must only catch the coconut that is the answer to the sum. Catching other coconuts reduces their score and missing the right coconut makes a noise that wakes the pirates so the game has to be started again.

• Fishing For Numbers: There are boat parts in the river, but there's a snag; a big crocodile lives there. The good news is that he's hungry, but he's a fussy eater, so Sam has to catch numbered fish that add up to the number he specifies.
• Pirate Splash: Sam is on the seashore watching the pirates. They are throwing barrels from their ship into the sea so that the tide will bring them ashore. All the barrels are numbered and some of them contain pirates trying to sneak up on Sam. The player has to shoot the barrels containing the pirates and to help he is given clues like 'between 12 and 16", "greater than 18" and so on.
• Sail Maker: Sam needs sails for his yacht. In some cases he draws shapes on a grid and asks the player to complete the shape; in others he shows the player a shape and asks the player to replicate it completely.
• Going Bananas: Sam needs banana skins to set a trap for the pirates, but he needs a specific number. He needs to get monkeys to eat the right number of bananas so that he has just enough.
• Monkey Pizza Party: Monkeys love pizza so the player has to create a pizza with the right number of pieces and the right topping. This is easy when they want a six piece pizza but when they want, say, a five piece pizza, the player must create a six piece pizza and discard one piece.
• Pirate Lookout: There's a boat piece at the pirate lookout, but it's being guarded. To get the piece, Sam must change the time on the clock so that the pirate thinks their shift is over.
• Tourist Trap: Sam gets caught in a trap and the only way to free him is to pay the fine. To do this, the pupil must select the right coins. This puzzle uses UK decimal coinage, 20p, 10p, 5p, 1p etc.
• Number Line Treasure: Following a series of clues, Sam is directed to dig at various points along a numbered line looking for treasure.

After completing each puzzle, the pupil is rewarded with a boat piece, a score and possibly an increase in rank.

Boat parts are stored in an inventory, where each part has its own location. They only become visible when Sam visits Reader Rabbit (he really has a very small part in this game considering he's the star) and when clicked on, the pupil is told what part of the boat it is and why it's important.

In addition to the game, there's a detailed manual in .pdf format that's accessed from the initial menu/title screen which explains all the puzzles and what they are trying to achieve. There's also a printable Activity Book that contains exercises and work that the pupil can do away from the computer.

The game 'auto levels' by default, adjusting the level of difficulty to provide a challenge to the pupil, but this can be turned off and the levels can be set manually.
The first three activities, Don't Wake The Pirates, Fishing For Numbers and Pirate Splash are classed as 'arcade games' and the game speed for these games can be adjusted to make them easier or harder.

Note: the game's manual states that "Reader Rabbit's Maths 6-8 runs from your CD-ROM drive. However 40MB of available disk space on the hard disk are needed to store some program files".