Wizard of Id's WizType
Description
The Wizard of Id's WizType is an edutainment title based on the comic strip created by artist Brant Parker and writer Johnny Hart. The title is designed to give keyboard novices lessons on how to improve their typing accuracy and speed.
The game is broken into two sections: The first section pits players as the Wiz, matching wits against the Evil Spirit, an apparition that lives in the Wizard's vat. The Wizard must quickly type out the words that the Evil Spirit gives him in order to diminish the Spirit and win the round. Failure to spell words properly, or taking too long to spell results in the Evil Spirit morphing into a dragon, and singing the Wizard to a crisp.
The second part of the game has the player trying to keep up with Bung the Jester. In this segment, players must type out a pre-written paragraph in order to keep pace with Bung, who is hopping along the words on a pogo stick.
WizType has multiple skill levels to match different levels of typing ability, and increases in challenge as players progress through their lessons.
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Credits (DOS version)
DOS version programmed by |
Reviews
Players
Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 14 ratings with 1 reviews)
Frustratingly good typing game
The Good
This game features most of the characters from the comic book; but this time they appear in a video game from Sierra On-Line, teaching you how to improve your typing skills. There are two gameplay modes, with one of them featuring the Wiz and an evil spirit who throws either a bunch of letters or proper words at him, depending on your selection before the game begins. I find it much easier with words rather than letters. I would type much quicker meaning that I get watch the Wiz make the evil spirit disappear.
The second mode has you typing paragraphs, trying to beat Bung at his own game. What I like about this is that you may type sentences that are new to you. When I was a kid, I only learnt two lines to Mary Had a Little Lamb, but as I was typing out that nursery rhyme, I realized that everyone couldn't be assed teaching me the full rhyme.
The graphics are not bad, with all the characters drawn like they are in the comic book. The animation of Bung using his pogo stick is pretty neat. When it comes to the first section, I like how the Wiz frowns when he is about to be toasted, and the spirit morphing himself into a dragon looks very scary. This may spook some children if they make too many typos.
Speaking of typos, I happened to make too many of these as I wanted to avoid the Wiz being flamed. Many times did I look at what letters/words appear on screen and enter them only to get beeped one or more times. And when I finally managed to enter them correctly, it was too late. In conclusion, this was frustrating but I like a bit of a challenge every now and then.
Sound-wise, I enjoyed listening to the melody as each word appears on the screen, and the sound that is heard when the Wiz manages to make the Spirit disappear.
The Bad
Nothing.
The Bottom Line
WizType is the perfect title for children to learn to type efficiently, and any person who enjoyed reading The Wizard of Id as a kid will definitely enjoy this one. The animations are very good, as are the sound effects and the little pieces of music here and there. From what I experienced, not playing this on a day-to-day basis will cause you not to remember the full nursery rhymes you used to know as a kid.
Commodore 64 · by Katakis | カタキス (43087) · 2011
Trivia
A ColecoVision/ADAM version of WizType was planned, but never released.
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Related Sites +
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Johnhart Studios
Home of the comic strip the characters of the game came from.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by POMAH.
DOS added by Servo. Atari 8-bit added by LepricahnsGold.
Additional contributors: Psionic, FatherJack.
Game added June 14, 2003. Last modified February 22, 2023.