Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing is an application software program designed to teach touch typing. Released in late 1987 by The Software Toolworks, the program aimed to enhance users' typing skills through a series of interactive lessons and games.

Mavis Beacon is an entirely fictional character created for marketing purposes.

History

Background

Founded by Les Crane, Walt Bilofsky, and Mike Duffy, The Software Toolworks Les Crane, a former talk-show host and an early partner in The Software Toolworks, played an integral role in creating the persona of Mavis Beacon.thumb|right|alt=A screenshot from the Window version of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing showing a typing game that features car racing|A typing game in Mavis Beacon featuring car racing (Windows version)Since its initial release in 1987, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing has undergone numerous iterations. The 2011 Ultimate Mac Edition by Software MacKiev introduced two-player competitive typing network games, integration with iTunes, Dvorak keyboard support, practice typing song lyrics, RSS news feeds, and classic novels.

Distributions of the software include MS-DOS, Apple II, Commodore 64, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Mac, Microsoft Windows, Palm OS, and Amiga.

Gameplay

Users can find themselves racing a virtual car by accurately typing words that appear on the screen. The program also includes typing drills that present users with passages of text to type out, which provides a comprehensive overview of their progress. Successful completion of lessons and tests can result in the achievement of certificates.

Reception

The New York Times technology writer Peter Lewis noted its potential to improve typing skills in 1987. Compute! magazine's review in 1989 supports the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard.

Amiga Formats Paul Tyrrell praised its user-friendly design. Nick Veitch of CU Amiga noted that the program was more interesting than traditional educational packages.

Legacy

Minigames in the Mavis Beacon series are credited with being some of the progenitors of the typing game genre of video games, typically inventive, low-budget indie games. While these games are often still assumed to be educational in nature, many of them go beyond being educational games in order to fully utilize typing as a control method.

References

(Mac OS X edition)