ToonTalk

Reviewed by Hilary Williamson
Published by Animated Programs

Age Group: Age 6 and up
Type: Computer Toolbox
Price: $24.95

PC version requires:
Windows 95/98/NT4/2000/ME/XP, CD-ROM, DirectX

Description:

ToonTalk is an 'animated world where kids can make, run, debug, and trade programs'. Create programs by showing robots how to do sequences of things in the ToonTalk city. Marty the Martian is available with tips at any time. Bammer the Mouse smashes things together, to connect them or perform mathematical operations on them. Tooly the Toolbox includes useful tools like Dusty the Vacuum (sucks things up, erases them or spits them out again), Pumpy the Bike Pump (resizes objects) and Maggie the Magic Wand (makes copies). Bombs are handy for getting rid of things and starting over again. Features are summarized in a wonderful set of kid-friendly trading cards - just shuffle to find an explanation of how to use any tool.

Start by selecting 'Play Game' for a puzzle game that also explains the ToonTalk objects and tools. Help Marty by performing a series of tasks. They get progressively more difficult, and involve more sophisticated training of robots. Marty gives hints in case of difficulty, though these are not always easy to follow. Be careful to observe what portion of an object is wiggling when picking it up, as it's easy to pick up too much or too little. The Bomb is very useful in case of errors as it blows up a house, and allows you to start over again.

After learning the basic skills, it's useful to 'Play Demos' starting with the 'Introductory Tour'. This was slow to load, but very useful. Pat shows you around the ToonTalk world, with help from Marty. She explains the basic tools and also how to use Birds and their Nests to move things, how to combine and program pictures, and how to use Notebook objects and to save new ones. Other demos include Exploding Houses, Building a Ping Pong game, and Fibonacci Numbers. These are useful in providing ideas of how to do different things in this world.

Once reasonably comfortable with the basics, try 'Free Play'. Land the helicopter, open up Tooly and start experimenting, saving the results in the Notebook, and using them to build ever more complex animations and simulations.

Features:

  • 3 levels of play
  • 3 player appearances
  • Narrated demonstrations
  • Manual (33 trading cards)
  • Online Player's Guide & FAQ
  • Language extensions
  • Trainable robots
  • Notebook storage of objects, robots
  • Import sounds, pictures
  • Sensors for mouse, keyboard, etc.
  • Combine pictures into games, movies
  • Export to Windows
  • Java applet generation

Technical Aspects:

I tried the program on a Pentium III with Windows ME. Installation was automatic after a friendly welcome from Marty the Martian. It offers to update DirectX if needed.

The program is suitable for someone with auditory difficulty, as options can be set for combinations of speech and / or speech balloons for Marty the Martian.

Report and Conclusions:

ToonTalk is a programming environment that's accessible to a wide age range, easy to enter, and very open ended. The world's appearance is LEGO-like, with houses, helicopter and trucks, birds, tools and people. As with any programming language, it takes some time to get familiar with ToonTalk, but the visual approach, the puzzle games and demos, and Marty the helpful Martian, facilitate the learning process.

Documentation suggests that children as young as 5 could work with this - most would need a great deal of support and encouragement, and even older kids would benefit from some parental guidance in working through the learning curve. However, this environment is visual, fun, powerful and open ended. As its online information suggests, ToonTalk does indeed 'make programming child's play'.