SPELLBOUND
By T.H.E.S.I.S.
P.O. Box 147
Garden City, MI 48135

Requires Cassettes, Basic Cartridge, 24K RAM

$15.00

Spellbound is an educational program that reminds me of "Speak and Spell" without the sound. Words are flashed onto the screen in large letters. After each word, the user types in his spelling of the word. If he is correct he receives a little cheer from one of the bug-like characters sitting at the bottom of the screen and goes on to the next word. Should he be incorrect on his spelling, both the correct and incorrect spelling are displayed together for a few moments. Incorrectly spelled words will inevitably appear again before the lesson is over. There is a learning option which gives more time to study the word. There are also provisions for permitting words to be loaded by the user (such as this week's spelling lesson), both directly from the keyboard and from data tapes. T.H.E.S.I.S. also supplies data tapes at $5 apiece, each with 300 words. There are ten data tapes at this time, arranged by grade and word types (i.e. short vowels/long vowels - Grade 1-2 to unstressed/independent sounds - Grade 5-6).

Spellbound is well designed and documented and, like their other products reviewed to date, a good value.

I should point out that I had trouble loading both the master tape (which is self contained and includes its own words) and one of the data tapes. In both cases "Error 138 - time out device" interrupted loading. The master tape was replaced by the manufacturer and, subsequently, loaded in three out of four tries. The manufacturer reported that the original tape loaded on their machine with no trouble.

The data tape would not load. Whether the problem is with my February '81 Atari is not clear. T.H.E.S.I.S. indicated that my experience is unusual and offered to exchange the tape. I would not be deterred however, from purchasing the program, providing your dealer will stand behind it. It's highly educational and useful for children of all ages. The only thing that's missing is a voice speaking the words, which should be available soon from T.H.E.S.I.S. using the Type & Talk voice synthesizer.