This is a 10 minute video demonstration of the fun typing game Baron von Typesfast.
In the game, you are a fighter pilot looking to destroy airships by typing the words on them correctly.
Pros
It is free and can be accessed in any browser.
Entertaining animations and sounds that will motivate quite a wide age range of children
Multiple difficulty levels (in terms of length of words and speed of reaction) focusing on different touch typing skills.
The game has a solid structure. You can focus on different rows of the keyboard.
The game can be made larger using the Zoom facility in a browser
Cons
Although the design is attractive I think that it is too busy or complicated for a child with a visual impairment.
The contrast is poor on the airship- trying to read the words, but the font is clear.
Also you might have to watch a video ad before you play it.
Although the game has lots of difficulty levels, it is still quite limited.
The video includes a full set of subtitles but if you prefer to access it via a full transcript then please find one below.
Start of Transcript
Hello everyone. It is James from the Visual Impairment Team in Devon.
In this video I am going to demonstrate a touch typing game called Baron von Typesfast which has been designed for children but is also entertaining enough to be loved by adults!
The best way to find it is to search for “Baron von Typesfast” in Google.
It can be found on the website typing.com.
Now, onto the game itself.
If we have a quick look at the settings, there are three levels of difficulty in this game; Easy, Medium and Fast.
As well as that, there are 5 different word lists; easy, hard, home row, top row and bottom row.
It is very hard to describe whilst at the same time trying to play the game and so I will only do one thing at a time.
You are a fighter pilot (on the left hand side of the screen) and from the right hand side comes airships with words on them.
As the airships appear, your job is type the words on them as quickly as possible.
At the bottom of the screen is your score, how many waves of airships that have arrived and a health reading- which reduces with each word that you incorrectly type.
In the top left hand corner you have the option to toggle the sound on and effects on or off.
On the easy level with an easy set of words, you have to type 3 or 4 letter words for the most part.
Let’s have a look.
On the easy level with a hard set of words, you are having to type 5, 6 and 7 letter words.
Let’s have a look.
The airships also move faster than on the easy level.
The options for the home, top and bottom rows involve typing letter sequences involving letters from those rows.
Let’s have a look.
I won’t demonstrate any of the games on the medium level. Instead I will look at the games that are available on the “hard” level and then having shown you the easiest and toughest levels you can work out what the middle one offers.
On the hard level with the easy words.
You have the same number of letters in each word (3 and 4 letters mostly) but the airships are moving much faster.
Let’s have a look.
On the hard level with a hard set of words, you are having to type 5, 6 and 7 letter words with the airships moving towards you very quickly.
Let’s have a look.
The options for the home, top and bottom rows involve typing letter sequences involving letters from those rows this time with the airships moving very quickly.
Let’s have a look.
At that is a very quick overview of the different levels and settings in this game.
Pros
It is free and can be accessed in any browser.
Entertaining animations and sounds that will motivate quite a wide age range of children
Multiple difficulty levels (in terms of length of words and speed of reaction) focusing on different touch typing skills.
The game has a solid structure. You can focus on different rows of the keyboard.
The game can be made larger using the Zoom facility in a browser
Cons
Although the design is attractive I think that it is too busy or complicated for a child with a visual impairment.
The contrast is poor on the airship- trying to read the words, but the font is clear.
Also you might have to watch a video ad before you play it.
Although the game has lots of difficulty levels, it is still quite limited.
I think that this is a game that is a lot of fun.
Thanks for watching my video tour of Baron von Typesfast
If this video has helped you, please share it with your friends, colleagues and family.
I have created lots of other videos relating to touch typing and there is a link to my playlist below.
If you have any comments or questions or anything to add to the discussion, please leave them below.
End of Video Transcript
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