K is for Kids Typing

While most of my friends learned to type with computer programs like Mavis Beacon and Mario Teaches Typing, I played Kids Typing.

Released in 1993, this game was, predictably, software used to teach typing to kids. The basic premise is that you visit a house haunted by a ghost named “Spooky” which is only a slightly more original name than Holly Golightly naming her cat “Cat.”

Spooky would escort you around the house and after you’d practiced typing, you could go around to various rooms of the house and participate in timed typing challenges that would cause something spooky to happen . . . kind of like Paranormal Activity but without the annoying handheld cameras. Usually, something would levitate like furniture or babies because that’s a logical progression from objects to defenseless, tiny humans.

However, it’s not like anyone else in the house was paying all that much attention to the random floating objects/people so I guess maybe the family is just used to it.

If you didn’t feel like haunting the family, you could practice typing full sentences by going up to the attic and typing out fairy tales like Cinderella or The Ugly Duckling.

I usually spent my time in the game doing this, partly because I like reading and partly because timed tests give me anxiety.

If you feel like watching a walkthrough of the game narrated by someone who talks way too much, you can watch this YouTube video and enjoy Spooky’s annoying (yet slightly creepy) voice as he exclaims “Let’s go up to the attic!”

All things considered, it wasn’t a bad typing game. I may be the only person I know who used this game but my typing speed is 90 words per minute so take that.

Happy Throwback Thursday!