® COURSE BOOK
CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................... 1 CHAPTER 2 GETTING STARTED ..................... 2-4 CHAPTER 3 THE KEYBOARD .......................... 5-9 CHAPTER 4 ACTIVITIES AND FUNCTIONS .. 9-24 CHAPTER 5 WORD PROCESSING .............. 24-27 CHAPTER 6 BASIC ........................................ 28-83 CHAPTER 7 CALCULATOR ........................... 84-86 CHAPTER 8 TIME LIMITS .................................. 87 CHAPTER 9 SCORING...................................
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TM ® Thank you for buying the PRECOMPUTER PRESTIGE learning toy by VTECH ! We at ® VTECH are committed to providing the best possible products to activate a child’s mind. Should you have any questions or concerns, please call our Consumer Services Department at 1-800-521-2010 in the US, 01235-555545 in the UK or 1-800-267-7377 in Canada.
CHAPTER 2 GETTING STARTED The PRECOMPUTER PRESTIGE AC adapter. TM learning unit operates on 4 "C" size batteries or a 9V BATTERY INSTALLATION 1. Make sure the unit is OFF. 2. Locate the battery cover on the back of the unit and open it. 3. Insert 4 "C" size batteries as illustrated. DO NOT USE NiCd RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES. (The use of alkaline batteries is recommended for maximum performance.) 4. Replace the battery cover. 5. Turn the unit ON.
NOTE : While replacing the backup battery, the 4 "C" size batteries must be kept in the unit or the unit must be connected to the 9V adapter while the adapter is plugged in. If not, you will lose all the information stored in the following activities: • • • • • • Test Trainer Word Processing Basic 200 Year Calendar Daily Planner Telephone Directory In addition to these activities, players’ names and scores will also be lost. AC ADAPTER CONNECTION Use a standard 9V AC adapter. 1.
Automatic Shut Off TM If there is no input into the PRECOMPUTER PRESTIGE unit for about 8 minutes, the unit will automatically shut off to save power. If you want to turn the unit back on after an automatic shut off, you need to press the ON button again. We recommend that you TM turn the unit OFF when not in use. If you will not be using the PRECOMPUTER PRESTIGE unit for a long period of time, remove the batteries and unplug the adapter.
CHAPTER 3 THE KEYBOARD TM The keyboard on PRECOMPUTER PRESTIGE combines the operation of a standard computer keyboard with several other functions described below. $ £ Enter SPECIAL KEYS Enter Key: Enter Press this key after typing or choosing an answer to confirm your selection. Shift Key: Press this key to type capital letters or the symbols shown on top of the number keys. Esc Key: Press this key to exit an activity. By repeatedly pressing the Esc key you can return to the main menu.
Caps Lock Key: Press this key to make all typed letters appear in upper case. Press the key again to return to normal typing mode. When the Caps Lock function is activated the Caps Lock light will turn on. Symbol key: Press this key to show off the characters which is not on the keyboard. This only apply for some activities only. Answer Key: Press this key to see the correct answer to any question. Left Player/Right Player Keys: Press these keys in games with a 2-player mode.
Help Key: Press this key in the Key-In mode of Trivia activities when you need help and you will be given three multiple choice answers to choose from. In Grammer Quiz, press Help to give you three multiple choice answers for the wrong word to choose from. In Flash Words, press Help to give you a hint on the first letter of the word. NOTE: Since the players are competing against each other in 2-player mode, the Help key is not available.
Backspace Key: Press shift and this key when you want to delete the character before the cursor position. Cursor Point: The cursor point is used to move the cursor arrow around. In order to select an icon, move the cursor point to the icon and press the left cursor button. Press the right cursor button in WORD SEARCH to switch between vertical and horizontal words. Press the right cursor button in WORD PUZZLE to close the clue window.
Level Key: The unit provides 4 levels of challenge in most of the activities. If you want to change the level, press this key first and then select a level by typing the number or use the mouse to click one of the level icons. There are 4 levels with the first level being the easiest and the fourth level being the most difficult. Cartridge Key: This key is used to access VTECH® PRECOMPUTER expansion cartridges that connect with the unit.
ENTERING ACTIVITIES After turning on the power, there is a welcoming animation and the main menu will appear. Use 1 of the following 2 ways to enter into one of the five activity group menus: 1. Press any one of the five activity group buttons from the activity keyboard 2. Choose an activity icon on the screen After choosing the Activity Group (Word Games, Mathematics, etc.), use 1 of the following 2 ways to select an activity: 1 Choose an activity on the screen.
PLAYER MODES: The unit will automatically begin in 1-player mode at power up. To enter the 2-player mode, press the Player key first and then type a "2" or use the mouse to click one of the player icons. Note: The following activities do not offer two-player mode: All Logic Games activities All Business Basic activities GENERAL DISPLAY In most of the activities, you will see a display with status information, handy icons and a working window.
SYSTEM SETUP System Setup is available in each activity. Press the icon to enter System Setup. Inside the System Setup, you are able to change the following items: Set printer type Expand icon on/off Select input method Date format Name change SET PRINTER TYPE TM There are a number of printers which the PRECOMPUTER PRESTIGE unit is compatible with. Set Printer Type allows you to select any one of the printers.
EXPAND ICON ON/OFF TM The PRECOMPUTER PRESTIGE learning unit offers you descriptions of different icons and functions. When the unit is turned on, the expand icon is OFF and you can go into the System Setup to enable this function. When expand icon is ON, a bubble containing the name of the icon will pop up when you move the cursor over the icon. SELECT INPUT METHOD When doing questions like addition or subtraction, different people have different methods for inputting their answers.
SYNONYMS The unit will display a word on the screen. Type in a word that has the same meaning. The underlines tell you how many letters are in the word. Press the Enter key to confirm your answer. If you don’t know the answer, you can get help by pressing the Help key or clicking Help icon and a table of letters will display. The missing letters of the answer are located in the table. CORRECT THE WORD The meaning of a word is given along with the mis-spelling of the word.
WORD PUZZLE This is a crossword puzzle game with 10 missing words in each puzzle. Use the cursor point to select one of the missing words and receive a clue for the word. Type in the word and press Enter to confirm your answer. If you do not want to answer this clue, choose another word. You can also press the right cursor button or press ESC key to close the clue window. WORD SEARCH In this activity, you need to find 10 hidden words in the puzzle. The words are oriented horizontally and vertically.
EDITING DATA Adding Records icon when you want to add another set of data to your existing list. The Choose the record will be added at the end of the list. Deleting Records Choose the icon when you want to delete records from your existing list. Before you choose this icon be sure that you are on the correct record as you will not be able to retrieve the information once it has been deleted. Finding Records Choose the icon when you want to find a record to review, delete or edit.
You can also use the cursor point or the mouse to select the icon to get an onscreen number keyboard. Input the answer by choosing the numbers on the keyboard and select the icon to confirm your answer. SUBTRACTION A subtraction problem will appear on the screen. Type in the answer using the number keys on the keyboard and press Enter. You can also use the cursor point or the mouse to select the icon to get an onscreen number keyboard.
RATIOS A ratio problem will appear on the screen. on the keyboard and press Enter. Type in the answer using the number keys You can also use the cursor point or the mouse to select the icon to get an onscreen number keyboard. Input the answer by choosing the numbers on the keyboard and select the icon to confirm your answer. ALGEBRA An algebra problem will appear on the screen. Type in the answer using the number keys on the keyboard and press Enter.
first in the equation and then press Enter. Repeat the same process for the second, third and so on until it forms an equation. If you make a mistake, you can use the Backspace key or click the icon to undo the last pick. When you have completed the equation, icon to confirm your answer. press the Enter key or click the TRIVIA GAMES This challenging trivia games has over 1000 questions in 6 different topics: Health and Safety, Inventors and Inventions, Science, History, Geography and Diverse Dates.
LOGIC GAMES THE GREAT ESCAPE Help BLOCK to get free! Move the blocks so that BLOCK gets out through the exit within the time limit. To move a block, select the block you want to move. Then use the mouse or the cursor point to move the block to the space you want. Press the left mouse/cursor point button or the Enter to unselect the block. You can now select the next block you want to move.
STEP BY STEP 1 This activity introduces the simple concept of programming. Your goal is to recreate the picture on the screen by controlling and moving the drawing ball. When the game starts, decide whether you want to move or draw first. Click the icon to get the move commands and click the icon to get the draw commands. When . Repeat the process until you think you have you want to move right, click on the given the correct commands to redraw the pre-defined picture and press the icon to confirm.
BUSINESS BASICS WORD PROCESSING This activity offers a word processor for many types of documents. See Chapter 5 of this manual. TYPING GAME This activity helps to improve your keyboarding skills through this exciting typing game. The game will drop words from the top of the screen. The objective of this game is to type these words before they hit the bottom of the screen. When a word hits the bottom of the screen, you lose one of the three chances.
the icon to begin entering data. It is usually a good idea to have some type of header on each record. For example you could put lunch (for a lunch appointment), birthday (to remind you of an upcoming birthday) and so on. This will make it easier to find the records in the future. Adding Records icon when you want to add another record. The record will be added Choose the at the end of the list. Deleting Records Choose the deletion. icon when you want to delete records.
CALCULATOR This activity allows you to use the unit as an advanced, scientific calculator. See Chapter 7 of this manual for instructions. SPELL CHECKER Spell Checker is an electronic word list that contains 75,000 words and is used to check the correct spelling of words. This program can work independently or within the Word Processing activity. The Spell Checker searches words phonetically. English words can be difficult to spell because the same sound can sometimes be spelled several different ways.
LOAD Load is the command used to retrieve an existing file from the optional RAM cartridge. Select Load from the FILE menu icon and it will list all the files in the RAM cartridge. Select the file you want to retrieve and press Enter. The chosen file will then appear on the screen. NEW Every time you enter the word processing, you will see the same file you worked on the last time you were in Word Processing. New is the command to create a new file.
EDIT Cut cut a block of text Copy copy a block of text Paste paste a block of text Clear erase a block of text Most simple editing can be accomplished by using the insertion and deletion keys. When you want to change larger blocks of text, then you need to do block editing. The EDIT pull-down menu is for editing blocks of text. DEFINE A BLOCK The first step in block editing is to define or mark a block of text.
TOOLS Spelling spell check of a word Symbol insert symbols SPELLING Spelling checks a word to see if it is in the spelling dictionary in the Spell Checker activity. To check the spelling of a word, move the cursor to the beginning of the word and select Spelling from the TOOLS menu icon. If the word exist in the dictionary, it will show "Correct!". If the word does not exists in the dictionary, it will give you a list of possible words for reference. Press any key to escape from the list of words.
CHAPTER 6 BASIC INTRODUCTION ARE COMPUTERS IMPORTANT? Computers are all around us. Like cars, phones and TVs, computers help us make our lives easier. Millions of computers are used everyday. Doctors use computers to treat patients. Police use computers to track criminals. Stores use computers to add up prices quickly and so on. WHAT ARE COMPUTERS? A computer is a tool that helps us to do things better and faster. They work without getting tired. They operate at very high speeds.
BASIC is basic; however there are differences in the language based on the computer that uses it in much the same way that English is different depending on which country it is spoken in(Great Britain or the United States) or which part of the country the language is spoken in(East Coast, Midwest, South or the West Coast). The differences in the language will depend on the computer that is being used and on the computer that produced the language for the computer manufacturer.
THE KEYBOARD 1. The numeric(top row) keys are used for entering numbers. The letter keys are used for entering letters. 2. The cursor is the blinking block symbol on the display that indicates where the next character that is pressed on the keyboard will be entered in the computer. 3. The Shift key is used with another key to enter a character into the computer. For example to enter the "+" character, you must press Shift and the key marked "+ =".
THE DISPLAY TM The PRECOMPUTER PRESTIGE learning unit uses a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). Although it is a relatively large viewing screen, you can’t see the whole program at one and keys to scroll through display window. time. Use the GETTING STARTED This activity lets you type in your own programs and run them. Follow these simple steps: 1. Turn on the PRECOMPUTER PRESTIGETM unit. 2. Click the Business Basic icon from the main menu. 3. Choose the BASIC activity.
LIST This command displays each line of your program starting with the lowest line number. Each time you press Enter, the next lines are displayed. You can stop this by pressing the Shift and Break keys. If you enter the command with a line number after the word, TM i.e., LIST 50, PRECOMPUTER PRESTIGE will list the statement at line 50. RUN TM This command instructs PRECOMPUTER PRESTIGE to begin executing each BASIC statement with a line number that was typed into memory.
CONT This command causes the program to resume executing after encountering the BASIC command called STOP. The program will be carried on with the next statement after STOP. You can type CONT to resume the program after you hit the Shift and Break keys. BASIC COMPUTER TUTORIAL 1. A REAL SMALL PROGRAM You and Teresa went to the local video store to rent some movies. Teresa brought back 12 but 4 were too gory for you and so you took them back.
TM You can use PRECOMPUTER PRESTIGE as a calculator in arithmetic statements like the one above by not using a line number. Just type: PRINT 12-4+7 and press Enter The answer will appear on the display. Another short cut is that you could use the "?" symbol to stand for the word "PRINT".
Type: 10 PRINT 2^10 When you use all the operations together, it can get a bit complicated. After a winning baseball game, your 7-person team is awarded 3 cans of pop for the game plus another 11 cans because you finished first in the league too. How many cans does each player get? Type this: 10 PRINT 3+11/7 Is it really evaluated from left to right? Yes, but was it the answer you were expecting? If the answer came out to 4.57143, the computer first divided 11 by 7 getting 1.
3. NUMERIC VARIABLES You have seen how you can use BASIC to print numbers and messages. You can also give values to a BASIC program yourself. The computer uses a letter to stand for a value. This is called a variable. For example LET D = 609. This statement puts the value 609 into a box in memory called "D". Try this. Type: 10 LET A=8 press Enter The computer makes a box in memory and calls it "A". It puts the number 8 in this box.
Now let’s finish this by typing: 50 PRINT "FIRST NUMBER"; A 60 PRINT "SECOND NUMBER"; B 70 PRINT "THE SUM IS"; C RUN You will see the following on the display: FIRST NUMBER 8 SECOND NUMBER 15 THE SUM IS 23 (Don’t forget to press Enter after you have seen each line to get the next one displayed.) Let’s take a look at the print statements on lines 50 through 70. The words in quotes are called a STRING or a LITERAL.
Let’s try. Type: 10 PRINT 3000000*3000000 RUN The answer on the display is 9E+12. This is the computer’s way of showing extremely large numbers. A number with the letter E and a number to the right of the decimal point is called scientific or exponential notation. You find the decimal point and move the number of places specified after the "E" to the right filling in with zeros. The long way to write out the above answer is 9,000,000,000,000. The procedure works in reverse for very small numbers.
NOTE: For both numeric and string variables, only the first 2 characters of the variable names are valid. Also, they cannot resemble the name of any command. Examples: TOTAL is interpreted as the TO command and POTATO is interpreted as variable PO. 5. CONSTANTS A constant is something that doesn’t change. The computer stores it in memory just like a variable. However, since a constant doesn’t change it has no variable name. The number 6 is a constant; so is 4.567 or 28967.35.
The program in the above example contains a programming construction called a loop. A loop is one or more BASIC statements, usually called a set, that can be executed as many times as you want. The statement in line 40 contains an IF statement. It is called a conditional statement and will be discussed in detail under the topic called Making Decisions. 6.
Try this: NEW 10 INPUT "GIVE ME A NUMBER"; N1 20 INPUT "AND ANOTHER"; N2 30 PRINT "I WILL ADD THEM" 40 C=N1+N2 50 PRINT "THE ANSWER IS"; C Type RUN and press Enter to see what happens. 7. MAKING DECISIONS The IF statement tells the computer that it has to make a decision. It does this by comparing two numbers, arithmetic expressions or string variables. It uses special symbols to represent a condition. The symbol > means greater than. The symbol < means less than. The symbol = means equal to.
A condition is either TRUE or FALSE. The IF statement has a condition. The computer evaluates the condition and decides that if a condition is TRUE it will do something for the TRUE condition. Take the following: IF A > 90 THEN PRINT "YOU ARE SMART" The A > 90 is a condition. The PRINT "YOU ARE SMART" is the thing it does for the true condition. In the above example, let’s give A the value 80. Would the message be printed? No, it would not be printed because the condition is false (80 is less than 90).
This program uses the INPUT statement to get values for numeric variables and prints a computed result. It then prompts for a string variable and makes the decision to begin again if the value typed in is a Y. Here’s another one.
140 PRINT "YOU MADE A MISTAKE" 150 PRINT "TRY AGAIN" 160 GOTO 30 200 PRINT "THE ANSWER IS";C 300 END This is a long program but it has a lot of new things in it that are worthwhile to know about. Line 70 contains an INPUT statement without the prompt string. Lines 100 through 130 contain two statements for the thing to do when the condition is true. One is a LET statement without the word LET (C=A+B) and the other is a GOTO statement.
