''Mario Teaches Typing'' is an educational video game developed and published by

Interplay Interplay may refer to: * Interplay (John Coltrane album), ''Interplay'' (John Coltrane album), 1957 * Interplay (Bill Evans album), ''Interplay'' (Bill Evans album), 1962 * Interplay (Al Haig album), ''Interplay'' (Al Haig album), 1976 * Interpla ...

for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few oper ...

compatible operating systems, Microsoft Windows, and

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

. The game uses the

Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the '' Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his c ...

character, licensed from Nintendo, to teach keyboard skills.

Gameplay

''Mario Teaches Typing'' includes three selectable characters:

, Luigi and Princess Peach. The game displays two pairs of hands which show which finger to use; for example, if the player has to type "A", the leftmost finger is highlighted. If the player makes an error, the cursor does not advance until they enter the correct key. After time ends, the exercise ends and a chalkboard screen appears, displaying statistics on how well the player performed, including words per minute.

Development and release

The CD-ROM version of the game was produced by Thomas R. Decker, a producer for Interplay whose past titles included Mario's Game Gallery and Kingdom: the Far Reaches. The game was released in the United States in 1992 and in the United Kingdom in 1993.

Reception

The game sold more than 800,000 copies. Steve Fountain of the '' Evening Sentinel'' reviewed the Windows version, stating "Mario Teaches Typing is less fun than a normal computer game, but a whole lot better than ploughing through a dull typing manual" A sequel to the game, ''Mario Teaches Typing 2'', was developed by Brainstorm and published by Interplay in 1997.

References

Mario educational games 1992 video games Interplay Entertainment games Typing software Classic Mac OS games DOS games Windows games Video games developed in the United States {{edu-videogame-stub