Blood Typers is a terrifically tense, terror-filled typing tutor

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Crito

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  • #2
    There is a real market for these sorts of games. A lot of the Zoomer folks I see at work are stunned at the speed “old people” type at (note: I’m 35 💀). I’d love some recommendations of less horror-y variants that are a little more conservative-enterprise appropriate.

    There used to be a great application called Keyrocket that would recognize when you used a mouse for UI actions that were shortcut/hotkey-able. Great way to teach folks core Office suite and Windows navigation commands (as trivial as alt-tab, as long as paste special in Excel). Purchased by some larger software shop and abandoned. Would love a recommendation for that, too.
     
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    HexagonRuler

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  • #8
    michaeltherobot said:
    May I recommend my amazing type-to-not-be-devoured-by-fish game that I wrote both to teach my kids and to spur them to learn to code, Typey Typers?! 😂
    Click to expand...
    OK for beginners I guess, but even in extra hard mode, it is far too easy for anyone who can actually type, whereas it looks like Blood Typers would offer some challenge for users who's typing skills are a little rusty and want a challenge.
     
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    dezvous

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  • #14
    I learned with All The Right Type 3 and to this day it is probably the most obvious and direct single skill I learned at school. It helped that I also wanted to type fast during matches CS 1.6.

    Blood Typers is a ton of fun. My game night crew is alternating between that and the Dark Souls 3 coop mod right now.
     
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    Electromikey

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  • #16
    Might have to pick this one up and see how my rapid-fire typing skills fare after all these years. I grew up competing against my (very competent typist) mother in Typing Instructor Deluxe. "Flotsam Fighter" and the game where you had to type fast enough to jump across a volcano were big favorites. Plus, that game fueled my love for electronic music with its selectable soundtrack in the practice area!

    Definitely still get those "OMG YOU TYPE SO FAST" comments any time I sit down at a computer in front of someone these days, too. I'm like...you should have seen ACTUAL typists back in the day! :LOL:
     
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    Dassassin

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  • #17
    Crito said:
    I’d love some recommendations of less horror-y variants that are a little more conservative-enterprise appropriate.
    Click to expand...
    "Epistory" is a really good friendly and challenging typing game. Great art style, Zelda-like action/adventure story, and enough challenging typing to encourage practice.
     
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    Coolie

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  • #20
    Nauip said:
    No mention of it's obvious inspiration: Typing of the Dead and it's own successor Typing of the Dead: Overkill?
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    TotD was first link I made when I saw the article as well… it is referenced in this section here:

    See it, type it, do it​

    For some, Blood Typers may bring up first-glance memories of Typing of the Dead, Sega's campy, typing-controlled take on the House of the Dead light gun game series. But Blood Typers goes well beyond Typing of the Dead's on-rails shooting, offering an experience that's more like a typing-controlled version of Resident Evil.
    Click to expand...
     
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    Jedakiah

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  • #21
    Crito said:
    There is a real market for these sorts of games. A lot of the Zoomer folks I see at work are stunned at the speed “old people” type at (note: I’m 35 💀). I’d love some recommendations of less horror-y variants that are a little more conservative-enterprise appropriate.

    There used to be a great application called Keyrocket that would recognize when you used a mouse for UI actions that were shortcut/hotkey-able. Great way to teach folks core Office suite and Windows navigation commands (as trivial as alt-tab, as long as paste special in Excel). Purchased by some larger software shop and abandoned. Would love a recommendation for that, too.
    Click to expand...
    I second this. We have a few zoomers who are in the same boat. Basically they are hunt-and-peckers. When they have downtime, I would love to let them play a video game that betters their skillset. Violent horror games aren't a good fit for a work environment. Unfortunately @michaeltherobot's fishing game isn't a good fit either, as these employees are 10-15 years older than that game's target audience.

    If anyone has a recommendation I am all ears. Games are a great way to learn typing. It is how I learned 25 years ago. There are a couple ultra violent ones out there like Blood Typers. Then the super childish Mavis Beacon style games. But I have yet to find anything in between. Which is unfortunate. I think there is a growing need for this niche. Generation Z makes up ~half of my applicants these days.

    It's easy to forget that the median age for Gen Z is now 20 years old, with the oldest being 28. Many of them were never taught touch typing.
     
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    Coolie

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  • #22
    Crito said:
    There is a real market for these sorts of games. A lot of the Zoomer folks I see at work are stunned at the speed “old people” type at (note: I’m 35 💀). I’d love some recommendations of less horror-y variants that are a little more conservative-enterprise appropriate.
    Click to expand...
    Jedakiah said:
    I second this. We have a few zoomers who are in the same boat. Basically they are hunt-and-peckers. When they have downtime, I would love to let them play a video game that betters their skillset. Violent horror games aren't a good fit for a work environment. Unfortunately @michaeltherobot's fishing game isn't a good fit either, as these employees are 10-15 years older than that game's target audience.

    If anyone has a recommendation I am all ears. Games are a great way to learn typing. It is how I learned 25 years ago. There are a couple ultra violent ones out there like Blood Typers. Then the super childish Mavis Beacon style games. But I have yet to find anything in between. Which is unfortunate. I think there is a growing need for this niche. Generation Z makes up ~half of my applicants these days.

    It's easy to forget that the median age for Gen Z is now 20 years old, with the oldest being 28. Many of them were never taught touch typing.
    Click to expand...

    Epistory? (Though no punctuation / full sentences.)

    View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/398850/Epistory__Typing_Chronicles/


    There are a couple of other typing games on Steam (sadly, none on GOG):
    https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Typing/
     
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    Dark Jaguar

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  • #25
    I recall an old DOS game where you typed falling words before they hit the ground, like some kind of word based Missile Command. I loved that one, and it had a very strange quirk. You could "save" files in entirely incorrect names that didn't fit the 8.3 file format. If you tried to access a so-misnamed in the DOS prompt, bad things would happen, but they still read just fine once inside the game. Oddly, even though FAT32 "long file names" weren't even stored in the same part of the file as 8.3 names, OSes like Windows 95 still managed to handle the longer file names correctly, somehow.

    Before that, my first typing tutor was a much less "gamified" much more stern educational program for Apple II. That one required whole sentences typed correctly, as did the later Mario Teach*loud static sound* yping (there was an issue with how the PC pumped the PC speaker audio out, back when PC speakers were actually fully functional internal speakers and could play straight wave files), but at least Mario Teaches Typing also had a "gamified" mode for playing a platforming level by typing in things and hitting "bonus block" keys as they appeared.
     
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    phoenix_rizzen

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  • #27
    Dark Jaguar said:
    I recall an old DOS game where you typed falling words before they hit the ground, like some kind of word based Missile Command. I loved that one, and it had a very strange quirk. You could "save" files in entirely incorrect names that didn't fit the 8.3 file format. If you tried to access a so-misnamed in the DOS prompt, bad things would happen, but they still read just fine once inside the game. Oddly, even though FAT32 "long file names" weren't even stored in the same part of the file as 8.3 names, OSes like Windows 95 still managed to handle the longer file names correctly, somehow.
    Click to expand...
    I remember that one. Started with individual keys, then words, then phrases. Was a lot of fun on a Hercules yellow monochrome monitor with DOS 3.3. :)

    By the time I started a typing course in grade 8 I was already up to 100 wpm.

    Nowadays I'm maybe 60 wpm, but most of my typing uses tab completion at the shell. :D
     
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    Fatesrider

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  • #34
    whiteknave said:
    As a software developer (and online commentator) the best two classes that I took in High School were typing. Typing I was on an old manual typewriter. Typing II was on an electric typewriter.
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    I learned how to type on a 1930's era Remington Rand Model 1 in the 1960's before I was even out of elementary school. Today, my accuracy is down thanks to age-related issues, but my speed is still about 110-130, depending on how much I have to say at any one time.

    And the keyboard is, well, key to the speed. I've used mechanical clunkers and still prefer the scissor-form, even if I go though a keyboard every couple of years, just for the sheer speed and ease.

    Compared to the Remington, where my BEST was 40 WPM (any faster and it'd jam because I was typing faster than the key arm could move out of the way), modern keyboards are a godsend.

    And I still have that typewriter 6 decades later...
     
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    Mental Gear Reduction

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  • #37
    I learned on Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing on the Amiga. As they put it in the manual then: an hour a day for 30 days, or a half-hour a day for 60, would get you to basic 40-ish wpm touch typing, and then you'd gradually speed up after that.

    That was the single best money and time investment of my entire life. $40ish and 30 hours gave me a skill I still use every single day.
     
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