banihstypos: Not a typo

I’m going to call banishtypos a game, because I think, on a primitive level, it does qualify.

 

Technically speaking though, it’s intended as a typing tutor, with a smidgin of fun injected.

Words scroll in from the right, across a blinking starfield. At the left side of the screen is a “laser.” You type the letters in the word and gain points. You’re not penalized for errors, but if a word comes into contact with the laser, your total score is reduced.

Over time, the speed of the words increases, and the laser begins to creep to the right. banihstypos keeps track of the number of words you’ve gotten right, the number of words it has in its bank, and of course your total score.

banihstypos has a couple of small shortcomings, which I feel obligated to mention. First, there doesn’t seem to be a consequence to the game — no cataclysmic failure that brings the program to a halt. It’s possible to have a negative score just by walking away from banihstypos for about five minutes, but it doesn’t seem to care. Perhaps there is another ending somewhere, when all the words in English are used up.

banihstypos allows you to pick a custom word file, but doesn’t have the same dictionary support as gtypist, or for that matter, typespeed. And its degree of difficulty is slow to rise.

The other point is obvious from the screenshots — banihstypos doesn’t seem to notice the dimensions of your screen, which is a disappointment. I’ve only seen one word cross the screen at a time, and the laser moves only infrequently. So what would be the harm in using all the space a terminal offers? 😕

But … banihstypos has nice color, a calm demeanor and an exceptionally patient nature. I think it would be quite enjoyable for small people who are just starting out their keyboard journeys. I give it a thumbs-up, as a decent and vaguely educational “game.” 😉