123 Foo 
Software Review by Charles Law

123 Foo is the third in the series and follows the same artistic styles of picture presentations and characters. Colors are crisp and bright. When I installed the program on my 4 year old daughter's computer, there was no sound, but installation on my 6 year old son's resulted in "event" sound, but no background music. Rechecking ALFOOBET, revealed no back ground music either. I am still checking to see if its the programs or my computers. 

 The program opens on a street with three store fronts on the sidewalk. From left to right, Spooky House, Foo Store, and combination of David's Diner and Jonathan's Gym. 

There seems to be no activation buttons on the front of Spooky House, so when you click on the door, the lock and hasp drop off and the door swings open. This room is of gray stone, with black cabinets and two upper shelves. An unlighted candle, a desk bell, and a pot are on the cabinet, with a box and cobwebs on the lower shelf. Clicking the candle causes it to light and blocks any further events until you click it out. The bell causes the borders to flash multi-color textures, and summons a ghost to descent and alight next to the candle. Clicking the pot releases a ghostly jack -in-the-box, who bumps his head on the lower shelf and raises a large knot. Click the box and 10 ghostly rats scamper across the room, while the cobweb releases three spiders to descend from the ceiling. The lower left small cabinet door becomes a red eyed smiling face, while the right one revels a fire breathing dragon. A chattering skull that bounces right to left is the result of clicking the right half of the doors. 

King and Queen Foo, framed in blinking lights appear on the large right door set. A green inch worn, pushing a skull, crawls across the floor when the right most cabinet door is clicked. Four options are available at this point, i.e. Return, Sound Adjust, Quit, or Learn About Foo. The first three are clear, but the oft repeated fourth choice is a text screen of glowing credits. 

 Going next door to Foo Store, we find several activity buttons in the display windows.Blocks, 1 to 10, stacked in a pyramid, count down and launch. A Teddy Bear waves, or dances, or blows a bugle when clicked respectively. A small dog barks, but does not move. On the sidewalk sits a flower pot that grows a tall plant, or short flower, depending on whether you click the pot, or the left cloud. which transforms to a water bucket. Clicking the train in the right window causes it to vanish, to reappear and race across the curb, with a doll and bear as passengers. The ball behind the doll, in the window, bounces down the street and explodes at the left edge of the screen.The radio plays and causes the bear and doll to dance. The night light globe becomes a yo-yo, and the window shade pull cord swings pendulum style.The Foo Store sign shifts letters to read Sore Foot, and a right foot hops down the street. I know it's the right foot because the big toe to toward me. Just call me "Tick Dracy". 

 Six square gables on roof the become cannons, shooting balls off the top, except for the sixth, which only had a quarter charge, and dribbled its ball on the street. Five upper windows light up, with hearts in the lower panes. The other "cloud" trigger is the right one, which summons King Foo to fly his airplane in the door of Spooky House. The smoke pipe transforms into a steam whistle, blowing steam out the ears. 

 Entering Foo Store, a gum ball machine rapidly shoots gum balls across our path. Under the gum ball machine is a drawer, releasing King Foo to play his accordion. Four lower sliding doors open , only to have an arm and hand reach across the opening and slide them shut again. 

 Up to now, its been only entertainment, but now we start the educational part. 

 
1. How Many shows 1 to 10 items and selection of how many there is, is made from numbers displayed at the bottom.

 

 

2. Eraser Picture is like wiping fog off a window to see what's outside.

 

 

3. Dot to Dot opens with eight colored squares. selecting one advances you to a display of numbered circles, to connect in sequence, before advancing from a line drawing to a full picture of the object.

 

 

4. One to Ten shows numbers one to ten, in random order and location, to change into a Foo character. I was unable to detect the logic or purpose of this exercise.

 

 

5. Memory is two games in one, both seemingly identical, to test your memory as to the correct sequence King Foo points to the numbers.

 

 

6. Contractor contains three projects, a truck, a house, and a castle to be constructed from squares, triangles, circles, etc. A palette across the bottom lets you color your creations.

 

 

7. Shapes gives you a chance to duplicate, or originate,geometric figures from squares,triangles,etc.

 

 

8. Shy people should pass up the Queen, for she appears in her unmentionables, knobby knees and all , with a full wardrobe of costumes to dress her in. A palette is provided to "guild the lily" with color.

 

 

9. Number Fun is an exercise in either addition or subtraction.

 

 

10. Pairs is a memory exercise to match two cards from a face down a display. Matches disappear, while mismatches return face down.

 

 

11. Coloring Book has seven pages of outline sketches, with the color palette on the bottom. Coloring is done by complete segment outline, not by brush or pen strokes.

 

 

12. Doll House is a six room open sided house. You only have about three seconds to memorize furniture location, before everything is evicted to the outer edge, challenging you to redecorate.

 

 

13. 20 Piece Puzzle is a four color icon that activates only on the lower three colors, all of which shifts to the same five puzzle pictures. Click one of these and you only have about three seconds to memorize the picture before it "scrambles" part locations. Solving the puzzle entails swapping part locations, with no blanks or out of picture parts.

 

 

14. A green ball simply bounces, while a "Little Brown Jug" shifts over on the first click, and disappears entirely at the second nip.

 

 

15. A cash register gives you a choice of depositing requested amounts into a piggy bank, which explodes if over value is inserted, or breaking change into the next lower denomination of a dollar, half, quarter,dime, nickel, with pennies only showing up when you break a nickel.

 Our last stop is to go upstairs to Jonathan's Gym, to see how the Foo characters exercise. The gym is equipped with a double decker treadmill, bar and dumbbells,an exercise cycle,coat rack, and a trampoline. Only the pictures of the Foo Characters are buttons, and shows how each character exercises when clicked. 

 Clicking"quit" starts a departure sequence by King and Queen Foo, and the moon, to leave a soft warm feeling on the good night note. 

 My Children seem to like 123 Foo a bit better than Alfoobet, but the sparse audio stimulation seems to be a fault in the kids, if not adult , environment. 

Charles is retired military, with 4 children, 1 stepson, and 2 grandchildren. Since full retirement, he is a full time child companion to his daughter and stepson. Fortunately he is already bald.