Copyright: (C) 1994 NoVB Software


Table of Contents

Multiplication Drill (MD) version 2.01

Multiplication Drill was created to help your child learn his or her multiplication tables by drilling them on the one hundred (100) possible combinations.

MD is shareware.  Please support the shareware concept.  See "Benefits of registering" below.  Please pass this program on to your friends and acquaintances.  Thank you!

Table of contents:

Audio Reinforcement (Rewards)     How am I rewarded with sound for a correct answer?

Benefits of registering     Yes, it's a unabashed spiel!

Disclaimer     Liability disclaimer (yech!).

How long did it take me to answer correctly?     Timer information.

How many right/wrong?     Right/Wrong counters.

How to Register Multiplication Drill     No, it's not Spike Lee, but Do The Right Thing.

Keyboard or Mouse?     Which should I use?

MD File List     A list of the files that ship with Multiplication Drill.  CRC's  of md.zip's contents as well.

Next problem please...     I finished a problem, now give me another one please.

Oops! I entered a wrong answer!     The escape key to the rescue!

Program Rules     What are the program rules?

Problem's too hard, give me another one     If only school were this easy...

Turn Sound On/Off     Sound? What Sound? -or- My Neighbors Are Complaining!

Visual Reinforcement (Rewards)     How am I rewarded visually for a correct answer?


Right/Wrong counters

How many right / wrong?

Two counters keep track of correct and incorrect answers:

Note:

These counters do not allow for cheating such as by hitting the Enter key more than once on a correct answer.


Official MD File List and Program CRC.

File List & CRC File Integrity of md.zip

The following list is output from PKUnzip (ver 2.04g) when PKUnzip is run as follows:

pkunzip -v md.zip<CR>

(To insure your md.zip is original and untampered with make sure that the CRC's match with the list below.)

 Length  Method   Size  Ratio   Date    Time    CRC-32  Attr  Name

 ------      ------        -----   -----      ----       ----       -------      ----    ----

    959  DeflatN    473  51%  03-02-94  10:17  599c4486 --w-  README.1ST

  21798  DeflatN  18188  17%  04-16-92  02:04  e3aefd95 --w-  GOOD01.WAV

  21036  DeflatN  17727  16%  10-22-92  02:01  6aadb22b --w-  GOOD02.WAV

  36567  DeflatN  16681  55%  03-05-94  14:39  fedc381a --w-  MD.EXE

  58438  DeflatN  48398  18%  04-16-92  02:04  ca652408 --w-  GOOD03.WAV

  52880  DeflatN  13049  76%  12-07-93  15:28  e9261f71 --w-  SETUP.EXE

   1123  DeflatN    414  64%  03-05-94  15:27  2da663d4 --w-  SETUP.INI

  31428  DeflatN  21951  31%  09-01-93  18:25  38e58d52 --w-  GOOD04.WAV

  23262  DeflatN  21997   6%  09-01-93  18:25  4fb9f3da --w-  GOOD05.WAV

  22128  DeflatN  14903  33%  09-01-93  18:25  dd886919 --w-  GOOD06.WAV

  88790  DeflatN  60017  33%  09-01-93  18:25  a402f3be --w-  GOOD07.WAV

  10348  DeflatN   8834  15%  09-01-93  18:24  360b41f4 --w-  GOOD08.WAV

   5984  DeflatN   4984  17%  09-01-93  18:25  aa843a30 --w-  GOOD09.WAV

  18168  DeflatN  10119  45%  09-01-93  18:25  15c9069a --w-  GOOD10.WAV

  49040  DeflatN  25008  50%  09-01-93  18:24  4cdfdfa8 --w-  WRONG01.WAV

  48422  DeflatN  35496  27%  04-16-92  02:04  d54e030c --w-  WRONG02.WAV

  13228  DeflatN  11297  15%  01-05-93  21:40  f3aa4daa --w-  WRONG03.WAV

  37166  DeflatN  29824  20%  09-01-93  18:25  37690f43 --w-  WRONG04.WAV

  11224  DeflatN   7853  31%  09-01-93  18:24  c74f564a --w-  WRONG05.WAV

  40022  DeflatN  22278  45%  09-01-93  18:24  d06922df --w-  WRONG06.WAV

  18904  DeflatN  14403  24%  09-01-93  18:24  7fa5dd0b --w-  WRONG07.WAV

   8024  DeflatN   6200  23%  09-01-93  18:24  e9b7ab9b --w-  WRONG08.WAV

  22572  DeflatN   7634  67%  09-01-93  18:24  5a85360d --w-  WRONG09.WAV

  42404  DeflatN  36439  15%  09-01-93  18:24  b751799c --w-  WRONG10.WAV

 136972  DeflatN  98311  29%  09-01-93  18:25  cf3e113f --w-  OPEN.WAV

  10292  DeflatN   8751  15%  09-01-93  18:24  f1027f13 --w-  CLOSE.WAV

  33722  DeflatN   1773  95%  12-29-93  21:36  a2a19d2e --w-  1.BMP

  14342  DeflatN   1567  90%  12-22-93  19:32  9d2e3e30 --w-  2.BMP

  29030  DeflatN   4763  84%  12-22-93  20:22  631e3659 --w-  3.BMP

  29446  DeflatN   5669  81%  11-25-93  00:14  594e0a8e --w-  4.BMP

  34786  DeflatN   3387  91%  02-28-94  20:14  989879e5 --w-  5.BMP

   2102  DeflatN    179  92%  02-28-94  21:34  68f72672 --w-  MD.BMP

  52104  DeflatN  12072  77%  03-05-94  14:10  1f340443 --w-  MD.HLP

The last file, md.hlp, will have the correct length, but will have an incorrect CRC-32.  Disregard this one and only discrepancy.


Liability Disclaimer

We have tried very hard to produce a bug-free software program but cannot guarantee that all bugs have been exterminated.  Therefore, if you use this product, you do so at your own risk.  NoVB Software hereby disclaims any liability for any damage(s) caused by using this program.


Next Problem Please...

Pressing the <N> key will bring up a new problem.


Keyboard or Mouse?

The program may be run via keyboard or mouse (or a combination of both).

As a convenience to the user the NumLock key is turned on at program startup and turned off at program Exit.


Problem's too hard...

If the problem is "too hard" then the child may select a different one by pressing the <N> key.

Sooner or later though, the hard problem will need to be solved.


Oops! I entered a wrong answer!

A wrong answer may be changed (re-entered) by pressing the Escape key (before pressing the Enter key).


How long did it take me to answer correctly?

How long did I take to answer correctly?

The timer shows the elapsed time in seconds before a correct answer was entered:

If more than 60 seconds elapses then the timer starts over.

This is repeated until a correct answer is entered or the program Exits.


Audio Reinforcement (Rewards)

Multiplication Drill (MD) has both positive and negative reinforcement via sound "clips".  These may be changed by you, the parent or teacher, to perhaps reflect better reinforcement.  The sound clips are simply .wav files.  Wave files used by MD are labeled "good01.wav" through "good10.wav" (and are positive reinforcement wave files) while "wrong01.wav" through "wrong10.wav" are negative reinforcement wave files.  You may take (or create) your own wave file and rename it to one of the filenames listed above to introduce your own "personality" to the program. Just make sure you put the file in the correct place (typically to c:\md) and keep it short timewise!

P.S. - To change the opening Nag Screen audio clip rename your .wav file to "open.wav".

P.P.S. - To change the Exit sound clip rename your .wav file to "close.wav".


Visual Reinforcement (Rewards)

Overview 1

Correct answers are rewarded with a slice of a picture  (100 slices in all) so that if your child wishes to see the entire reward picture then he or she must answer all 100 problems correctly (no matter how long it takes).

Overview 2

A happy face also signals correct or incorrect answers - a smile for correct, a frown for incorrect.  A neutral face indicates that an answer has not yet been entered.  The "face" is especially useful if the sound is turned off (Sound menu item has no checkmark).

Hey!  I don't like your pictures!

These pictures may be substituted to display one, two, three, four, or up to five of your liking.  The program MD uses files named 1.bmp through 5.bmp and selects one at random upon program startup to display during that session.  Just create or find a .bmp of your choice and rename it to one of the filenames listed above.  Follow this caveat though:

Keep each .bmp file "small".

The pictures that ship with Multiplication Drill are from Corel Draw!  Version 3.0 and were resized to fit into the upper left quadrant of a 8.5 x 11 inch Corel Draw! "page" as such:

The image was then selected and exported as a n.bmp file (where n is 1,2,3,4, or 5).

P.S. - It's a good idea to save the original bmp files under different filenames just in case you want to restore them later.  In any case, they're always still available in md.zip.


How to Register Multiplication Drill

Benefits of Registering

If you register you will be mailed a laser-printed manual & disk label along with future upgrade notices/discounts and future product release notices.  Plus you will clear your conscience!

Shareware Concept

Multiplication Drill is marketed as shareware which means you can try it before you buy it.  If you like this program and find it useful in teaching your child his or her multiplication tables then please support our current and future efforts by sending a check for $15.00 to:

Richard F. Retter

4 Fair Lane

New Fairfield  CT  06812

203 746 1229

CompuServe ID:     75156.1300

(E-mail may be sent to the above CompuServe ID but most likely will not be answered on a daily basis.)  Writing or phoning is a better way of contacting us.

If you live in Connecticut please include 6.0% sales tax.

If you need more than one copy of MD (for more than one computer, as in a school computer lab) then please phone us for site license discounts.

Thank you!


Program Rules

Rules:

Problems are presented over and over again randomly until answered correctly.

You may not boost your correct answers total by repeatedly clicking the "check answer" button after answering a problem correctly.

Conversely, you may not boost your wrong answers total by repeatedly clicking the "check answer" button after answering a problem incorrectly.  (But then again, why would you want to?)

The timer is stopped only after a correct answer has been entered.

The timer, if it reaches 60 seconds, resets itself to 0 seconds and starts counting all over again.


Turn Sound On / Off

Under the Options menu is a Sound menu item.

By default Sound is On and a checkmark appears next to the Sound menu item:

If you have a sound card or a software sound driver for Windows try using the sound option.  If you hear just a "ding" after pressing the Enter key while running the program it is Windows trying to tell you it cannot play the sound .wav files - so turn the Sound option to Off.

If a software sound driver is being used such as "speaker.exe", then the sound will play entirely before the program continues.  The way around this annoyance is to purchase a sound card capable of playing .wav files asynchronously (most, if not all, do).

Toggle the Sound menu item checkmark to turn sound on or off:

If you wish to turn Sound On then select the Sound menu item by clicking on it when the checkmark is not visible.

If you wish to turn Sound Off then select the Sound menu item by clicking on it when the checkmark is visible.

The Sound setting is saved between sessions.  If you turned it off during one session then the next time you run MD the sound will still be off.


third pop-up topic
The picture is really a Windows .bmp file.  See below.


fourth pop-up topic
Corel Draw! is a trademark of Corel Systems


pop-up topic four
CRC = Cyclic Redundancy Check, a method of insuring data integrity and file originality.