Talk:Basic Math (video game)

Keyboard controller?

It was a long, long, long time ago, but I seem to remember this game being played with a special keyboard controller, rather than a joystick, as the article states. Joefromrandb (talk) 11:01, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

Nope, it does indeed use joystick control: up and down to choose the digit value for a column, left and right to select a different column. (The remainder for division problems has to be to the right of the quotient, separated by an empty column.) In timed play, much of the strategy, if it can be called that, seems to be in entering the answer with minimal moves. I believe you're remembering a different game.

Oh, regarding difficulty, the game is of course trivial in most cases, as one might expect for an educational game aimed at primary-school children. However, there's a bit of a goof in that regard. If both difficulty switches are set high, the last four games give you random two-digit problems with a 24-second time limit for each one. This isn't a challenge in most cases, but for game 7 (random multiplications), the game starts expecting you to multiply two random 2-digit numbers and generate 4-digit products, without any area other than the answer space to record partial products, all while the timer is counting down--and it does so very audibly and increasingly distractingly. The result is, shall we say, a bit more than most primary schoolers might have been willing to tolerate. Somebody should have remembered that multiplication, like division, is quite a bit harder than addition and subtraction. (Game 8, random divisions, is much easier, because only the dividend has two digits.) --Colin Douglas Howell (talk) 08:03, 26 May 2017 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Basic Math (video game)/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Andrzejbanas (talk · contribs) 12:06, 16 April 2024 (UTC)

Reviewer: Pokelego999 (talk · contribs) 02:14, 22 April 2024 (UTC)

This one seems like a fun change of pace. I'll take it on within the coming days. Has one ever considered Magneton? Pokelego999 (talk) 02:14, 22 April 2024 (UTC)

@Andrzejbanas (talk · contribs)

Six GA Criteria

1. Article is well-written. A few typos and missing words but I patched those up in my run-through.

2. No OR, all info is cited in the article.

3. Coverage is broad in depth and focus. Shows multiple aspects of the subject.

4. Article appears neutral, and does not appear to hold a significantly negative nor positive stance on the subject.

5. Article appears stable. Does not appear to have had any major vandalism occur.

6. Article uses two fair use images with proper rationales.

Lead

-Is gameplay stylized as one word or two? I tend to only see two, but I do want to verify with you if that's intentional or a typo first.

Should be as you had it. Changed. 01:51, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Gameplay

-"In the second four modes" I'd change second to other for clarity.

Agreed. Changed. Andrzejbanas (talk) 01:51, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

-"The right difficulty switch" Forgive me if I overlooked this while editing, but I don't recall a mention of a difficulty switch, and this specifies one of multiple. Do clarify this if this isn't already mentioned in the article.

Tried to clarify this a bit more. The VCS has difficulty switches on the physical console itself, they can be seen here. Andrzejbanas (talk) 01:51, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Development and release

-"Basic Math was re-released in January 1980 under the title Fun With Numbers and then first discontinued in January 1982." The "and then" transition feels a bit rushed, and I feel this could be split into multiple sentences. Also, clarify what discontinuing means in the context of video gaming at the time, given 80s videogaming is fundamentally different from modern day gaming.

Fair. Tried to clarify this. Andrzejbanas (talk) 01:51, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

-"The game remained in circulation as late as 1988 when it sold a little over 6,000 copies that year." Sentence implies one is the cause of the other. I'd reword to specify it was in circulation as late as 1988, and sold 6000 copies within the same year.

Tried to re-phrase this. Andrzejbanas (talk) 01:51, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Reception

"concluding that Math Gran Prix (1982) has replaced it." In what sense?

They just say this phrase in the article, so I didn't want to interpret it that much, but i've tried to be more clear. they are generally saying Math Gran Prix is better. Andrzejbanas (talk) 01:51, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

-"how to coordinate the difficulty levels and the presentation's unexciting visuals and would not make it an entertaining game now or on its release." The second chunk of the sentence is very confusingly worded. I'd either split the bit about how entertaining it was into a separate sentence, or reword for clarity, since the multiple ands feel like it's tacking on a lot to the sentence.

Definitely. Tried to re-arrange this. Andrzejbanas (talk) 01:51, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Overall

-Solid overall article. Patch up what's above and I'll be happy to pass. Let me know if you have questions. Basic Math is peak gaming. Has one ever considered Magneton? Pokelego999 (talk) 00:38, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Thanks @Pokelego999:. I think I've covered everything. Andrzejbanas (talk) 01:51, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

@Andrzejbanas Looks good. I'd merge the middle paragraph back into the bottom one, but overall looks fine. Has one ever considered Magneton? Pokelego999 (talk) 01:53, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

@Pokelego999:. Whups. That was a mistake. S-tier mistake for a S-tier game. Andrzejbanas (talk) 01:55, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

@Andrzejbanas Happy to pass! Has one ever considered Magneton? Pokelego999 (talk) 02:50, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 24 April 2024

Basic Math (video game) → Basic Math – See WP:DIFFCAPS. Basic math can still redirect to basic mathematics. While there seems to be a film that once was called Basic Math, there is no mention of it in the article currently. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 14:36, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

I'd probably lean towards having Basic Math link to Elementary mathematics. Googling the term basic math gives far more suggestions and information about early grade school math situations than a relatively obscure video game from the 1970s and I would not count on users to be like "oh i mean the video game, better type in the capital M" to get to this relatively obscure piece of computer software history. Andrzejbanas (talk) 15:42, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

• Oppose Basic math as a concept could reasonably be capitalized even if Wikipedia style (correctly) lowercases it. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 19:20, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Oppose Per Pppery above. The concept of Basic math can easily be confused with Basic Math, and it would lead to more confusion than if we just leave it as it is. If they were two equally important topics, I might be willing to agree, but given that basic math is a very fundamental concept compared to Basic Math, an obscure video game from the 70s, I doubt anyone's keen on finding it instead of actual basic math. Has one ever considered Magneton? Pokelego999 (talk) 01:47, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Mathematics and WikiProject Video games have been notified of this discussion. RodRabelo7 (talk) 05:33, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

• Oppose per above - "Basic Math" with caps can easily be taken to mean the academic topic (eg compare to New Math. --Masem (t) 14:08, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

Oppose - Just by looking at Basic Math and Elementary mathematics article views, it seems that Elementary mathematics is more popular than some obscure game from the 70s and the fact is that the word Basic Math with all cap should be redirected to Elementary mathematics or simply just add a hatnote in case users was looking for the academic topic instead of some video game. NatwonTSG2 (talk) 01:27, 29 April 2024 (UTC)