Typing tutor games with good playablity

[maphew]

What typing tutor games are enjoyable games in their own right?

I'm a computer professional, but have never learned to type properly. I'd like to rectify that. I also don't want my kids to pick up my bad habits! The kids are okay with TuxTyping, for a time. Typing of the Dead sounds great for me, but as far as I can tell one of a kind, and I haven't been able to find a place to buy the PC version. I also don't want the young'uns hooked on first person shooters just yet.

So are there any quality typing games? for a range of ages?

[panda-R]

Typing of the dead is not only annoyingly fun but it teachs you touch typing at the same time!

[Sevventh]

Another vote for Typing of the Dead

[kidchunks]

I've got to give these games a try. I could use some work on my typing. We didn't have fun typing games when I grew up . They made us type from a book..bah!

[namelessguy]

Can I ask you how old your kids are?
If they are younger than 12, then I don't think it's good to waste their time for mad typing skillz.

I've learned through Typequick, though the software is kinda obsolete and costly these days. UltraKey as an alternative, maybe?
Anyway I don't think you need that kind of "gaming" feature is needed in learning how to type, mostly because if you're improving then that will be motivation itself. Also it's not good to just aim at higher scores in game, not at a proper skill.

[maphew]

And you CAN get TOTD legally too but it takes work.

I'm not scared of a little work, but what kind is needed? Following the trail of which company bought that company which bought why company and their intellectual property?

Amazon.com has dreamcaster versions, maybe a person could buy one those and then defensibly(?) download a cracked version... I'd rather be straight up though.

[WhiteRice]

typeracer is by far my favorite because they have quotes by Monty Python.

[yuriylsh]

Typing of the dead is not only annoyingly fun but it teachs you touch typing at the same time!

I've installed this game and I like it a lot, except one little problem that makes it unplayable For some reason I can not enter quotation marks (plus square brackets are offset by one symbol, I mean [] are entered by ]\ ). The game just does not react at all when I press  the quotation mark key. I did choose the US keyboard in the game options, it does not help I'm running the game on Win7 x64 if it makes any difference. Any ideas on how to resolve it?

[panda-R]

solly, i dunno my copy seems to work fine!

[sealcouch]

Typrx

[indaba]

yes, typeracer is a good one, although it can get a little boring after playing a few times and people seem to drop out of races a lot.  personally, I am partial to TypeDown and KeyMaster

[Annas]

My voice for The Typing of the Dead

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

Holy necrobump!

[C5Allroad]

I learned to touch type with type faster before I had a computer. Thank god I took that course back in elementary.

[CPTBadAss]

Typing of the Dead sounds great for me, but as far as I can tell one of a kind, and I haven't been able to find a place to buy the PC version.

You can buy it for the PC on Steam.

[tp4tissue]

Typing of the Dead sounds great for me, but as far as I can tell one of a kind, and I haven't been able to find a place to buy the PC version.

You can buy it for the PC on Steam.

this is typing for the dead, OVERKILL..   not the same as the original game..

still good, but not the same..

[Lycoth]

Oddly enough I was thinking the exact same thing a few days ago as I've just moved from Browns to Blues and having trouble getting used to the new feel.

As TP pointed out, there is The Typing of the Dead Original, which I've found a Download link for. (I won't post a link right now because I'm not sure if this is an illegal download or if i'm meant to buy the game (I did see if I was supposed to purchase it or not but I couldn't' find anywhere to get it))

And then there is Overkill on Steam (Which is 50% off right now!). Was everybody here recommending the original or talking about Overkill? And is there much difference?

[IvanIvanovich]

Surely all the old posts were talking about the original TotD since Overkill only just came out few month ago. The original from 2000 is good fun still of course, but it can be annoying getting it to install and run on modern Windows x64. The second one from 2008 run much better but it is very hard to find to buy since it was a Japan only release, and the entire game is only in Japanese. With Japanese words displayed in Romaji it's like the advanced course, it's quite a lot more challenging. I still have not gotten around to playing Overkill.
Of course you can always find the older ones at that well known torrents place.

[Lycoth]

Thanks for the info.

I just managed to get the original from 2000 installed and working in about 5 minutes on W7 x64. Seems really fun. Just cleared the tutorial, thanks!

[whiteduck]

mavis beacon teaches typing - loads of fun...  but for real I like type racer

[adhoc]

Oddly enough, typing of the dead got 50% off just a few hours after this thread got necro'd. Will be definitely picking this thing up

[Linkbane]

Personally a fan of typehero, which gives a detailed analysis of every error/speed over each test and Stamina 3.0 for longer sessions.

[kolonelkadat]

my biggest problem with the original typing of the dead was that it was in japanese, so it was hard to understand parts of the dialogue. I still have no idea what the first boss says, but it sounds like "suck on my jubei."

Over all, I'd have to say I prefer the original to overkill, but that may just be nostalgia getting the better of me.

[IvanIvanovich]

It's been awhile since I played TotD, but I am pretty sure it has about a 98% English. Perhaps the monster effects have Japanese dialog, but honestly I never thought about it. The reason I said sometimes TotD is hard to install/run is I swear my copy has a 16bit installer which can't work on x64.

[Canious]

Once they become a little more advanced check out 10fastfingers   

[adhoc]

I bought it on Steam when it was on sale a few days ago and it's definitely in English (everything, the story, narration, etc.). The story is so cheesy it's hilarious (they wanted to achieve the cheezyness, you can see they went out of their way to achieve it so it's all good) and the gameplay itself is rock solid and lots of fun.

Recommended

[terran5992]

I bought it on Steam when it was on sale a few days ago and it's definitely in English (everything, the story, narration, etc.). The story is so cheesy it's hilarious (they wanted to achieve the cheezyness, you can see they went out of their way to achieve it so it's all good) and the gameplay itself is rock solid and lots of fun.

Recommended

$10 is kinda expensive.

Does it have good replayabilty?

[adhoc]

Well it's completely randomised (the words), there's lot of difficulty settings and leaderboards. Depends on how competitive you are. I will definitely be getting my fun out of it. As in levels - there's about 10 of them, I think. Each takes about 20 minutes to clear?

Really depends where you're coming from. Over here you can barely go to the cinema with 10$ and I will definitely have more than generic 90 minutes of fun from this game, so it's worth it to me.

[terran5992]

Well it's completely randomised (the words), there's lot of difficulty settings and leaderboards. Depends on how competitive you are. I will definitely be getting my fun out of it. As in levels - there's about 10 of them, I think. Each takes about 20 minutes to clear?

Really depends where you're coming from. Over here you can barely go to the cinema with 10$ and I will definitely have more than generic 90 minutes of fun from this game, so it's worth it to me.

Alright im buying it