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)

Requested move 24 April 2024

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Bensci54 (talk) 16:11, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

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. --M asem (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)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.