Talk:Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

untitled comment
This page needs a refrence on how the typing program has become a cultural icon of children of the 90's. In the same way telivison shows such as the numerious Nicktoons of the 90's have become icons. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 169.139.115.67 (talk) 22:35, 20 September 2007 (UTC)


 * A new documentary, Seeking Mavis Beacon, explores this subject. (COI disclosure: I am a co-author of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 1.0, and am interviewed in the film.) Bilofsky (talk) 19:29, 7 May 2024 (UTC)

Certainly worthy of inclusion here, although this article needs to be fleshed out. Mavis Beacon was one of the premier typing instruction programs for years. --Heah 17:29, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The woman who 'plays' Mavis Beacon is not the first MB. Who is she? Who was the first Mavis Beacon, the model/actress, that is? --rand (services@commoffice.com)

My recollection is, that the woman who appeared on the first Mavis Beacon box was just a saleswoman at a department store that Les Crane asked to pose for us. She was not a professional model. We didn't have the money to pay for a pro model in the early days. Capmango 16:48, 12 September 2007 (UTC)


 * The article cited says:


 * "As for the sleek, confidence-oozing African-American woman whose photograph has graced 4 million copies of the software, she's a retired Caribbean-born fashion model named Renee Lesperance, discovered - so the story goes - shopping in a department store.
 * "The model, Duffy said, was discovered in 1985 by Les Crane, the former talk-show host, while he shopped at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills.
 * Meeting Lesperance, Duffy said, was "like Lana Turner being discovered at Schwab's (drugstore)."


 * http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19951119&slug=2153259


 * DavidRavenMoon (talk) 03:54, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

I'm curious about when this product was first released.--Brokenchairs 12:49, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Mavis Beacon 1.0 for PC, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Atari 400/800, Amiga and Commodore 64 first hit the store shelves Christmas of 1987. The Macintosh version was released in Spring of '88.  I can't put this in the actual article because I'm a primary source, but there is your answer. Capmango 04:13, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks :) --Brokenchairs 18:27, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Dating
The 1993 date mentioned in the article (or at least implied by the article) simply can't be right. Putting aside my own recollection of using Mavis Beacon well before that, most of the computer systems mentioned three sentences later (including Apple II, Atari, Commodore 64) were not produced anymore anywhere near 1993.

The wording in the article—"the program has been published regularly since 1993"—leaves a loophole, that it was published irregularly prior to that for some period. But that's a rather bizarre interpretation.

I think if no one can substantiate an actual date for Mavis Beacon's release, that the entire sentence should be removed.

--TreyHarris 14:31, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

As I mentioned above, Mavis Beacon was initially developed in the summer and fall of 1987 and released Christmas of that year. To the best of my knowledge, it continued to be published regularly. It seems unlikely to me that anybody has been paid money to report this fact, so what you want to put in the article depends on whether you want the article to be a) accurate and informative or b) "verifiable". I was the developer of the original Apple IIGS and Macintosh versions of Mavis Beacon, and I can attest to those dates. I think if any reader wants to know the dates, they will just have to look at the discussion section. Capmango 00:47, 31 October 2007 (UTC) P.S. I will correct the sentence in the article, but leave the Fact tag. Capmango 00:49, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Found some contemporary references for the Atari ST version. A new product announcement from July 1988: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v7n3/stnewproducts.html And a review from November 1989: http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv4n4/mavisbeacon.html 71.87.54.184 (talk) 04:47, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Hrm, there's a copyright date of 1987 right there in the title screen of the original DOS version. Is referencing the software itself original research? :) http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/mavis-beacon-teaches-typing/screenshots/gameShotId,226718/ 71.87.54.184 (talk) 21:31, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

SHOCKED!
I for one am shocked, SHOCKED! that Mavis Beacon is not a real person 198.6.46.11 (talk) 17:22, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Move
There is another article called Mavis BeaconThat should either be redirected to this article, or merged with it. --水の男の子 (talk) 14:58, 17 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm pulling the merge template down for three reasons: A) it was proposed in the wrong direction, to merge this article into Mavis Beacon 2) there's been no discussion to support the proposal for the ~2 years it's been up and d) the Mavis Beacon article is suitably well-cited in its own right and there's no apparent reason to merge/delete it. Rob T Firefly (talk) 02:33, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Secretary-General?
It's stated that "the original photo of Mavis Beacon was of Caribbean-born Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community Renee L'Esperance", yet if you go to the link for Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, the list there, which dates from 1973 to present, does not include her name. 69.253.39.117 (talk) 09:51, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Minigame redirects listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address redirects from Mavis Beacon minigames. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. --BDD (talk) 19:30, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

Edit request - Remove bogus author
I am Walt Bilofsky, one of the three authors of the original 1.0 version of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.

I request the deletion of the second sentence in History, referencing a purported author Charles Haymond.

Les Crane created the name Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing in 1987. Norm Worthington, Mike Duffy and I wrote the 1.0 version that year. The supporting reference for my authorship is an article in the New York Times. The article also names Les Crane, the producer, and Joe Abrams, marketing and sales.

Neither Mike nor I have ever heard of Charles Haymond and he was not an author of this program. He was first edited into the page on 2 Sept. 2009 by an unidentified author, with no supporting reference. He was added back on 31 Oct. 2019, again by an unidentified author, supported only by a circular reference to a website that repeats verbatim an earlier version of this Wikipedia article.

Bilofsky (talk) 22:15, 30 January 2022 (UTC)


 * Done: Thank you for your request! casualdejekyll  02:42, 2 February 2022 (UTC)

Release timeline
Was thinking about adding a release timeline for Mavis Beacon, but information seems pretty scattered. If there are better sources out there, I couldn't find them, but based on what I could find, here's the best I could create:

https://www.grouvee.com/games/?sort_by=date&dir=asc&franchise=2378&dateFrom=&dateTo=

https://store.steampowered.com/search/?sort_by=Released_DESC&term=mavis+beacon&supportedlang=english

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31350083138&searchurl=an%3Dmavis%2Bbeacon%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1

https://www.amazon.com/Marvis-Beacon-Teaches-Typing-Verson/dp/B003KFG0CE

https://archive.org/search?query=subject%3A%22Mavis+Beacon%22&sort=-date&and%5B%5D=subject%3A%22Mavis+Beacon%22

https://www.matthewdean.com/mavis-beacon

Electricmastro (talk) 20:27, 22 March 2023 (UTC)


 * I worked on Mavis 3 for DOS/Windows and can confirm it was released in 1994. Myrddin111 (talk) 23:09, 22 March 2023 (UTC)


 * Thanks! Would you be able to corroborate on the other release years?Electricmastro (talk) 21:35, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

The "Science" Behind It?
I'm deep into the program now, averaging around 60 wpm, and this is the 3rd or 4th period of my life where I have spent significant time doing the exercises, etc... of this software. So, from that perspective, as a User of the software, I'd like to know something about the "science" behind it. I misspell certain words frequently, and I'd like to know things like whether or not Mavis stores those frequently f-ed up words in a file somewhere. Or whatever. Anything really. What's going on behind the scenes? What's under the hood? Who made the decisions to do this or that? Why does the chameleon and ant game aggravate me so much? How come I keep drilling the same passages over & over again? Is that a good thing, or a bad thing. It says you can "import" your own customized tests. Does Mavis have downloadable tests somewhere on the naked internet? Are there forums for wingnuts like myself to collaborate and gossip about important trivia like where is Mavis from, what's her "orientation", is she married.

Is there a Mavis Beacon Fan Club? Mavis Beacon PORN? What about that song in my head with that GREAT, hard-hitting upright bass? What is it, and who wrote it? Why no tick-tock metronome? I have a zillion questions.

I gotta know these things. 2603:8081:3A00:30DF:BDE5:F114:F0BA:1988 (talk) 20:34, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Correction suggestion
COI disclosure: I am Walt Bilofsky, co-author of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 1.0.

The phrase "Founded by Norm Worthington, Walt Bilofsky, and Mike Duffy," and the subsequent reference to Norm as a co-founder, are incorrect.

Norm, Mike and I were co-authors of the first version of Mavis. However, the founder(s) of The Software Toolworks, depending on context, were either myself in 1980, or Les Crane, Joe Abrams and myself when Toolworks merged with Les's Software Country in 1986. See The Software Toolworks. Bilofsky (talk) 19:51, 7 May 2024 (UTC)


 * I've removed Worthington and Duffy from the opening sentence and added Crane and Abrams names as per the source already used at the end of the paragraph. I searched but was unable to find a reliable source for Worthington and Duffy's involvement with the program as the articles I found that mentioned them didn't discuss their specific roles. I've moved the reference to make it clear what information it covers and added a citation needed tag to the end of the paragraph as another editor may be able to find a reference for the information. If you know of a source which we could use let me know and I can add it. For sources which are considered reliable please see WP:RELIABLE. Suonii180 (talk) 22:30, 7 May 2024 (UTC)
 * @Suonii180: Thanks. To clarify - Mike Duffy wasn't a founder of Toolworks.
 * The facts for this article are: Norm Worthington, Mike Duffy and myself wrote the first version of Mavis. Les Crane didn't "play a role" in creating the persona; he created the persona.
 * If I were able to edit this I would remove any reference to founders, both because of the ambiguity of who was a founder (I was the founder of Toolworks; Les, Joe and I were the founders of "the company" post-merger) and its irrelevance to this article.
 * Rambling on - apart from the question of authors and founders, a key moment in the program's history was Peter Lewis' review in the New York Times, which contributed significantly to its early success. Although the Mavis personality is culturally significant, it often overshadows the teaching software, quite advanced for 1987, whose responsiveness and interactions with the user did more to create the feeling of personality than Mavis herself, who was not an element of the first version beyond the packaging and splash screen. Later versions incorporated Mavis in the software.
 * Bierdsdorfer's article quotes Joe Abrams at length about the Lewis Review's significance for the initial reception of the product. Both are referenced in this article.
 * Bilofsky (talk) 06:15, 8 May 2024 (UTC)