Common Questions and Tips

1. System Requirements
2. Server Install
3. Skip or Rearrange facts
4. Challenge a level
5. How to Play
6. Slow down Bosses
7. Progress Reports
8. Efficacy Research
9. Giving children limited admin rights
10. School Hybrid Install--Install assets locally, but keep game data combined on server
11. Difference between base version and full version
12. Norton Anti-Virus keeps removing Timez Attack

Known Errors:

1. "Switching to Resolution (ie 640x480) Failed"
2. Graphic Cards known to have problems
   
3. During gameplay, the environment is black
   

1. MINIMUM System Requirements for Timez Attack

Operating System	Vista, XP, Windows 7, OS X 10.3.9+
Processor	1.0 Ghz
Memory	256 MB
DirectX	9.0c--click to download
Graphics Card	32+ MB with latest driver: (see below)
If you experience random crashing or odd display, the solution is nearly always to update your graphic driver. Here are the links to the main graphic vendors: Intel ATI NVIDIA SiS

To see what kind of system you have, go to C:/TimezAttack and run "Report Error.exe", but you don't need to "submit" the report unless you need help.

2. How do I install Timez Attack on a school server?

1. Run the installer and point it to any file server location that all your workstations can see.
   
   
2. Second, create shortcuts/aliases to TimezAttack.exe on your server with full read/write access.

3. Skip or rearrange the facts

To skip or reorder the facts in the home version 1) Start a new Game. 2) While still in the first dungeon cell, press Esc and click on Map. You will see tools in the lower-right corner for rearranging the facts.

In a school install, open up the Admin program from the Timez Attack folder. Select the entire school, a classroom, or an individual student . . . then press the Options button. Click on facts to skip or drag to rearrange. Facts can cannot be reordered in a specific game once it has been played.

4. Challenge a level without playing all the way through

A player can attempt to pass off a a level at any time without playing all the way through. Once in the level, press Esc, click on Map, select the fact you're currently playing, then press the Challenge button that appears. A second tip is that you can then turn around to see a portal that will teleport you the rest of the way to the final boss!

5. How do I play?

The best quick-start tutorial for the game is now the video that plays at www.bigbrainz.com/HowToPlay.html on a high-speed connection. But if you're unable to access that, here's how you get started--and make sure you press "H" to turn on Hints.  Most children have never played a game as advanced as Timez Attack, so the only purpose of the first room is to teach children how to run and jump.  So just run and jump across the bridge, drop down the hole, and walk through the door down there.

After the checkpoint, drop down the hole and go grab the key.  (You grab things by running into them).  This will let you "turn on" the door.  Little cards will appear on the door that represent the multiplication problem you're learning.  They'll instantly jump off the door and turn into creatures.  Collect enough creatures to solve the problem, then throw them back at the door by pressing the left mouse button. 

Once you've "built" the answer this second time, you'll be able to type the answer in.  Note that there's a small display at the top of the screen that tracks how many balls you need to collect and throw.  Once you've built and solved the answer an Ogre will come out to make sure you remember it.

Once you defeat the Ogre, he'll spit out another key that will let you open the next door.  You'll meet progressively more challenging creatures that will teach, evaluate and reinforce all the numbers.

6. Slow down the boss?

We discourage slowing down the bosses except in cases of substantial learning disabilities because all of the bosses will automatically adapt to a child's individual learning speed (except the Final Boss). Tinkering with the difficulty will therefore generally only give them a subsidized victory that will handicap them in the future. If necessary, the bosses can only be adjusted from the school version. Home users will therefore need to reinstall Timez Attack and select the "school" option. Once the school version is installed, launch the Admin tool and press the "Options" button.

7. Progress Reports

Progress reports are only available for school licences, unless you use the Online Version. Progress Reports are always available in the Online version.

You can view and print reports for an entire school, class, or individual student. Individual student reports contain a tremendous amount of helpful feedback to keep educators, parents, and children up to date on a player's progress.

 

8. Efficacy Research

Timez Attack offers an incredible new standard of efficacy assessment by offering built-in, real-time assessment. That means that the game is constantly assessing its own effectiveness, based on the learning progress of the player. It constantly adapts to the player's individual learning speed and success--absolutely refusing to let the player pass off a level until the player has demonstrated absolute mastery of the designated facts. For that reason, Timez Attack is always 100% effective. As one teacher put it, "I love that Ogre because it means I don't have to be one."

The only research left to do then is how long it takes to obtain this desired mastery, measure how effectively it translates to pencil and paper tests, and measure retention. In our internal tests, the average pre-third grader mastered all facts in 10 hours, with the rest close behind. We have a number of schools currently measuring the transfer of that mastery to pencil and paper tests. We will be launching an incredible new Timez Attack component just for retention fairly soon.

9. Giving Children Limited Admin Rights

(For Windows) You want to keep your child's login locked down so they don't mess up the computer. But a high-end game needs read/write access to function properly. What do do?

Simply right-click on the Timez Attack icon; choose "Run as"; then select an admin User and supply their password. This change will give Timez Attack all the rights it needs to save games and modify its files correctly, while leaving the child or student with all their normal restrictions. Normally this must only be done once, but I have heard of some cases where the parent has to keep doing this every time.

An alternate, brute-force solution is to install Timez Attack directly to the child's desktop.

10. School Hybrid Install--Install assets locally, but keep game data combined on server

If your workstations are taking a long time to load the game data off the server, you can install the game so that it will pull assets locally, but still aggreate all the saved game data on the server.

First, install the game locally on each workstation AND on the server. Then you tell each workstation to use the saved game data off the server by creating a file called "SavedGamesLocation.txt" in the TimezAttack\TimezAttackData folder.

Inside the file, "SavedGamesLocation.txt" simply include the path to the Timez Attack directory on the server. For instance, on Windows this might look like N:\DistrictServer\MySchool\. On a Mac it might look like /Volumes/OurSchoolServer/Applications/TimezAttack.

 

11. Difference between the base version and the full version

Entertainment. We put ALL the education into our base version so that EVERY child can master multiplication. The full version then adds entertainment--more worlds, characters, and creatures to learn in. So it's worth the investment, but you shouldn't feel any obligation to upgrade if money's tight. The base version works just as well--children just don't keep begging to play it for as long.

12. Norton Anti-Virus keeps removing Timez Attack

Generally it will give you a very curious error that came up when Timez Attack 3.0 wsa brand new. It says something about "child killed: SIGABRT". This refers to a compurer process called a "child process," but the real culprit is Norton. This error should fade away as more users register Timez Attack with Norton.

After you see this error you'll see these errors start coming up in the bottom-right of your screen.
Click on "View Details" when you get the option.

On the page that pops up, click on "Options" and tell it that Timez Attack is ok to run:

Known Errors

1. "Switching to Resolution (ie 640x480) Failed"

Generally this is due to an Intel 82810/815 graphics chips' inability to implement hardware acceleration. Currently we are unable to work around this card limitation.

2. Graphic Cards Known to have problems

Rage 128 Pro--We've fixed this card's problems as best we can. If your lucky it will play a little, but characters and sets will probably still be gray. Other problems are likely and common.

Any SiS card is likely to experience problems--especially the 650. Your best chance there is to at least download the latest driver from www.SiS.com

Any S3 card will generally have problems, particularly the S3 ProSavage.

3. During gameplay, the environment is black

This problem is seen during actual gameplay. The character is visible, but all of the walls are black. We have not found any common reason for this problem. Please go to c:\TimezAttack or /Applications/TimezAttack and run "Report Error".