To be honest, even if I use my computer here in the office for a long time, I still can't seem to be a touch typist. There are times when I just want to go back in time (Grade 7 or so), and take my typing lessons from our teacher seriously.

But alas. We have yet to invent the time machine and I am getting sick and tired of just looking at my keyboard while I am typing this blog entry.

Good thing there are still some programmers who take the time out to provide people with programs that can teach you how to type properly, while having fun at the same time.

Readers of In The Zone! I present to you the latest thing to unleash the touch typist in you. I give to you, the Ys Typing Tutor Game v0.85.

Here is the history of this game. (Quoted from the downloads are of nick.serveblog.net)

A long long time ago, when I was working on the now defunct Zwei!! project, I discovered it had two special mini-games that become accessible only after certain events are completed. One game is a tetris clone that I don't care too much for, the other is this typing tutor game, referred to by Falcom as "Typing of Ys." Years later, I thought it would be nice to separate this game out of Zwei!! to make it available for everyone after someone brought it up in a messageboard forum I visit. So here you go! I was hoping to get Deuce to translate all the Romanji, but that never panned out so I've released all existing work that was done. You can play with the text files in the data folder and save whatever words you'd like the game to use yourself, if you wish.

- NightWolve, Deuce & team

Being a skeptic, I tried the game out. Well, all I can say is that after a few hours of playing it, my typing skills improved. Of course, I didn't turn into the touch typist, but as they say: practice makes perfect.

If you want to play this interesting game, click on this link, and download it.

Do tell me what you guys think.