Educational hand-held game console
The
Leapster Learning Game System
(previously known as the
Leapster Multimedia Learning System
) is an
educational
handheld game console
aimed at 4- to 10?11-year-olds (
preschool
to
fourth grade
or
fifth grade
), made by
LeapFrog Enterprises
. Its games teach the
alphabet
,
phonics
, basic math (
addition
,
subtraction
,
multiplication
,
division
), and art and animal facts to players. Along with a
directional pad
, the system features a
touchscreen
with a stylus pen that enables young users to interact directly with the screen. The Leapster was released in October 2003.
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LeapFrog released the Leapster2 handheld device as a successor to the Leapster in July 2008.
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The Leapster2 is essentially the previous system with an added
USB port
and
SD card
slot. These additions give the ability to play a downloaded full game or short game including the ability to log data on gameplay, such as what has been learned by the user or art created by the user. Downloadable games are not for sale.
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The games released since the Leapster2's release log user activity and will send this data to LeapFrog's "Learning Path" system, which tracks educational milestones completed. Completion of certain learning activity can allow online games to be accessed. In the case of art created on the device, the art can be further embellished online and printed with a printer accessible by the user's computer. Both the Leapster and Leapster L-MAX were retired in 2014 and the Leapster2 was retired in 2019.
History
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Released on October 7, 2003,
[2]
the Leapster has since undergone several revisions and remakes. The Leapster L-MAX, a version that has one extra feature (an A/V TV output, which allows the user to view and hear gameplay on their television) was released in 2004. The L-MAX console's size has decreased and the pen is now a wire instead of a thread. The Leapster TV, a screenless version with the same basic control layout in a console form, was released in 2005 and retired in 2007.
The Leapster was the best-selling educational handheld game console in America and has sold about 4 million units and 12 million software cartridges since its inception, as of May 2007. It is regularly sold in nine countries directly, and in another 7 for teaching
English as a second language
in schools.
Software
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There are approximately 40 games available, and over 50 have been created. This is the largest library for any handheld designed exclusively for educational use.
All games for the Leapster feature a "Hint" function along with a dedicated "Hint" button that will bring up audio or animated information on instructions given in the game.
LeapFrog
has not opened the Leapster platform to significant amounts of third-party or
homebrew
development; software is typically developed in-house or as work-for-hire.
Criticism
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Dave Bauer stated that there is a "depressingly small library of software available for the Leapster ... but some more varied software would make it much more interesting for (my son) ... no platform that has ever been successful without third-party software. ... Besides that, a strong hobbyist platform would be amazing".
Ian Bogost stated "the potential for improved educational game design is simply not going to come from inside the LeapFrog corporation".
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Games licensed
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Technical specifications
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Hardware
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- CPU
: Custom
ASIC
containing an
ARCTangent
-A5 CPU, running at 96 MHz.
- Memory: Original Leapster: 2 MB onboard
RAM
, 256 bytes non-volatile. Leapster2: 16 MB RAM, 128 KB non-volatile storage
- Media type: Cartridges of 4-16 MB with between 2 and 512 KB non-volatile storage.
- Graphics: 4 MB ATI chip.
- Audio: Proprietary hardware audio acceleration, which includes
MIDI
playback and
CELP
voice compression sampled at 8000 Hz.
- It retains the same sound source from the original
LeapPad
from 1999.
- Screen: 160x160
CSTN
with touchscreen.
- Leapster2 only: USB 1.1 (client only) and full-sized SD slot.
- Some Leapster2s have no SD slot and use onboard memory in place of it.
Most of the software content for the original Leapster was created with Macromedia Flash MX 2004; the device runs a version of
Adobe Flash Player
ported to the Leapster, that is licensed to LeapFrog. Tom Prichard, Sr. Vice President of Marketing for Leapfrog, said that he believed using Flash allowed them to "bring the Leapster system to life more rapidly than we could have with any other development method".
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References
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External links
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