PREFACE
Despite some website collections of DOS gaming software including my programs in their listings as abandonware, I confirm that I have not abandoned, and retain the copyright for all my software as described in this website.

NielSoft (named after my daughters Nia and Elen) began in 1987. Most educational software at the time was centred around the BBC Micro and my software became popular with parents and schools moving to the growing popularity of IBM PCs and similar DOS computers. I chose to use the Turbo Pascal progammimg language, due to its versatility and potential for educational use.

My first program was Match-Order-Sort, a variation of the classic space invaders type program for young children. This was followed by Mr.Chunky's Word Game and Tick Around The Clock, the latter designed for early learning of vocabulary and telling the time with options for both English and Welsh. Both these programs have extensive monitoring for parent/teacher use to summarise the child(ren)'s progress. My last published effort was a classic type adventure program Fred's Backyard. This was aimed at higher age groups (up to about 14 years) and it proved to be my most popular program. Fred's Backyard includes many logic puzzles and mathematical concepts (eg numbering systems) as part of the strategy of the game. My programs had good reviews in the PC press and were distributed by Educational Software distributors (eg Rickitt and AVC).

I also completed 3 other programs which were not published, two of which, 'Logic and Strategy' and 'The Game of Life', are also included here. 'Logic and Strategy' contains early ideas for strategy puzzles before attempting an adventure game which later became Fred's Backyard. 'The Game of Life' is a simplified version, with editing facilities, of John Conway's cellular automation for use by children to stimulate creative thinking and other cross curriculum learning. I have recently added extra example files not included in my original software. The third, Picture Blocks, is a graphical drawing program and editor for young children, and was used to create ideas for some of the graphics included in the programs and as well as the map for Fred's Backyard.

The computer market gradually moved away from DOS to Apple Macintosh and MS Windows graphical operating systems, but I continued to market the programs until 2005 when eventually DOS became obsolete for many users. However, recent developments and renewed interest in DOS programs have led me to produce this taster website for my programs. The website gives a flavour of all the programs in the hope that some of you will be encouraged to try them out using the DOSBox emulator (for Windows PC or Apple MAC) as described on the next webpage 'Running DOS'.