Category:Look and Read

Look and Read
Developer(s)	Longman Logotron
Publisher(s)	BBC Worldwide
Year introduced	1987
Genre(s)	Educational

Look and Read is a series of seven educational games, which were developed by Longman Logotron for BBC Worldwide (known as BBC Enterprises until 1995) and released for the BBC Micro, Acorn Archimedes, RISC PC, Microsoft Windows operating system and Macintosh between 1987 and 1998; they were based on seven serials from the BBC drama series of the same name (which premiered on BBC2 in 1967 and ended in 2004) but the five 32-bit games are now only playable if you still own the original disks and an actual Acorn Archimedes, RISC PC, Windows 98 PC or Macintosh to run them on (given that no ADF files of the third to sixth ones were ever made for use in Acorn 32-bit emulators, or an ISO file of the last one for use in DOSBox).

• Geordie Racer (BBC Micro, 1987): The first title in the series was based upon the show's twelfth serial, and the player was guided through it by the show's mascot Wordy; the character of Sal the Sea Serpent, who appeared in the tenth and last challenge, was also created specially for the game.

• Through the Dragon's Eye (BBC Micro, 1989): The second title in the series was released two years after the first one and based upon the show's thirteenth serial; the player was guided through it by the eponymous dragon Gorwen, who had gone on a quest to the land of Widge with his friends Boris, Scott and Amanda, to save the world of Pelamar after their life force, the Veetacore, had exploded (and without it, Pelamar was fading away).

• Sky Hunter (BBC Micro, Acorn Archimedes, 1991): The third title in the series, which was the first to be released on the Archimedes, was released two years after the second one and based on the show's seventh serial (which originally aired in 1978); from this point onwards, the player was not guided through the games by a character, and in this one, they had to help three children, Jackie, Butch and Trevor, stop two bird thieves, Mr. Trim and Badger, from selling a peregrine falcon illegally. This was also the first title in the series to ask the player if they wanted sound at the beginning.

• Earth Warp (Acorn Archimedes, 1994) and Spywatch (RISC PC, 1996): The next two titles for the series got released three and five years after the third one (and based on the show's fifteenth and seventeenth serials); for the fourth one, the player had to help an alien from the fictitious planet Gia named Ollie on his mission to save the Earth from a terrible explosion, and for the fifth one (which, as with its serial, was based in the Second World War), they had to train to be a spy at Westbourne Hall (the character of "Chad", a bald-headed man with a big nose who became popular during the war, would also peer over the player's responses during the challenges, and told them if they were right or wrong by nodding and shaking his head).

• Captain Crimson (RISC PC, 1997) and The Legend of the Lost Keys (RISC PC, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, 1998): The two final titles for the series were released one and two years after the fifth one (and based on the show's eighteenth and nineteenth serials); for the sixth one, the player had to help a comic book superhero who had ended up in the real world, the eponymous Captain Crimson, get back to his ship, and for the seventh one, they had to help two children, Mark and Lisa, whose Great-Uncle George needed to prevent the Box of Destiny (which was the pathway to the world of Heritron) from being opened. The latter was also the only title in the series to let the player save, but if they forgot the code word they were given, they would have to start again (however, teachers had a password to skip to any of the challenges at will and set it up for a specific student).