Alik: Mój pierwszy alfabet (2001)

Russian box cover

## The Game

Alik: Mój pierwszy alfabet (meaning ”Alik: My First Alphabet”) is the 2nd game in the series of Alik games for PC, it targets mainly preschool children. The Polish version, as its title suggests, teaches the Polish alphabet. The Russian version named “Алик. Моя первая английская азбука” (meaning “Alik: My First English Alphabet”) is repurposed to teach English. Throughout the game the letters of the alphabet are shown in four appearances: print uppercase, print lowercase, cursive uppercase and cursive lowercase.

*All the images on this page are from the Russian version.*

### Gameplay

The game can be divided into two parts: the passive learning part, and the actual gameplay part which consists of 8 minigames.

The passive learning part is seen by clicking on the ABC sign and Alik’s friends. The sign takes the player to the menu with the whole alphabet. Alik’s friends take the player to different locations with clickable things, including hidden letters which light up when pointed at. Regardless of where the player clicks on a letter, they’ll be taken to the study room. In this place, Alik shows the letter in its different appearances, and names/shows four things (rarely only two) which have names starting with this letter.

AlphabetStudy RoomBeachGymHomeMagic CastleWild West

The gameplay part is accessed by clicking on the beach, which takes the player to the minigame menu.

#### Minigames

*The minigames are not named, the following names are given only for convenience.*

##### Pairs

The minigame is started by clicking on the blue square.

The player must find matching letters by flipping over the cards and memorizing where they are.

##### Pictures

The minigame is started by clicking on the picture of a clock.

The player is given a picture with an incomplete title. They must take letters from the shelves and fill in the gaps to complete the word.

##### The Beaded Necklace

The minigame is started by clicking on the beaded necklace.

Alik’s girlfriend is sad because her beaded necklace broke. All but one bead fell on the ground. The player must restore the necklace by placing the beads back onto the rope. The beads have letters on them, which must follow in alphabetical order (from A to Z clockwise).

##### The Sausage Machine

The minigame is started by clicking on the sausage.

Alik sits near the machine that produces rabbit sausages, waiting for the hanging sausage to be lowered so he can eat it. The machine is booted up by clicking on the arrow button. Alik names a letter, and the big screen shows different letters one after another. The player must click on the Stop button while the correct letter is shown. Successful clicks move the sausage down, failed ones – up. The speed at which letters change can be increased (or reset) by clicking on the picture of a turtle, which consequently gets replaced by a racer turtle, a sitting rabbit and a running rabbit.

##### Cleaning Up

The minigame is started by clicking on the mop and the bucket.

Paint is spilled on the floor, hiding a letter. The player clicks on the patches of paint to clean them up, revealing parts of the letter, and when they can recognize it they must click on the same letter in the top. The less paint they cleaned up prior to guessing, the better.

##### The TV

The minigame is started by clicking on the TV.

The player turns on the TV by clicking on its button. The TV shows a picture and spells out its name. The player must click on the letter which the word starts with. If they answer correctly they move on to the next picture, but if they make a mistake the TV stops working and needs to be restarted.

##### The Treasure Chest

The minigame is started by clicking on the treasure chest.

Alik found a treasure chest, which is locked using a four-letter password. He names the password, which the player must memorize, then replicate it by clicking on the right letters in the same order. If they click on Alik, he will spell out the sequence again.

##### The Letter Basket

The minigame is started by clicking on the basket with letters.

A lot of letters with varying appearance are stuck on the sheet. Alik names a letter, the player must find the four variations of this letter and put them into the basket. If they click on Alik, he will repeat which letter they need.

## Trivia

* Despite teaching children a language which isn't their native, the Russian version is apparently targeted at a slightly younger demographic than the Polish original. English lessons in Russian schools normally start in 2nd grade.
* The Russian version of the game still contains image files for the Polish-only letters.
* (Observed in the Russian version and may not be the same for Polish) In the minigame with pictures, the word for the ostrich picture is wrong, although it’s written correctly in the study room.
* The copy of the game uploaded to smallgames dot ws contains animation bugs:  the animated elements are displayed in a separate window, while the game’s window has a white gap in place of the animation.