(Windows) Alpha - Learn Alphabets The Game Way

[宇崎ちゃん]

So I've been doing both myself and you a favour by developing a new tool: Alpha!

It's a game-like application for Windows, based on a Nintendo DS homebrew application (Project JDS) that taught me my first 2 foreign alphabets: Hiragana and Katakana.
However, that was in 2008.
Even now I am unable to find similar applications for whatever platform to learn all sorts of alphabets.
So fast forward to 2015, I decided to make my own application.

At the moment, Alpha only contains Hiragana, Katakana, Cyrillic (Russian letters) and Arabic, more will follow in the coming weeks.
Make sure you read the README file to find tips on how to learn your new alphabets fast.\

FEATURES:
- Huge characters.
- Clear confirmation whether you're right or wrong.
- Decide what you want to learn and how many characters at once.
- Audio feedback when your answer is correct.
- Cheat sheets for all alphabets.
- Optional timer option.
- Optional amount of letters per session.

TODO:
- Flip alphabets.
- Bug fixes.
- Room for suggestions.

Download (FREE!): http://drive.cw-games.org/srv/public.php?service=files&t=809b978f4acdf0a6c0551dcc6173067d

Edited February 8, 2016 by Blaveloper
New version.

[linguaholic]

Sounds fantastic Blaveloper! Unfortunately I am on a Mac. Any chance you are going to release that for Mac / Linux as well?

 

[宇崎ちゃん]

I'm currently piloting it on Windows only.
Once it proves to be useful to lots of people, I'll surely make a Mac and Android version (and maybe a Linux version).

But in the mean time you can try running it through CrossOver or Wine, it's just a simple C# application, so it doesn't use any 3rd party libraries.

[linguaholic]

I'm currently piloting it on Windows only.
Once it proves to be useful to lots of people, I'll surely make a Mac and Android version (and maybe a Linux version).

But in the mean time you can try running it through CrossOver or Wine, it's just a simple C# application, so it doesn't use any 3rd party libraries.

I heard about CrossOver and Wine. I will give it a try. 

[Skyfox]

Ohh, thanks for sharing. This looks like a really great tool for early on. Especially for people like me who have a hard time getting down visual characters and remembering them and what sounds they go with.

[宇崎ちゃん]

And I eventually forgot about this topic.

In case somebody is interested in the Alpha source code, I published its source code a while ago:
https://github.com/Blaveloper/Alpha-Windows

[宇崎ちゃん]

I have just released a new version: 0.10.

In this version you can set a time limit per letter and an amount of letters per session.
I gave up on implementing Kanji, it's too different from any alphabets already available and there are much better resources out there any way.
And I have added the Hangul alphabet too.

Download: http://drive.cw-games.org/srv/public.php?service=files&t=809b978f4acdf0a6c0551dcc6173067d

[宇崎ちゃん]

I have decided to flip things around and remake this app for Windows 10 (phone and PC) and Android.
I'll make it a paid app and will offer vocab training into each alphabet.
So you'll not just learn to recognise alphabets, you'll also learn to get used to actually reading those too.

I already started building the Windows 10 version, the Android version will come right after I'm done with the Windows 10 version.
Maybe iOS too, but that'll be after release (because unlike the other 2, the iOS license costs money).
And I'm considering a Nintendo 3DS version too, but it's at least trice as hard to program on than on any mobile platform (as far as I have experienced myself).