Many critics of educational software claim the child who uses such software will become antisocial because of a lack of interaction with other students. That claim can never be made against Edupro's Microgroup Software. Designed to be used by as many children at the same time as possible, the programs encourage their users to compete and cooperate with each other. Nor can the critics claim the programs have no educational value, for in Number Relationships, part of the Math-Hunt Storybook Friends series (for five- to nine-yearolds) all of the lessons are geared toward basic mathematical concepts.

Up to four children at a time can play with Number Relationships. They simply connect their joysticks into the four joystick ports in the Atari 400 or 800. (If fewer than four are playing, the program adjusts itself accordingly.) The lessons come in the form of track races, fill-ins and search/ identifications.

Three of the four lessons in the program - "There Was an Old Woman", "Numbers and Numerals", and "Shapes and Stars" - focus on whether numbers or quantities are greater than (>), less than (< ), or equal to (=) each other. The fourth lesson - "Step Up and Down" - relates to progressions. Of the four essons, only one - "Numbers and Numerals" - has no variations, and that's because the object of the game s to find all the numbers and numerals between two given numbers.

In the Track games (such as "There Was an Old Woman"), the users are given a group of numbers separated by dots. When the cursors are placed over the dots, the three mathematical symbols (<, > , and =) appear one after the other. The child hits the fire button when the appropriate answer is on-screen. For example, if the numbers are "8" and "9", the answer would be"< "

When playing Fill-In games (such as "Step Up and Down"), the youthful gamer is provided with the first three numbers in a series. The object is to determine the progression and then fill-in the next few numbers. For example, if the numbers given are "2", "4", and "7", the next number in the series would be "11 ".

Though Number Relationships features varying difficulty levels, its main strength is in drill and practice. Children can continue playing the same game with different numbers until they learn the concepts being taught. Cooperation is encouraged through messages printed on the screen. As with other good educational software, a comprehensive booklet describes the goals and uses of the program.