Sharp Wondertopia WN-101

This was the second of seven Wondertopia calculators produced by Sharp in the 1980s.

Like the WN-100 before it, the ‘game’ part of this Wondertopia wasn’t so game-like as it was an analytical puzzle.

The game involves switching numbers around so they end up in correct numerical order, variations of which can be found in Game || of Casio’s FX-880 or the main game of the Casio MG-90. The difficulty here is that you are switching two groups of numbers at once.

The man on the stairs at the left-hand side indicates the level you are playing (I’m not a huge fan of this game on any of the calculators which offer it, so didn’t make it past level one).

Subsequent levels add in an additional button which flips numbers up and down as well.

There’s no sound on this calculator (although it wouldn’t be far away) and was probably pitched at the university student, rather than the primary, intermediate or high schooler.

With nothing to shoot, the game doesn’t quite hold the attention as well as others do, but Sharp had several more Wondertopias up their sleeve and the next one would be just what I was looking for.