The Product Game is a classroom favourite for practising multiplication with a bit of strategy. Two clips sit on a strip of factors from 1 to 9, and the board above holds all 36 of their products. Each turn you move one clip, work out the new product, and claim that square. The first to get four in a row, across, down or diagonally, wins.
The trick is that neither clip belongs to you. Every move you make leaves the clips where your opponent can use them, so a good move is one that gets you closer to four in a row without handing over the square they need. Wanting 42 when the clips sit on 6 and 3 means knowing which factor makes it, and that is multiplication run backwards.
Here you type each product before the square is yours. Get it wrong and the clip stays where you moved it, but the turn passes. Play against the computer, or pass the device between two players, and any facts you miss are kept for a practice worksheet.
The first player puts clip A on any factor. The second player puts clip B on a factor and claims the product of the two. After that, each turn moves one clip to a new factor and claims the new product. A move has to make a product nobody has claimed yet. Four in a row wins.
On paper you work the product out yourself, and that is the practice. If the game filled it in for you, the multiplication would happen on the screen instead of in your head. A wrong answer does not claim the square, and the turn passes.
Yes. Choose "Two players, one screen" and take turns on the same device. Both players type their own products. Against the computer, it moves on its own after a short pause.
It takes a winning square when it sees one and blocks yours, but it does not plan far ahead. A player who watches where the clips end up can beat it, and that is what the game is meant to teach.