& LIGHT-YEARS! - TRS-80 Color Computer Archive

n reviews
Right Side (3) Rear (2)
Left Side (4) Froni ( 1 )
Build the house of your dreams with Hometown, U.S.A.
markers or watercolors give a more fin
ished look.)
After you've finished designing
your building, you can print it out on a
dot-matrix or laser printer {Macintosh
version only). For best results, you'll
want to use heavy bond or textured pa
per. Several pieces of the structure ap
pear on each page, and it may take two
or three pages to prinl all the parts your
building requires.
The next step is to put your cre
ation together. The program's manual
offers excellent suggestions about how
to cut. paste, and assemble your build
ing. There are step-by-step directions
for putting together each structure.
Numbers printed on the tabs of the
parts identify the section and indicate
to which part it is to be glued. To make
your structures even sturdier, glue the
parts to cardboard or cardstock before
you start. Use sharp scissors or an X-
ACTO knife to get more finely cut
edges.
The buildings differ in size, but arc
close to the HO scale familiar to modeltrain
users. {To give you an idea of the
basic size, a cassette tape fits nicely in
side the hotel.) If you want to make
your buildings larger or smaller, you
78 C O M P U T E I
can enlarge or reduce the printed tem
plates with a photocopier before
cutting.
There's no wanting for ideas on
using your model buildings around the
house. The tiny homes could be turned
into containers for cookies or candies
given as holiday gifts. Reduce the size
of the buildings and they make clever
Christmas tree ornaments or. placed on
a table, form a Christmas village. Con
struct a town for your child's (or your
own) electric train. Stuff some potpour
ri in a schoolhouse for a great gift for
your child's teacher. You'll find lots of
clever ways to use your buildings.
Hometown, U.S.A. also has many
classroom applications. For example, a
social studies project might have chil
dren design the neighborhood where
they live. The stcp-by-stcp design pro
cess, followed by the construction of the
buildings, bolsters logical thinking
skills. Vocabulary and cooperativelearning
skills are practiced as groups of
children work together to create their
own community.
Parents eager to share in their
child's learning experience will benefit
from the teamwork that a program like
Hometown, U.S.A. fosters. Adults and
children work as partners, creating a
place they can call home.
— Nancy Rentschler
Hometown, U.S.A.
For...
Apple II—S39.95
Apple Has—$39.95
Commodore 64/128—S39.95
IBM PC and compatibles—$39.95
Macintosh—S39.95
From...
Publishing International
333 W. El Camino Real
Suite 222
Sunnyvale. CA 94087
(408) 738^1311
And...
Print drivers for laser printers are being de
veloped for the IBM version. Q
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