a E i - Commodore Is Awesome

points by negotiating the various
hazards. The hazards are linked so that
the game is rather like a long journey
or quest. The problems are two-fold.
First the child must select the
correct machine and attachment for
the particular hazard, second, the child
demonstrate the dexterity and timing
needed to negotiate what are
effectively a sequence of simple arcade
games.
Once Camilla has been rescued,
you start again but with a higher points
tally to achieve, Failure means a long
trek by foot across the desert.
Overall the game is ideal for the
younger child (six to 11 years) with its
abundance of bad puns and jokes, it's
simple arcade games and the use of
weird machines.
Once children start to read and
recognise words, the next problem is to
teach how words link together to give
meaningful sentences. The problem is
how to make this exercise fun. One
effective approach to this problem is to
get the child to write a sentence and
then to read it back. Kermit's Electronic
Story Maker providdes a cartoon
based method of writing simple
stories. A particularly nice touch is
that the program uses a joystick to
make all selections via cycling menus.
The story is built up from a series of
simple sentences of about half a dozen
words. The display shows the sentence
at the top of the screen as a series of
blanks separated by punctuation
marks. You simply point at each blank
and choose from the words available.
Each word is accompanied by an
animated sequence showing what each
word represents. An example sentence
would be: "While the banana dances in
space, the cow barks "Yes I know it
sounds silly, but the program allows
unlimited variations. Once the
sentence is complete, you can see the
sequence described. Once satisfied.
you can then move on to another
sentence. The sentences have differing
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structures allowing a fair degree of
variety. Stories can be saved on disk
for completion or replaying at a later
date.
The sequences are nicely done with
background music appropriate to the
scene (all being based on the Muppet
theme tune). The sound effects of the
creatures/objects used are also
sounded. Overall an excellent package
which gives hours of fun.
The other two packages available
are text/graphic adventures. First we
have Alickey's Space Adventure. In this
game, you assist Mickey Mouse and
Pluto in their search of the solar system
for a number of crystal pieces. The
game is quite huge in that it occupies
both sides of two disks.
In his travels, Mickey finds an alien
space ship. This must be used to fly to
the planets of the solar system to find
the parts of the aforesaid crystal which
holds the history of' the alien planet.
The game uses combined multicolour
mode high resolution graphics with
text. The pictures are true to the
original Disney characters and are
very colourful. The input of instructions
has been simplified in that the
options available are listed at the foot
of the screen and you simply choose
them using single key presses. The
scenario is quite large with plenty of
places to explore. Clues are also provided,
particularly by the accompanying
instructions.
On balance, the game is more
suited to the older child (say nine to 12)
since there is quite a lot of detailed
information on the planets and other
scientific topics. The accompanying
literature is particularly strong with a
glossary and ideas for further work. A
disk drive is mandatory in order to
play this game and the frequent disk
changes are rather tedious. On the
whole, however, this is a strong piece
of software which will take quite some
hours to solve. Additionally, each new
game is different.
YOUR COMMODORE january 1987
37
Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred
Acre Wood is very similar in style to
Mickey's Space Adventure albeit aimed
at a slightly younger audience. The aim
of the game is to locate objects and
return them to their rightful owner.
Naturally, each new game is different.
To help players to play the game, a
simple map is provided showing the
main parts of the wood. This map
bears illustrations which are similar to
those shown on the screen allowing
you to find out where you are, The
game follows quite closely a number of
events described in the original books
and the illustrations are in themselves
faithful to the original. As before, a
simple method of selection of option is
provided. There are also a number of
abstract, fun options provided to allow
the child to mess around. You can, for
example, play Pooh sticks or look
under rocks or count trees etc. There
are also a number of confounding
factors which can either move you to a
random location or shuffle the objects
around the wood. In all, just enough to
keep a child quiet, or cursing
(depending on your child) for hours on
end. Again, unfortunately, a disk drive
is needed.
So what do we have? The packages
can be summarised under several
features:
1) All use colourful, well designed
graphics featuring well known cartoon
characters. They therefore have
instant appeal, particularly to the
under tens. Sound is also well used to
give music and effects.
2) All packages come with detailed and
colourful instructions. These instructions
also provide ideas for further
activities and, where needed, glossaries
and detailed information.
3) Except for Donald Duck's
Playground, a disk drive is required.
4) All packages teach and test skills
without making it obvious. They also
achieve their goals as educational
packages. In all, the Kids series is
filling a large gap in the software
market for the primary age group and
sets standards which many domestic
software houses would do well to
emulate. T f f e ,
Touchline
Company: US Gold/Kids!
Address: Units 2/3, Ho/ford Way,
Holford, Birmingham 116 7,4X
Tel: 021 356 3388.