education
DUCKS, SEAHORSES AND MUPPETS
New educational software
Reviewed by Anita MalnigIn Big Bird's Funhouse (CBS) the Sesame Street Muppets Bert and
Ernie, Cookie Monster, Grover, Oscar, etc. are all hiding in a funhouse.
The child must guess who's hiding where. Big Bird lets you know if you've
guessed correctly. You must use a soft plastic overlay on the keys to indicate
special squares for the child to push. This doesn't fit very well and tends
to slide around.
At each of the five levels, the play is essentially the
same. You hit some keys. A window in the funhouse will pop up and you see
a Muppet character. Then you hit the hide key, the character disappears
and you try to remember which characters are still around. Each character
has his own musical theme which the child will come to recognize along
with the character himself. (All the Muppets here are male.)
At the first two levels the empty open windows will be
clues as to how many Muppets are missing. Later on all the windows are
open and empty. Later still, you guess the order in which the characters
appear. The animation and music when the Muppets are hiding is funny and
lively but the graphics seemed a little fuzzy. So many educational programs
are achieving superb quality in their graphics that one can't help but
be somewhat disappointed by the slightly off-register resolution here.
But the graphics are less of a disappointment than the
fact that this is essentially a skimpy, one-theme program. I think that
even pre-school children would get tired of the repetitive gameplay rather
quickly.
However, right on the money is Ducks Ahoy! published
by CBS Software and developed by Joyce Hakansson Associates in Berkeley,
California.
You're in Venice and in your gondola you must pick up
ducks who want to go to the beach. You maneuver your boat through the canals
and pick up ducks at the doorways of the various buildings. Then you take
them up to the beach. But, you've got to avoid the hippo who upsets boats
and get to the door of each building before the comically waddling ducks
plop themselves into the water. The ducks don't quite know how to stop.
You've got to have the boat waiting for them.
The graphics are crisp, the waddling ducks are very amusing
and the music charmingly duplicates an Italian song, such as a gondolier
might play!
The ducks do move in a pattern (after you play a while
you begin to pick it up). You must determine how long it will take you
to steer the boat to pick them up in time. You can pick up two in a row
and take them both to the beach, but you must be sure you'll avoid the
hippo. Ten ducks on the beach wins a game.
This simple, clever game can help young children with
their fine motor coordination and counting skills. Older children can work
on planning the most efficient routes and predicting the outcome of the
game.
I've seen kids thoroughly involved with this game-and
believe me, it can capture the parents' attention too! While this is also
a one-theme program, it becomes an engaging adventure. Short, clear documentation
accompanies the software, as well as a story book with duck jokes and activities
such as making duck feet and duck lips! Lots of fun!
Also from Joyce Hakansson Associates for CBS is Sea
Horse Hide 'n' Seek. Here you must maneuver your seahorse through a
coral reef as it encounters old wrecks and seaweed. You also must guide
it away from the lagoon fish who let out a special sound so you know they're
coming.
This program teaches about some of the real properties
of sea horses. They use camouflage to hide. You steer your sea horse to
a large piece of coral and it will assume the color of the coral.
Your goal is to get the sea horse home by crossing the
reef. And it's quite an adventure to do so. A child playing this will have
fun avoiding the lagoon fish, changing colors and hiding, and in the bargain
learn something about underwater life.
Both Ducks Ahoy and Sea Horse Hide 'n' Seek are 16K cartridges,
so they can be used on any Atari without a disk drive or cassette.
Muppet Learning Keys was produced by Jim Henson
Assocates and Koala Technologies. This Keyboard is designed for use by
young children who have difficulty mastering the standard computer keys.
On the Muppet Keys, letters are set out in a five-row
square in their regular A-B-C- sequence. The numbers are arranged to look
like a ruler. There are other keys- Stop, Go, Erase and Zap!-which all
have funny cartoon markings and perform special functions.
With the use of an adapter disk you can run your other
software for your child to play with via the Muppet Keys. But the special
games for the keyboard now available on Apple and Commodore are not out
for the Atari.
And when I tried to run other popular software on an 800XL
with the Muppet Keyboard in place, the programs all crashed. I've spoken
with people at Koala who assure me this is not supposed to happen. Be sure
and try your child's favorite games with this keyboard at the store before
you make a purchase.
BIG BIRD'S FUNHOUSE
$34.95, 48K disk, ages 3-6
DUCKS AHOY!
$12.95, 16K cartridge, ages 3-6
SEA HORSE HIDE 'N' SEEK
$12.95, 16K cartridge, ages 3-6
CBS Software
1 Fawcett Place
Greenwich, CT 06836
(203) 622-2525
MUPPET LEARNING KEYS
$79.95, 64K disk, ages 3-6
Koala Technologies Corp.
3100 Patrick Henry Drive
Santa Clara, CA 95052
(408) 986-8866