Sierra £24.95
'An action packed game about change making for ages 7
to 11'. I hate Donald Duck's Playground! Not that the program is
bad, it's just that I am not sure I like the thought of 7 to 11 year
olds being smarter than me! Seriously though, in a time when
everybody seems to complain about the lack of good educational
software, this one is a real cracker (or quacker? Groan!).
The game is designed to teach children the concepts
of logical thinking, shape, colour and letter recognition and the
use of money in a society that requires you to understand that
nothing is for nothing and that hard work brings its rewards. It
succeeds admirably in its aims and is packed with a number of well
thought out scenarios that must make some impression on any child
who plays. As with Winnie The Pooh (reviewed in an earlier issue)
the hand of Walt Disney is evident in the understanding of children.
Starting from the beginning, you have the choice of
three levels, beginner, intermediate or advanced, but be warned,
even the beginners level is not too easy (play it while the children
are not looking!). Donald passes through the appropriate gate and
emerges in the high street where there are four workplaces in which
to earn some money. These are McDuck Airlines, The Produce Market,
The Toy Store and Amquack Railroad. Each has a choice of working a
shift from 2 minutes upwards but they all feature different skills
and will take time to master. At the airport you are a baggage
handler and must sort baggage from a conveyor into the appropriate
truck for its destination. This involves checking a three letter
code on each passing package and recognising the corresponding
truck. With the conveyor continually moving it is quite hard! In the
Toy Store you must put toys on the shelves by recognising similar
toys and placing a ladder so that you can climb up and put the toy
in the right place. An additional problem is the train passing by
from time to time which, if you are not careful, will dislodge the
toys you have put up and so reduce your earnings. The Produce Market
has more of an arcade element requiring you to catch produce thrown
off the back of a truck and find the right box to put it in.
Finally, on the Railroad, you must pick up packages from certain
stations and deliver them to others by changing a series of points.
A real challenge to logical thinking, this one!
Whichever job you choose, at the end of your shift
you go to the Payroll office to pick up what you have earned. The
money is counted out in appropriate coins and your total earnings
increased. You may now go back and work some more or find somewhere
to spend some of those wages!
On the other side of the street are three shops where
you have a choice of items to buy. Each item has a stated price and
a description which needs to be read carefully because some items
are much more useful than others, especially if you want to have the
most fun in the park! After choosing the item you want you must pay
the shopkeeper, you are not allowed to leave or buy more without
settling your debts. Paying involves going up to the till and
counting out either the right amount or tending a higher amount and
working out how to get the correct change. A nice lesson in paying
for what you want and understanding how to count up the right amount
or check that you have the right change. Once you have got it right
your purchases are automatically delivered to the park. Guess where
we are going now?
After all that work, it's about time we had some
play, so off to the park. This is the Playground of the title and to
get the most fun you will need to have worked hard and bought some
of the right things. There are many tantalisingly interesting things
in the park but you may not be able to use them without the right
accessories. The park lies across a railroad and, all credit to
Donald, he stops and looks both ways before crossing but it might
have been wiser to have some gates or no railroad rather than
encourage children to cross railway lines, however much they stop
and look. Anyway there are lots of things to do in the park and many
more challenges. You will have to work out how to use most things
and will certainly need to go back to the shops to buy more
equipment. In all probability you will have spent all of your money
and will have to go back to work again. Another lesson, this time in
economics, perhaps it is better to keep something back in case you
need it?
Donald Duck's Playground will last for a long, long
time and with parental guidance cannot fail to have some beneficial
influence on a young child. Almost all of the concept and design is
excellent but there are one or two criticisms. Certainly I felt that
the control of the character is unnecessarily difficult, especially
with a mouse, and might well defeat a child that is good at thinking
but not necessarily that dextrous. A great pity because the aim of
the program is to encourage positive thinking and not to produce
another 'arcade junkie'. The other point is that better use could
have been made of the graphic power of the ST. Each scene is loaded
in from disk, as with other Sierra adventures, and this makes the
action extremely slow, especially when you finally get on the rocket
slide and have to stop halfway down for the bottom half to load!
Donald Duck's Playground is not a huge area and most of it could be
loaded in and scrolled.
Criticisms aside, this is probably one of the few,
and one of the finest, educational programs filling the gap that
seems to exist for the over fives. If you have children, you really
should consider buying this. It is fun, educational and may just
help your children understand all the complexities of later life a
little better.
Donald Duck's Playground will run in Colour or Mono
and uses joystick, keyboard or mouse. Many thanks to Software
Express in Birmingham for supplying the review copy.
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