Dr. Livingston, I presume.........revisited!
A Review of Africa Trail
Rich Cunningham
Picture a bike ride from the north of the African continent, to Cape Horn. If you can imagine that, then you will enjoy this educational game.
One of the first games I ever played on a computer was a text based
game called "The Oregon Trail." Over
the years that game has become a classic, and a valuable educational tool for
the classroom, helping students
learn history, geography, and to utilize thinking skills. Now the latest game
of that type from the MECC people
has crossed my desk.
It is called African Trail and I am just as excited
about it as I was Oregon Trail II
(previously reviewed in World Village). In fact, when I got it I stayed up
till 2:00 AM playing it. It has a
magnetic pull on a player.
The purpose of the game is to help the player learn about the customs,
lifestyles and geography of the African
continent. The time setting is modern day, and the goal is to bike as part of
a four member team from a spot on
the north of the continent, to the southern most point of the continent.
There are alternate destinations that
can be used, in order to not make the game run so long. In keeping with the
Oregon Trail spirit, one must
outfit oneself with enough spare parts for the bike, and maintain enough
money to buy food along the way. One
feature I enjoyed was the ability to air freight in parts to your location.
(I can think of some Oregon Trail
games where that would have come in handy.)
Along the way, you can visit
various towns, talk with the
citizens, and shop in the market, to sample the local fare and buy your food.
There is not any violence in this
game, as was encountered in the Oregon Trail series, but keeping one healthy
and morale up is sometimes very
difficult and challenging.
There is a selection of teammates to choose from at the beginning, and you
can talk with them to determine
which is best suited for your style of travel. They interact with you on the
trip, giving you hints and tips on
what to do. You can also consult them on matters, such as when would be a
good time to rest.
The multimedia portions of the game are very good, but not up to the
standards of Oregon Trail II.
There are
many, many pictures ( I would guess several hundred) that are used to
illustrate the locations you are
visiting, and the people. There are also video clips to enhance and emphasis
significant points of interest.
The music soundtrack has definite overtones of Africa, and helps to set the
mood.
Installation was a snap, using Windows 95. The program installs as a Windows
95 program, which means it can be
removed by the uninstall program in windows. The program never hung up or
crashed once on me, and was very user
friendly in it's interface. If you have ever played any of MECC's other
games, you would be very at home with
this one. The age suggested for this is 10 to 16, and I would guess 12-16
would be a little more appropriate.
My 11 year old liked the game, but lost interest in the educational aspects
of it since she hadn't studied
about Africa yet in school. She concentrated more on the biking portion of
the game, than learning about where
she was going. This program would, in my opinion, be best suited as a tool to
supplement African social
studies, rather than a primary learning tool. But it is still an excellent
game, and well worth the investment
in both the money to acquire it, and the time to learn it. As an added
incentive, the original Oregon Trail
CD-ROM is included free in the package. These two game together can provide
hours of fun and learning
entertainment for your children (and yourself).
School House Scorecard
| Product: |
Africa Trail |
| Company: |
MECC
|
| Cost: |
$49.95 |
System Requirements:
IBM:
486 or higher, Windows 3.1/DOS 5 or higher,
256 color SVGA display, 4 meg of ram,
8 recommended (8 required for Windows 95), mouse,
hard drive, double speed CD ROM,
Windows-compatible sound card.
MacIntosh:
68030 required (LC III or greater), 68040
or Power MacIntosh recommended, System 7.1 or greater,
5 meg of ram required, 8 meg recommended,
13" or larger color display required (640x480x256 colors),
hard disk and CD ROM drive required.
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 3
Learning Value 4
Entertainment Value 5
Graphics 4
Sound 4
Overall Score:
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