CompuNotes Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing July 5, 1998 Issue 122 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= To subscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com SUBSCRIBE COMPUNOTES-L FirstName LastName To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com SIGNOFF COMPUNOTES-L For Contact and Other Information See Bottom of Publication! +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CONTENTS My Notes: 1=> CompuNotes Notes, mailto:pgrote@i1.net 2=> This Issue's Winner! News: 3=> News of the Week, mailto:pgrote@i1.net Reviews: 4=> Product: Teach Yourself to Create a Home Page in 24 Hours, book Reviewed By: Don Hughes, mailto:dhughes@wwdc.com 5=> Product: Starcraft, games Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com 6=> Product: Star Fleet Academy, game Reviewed By: Jerry Eichelberger, mailto:ike@mslawyer2.com 7=> Product: Magic: The Gathering - Spells of the Ancients, game Reviewed By: Craig Bull, mailto:bull@udayton.edu 8=> Product: John T. McCann's SofTrack, networking Reviewed By: Don Hughes, mailto:dhughes@wwdc.com 9=> Product: McDonaldland Silly Games, educational Reviewed By: Jerry Eichelberger, mailto:ike@mslawyer2.com --- BEGIN ISSUE 1=> CompuNotes Notes, mailto:pgrote@i1.net None this week. 2=> Winner! This week's winner: tnskn@WVI.COM. 3=> News and Game Bits, mailto:pgrote@i1.net or mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com "Really Officer, I downloaded the kiddie porn because I am researching a story . . ." http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,23842,00.html?st.ne.fd.mdh Mr. Gates meet Mr. Buffett ... You Guys Could Own Most of America... http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,23808,00.html?st.ne.4.head Netscape is its own worst enemy . . . http://www.abcnews.com/sections/tech/FredMoody/moody59.html Exchange Service Pack Due . . . http://www.crn.com/dailies/weekending070398/jul02dig05.asp Ugly Web Ad Contest! http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/opinion/0629/29mach.html How to Sell Windows98 without Laughing . . . http://www.forbes.com/asp/redir.asp?/tool/html/98/jul/0702/feat.htm?st.ne.fd.mnaw 4=> Product: Teach Yourself to Create a Home Page in 24 Hours, book Reviewed By: Don Hughes, mailto:dhughes@wwdc.com Author: Rogers Cadenhead Price $24.99 USA /$35.95 CAN SAMS' "Teach Yourself to Create a Home Page in 24 Hours" is a complete starter kit, containing a three hundred and five page illustrated guide and CD-ROM. The book is divided into seven sections covering these topics in depth: 1. Your First Home Page 2. Home Page Text and Color. 3. Home Page Design 4. Home Page Special Effects 5. Home Page Workshop 6. Home Page Publishing 7. Appendixes A-E. The author then takes each book partition part and divides it into bytes of time--the 24-hour format. The enclosed CD-ROM has all the necessary shareware programs for your PC or MAC: Claris Home Page 2.0 Lite, Hot Dog 32-bit HTML editor, HotMetal HTML editor, HTMLed, HTML editor, Paint Shop Pro 3.12, SnagIT, ThumbsPlus, Adobe Acrobat viewer, and Winzip for windows 95. The publisher and author have taken great care to make creating a web page an enjoyable working experience. However, first you must install Claris Home Page Lite to your computer. Once program installation is complete, just follow the instructions and soon you will have created your web page. The author has cleverly placed icons throughout the book to aid the user and indicate: Time Saver-shortcut or other way to do something more quickly. Just a Minute--something that needs a little extra attention. Coffee Break--When there is something worth noting despite its complete irrelevance to the task at hand. Caution--when there is something to watch out for. NEW term button--detailed explanation of a new terms relating to Web Pages. Clearly, the book is intended for computer users who have little experience, and wish to create their own web page on the Internet. Using this book anyone can create a web page and have it up in running in just twenty-four hours--if they follow the author's instruction and work examples. Installation instructions for the software are on the last page of the book, next to the CD-ROM. These instruction cover Windows 96 / NT 4, and Windows 3.1 / NT 3.51, and the Macintosh. The install time on our NT 4.0 system took less the five minutes, and Claris Home Page is very user friendly program. Once Claris Home Page 2.0 Lite, installation is completed you just click on the desktop icon (created during the install) and you are ready to start hour one. Creating your first web page could not be more effortless, for the advanced or novice computer user. All the tools necessary to make a web page are provided on the CD-ROM. An added plus is the author's instructions are written in everyday English, and he does an excellent task explaining each new term encountered. All you need to do is work through the author's examples and instructions in the book and in 24 hours, you can create a web page. So if you want to make your own web page and are looking for an easy to use guide, then check out "Teach Yourself to Create a Web Page in 24 Hours". Publisher SAMS Net http://www.sams.com 5=> Product: Starcraft, games Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Requirements: Pentium-90, 16 MB RAM, Windows 95, 80 MB Hard Drive space, 4x CDROM, SVGA, sound card. Reviewed on: Pentium-166, 24 MB RAM, 16x CDROM MSRP: $49.95 Starcraft is the latest offering by the game gurus at Blizzard Entertainment. I say gurus because these guys seem to always know what we want to play. In the last few years they have released several of the most popular computer games ever seen. In the real time strategy (RTS) genre they created Warcraft and its sequel, Warcraft II, which catapulted them to the tops of the ranks and created the whole RTS clone wars of the last couple of years. Then last year they unleashed Diablo, arguably the best game of 1997 (certainly one of the most original); but certainly the game that single-handedly breathed new life into the stale role-playing game arena. And now Blizzard has returned to the RTS genre with a new highly anticipated offering: Starcraft. But is it simply more orcs in space...or is it the latest, greatest, hottest thing on the market? Read on! I will mention one thing up front. Blizzard did tons of beta testing, holding of from releasing the game until it was done. The result seems to have paid off in spades: Starcraft appears to be rock solid and virtually bug-free. Blizzard has released one patch, but it made only minor tweaks and fixes. And, if you connect to Battle.net, Blizzard's free multiplayer Internet server, the patch is downloaded and installed very quickly with no hassle. The game is playable out of the box, and it says a lot about computer games today that this is a rarity. The premise of the game is simple. Three alien species - humans, the Zerg, and the Protoss are in conflict in the distant future to determine who will rule the galaxy. The catch in Starcraft is that each race has its own unique way of creating new units and fighting battles, meaning that you can more or less pick the race that best fits the way you like to fight. Humans have the basic units - Marines, tanks, etc... along with buildings that can pick up and float off to a new location should you be in need of moving your base. The Zerg look a lot like the bad guys from the Aliens movies, even down to the detail of creating hives. The Zerg buildings are alive, however, and can repair themselves. Zerg structures also evolve, and so can the Zerg creatures. This makes the Zerg a rather nasty and dangerous opponent. The Protoss are masters of psionic powers with a high technology base as well. As a result, Protoss units are extremely powerful. Protoss buildings, however, must be built within a power matrix. That makes them vulnerable to disruptions in the grid. One could nit-pick here and say that Starcraft is really not all that different from any other RTS and the basic premise is the same: build fast, build a lot, and overwhelm your opponent. But the nit-pickers would be missing out on a lot. For one thing, the single-player campaigns have an engaging storyline with a variety of missions to keep you entertained. In addition, you can connect through Blizzard's Battle.net servers and play up to 8 opponents on the Internet. And lastly, the game has a huge longevity. Why? Because Blizzard made the incredibly smart move of adding in an editor like no other ever created for a computer game. The editor not only allows you to make new missions: it allows you to make new campaigns. Although I haven't looked, I'm sure that a huge plethora of new missions and campaigns have started to pop up on the Internet. Back to the original question - is Starcraft simply Orcs in Space? No. It is, however, without a doubt one of the best games I've played this year. I don't play games as often as I used too, and with a three-year-old child I'm not usually willing to stay up late - I need my sleep in order to keep up with her. But the first two nights I played Starcraft, it was after 2 in the morning before I quit playing. It has been a long time - a REALLY long time - since any game sucked me in that hard. Yes, other games have better graphics. None, however, are as easy to play and so much darn fun! If I had one quibble, it is this: the campaigns in the original game must be played in order - first the Terrans, then the Zerg, and finally the Protoss (the hardest). While I understand that Blizzard was trying to look out for the beginners, I would have like the option to skip straight to the Zerg and the Protoss. Beyond the single-player campaigns is the multiplayer game. You can play against 8 opponents by either LAN or Internet connection (the latter to the Battle.net servers). Once you've connected, you can chat with other players or join a game in progress; visual cues show you how well other players have done so you can gauge the quality of your opponent. Lag time seems to be minimal, but then again I tend to play after peak hours. In short, I loved Starcraft. Other software that I have received to review is languishing for now; I've having way too much fun with Starcraft to play those other games. And if you noticed that the CompuNotes website updates are a little behind, now you know why... Blizzard Entertainment Starcraft http://www.blizzard.com 6=> Product: Star Fleet Academy, game Reviewed By: Jerry Eichelberger, mailto:ike@mslawyer2.com Review on: P-200, 64 MB RAM, Windows 95b, 24X CDROM Requires: P-90, 16MB RAM, 150MB Hard drive, W95, 4X CD, Sound MSRP: $50 This is an interesting game for all you Star Trek fans out there. If you have the inspiration to become another Captain James T. Kirk, then you will enjoy learning star ship command and tactics from this simulator. Star Fleet Academy is created in the tradition of Wing Commander. In Academy, not only do you have to complete various combat simulations, but also deal with the shortcomings of your crew. You will have to master diplomacy with alien races and your own alien crew. Your Star Fleet Academy mentors are none other than James T. Kirk, Chekov, and Sulu. They will be providing you with valuable information during your training and providing helpful strategic information for the combat simulations. As captain of your crew, you will learn to identify and "tactfully" handle the personal problems your crew has. You crew consist of some fine cadets, but they have personal and emotional problems that you will have to deal with so that they will perform better in the simulator. There is also a growing "rebellion" against Star Fleet policies that you will have to be careful of and overcome. Some of the other cadets which are not a part of your team can influence your crew into questioning their own allegiance with Star Fleet. You must maintain diplomacy and tact in these situations. There are those cadets that think since James T. Kirk was able to "bend" the rules so often, that the rules and regulations of Star Fleet do not have to be closely followed. It will be up to you, Captain, to set them on the proper path. As a space combat simulator, Academy start out with a bang, but ends with a whimper. The game has all the bells and whistles, including various classes of star ships (including Constellation class), and even the old style Klingon D-7, and Romulan Warbirds. The problem I had with the combat simulation is damage control and engineering control. You see, there are no hot-keys for "full power to the forward shields" or "full power to the phasers". Instead you have to change screen views over to the damage control section of the engineers console panel and fool around with various power slider bars which in turn divert power from secondary systems to the more vital systems. Keep in mind that while you are trying to figure out where the most power is needed, your adversary in continually pounding you. Since you are on another screen, there is no way to change course of take defensive actions. Another thing I did not like was the fact that there is no shield strength display from the main combat screen, and you have to rely on status reports being shouted from the engineer or helmsman. There is a mini model of your starship on the main viewer that will indicate which systems are being hit the hardest. As systems are damaged, the various parts of your starship will go from green to yellow to red. Some of the combat simulations are really tough. One of the enemies you will face are the Venturi Raiders. They have "adopted" their ships from alien technology and are very hard to defeat. Fighting one of these bad boys is bad enough, but there are times when you will have to defeat several at once. You will need to pay close attention to you damage levels, and know when to fight and when to run With this particular enemy, not only will you suffer damage from phasers, but also from psychokinetic attacks. The Venturi leader is a powerful individual that believes he is God and has been chosen to rule the galaxy. In one stage of the game, you will have to use your psychic powers to figure out which ship he is aboard, and then destroy that ship before he escapes. Sounds easy enough, but there are several potential ships which may be his. Many of the missions are multi-objective. Not only will you have to solve puzzles to complete you mission, but you may also have to attack and "disable" an enemy and capture the ship in your tractor beam for a tow back to Star Base. Sometimes you will have to rescue a hostage by disabling an enemy vessel and "beaming" the hostage to safety. The trick of the game in knowing when to, or not to, destroy an enemy. If you hail an enemy ship, you will sometimes get valuable puzzled solving information or clues to help in the mission. BE FRIENDLY. Only provoke another captain when it is absolutely necessary. As the captain, you will have to determine when to be nice, and when to kick butt. Many of your Captain adversaries are very clever and will attempt to trick you, or threaten you into doing their bidding. Remember, not every combat simulation is weapons fight. Sometimes your battle will just figuring out how to help an alien race get home. The graphics and sound effects of this Academy are outstanding. My kids loved the characters and special effects. Academy is one the few games I have played where the sound clips are actually in sync with the games. The voice-overs are perfectly done and mesh with the actor 100%. Star Fleet Academy is a game in which you are always learning some new tactic or easier way to get around. You will quickly learn that using the slider bars for power is a vital task if you want to live. If you will not need transporters or the tractor beam for the mission at hand, then divert power from these systems into the more vital systems such as shields, phasers and warp drives. Star Fleet Academy game is a lot of fun and will keep you entertained for hours on end. This turned out be one of the best games I have reviewed. Overall I rate the game as good, but Interplay could make some minor changes and this game would be have to receive and excellent rating. Interplay http://www.interplay.com 7=> Product: Magic: The Gathering - Spells of the Ancients, game Reviewed By: Craig Bull, mailto:bull@udayton.edu Reviewed on: AMD K6 200MMX, 32 MB RAM, Windows 95b Requires: Window95, 486 (min. 100Mhz), 16 MB RAM, 2x CD-ROM, Magic: The Gathering MSRP: $29.99 This is the first add-on for the original Magic: The Gathering game, released by Microprose. The most important thing to mention immediately is that this program *requires* that you have the original MtG game. Spells of the Ancients (SotA) is not a game in and of itself. It is an add-on to the original MtG game. If you don't have it, the original game can still be purchased. I had to get it to do this review. I was able to get it for $15. For those who don't know, Magic: The Gathering is a card game from Wizards of the Coast that has become extremely popular over the last several years. The basic premise is that you and your opponent are wizards dueling for supremacy. Using magic (mana) that you draw from the land, you try to defeat your opponent by casting spells, trying to reduce the opponent's life to zero. These spells can be used for summoning creatures, casting various effects, etc. Most games are played for ante, which means each player initial draws a card from their deck. If you lose, you lose the card. Tournaments take place around the country, so players can challenge others. SotA adds over a hundred cards to the original computer game. These cards come from the earlier published expansion sets, including Unlimited, Arabian Nights, Antiquities, and some promotional cards. A number of pre-built decks are included. SotA also includes numerous changes and enhancements to the original. There are two ways to play SotA. The first is Dueling. In this, you and the computer each start with 20 life points. The first one reduced to zero loses. You can duel in three different scenarios. The first is Single . This is simply one game. You can play one match or the best out of three, five, or seven games. Gauntlet allows you to challenge a number of computer opponents in sequence. Think "Running the Gauntlet." You start with a deck and challenge a computer opponent. If you win, you progress to the next opponent. This continues until you lose. You can select a deck from the list of available decks, or can let the computer randomly select one for you. You can create your own decks to use during the duels. You can also use decks created by others, some of which can be downloaded from the Magic: The Gathering WWW page at http://www.gathering.net/. The final duel option is a Sealed Deck tournament. The user is given a nearly random assortment of cards and has to make the best possible deck from that. This is one of the most popular tournament formats. You can control various options of the tournament. The other way to play is in the world of Shandalar. This is a much longer, ongoing game. You are an apprentice charged with protecting the world over Shandalar from five evil wizards. You do this by dueling creatures that they send against you. Eventually, you will challenge the wizards themselves, individually. During this, you also need to take quests given by the wise men in the many villages in Shandalar. Completing a quest can earn cards, amulets which can be traded for cards, or mana links. Mana links are the most important, since the more you have, the higher your life point total for each duel. You must also constantly "tweak" your deck. A deck that wins early on will most likely get hammered as you progress. If one of the wizards succeeds in controlling five of the villages, he will gain the power to release a potent magic that will effectively destroy Shandalar. If this happens, you lose. :) The program doesn't always make intelligent choices in playing cards, but if you have played for a while, you can understand the complex decisions that you make as *you* decide which cards to play and the sequence. Given the complexity that can develop, I think the programmers have done an admirable job. If you've read this far, you realize that this is probably more of a review of Magic: The Gathering than it is of Spells of the Ancients. Basically, you're right. But being that SotA is an add-on, I don't really know how else to review it. If you have MtG, I would recommend that you get SotA. With over a hundred new cards, changes to the game play, and general fixes, it's a worth adding it to your MtG game. If you are interested in Magic, but aren't sure how to get started, or like me and want to practice without embarrassing yourself (and losing ante cards), MtG and the SotA add-on are a great way to practice. Also included is information regarding ManaLink, which is an update that adds multiplayer support to MtG. It will be available free over the Internet and on game magazine CD-ROMs. MicroProse http://www.microprose.com/ http://www.gathering.net/ 8=> Product: John T. McCann's SofTrack, networking Reviewed By: Don Hughes, mailto:dhughes@wwdc.com Requirements: Novell NetWare 3.X or 4.X, IBM compatible PC, 400K to 1.8 MB of RAM (depends on number of users) NT Server Requirements: Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0, IBM compatible PC, 2 MB of RAM & 20 bytes per license. Administrator system requirements: 486 or higher PC, 8 MB of RAM, Windows NT or NT workstation Basic Cost $795.00 per Server (25 User Windows NT version) (Cost prices vary per increase in users 25,50,250, 500, 1000 etc.) John T. McCann's "SofTrack" is an integral network metering package, employed to monitor software usage, and licensing for 25 users or more. Unlike other software metering, SofTrack does not have to be loaded on every workstation. When used with Windows NT or NetWare metering is "Server based." This saves time, money by not installing to all workstation and saves valuable memory space--no TSR programs loaded into memory. Why should a company use software metering? Quoting SofTrack's literature: How much would it cost to provide each user on a 250-user network with the basic business applications-Lotus 123, Microsoft Word, DaVinci eMail, Meeting Maker XP, and Harvard Graphics? Lotus 123 cost per user $329.00 = $82,250 Microsoft Word cost per user $299.00 = $74,987. DaVinci eMail cost per user $55.00 = $13,750. Meeting Maker XP cost per user $75.00 = $18,750 Harvard Graphics cost per user $299.00 = $74.987. Total $264,724 This figure does not included new upgrades or support contracts, nor the total network investment. As one can see from the above prices, software licenses per user are very costly for small to large networks. There is another factor at play in this equation if a company does not have the proper licenses. The penalties can be very harsh, "Five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine". Metering software can track software usage, keep your network operation legal, and save you thousands of dollars in license fees. In the above fee listing per 250 users, the amount is $264,724.00 paid out for all users; however, not all-250 people will use all the programs at the same time. Think for a moment what could be possible if your company has implemented SofTrack and the metering show, those only 125 users are using a software package at a given time. This means you could cut future product upgrade license fees in half ($132,000) using actual software usage reports. Using SofTrack, you can limit the number of user that can use any server-based product at a given time. On a large network, it becomes an enormous task to ensure that every workstation user is running legal software, and that a user has not installed software of questionable origin to their station. The SofTrack program is a step in the right direction to protect a company's name and goodwill, in keeping their network software with in the boundaries of the copyright laws. There are two basic reasons to use software metering in to day's business climate, staying legal and saving money. With the introduction of concurrent licensing, a company only needs to purchase licenses to cover the maximum number of users who would use the software at any given time. Nearly all major software manufactures, and over fifty percent of business application developers are now using concurrent licensing. A Company using software metering can almost instantly chart the number of users at any one time and base their licensing purchasing accordingly. Another unique feature of SofTrack is the program ability not just to monitor .com or .exe files, but the Administrator can also monitor .DLL and other files in Windows NT. This tracking feature also can be used to check database and other files important to the business, allowing managers to monitor data flow within the organization. The tracking of data flow and user patterns helps to pinpoint problems on the network, and list the areas that need improvement. The SofTrack program has many unique features, not only can it help a business to adjust the software licenses to fit the companies need, it also monitors the software program usage and can graph or print reports. If demand exceeds the amount of licensees, then the user requesting access to the program is placed into a queue. SofTrack informs the user when a license(s) become available. If the license shortage continues, SofTrack will notify the network administrator. The administrator can set the "critical" level notification feature to suit their companies need. The reporting system built into SofTrack, can track and graph, who the user(s) are, how long the used and application, and if the users were blocked due to insufficient licenses. The advent of concurrent licensing allows companies to add additional licenses, as they become necessary. Software metering is not only for local networks, but can also be used on a wide area networks-- if metering is installed on multiple servers. The company using a wide area network could then purchase global licensing, which allows the sharing of application licenses between different locations or cities. Many users are not aware that the new software suites packages are counted as one application or one license. If a user is using part of an office package, such as the word processor, then he or she actually is claiming the entire package. Other software packages in the suite are unavailable to other users--unless other single licenses are available. The SofTrack metering software came supplied on two 1.44 floppies, a seventy-four page Administrators guide and an eleven page NT installation guide. The software was extremely simple to install using the NT guide. Once installed it a window screen pops up and you begin by selecting the server it is installed on, then you go to control panel, services, select SofTrack Service, and set the Service Startup Type to automatic. Once you restart the Server, SofTrack loads automatically. The system Administrator can now select and setup the many functions of SofTrack from the on screen window. The Windows has five pull down menus across the top: Administration, Licenses, Reports, Server, and Help. An additional ten function selection buttons on the tool bar give instant access to: Exit, Licenses, Replicate, Server, Usage Reports, Recall Report, History, GLS View, GLS History, STS Update. If you are a system Administrator and looking for quality metering software software, that is powerful, easy to install, you should call SofTrack. ON Technology not only makes a high quality product; they also have a rarity in to-days software market, "30-day unconditional money back guarantee". ON Technology Corporation Internet http://www.on.com 9=> Product: McDonaldland Silly Games, educational Reviewed By: Jerry Eichelberger, mailto:ike@mslawyer2.com Review on: Pentium 200, 32 MB RAM, Windows 95b, 24X CDROM Requires: Pentium 75, 8MB RAM, 4X CDROM, Mouse, Windows 95 MSRP: $45 In an age where kids games are a dime a dozen, it is refreshing for a game like McDonaldland Silly Games to come along. The McDonald's Corporation knows what is appealing to young kids, and they have some of the cutest cartoon characters in their line-up. My little girl loves all of them. Your child will enjoy the opportunity to play games with Grimace, the Fry Kids, Hamburglar, and Birdie. I decided I would review this game because I have a three year old daughter that is very interested in playing on daddy's computer. We have several educational type programs for her, but until I received Silly Games we did not have any real games for young children to play. The initial installation of the game is a snap. Just drop the CD in your CD-ROM Drive and close the drawer and your off. The installation routine ran flawlessly, but I would have installer ask the user to add a shortcut icon to the desktop. Although the program does not automatically add the shortcut, you can easily add the icon to your desktop via cut & paste. During the installation, DirectX and Quicktime will automatically be installed on your PC if not already installed. I had no difficulty loading. Silly Games has four games for you & your child to play. They are Jump-n-Slide, Find-a-treasure, Picture Dominoes and Tic-Tac-Toe. Each game is played with different characters and are described as follows: In Jump-n-Slide, you have to race Grimace to Hamburglar's house. This is accomplished by spinning the wheel and moving your character the number of spaces you roll. Each "step" in your path to the house will reveal a secret prize. You may "float", skateboard or jump ahead or behind your current position. This game is much like another kids favorite board game called Candy Land . In Find-a-Treasure you have to hide several objects on a large checkerboard square. Your computer opponent will also hide several items for you to find. You have to "dig" up the hidden squares with a Jack-Hammer character. If you find your all your opponent's hidden treasure first, you win. The one problem I noticed here is that is very difficult to place the Jack-Hammer on the smaller squares you want to dig up. The larger squares are easy, but the smaller squares prove to be quite a challenge for some. In Picture Dominoes you go to Birdie's Tree House. Here you will select several dominoes to play with. You have to match your character dominoes up with the ones on the table. The first player to use all their dominoes wins. My daughter liked being able to select different backgrounds to play the game on. In Tic-Tac-Toe, we revisit this classic game for all ages. Here you will select to play as Hamburglar or the Fry Kids. A problem noted here made my wife irate. If you select to play as the Fry Kids, then the Hamburglar will go first and he will always take the center square. Otherwise, the game is played exactly as is has been for centuries past. In each of the games, your child will be presented with a full color "award" once they have beaten their opponent. You can print out this full page, full color award, but be warned ... It will quickly kill a color cartridge on any color inkjet printer. My daughter LOVED the printouts, and they were proudly hung on the fridge. The colors and music within the game are very nice and do not distract from the viewers enjoyment of the product. It might be nice to have the ability to select musical "themes". Perhaps the addition of checkers and a coloring page would make this program even more enjoyable, and the bigger kids might want to play also. Overall the games are a delight and prove to be a good entertainment value for the kids. I think the game could benefit from additional games/activities other than the four included games. Although we enjoyed playing these four games, we quickly found ourselves wanting more. Buy this game for the kids, and you will probably find yourself play it yourself, and having as much fun as them. I am sure that my daughter will ensure I have ample opportunity to master all the games in the coming months. So much for having a computer at home for getting "work" done. :) Expert Software http://www.expertsoftware.com +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Managing Editor: Patrick Grote -- mailto:pgrote@i1.net Assistant Editor: Doug Reed-- mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com Assistant Editor: Robin Nobles, mailto:smslady@netdoor.com Archives: ftp://ftp.uu.net/published/compunotes/ Website: e-mail: mailto:notes@compunotes.com Want to Write for Us?: mailto:writers@compunotes.com fax: (314) 909-1662 voice: (314) 909-1662 +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CompuNotes is: Available weekly via e-mail and on-line. We cover the PC computing world with comprehensive reviews, news, hot web sites, great columns and interviews. We also give away one software package a week to a lucky winner for just reading our fine publication! Never dull, sometimes tardy, we are here to bring you the computing world the way it is! Please tell every on-line friend about us! CompuNotes B440 1315 Woodgate Drive St. Louis, MO 63122 notes@compunotes.com (C)1998 Patrick Grote