malis@bbn.com (Andy Malis) (07/29/89)
Does anyone out there know of any shareware or freeware games for 4 or 5 year-old kids on the Mac? They may be educational, or just fun. Pointers to games in an FTP-able archive would be just great. Please mail replies to malis@bbn.com. My 4 1/2 year-old son thanks you. Andy Malis <malis@bbn.com> UUCP: {harvard,rutgers,uunet}!bbn!malis
UF749@CC.USU.EDU (07/29/89)
Posting-Version: USU; site USU Subject: Mac games for 4 and 5 year-olds have the same request could someone please post a summary thanks
rjc@cup.portal.com (Bob J Carlson) (08/01/89)
Try NumberMaze. Cheers, Bob
rock%warp@Sun.COM (Bill Petro) (08/01/89)
Just a quick answer: Reader Rabbit, Manhole, KidsTime (even my 3 year old enjoys them!) {decwrl,hplabs,ucbvax}!sun!warp!rock Bill Petro
cetron@wasatch.utah.edu (Edward J Cetron) (08/01/89)
Ok, so that I don't set off the 'fanatics', I love my Mac, and I realize how great the user interface is, etc, etc. BUT, I want to use it about 50% of the time for my 7-year old to learn with. I'd hoped when I bought it (Mac SE, 1MB, dual floppy) that there would be lots of great educational software out for it. Well I found Math Blaster (with copy protection which only lets it run out of the lower drive), Kidstalk, and Reader Rabbit. And that's it! Everything else runs on Apple II series or IBM PC's. At this juncture, I can either: a) upgrade an old Apple II+ to a IIe and get it a color mon. Lots of edu-stuff, but a VERY old machine which I figure Apple is soon to discontinue. b) fix up the Mac with a color monitor (which is VERY important in educational programs) a hard disk, etc. or upgrade (via trade-in) to a Mac II. c) scrap the Mac and buy and IBM Clone. A) is the cheapest, but I wonder about the life-expectancy. C) is actually cheaper then b) and has a DAMN sight more edu-stuff available (I've even found whole BBS's of stuff). I know the Mac is easier to 'run' than MS-DOS but since my son has been hacking on both for a while, I rather think this is somewhat unimportant at this point. SO: my request for the net is: Is it worth keeping the Mac? Is anyone ever going to support all that neat edu-ware on the Mac? Can someone, anyone give me any reason to keep that Mac? Thanx in advance, -ed cetron@wasatch.utah.edu
jfw1@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (james.f.whitehead) (08/02/89)
I can heartily recommend NumberMaze for ages 4 and up (maybe 3) and (somewhat less heartily) Kids Time (ages 3 and up). The Carmen Sandiego programs are aimed at 9-10 years or more, so my kids will have to wait a few years. To find more titles, I go to my local Egghead store and look around; generally the mail-order places beat their prices by quite a bit. Anyway, even though the selection isn't huge, it seems better than one of the posters has been able to find, and it correlates well with good reviews. Also, go to your local library and look through MacWorld, MacUser, MacWeek, and Compute back issues. Still not the selection that you see for IBM and Apple II computers, but better than you might think. BTW, be careful about letting young kids finish - my 6 year old managed to turn an 800K disk into an empty 400 (I re-initialized it; thank god I happened to have bakced it up recently). He apparently got mad (all games can be a little frustrating) and was sloppy about shutting down. Now my policy is that I turn the computer off. Jim Whitehead "So what"
sterling@acf5.NYU.EDU (John Burr Sterling) (08/02/89)
In article <118710@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> rock%warp@Sun.COM (Bill Petro) writes: > >Just a quick answer: >Reader Rabbit, Manhole, KidsTime (even my 3 year old enjoys them!) > >{decwrl,hplabs,ucbvax}!sun!warp!rock Bill Petro Add to that a painting program. If your Mac has color, get a copy of Bruce Ballard's "Easy Color Paint". It's free and easy to use. My almost-three year old has been using it happily for half a year. (Mail me if you can't find it on an archive.) Also, note that Reader Rabbit now runs on the MacII. The version number should be > 2 (eg. 2.1). We just got it, and it looks like a lot of fun. It "works" on character recognition and spelling of three letter words. A little advanced for our son, but the format of the games entertain him. In line with Manhole, don't overlook Amanda Goodenough's stacks, "Inigo gets out", "Inigo takes a bath" and "Your faithful camel". These were my son's first programs and he loved them. They are great for introducing the computer as a thing to explore. Bram often has good ideas for how programs could be more fun (eg. "Why doesn't X happen if I click on the Y?"), and I think he got his initial ideas from her work. They were out as shareware, but I heard that they are being released as a commercial product. Oh, don't overlook Apple's own tutorial. The beginning part about pointing, clicking and dragging is very well done and was a favorite game around here for a while. It is amazing how easy a computer can be for a child to use. It is too bad that there isn't more software out there for the Mac for young children. Enjoy! john sterling sterling@cs.nyu.edu -- - john sterling - sterling@cs.nyu.edu
funk@ellington.SRC.Honeywell.COM (Harry Funk) (08/03/89)
Well, not shareware, but not outrageous: There's a group called Family Guide to Educational Software 484 Sunrise Highwya Rockville Centre, NY 11570 1-800-848-0804 They publish a catalog of games/educational software for PCs, Apples, Commodores, and Macs. They identify award winning packages, and accept returns from 15 days for exchange or refund (I've never tested this). Some offerings for Mac (all are award winners - Parent's Choice & such): Title | Type/Description | Publisher | Price | Age -------------------|-----------------------------|-----------|-------|----- Cotton Tails | Story creation/publishing | MINDPLAY | $50 | 4-8 Mastertype/New Impr| Typing skills game | Mindscape | $50 | 8+ The Print Shop | What it sounds like. | Broderbund| $60 | 11+ Reader Rabbit | Early reading skills |Learning Co| $60 | 5-7 Speed Reader II | Reading skills drill | Davidson | $70 | 10+ The Toy Shop | Modelling/design tool | Broderbund| $50 | 11+ Word Attack | Vocabulary builder | Davidson | $50 | 9+ There are 20+ that run on Macintosh. I don't buy into the age ranges for some of this stuff. Harry.
landman%hanami@Sun.COM (Howard A. Landman x61391) (08/17/89)
In article <118710@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> rock%warp@Sun.COM (Bill Petro) writes: >Reader Rabbit, Manhole, KidsTime (even my 3 year old enjoys them!) I do not recommend Reader Rabbit because it is copy protected and requires that you give your 4-year-old the master disk any time they want to play. Plus, of course, they won't be able to read the dialogue asking them to insert the master disk. All in all a thoroughly stupid idea that cripples an otherwise nice package. Manhole looks great in demos. KidsTime is a lot of fun. You can even add your own puzzles to connect the dots. My 4-year-old likes PhrazeCraze even though she can't read the phrases. You can make your own puzzles though, if you want it to be easier. This is a shareware program that emulates Wheel Of Fortune. She also has fun doing much of Fools Errand (with help). Howard A. Landman landman@sun.com
cordy@qucis.queensu.CA (Jim Cordy) (08/18/89)
My four year old loves HyperCard, which he can easily run himself. Interesting stacks to leave around for a four year old include the freebee SpeakAndSpell stack and the Dinosaurs stack. Seems to me I got these free from the net some long time ago. Jim -- Prof. J.R. Cordy cordy@qucis.queensu.ca Dept. of Computing and Information Science James.R.Cordy@QueensU.CA Queen's University at Kingston cordy@qucis.bitnet Kingston, Canada K7L 3N6 utcsri!qucis!cordy