What women want
Article Abstract:
Her Interactive's $60 McKenzie & Company and Magnet Interactive Studios' $30 Chop Suey offer appealing games for girls. McKenzie & Company consists of a set of five CD-ROMs for Windows, and four of the five disks are named after male protagonists. The player takes the role of the leading female character who tries to attract the male leading character. Users may also go shopping in malls, where commercial sponsors have bought space to display their products. Users proceed through a series of social challenges, and the game allows more than one correct solution. The game's weakness lies in the way it interrupts the story with arcade-style games that must be completed before the plot proceeds. Chop Suey offers a collection of silly games. Its strength is its faux-naif artwork and a guiding sensibility that escapes the ordinary, but it lacks a compelling storyline. The program also suffers from an awkward interface.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1995
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Voila, the Muppets fix things in the machine
Article Abstract:
Starwave's $35 The Muppets CD-ROM: Muppets Inside children's educational software is initially amusing, but it soon becomes tedious since it offers only seven different games. The introduction is especially appealing, as the program makes a user's computer appear to crash, and visual and verbal jokes about computers are plentiful. To restore the computer, users must follow the Muppets, and the action advances through playing the games. Each time users pick a game, they receive a tour through the inside of a computer. The games include The Swedish Chef's Kitchens of Doom, a parody of the computer game Doom; and The Fozzie Bear Show, a take-off of the Atari arcade game Missile Command. Other games include a trivia show and a game in which users must place still scenes from a Muppet clip in order, after which players see the animated clip. Vintage clips from the Muppets are also included.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1996
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Where there's a will, there's a disk
Article Abstract:
Nolo Press' $30 Willmaker 6 is an effective software program for making a legal will, a living will and a final arrangements document for funeral instructions. The program comes in both a Windows and a Macintosh version and has a CD-ROM as well as an extensive manual. In addition to user instructions, the manual provides information about legal requirements and issues. The program elicits relevant data about the user's residency, marital and family status. It describes the many options available for decisions on such issues as medical care and child custody. The program's onscreen display of documents is not always accurate and the font and page formatting options do not work consistently. Nonetheless, Willmaker provides valuable assistance for a daunting task.
Publication Name: The New York Times
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0362-4331
Year: 1997
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