Educational Software Reviews: Get Ready for the All New Adiboo Series from Knowledge Adventure

Cyber News and Reviews is a monthly column published since 1995 for parents, teachers and small business and home business owners offering articles on some of the best computer products available. I cover business software, education, entertainment with freeware and shareware, and some hardware too. Over the years, I've reviewed computer programs from Microsoft, Knowledge Adventure (Davidson) and others. When my kids were young, they couldn't wait for the software to arrive and have fun testing the games and lessons with me. And, in the past few years they've contributed some of their own reviews with opinions. The best advice on software is from the children who use it. Also, many of the business programs reviewed are useful for home business and small business owners. HB

Get Ready for the All New Adiboo Series from Knowledge Adventure

Get your kids ready for a new series of educational CDs from Knowledge Adventure (makers of the successful Jumpstart series) called Adiboo. You may not be able to pronounce their brand new trade name, but once your kids spend some time with a CD or two, you'll be happy you heard of Adiboo. The Adiboo goal is to "Reveal Your Natural Talents" with software designed to stimulate your child through the exploration of science, music and nature. Three, 2-CD, titles are the first to be offered for kids ages 4-6 covering music, melody and rhyme, nature, animals and planets, and mazes, numbers and puzzles. This series has exceptional graphics and sounds offering real life simulations, arcade style educational games and tons of fun educational activities.

Adiboo discover Nature, Animals & Planets from Knowledge Adventure

After an easy installation, you get to meet Adiboo, who is a cute little elf-like character ready to guide you and your kids through this new world of discovery. You begin with disc 1, in Adiboo's Playland. Here, you can explore outside: click on a tree, select a bird house, see the day turn to night, watch seeds grow into flowers and more. You may also step into Adiboo's play house for more activities including drawing and painting, watching cartoons, music and playing a number of games. You'll also meet a few of Adiboo's friends including his dog Pup who has one suction cup instead of legs, Robby Tock, the robot gardener, Keecook, the robot cook and Buzzy Gulump who sometimes causes problems. Use your mouse (which moves a hand) to select the activities, get help and move through the land. At first, this CD reminded me of Broderbund's, Living Books series software, where you click on an object or character and things happen (animation, music and sound effects). For example, if you click on Adiboo, he'll giggle.

Now onto to disc 2, and enter into The Land of Science. The main menu is a map of the land, where you can click on an area to enter. Visit the farm, see the town, work on experiments in the lab, explore the space station, speed around the racetrack and visit the castle for some time traveling. Beside using the mouse to get around, you can hop into a car and drive, in a real-time simulation, to all the areas. You use the arrow keys to control the car through the winding roads of The Land of Science. Don't forget to stop at stop signs and yield for people walking across the street. It's just like driving in real life. And, if your car needs gas, you can stop at the garage to refuel. This is an excellent simulation.

Becky, my 6-year-old, spent two hours before dinner with Adiboo and then she was back for more after dinner. She really enjoyed playing the breakout game in Adiboo's Play Land, on the first disc, and loved driving the car around The Land of Science, on the second CD (Becky has never driven before using a computer game or in the real world). Even my daughter Sarah, who is 9-years-old, couldn't resist playing the breakout game when Becky took a break (no pun intended). It's very similar to the Javanoid, a popular video game the kids play on the Internet.

Adiboo discover Nature, Animals & Planets sells for a street price of $30 and will run on any multimedia PC, Pentium 133 or faster, with 32 MB RAM running Windows 98/95 and the Power Macintosh (System 7.6.1 or higher), 120 MHz or higher, with 12 MB RAM. Both computers require a twelve-speed (12x) CD-ROM drive. For more information, or to order, visit Amazon.com.

Howard Berenbon

Software Companies Mentioned

Knowledge Adventure, Inc.
19840 Pioneer Avenue
Torrance, CA 90503
Phone: 1-800-545-7677
URL http://www.knowledgeadventure.com

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