Bible Time Fun

(The) Good Book, Bad Software

A Review of Bible Time Fun

Karina Worlton

“Bible Time Fun” is a DOS-based program designed for children from ages four to twelve. You can choose from the Old or the New Testament, at which point you’ll be able to select from one of eight or nine stories, complete with pictures. Each story is accompanied by a game and a puzzle. In addition, Bible Paint allows you to paint Bible-themed pictures.

The best thing about this product is the ease of use. The instructions consist of two sentences inside the jewel case. The system requirements are very minimal. In a sense, this simplicity is also its biggest drawback. The only reason to put it on a CD is for bragging rights. (“Yes, we sell that on CD.”) The program looks like it was written at about the same time the Bible was originally written.

For example, the sound consists of computer speaker tunes, which are played whenever a correct answer is selected. These reward songs are classical music clips, and some are fairly long. Irritatingly, there is no way to stop them, other than to halt the session or reboot.

The stories, ranging from the Tower of Babel to the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, are written so that children can understand. Each is short, consisting of no more than five screens. With the puzzle option, the illustration on each screen will be turned into a puzzle of 8, 12, 16, or 32 pieces. The games range from concentration to scrambled words.

You can browse through a list of facts about each story, such as “Moses was 80 years old when he went to see Pharoah.” You will also see a memory verse, selected from the Bible, for each story. It’s just printed at the end of the story, with no game to facilitate learning, which should have been easy enough to include.

The Bible Paint program is a typical paint/draw program with options including lines, figures, cut, paste, fill, undo and erase. What makes it different from other paint programs is the pictures–all from Bible stories. Although it is a very simple product overall, it would make a good, inexpensive Sunday activity.

School House Scorecard

Product:	Bible Time Fun
Company:	Bridgestone Multimedia Group 300 North McKemy Avenue Chandler, Arizona 85226 Phone: 800-622-3070 Phone: 602-940-5777
Cost:	$9.95

System Requirements:

IBM or compatible, 640K RAM, CD-ROM Drive, MS-DOS,
VGA Graphics – Mouse supported but not required.

Breakdown:

Ease of Use 3
Learning Value 3
Entertainment Value 2
Graphics 2
Sound 1

Overall Score: