Farnsworth Ferret’s Fun Pack
Farnsworth Ferret’s Somewhat Fun Pack
A Review of Farnsworth Ferret’s Fun Pack
Judy Pozar
The Quality Control Department must have been on coffee break when Farnsworth Ferret’s Fun Pack went out the door. It is hard to even tell what company is responsible for this collection of unimaginative kids’ activities. It is a CrystalVision Software product, created by Elpin Systems, published by Micro Star Software. The outside of the CD-ROM said it was version 2.0, but it contained version 1.20.
The pack consists of five activities “for children of all ages,” but not all activities are suitable for all ages. They provide a pleasant diversion, and require children to use their developing brains. Most activities allow the player to set the difficulty level, and high scores are kept for players, providing an incentive for children to do their best. However, when a player changes the level, it changes for ALL players until it is reset. This could be frustrating for younger players. There are several other bugs which detract from the quality of this product.
One learning activity is Kid Match, a variation of Memory or Concentration, in which the player attempts to find matches by clicking on tiles. Options include matching letters, numbers, colored shapes, and symbols. There is supposed to be an option to change the designs on the backs of the cards, but selecting anything other than the bee results in invisible cards! After each match, Farnsworth says “Way to go!” and a dialog box with an “OK” button appears. This is an unnecessary distraction.
“Copy Cat” is a version of the electronic game “Simon,” in which the player attempts to repeat increasingly longer sequences of sounds. In this case, animals (horse, cat, frog, etc.) make sounds. My children, ages 5 and 11, found this activity challenging and fun. When you make a mistake, Farnsworth says “OOPS!”, but there is no feedback after a correct sequence is repeated. Instead, as soon as the player clicks on the last sound of the sequence, the program launches immediately into the next sequence. Without a pause, this can be confusing.
In “Math Invaders” the object is to type the answer to arithmetic problems which fall from the sky, before they crash on your space stations. There are many levels from which to choose. Younger children can simply count objects. Older children can select addition, subtraction, multiplication, division or mixed arithmetic problems. “Kid Paint” is a talking paint and drawing program. Children can make freeform drawings or color in prepackaged pictures. The pictures can be saved (although a young child would have difficulty picking an appropriate directory in which to save them). They can also be printed. However, the pictures appear in landscape mode on the screen, but are squished into portrait mode when printed.
In “Scramble,” the letters of words are jumbled, and the player works against the clock to unscramble them as quickly as possible. The higher the difficulty level, the longer the words. You can choose whether to show pictures of the words (the child still has to know how to spell them correctly), or for a more challenging task, hide the pictures.
If your children can get past the miscellaneous bugs and annoyances, Farnsworth Ferret’s Fun Pack might provide them with some hours of amusement. Maybe the real version 2.0 has cleaned up some of the problems found in the version I tested. But I wouldn’t count on it.
School House Scorecard
| Product: | Farnsworth Ferret’s Fun Pack |
| Company: | CrystalVision Software |
| Cost: | $19.95 |
System Requirements:
386 CPU or higher; 4MB of RAM; Sound Blaster or compatible sound card; Windows 3.1 enhanced mode or Windows 95; CD-ROM drive; 16 color VGA or better graphics; mouse.
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 3
Learning Value 3
Entertainment Value 3
Graphics 3
Sound 3
Overall Score:
(* 0 rating, 0 votes)
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