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This is the fourth game in Edmark's series of early learning games designed for young children to use. The interface is completely point-and-click and drag & drop, with minimal text, and instructions are given verbally. The player is taken directly to the main page where Trudy sits in a chair surrounded by objects and open windows, each of which takes the player to an activity. There are five different activities in this game, and as in other games in the House series, each activity has two modes; Explore and Discover and Question and Answer. The first mode encourages the player to click around and experiment, putting the player in control. In Question and Answer mode, which is entered by clicking the animal inside the picture frame, a character will ask the player to perform tasks related to the current area. The following descriptions may apply to either mode: Earth Scout - the player takes off in a rocket from Trudy's backyard to orbit the Earth, visit landmarks and take pictures to print and color. In Q & A mode, Astro-mouse asks the player to visit and photograph particular areas; there are three possible levels of difficulty. Jellybean Hunt - the player is given two views of a picnic blanket; an ant's-eye view and a grid map, and uses onscreen arrows to move the ant toward a specified jellybean The player can choose to follow directions (North, South, West, East) or find his own way. Symbol Sandbox - the player drags symbols onto a grid map to create a sandbox terrain; in Q & A mode, Billy Beaver asks the player to complete a pre-made map. There are two levels of play in this game - a 3x3 map or a 4x4 map. Calendar Clock - this game gives a complete overview of the relationship between clock and calendar time and shows it in a "real-time" format; the player can watch an animated scene and advance it by seconds, minutes, hours, days or months or reverse time by clicking on the symbols below. In Q & A mode, the player is asked to change the scene to match a specific time period. Time Twins - Digital Dan and Analog Ann are two different kinds of clocks who will take turns asking the player to set the other clock to the same time they show. On occasion, Ann's numbers will fall off and have to be replaced. There are three levels of difficulty in this game; on the hour, half-hour increments, and quarter-hour increments. The game allows any number of tries in Question and Answer mode, the player is not penalized for wrong answers at any time. Parents are given several configuration options (Ctrl/Alt + A in Windows, Option/Command + A on a Mac), allowing them to disable music, printing, set the volume, allow exiting, or enable single switch input, which moves the arrow from choice to choice on screen with a click to indicate a selection. |
