Birk's Civil War Shootout
© 1998 Entrex Software
This is a crudely designed history trivia game for one or two players. The idea is to earn points by quickly answering multiple-choice questions on the Civil War. Kids have three game choices— Twenty Questions, The Birk 500 or the PowerSlam 2000. Players can also use a question editor to enter their own questions— a useful feature for teachers. While the database of questions seems comprehensive, there are some significant weaknesses to consider before buying this program. For one, the print is nearly impossible to read on the Macintosh version, which we had to install because the Windows version wouldn't work at all. Also problematic is the overall game play, which becomes repetitive quickly and is hard to control. For example, when it is time to "buzz in" your answer, the computer reacts slowly, giving you the feeling that your answer has not been entered. This opens the door to random guessing and limits the learning potential of the experience. Another flaw is that there is no help or additional information given for wrong answers.
$19.95, Win, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Teaches: history, the Civil War