Birk's World War II 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 about World War II. There are three games— Twenty Questions, The Birk 500 or the PowerSlam 2000— or players can use a question editor to enter their own questions. While the database of questions seems comprehensive, the program is plagued with significant problems. 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 design, which is repetitious and unresponsive. For example, when it is time to "buzz in" the answer, the computer reacts slowly, giving the player the feeling that the 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— an essential feature of a good trivia game.
$19.95, Win, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Teaches: history, World War II