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After Dark Games By Pam Gleichman Tribune Media Services After Dark Games is a set of 11 challenging and engaging games. The After Dark Games characters are from the original After Dark screen savers. The program offers arcade action games, wacky word games, matching games, perplexing puzzles and mind bending trivia games. Roof Rats challenges players to rescue the tenants who are trapped on the roof of a building. By finding parallel rooms of the same color and collapsing them by double clicking the mouse, the tenants will jump safely off the roof. This game takes a lot of strategy to collapse all of the rooms. Bad Dog 911 (the playful puppy that messed up desktops in the After Dark screen saver) is a word game that has players racing against the clock. Bad Dog has put a clock tower worker in danger. To rescue him, you must, with great haste, create words from a given set of letters. In Mooshu tiles, you must find matching tiles that are not blocked by other tiles in order to win and receive a fortune. This game has many variations. Some of the other games are Solitaire, Foggy Boxes (Lines and Boxes), Fish Schtick and Zapper. Games have multilevels of difficulty to challenge all ages. There is also a stats button that lets you keep track of the number of games won, high scores, winning and losing streaks. Also included is an After Dark screen saver. After Dark Games is a lot of fun. I would describe them as good, clean fun with lots of challenge. The Roof Rats is my personal favorite. It is quite challenging and very addictive. I have become an expert! When I asked testers which one of the games was their favorite, they all had different responses. The program definitely offers "something for everyone." I like that fact that you can play a game in a few minutes, although, stopping play can be difficult. Playing After Dark games is a good way to unwind and clear your mind. Children liked the challenge of increasing their score and making the "Hall of Fame" list. Publisher : Berkeley Systems, Inc., 2095 Rose Street, Berkeley, Calif. 94709, http://www.afterdark.com . Category : Games. Age : 8 to adult. Installation : Easy. All of the program files are copied onto your hard drive (35-MB) so you don’t need to use the CD each time you play. Use : Easy to play. Graphics : OK, not great. Written Materials : Written materials are included on the CD jacket. System Requirements : Windows 95/98, 486DX 66 MHz processor or faster, 16 MB RAM, 35 MB free HD space, CD-ROM drive, 640X480x256 colors display, Sound Blaster 16 or compatible, 16-bit multimedia sound card. Macintosh-- PowerPC Macintosh System 7.5.5 or later release of the Macintosh OS, 6MB free RAM, 35 MB of free hard disk space, CD-ROM drive, QuickTime 2.1 or better required. Tested Version : Windows 95/Windows98/Macintosh. Cost : $29.95. Rating : Four stars. After Dark Games combine fun and challenge, creating a program that you and your family will want to spend hours playing. DEAR PAM : My 5-year-old loves Arthur. We have all of the Arthur software and have even purchased the Arthur doll that works with the computer. Do you know of any new Arthur software? DEAR READER : Look for many new Arthur titles to be released this fall. There is an Arthur’s preschool, Arthur’s kindergarten, Arthur’s first grade and Arthur’s second grade. WEB SITE OF THE WEEK: PUZZLEMAKER http://www.puzzlemaker.com You can create many different kinds of puzzles at this site, using your own words. Choose from mazes, crisscross puzzles, math squares, number blocks, cryptograms, word searches, letter tile puzzles and more. This is a great site for teachers and students. RATING KEY : ***** — Outstanding; **** — Very Good; *** — Good; ** — Fair; * — Not Worth Purchasing. Pam Gleichman welcomes questions/comments from readers. Write to Pam at Tribune Media Services, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1400, Chicago, Ill. 60611. Send e-mail to [email protected] . � 1999 Tribune Media Services, Inc. Techno file index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA