About this time of year I get a lot of questions from people who are shopping for software for their kids, parents, friends, aunts, uncles, husbands, wives and significant others.
Thanks to the newfound popularity of the CD-ROM, the pickings are better than ever. In fact, I've never seen such an explosion of interesting and entertaining software for kids and adults.
Herewith are a few suggestions, with no particular theme and in no particular order.
For parents who are absolutely determined that the family computer is going to teach their kids something, the trend this year is away from math and reading drills and toward creativity software. These are programs designed to get kids painting, drawing, writing, recording their voices and putting everything together in a multimedia show.
Among the best of these are Edmark's Imagination Express for )) Windows and Macintosh computers, Claris' Amazing Animation for the Mac and Knowledge Adventure's Magic Theatre for Windows.
I particularly liked Imagination Express, a CD-ROM that gives children the chance to create animated story books using text, ++ sounds, voice recordings and images set against a variety of backgrounds.
Two settings are included with the basic program -- the $l neighborhood and a castle -- and they should keep your kids involved for a quite awhile.
Imagination Express uses technology I've never seen before that enables its "stickers" -- digitized images of real people, objects and animals that kids paste into their scenes -- to rotate, resize automatically as they move from foreground to background, and move in front of and behind other objects. This is a neat trick, and it's carried out so transparently that your youngsters will never notice that they're seeing some state-of-the-art programming.
Another interesting entry along the same lines is Nickelodeon Director's Lab from Viacom, a DOS-based CD-ROM program that lets youngsters create their own Nickelodeon-style videos using a graphics studio, title editor, video editor, music and sound effects studios. This one includes 300 video clips from Nick programs and on-screen help from Melissa Joan Hart of "Clarissa Explains it All." If you don't know who she is, your kids will.
I don't know why this is, but another category suddenly overflowing with titles this year is "body software," designed to teach painless lessons about anatomy.
The now-classic Bodyworks from the Software Marketing Corp.,
is a beautifully conceived reference work for older students and adults that illustrates the body with stunning graphics, sound and animation. It's available in DOS and Windows.
Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores the Body from Microsoft is a delightful Windows CD-ROM for elementary school students based on the book series by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen.
If you have the horsepower (an 80486 processor running at 25 mhz or better), AnnaTommy from IVI Publishing is a nicely done CD rip-off of the old "Incredible Journey" movie that puts a girl named Anna and her brother Tommy in charge of a miniaturized spaceship that you help pilot through 10 different body systems. Along the way, youngsters will find dozens of arcade-style games to keep them entertained while they're learning.
The graphics are extremely well-done. Unlike most mouse-oriented Windows software, this requires a joystick if you want to make sure you're turning left at the right ventricle instead of right at the left ventricle.
Moving away from education into the world of adventure, your preteen youngsters may enjoy Inherit the Earth -- Quest for the Orb from new World Computing.
This well-crafted tale is set on a planet Earth that has been abandoned by humans and is now inhabited by tribes of intelligent animals who display many of the foibles of their predecessors. As the story begins, the Orb of Storms, which controls the weather, has been stolen, and it's up to Rif the fox and his companions Okk the boar and Eeah the Elk to find it.
With interactive conversations that influence the outcome of the story, excellent animation and beautifully drawn graphics, this Windows CD is an excellent introduction to the adventure genre.
There's just enough menace to provide an edge to the story, but brains rather than brawn will ultimately lead to the Orb and the ancient ruins that hold the clue to the departure of the humans from the planet.
For older children and adults who are really into adventure, Masters of Magic from MicroProse may be the ultimate challenge. Combining the spells, sorcery, wizardry and heraldry of classic fantasy games with the intricacies of building towns, cities and empires that made the company's Civilization and Railroad Tycoon best sellers, Masters of Magic is not for the faint of heart.
There's a 160-page game manual and a separate 50-page spell book to help you rise from your lowly status as a fledgling wizard, and you'll have to work hard to learn
new magic, allocate your resources and deal with an incredible population of fantastic creatures.
My elder son Ike, an acknowledged expert on such things, says this is one of the best he's ever seen. The DOS-based program will run acceptably on an 80386 computer, but Ike liked it much better on a Pentium.
Moving to the realm of programs with absolutely no redeeming social value, my younger son Ben asked me to mention his current favorite, Mad Dog II -- The Lost Gold from American Laser Games.
This CD version of the video arcade hit puts you in the middle of a shoot 'em up with an assortment of banditos from the Old West, using actual videos of real B-movie actors and stuntmen. On your quest for the lost mine, you have to beat Mad Dog McCree's henchmen and other assorted bad buys to the draw, or you wind up taking a trip to an extremely annoying undertaker.
The latest release has more scenarios than the first -- including battles on stagecoaches and trains -- along with journeys with three different guides. I have to admit enjoying this one myself. If you've ever hankered to be in a bad Western, give it a try.
Michael J. Himowitz is a staff writer for The Baltimore Sun.