edutainment posts

The guys and gals over at our sister blog Engadget were keeping busy at the recent CES and have turned up some interesting products with a Mac angle. In the video above they're checking out a new music instruction software package called Guitar Wizard which works a lot like the Guitar Hero game (our coverage). The key difference is that Guitar Wizard uses a real guitar and actually teaches you something about playing. The kit consists of the software and a midi pickup which can be attached to your own guitar for $150, or you can get a kit that includes a guitar as well for $300. New songs will be downloadable at 99 cents each.

Back in the days when Apple pretty much owned the educational market, the Mac was new and Oregon Trail was the pinnacle of edutainment, there existed a little program called ChipWits. I played on my Laser 128, but there were versions for the Commodore 64 and Macintosh. Now some 20-odd years later ChipWits makes a triumphant return as an Adobe AIR app, so you can get your robot on with a Windows machine or a Mac (and hopefully Linux someday).

ChipWits is a programmable robot game. You build and program your little robot dude to travel through various environments (called rooms). Each one has specific rewards and risks, which makes programming the robot guy interesting. That may sound dry as toast, but your robot eats pie and drinks coffee. He can see, smell and touch. He can zap bugs but isn't too happy with bombs. The bit of whimsy thrown in with the robot-building makes for a really enjoyable game. Plus, it's surprising how fun debugging your robot can be.

The big improvement in what the authors are calling ChipWits II is that you can now create your own missions. If something like Desktop Tower Defense is your bag, the Mission Editor will appeal to you. Currently you can try ChipWits 15 times and buy it for $14.95. The release price will be $19.95, and the authors are donating 10% of their profits to 3 non-profit organizations.

You'll have to indulge me in a little nostalgia here. Some of my earliest Apple memories are of crowding around an Apple II playing Oregon Trail. I couldn't help but think of that when I saw that our gaming blog brothers at Joystiq have uncovered an exciting new "edutaiment" title coming in December. Called WolfQuest, this wolf "simulator" is being created by the Minnesota Zoo to allow me (er, I mean, kids) to live out the dream of being a wolf on the great plains. If the pricelessly corny preview video is to be believed, the Minnesota Zoo and Eduweb will apparently achieve something beyond EA's capacity: cross-platform network play with simultaneous release on Mac and PC.

Alas this lupine sim won't be out until December 2007, but now you really have something to look forward to this Christmas. And by the way, if you want to relive those Oregon Trail days, it's possible in a Dashboard widget.