Zoombinis Triple Pack

My son and my sons friend who has tried it, find these games really excellent, and are very enthusiastic about them. I like them too, and many of the activities can quite challenging for adults as well a children too (yet children are also able to work the logic activities out).I guess there are a little like brain training games, as they do exercise the brain, but prefer these zoombini as there are stories, reasons why the activites need to be done, (with no silly marking of grades, and no daft time limits!).they dont work very well on Vista though unfortunately, i wish they'd sort that out! XP is fine though.(I think it is possible to download an XP something to play on Vista?)i don't think it's fair to rate the actual game badly just because of this however, as it is the game itself that is being reviewed (although it is important to know this)there are so many challenges in these games, its difficult to know where to start. just to mention a few example-there is one where kids have to work out which order, and what place the zoombinis are to go on the step stone over a stream. Another they have to figure which lever on a set of control does what, and use them accordingly. Theres another where kids have to put the zoombinis together that have a specific detail alike, two zoombinis with the same feet have to be connected for example, and through these all the zoombinis are connected to each other. There is another game, in 'perplexors' style, where through clues they have to figure out which monster is having what to eat, so that they can go through to the next part of the adventure. Another they have to work out which kind of pizza a little monster whats through deduction, logic and reasoning, another similarly does so when working which zoombinis can cross which bridge, and to find which zoombini can ski down a particular path that is free from the 'Norff' monsters.There are a good number of games as the zoombinis travel to complete their specific goals, and when an activity is done again, the difficulty becomes much harder. Often journeys have to be done more than once (for example when more zoombinis are needed to travel to the ultimate goal, and sometimes there is a choice of which path to take with different games on each path. It can take a while to completely complete these games (for example in one of them, where the zoombinis reach their destination. it is finished in a way, but in another it is not, as more zoombinis are needed to do so too), but thats a good thing too, as the games can be saved, they can be dipped in or out of, and like i said, the games get more challenging each time.I feel these have enhanced my sons playing, he has been playing them for a few years now, and have had to buy these again, and a couple got scratched after a while. Worth is though. Logic thinking, is something I don't remember being taught in school, but feel that is a very important and worthwhile part of education, even more so in many ways that being taught to repeat parrot like certain 'facts'.My son started playing this at about 4 years old or so, with help from me- but not all children may be ready for it by then - all children seem to be particular good at certain things at a young age, his was science and logic games. He is 6 years old now, and still enjoys them, though he finds them easier now, most or all activities are still challenging for him, especially after playing an activity a few times where the activity is made more difficult.I wish there were more games like these out there. Cluefinders comes close, cluefinders 3 for example has some logic games (as well as maths and other subjects games), as does a fairly old game of 'wizard of oz', finding vista games can be diffiult though!i like to that the creatures they thought were monsters in one of the games, are not monsters at all! the zoombinis only perceived them to be - and on meeting them, found them not to be the case! More intelligent learning i think there!

received this product promptly but only 2 put of the 3 discs will run quite disappointed

Doesn't say that these discs don't work on any modern computers.. what a waste of money.

Excellent game! 9 y-o son is currently inseparable from the computer, and it doesn't involve shooting anything or driving like J Clarkson. Only reason for 4 stars is that's what my son told me to do. His quote: "It's just fun"!

Great way to keep your kids busy on a cold day, educational but so much fun!!

Fantastic purchase deals with equations and maths without the child even being ware of doing it is such a good game

Fab

My grand daughter has been playing Zoombinis at school - logic and maths work, so I thought I would buy it for her. First thing - won't run on Vista - ever! Runs on XP, but only after I've put full compatibility mode on, downloaded an old version of Apple Quicktime and installed and de-installed about 6 times to find the correct combination of settings and programmes.The games are superb for a child her age - 7yrs old, but even I've had a go on the first one. The others in the trilogy have better graphics than the original but she hasn't got into them yet, so good buy for future pleasure.Now, how about someone writing a version for Vista?