LIVING BOOKS
Programs aimed at the younger set Living Books has several software titles based on well-known children’s books such as Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” and Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter series.
These programs are designed for younger children and are easy to use.
The programs replicate the illustrations in the books and contain many interactive activities that help develop matching, rhyming, memory and observation skills.
Children can explore the illustrations by clicking on items that talk, sing and dance, such as shells on the beach in a Little Critter book.
All Living Books programs include a read-to-me mode that allows a child to hear the book being read.
Go to www.livingbooks.com for more details.
— Cox News Service
OPERATION CAT’S LAIR
Join the hunt for a virtual bin Laden
Tired of waiting for the U.S. military to smoke out Osama bin Laden? Think you could find him faster?
A fledgling San Antonio game development company is giving you the chance to put your braggadocio to the test. It has come up with an Afghanistan-themed add-on for the popular Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear tactical military simulation for the PC.
Rogue Spear, like many action games, allows gamers to build their own levels, characters and missions. Such gamer-designed levels are called mods, short for modifications.
One such mod was Operation: Just Reward, quickly cooked up by Floridian Drew Baye after Sept. 11. It allowed gamers to band together to perform search-and-destroy missions for bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Baye and San Antonio partner Ethan McKinnon formed Dead Tree Entertainment Inc., which has since hired several programmers. See the company’s Web site (www .deadtree-ent.com) for the latest version of the mod.
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Dead Tree is also working on transforming the mod, dubbed Operation Cat’s Lair: The Hunt for Osama bin Laden, into the first level of a full-fledged boxed PC game.
— Dallas Morning News