Take Kids Beyond Nintendo With Smart And Fun Software

A friend likes to tell a story about how he brought home a new Macintosh computer. Within a week his 8-year-old son had composed a classified ad on the computer - to sell his Nintendo games.

Christmas may be Nintendo season, but for parents interested in broadening their son's or daughter's game-playing horizons - or their own, for that matter - the personal computer offers a wacky and wonderful world of entertainment software.

Commodore is even targeting an entire ad campaign around the question, ``What to Get When Your Kids' Brains Outgrow Video Game Machines?'' Its answer: An Amiga 500C, on sale for less than $500 and offering sparkling color graphics and sound. When the kids get tired of playing games, the Amiga has a full line of productivity software to help them write term papers, do science projects and look up research questions.

Along the same lines, Microsoft has shipped Game Shop, which even includes a Learn BASIC Now package aimed at the typical fourth-grader. A 10-year-old Game Shop tester is quoted as saying, ``It's better than Nintendo because you can make the game your own instead of playing one a company made.''

Learn-and-play also holds true for the recently upgraded Prodigy, the Sears/IBM home on-line service (call (800) PRODIGY for info). Among all the information services, Prodigy offers the most for kids. Its low monthly rate means the little ones can compute to their hearts' content, whether playing a Carmen Sandiego game or using the on-line Academic American Encyclopedia as a homework aid.

Among off-the-shelf software, the McGee series (McGee At Home and McGee Visits Katie's Farm) at $39 from Lawrence Productions, available on both IBM and Macintosh platforms, make learning fun for kids from 2 to 6 years of age. This is the kind of software that you'll enjoy using with your kids, and that teaches them how to use the computer as well.

From Walt Disney Software comes a number of Mickey Mouse offerings in the $50 range, complete with an easy-to-install sound system for your IBM-PC compatible. And the Learning Company offers a number of great games/learning tools in the $40 to $60 range, including Treasure Mountain for ages 5 through 9; Challenge of the Ancient Empires for ages 10 and up, and the Children's Writing and Publishing Center for all ages (Mom and Dad can have fun with it, too).

But computer games aren't just for the kids, as any Nintendo games counselor knows from fielding basso voce phone calls.

People sometimes think I'm kidding when I say that the best adult game on the market today is Microsoft Windows 3.0. But Windows is a fun program to play around with, and comes with its own games, including Solitaire. So popular have games proven under Windows that Microsoft recently issued an Entertainment Pack ($39) including Tetris, Taipei, Minesweeper, TicTactics and card Golf (actually a higher level of Solitaire), as well as a dynamite screen-saver called IdleWild, full of fireworks.

Another popular add-on from Microsoft is Flight Simulator's Aircraft and Scenery Designer ($30, for IBM only), for Flight Simulator 4.0 users, which lets the user design and populate landscape being flown over.

Simulation fans who are white-knuckle fliers may want instead to try SimCity ($30, available for both Mac and IBM) or its newly issued spinoff, SimEarth ($45 for Mac; IBM not available till January), both from Maxis. In SimCity you play mayor and city planner, in SimEarth you play God, creating rain forests, orchestrating weather patterns and populating various continents.

Accolade also is offering a dynamite game lineup, including the board game Stratego ($49), Jack Nicklaus' Unlimited Golf and Course Design ($59) and a couple of personal favorites, Harmony ($45), a game of spheres, and Ishido ($54, Mac only), based on I Ching and the oriental philosophy of scattered stones. The latter distinguish themselves from most games by testing the mind and consciousness more than motor skills; the aim is spiritual harmony rather than combative triumph.

Synchronicity ($50, both Mac and IBM) from Visionary Software in nearby Portland is not exactly a game in the sense that it offers any competition. Rather it is a relaxing way of putting your mind at ease and asking yourself questions about something on your mind, to which it then provides oracular responses.

Finally, in a category all its own, Ibis Software offers Protector Shark ($49, for Mac), a game and screen-saver combined in which you must zap the pesky shark with a spear-gun or have your computer scream disturbing things like ``Arrrgghhhhh!!!'' at you. Not a program for the faint of heart, it comes with its own heavy-duty fin, which the user affixes to the top of the monitor.

It's the best copy-protection program available, Ibis says: Everybody wants the fin.

News bytes

An impressive collection of legal wizards, including William Neukom of Microsoft, Martin Smith of Preston Thorgrimson and William Ferron of Seed & Berry, will join others from around the country for the Computer Law 1991 conference Dec. 6-7 in the Seattle Hilton. The topic: Software Protection and Current Litigation, an issue that may alter the industry's course far more than new product innovations through the '90s. Call CLE International, 621-1938 for information. . . . Bring your Christmas-shopping dollars to the AM Computer Swap Meet, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 8 at Kent Commons, 525 Fourth Ave. N. in Kent. . . . Late notice but you can still make the Northwest Artificial Intelligence Forum meeting tomorrow beginning with a social half-hour at 5 p.m. in the Columbia Tower Club, Columbia Center downtown. Larry Cohn, Terry Glenn and Carl Fijat of Aion Corp. will discuss ``Expert Systems for Business Applications.''

Tip of the week

What about laptops? Reader Janel Klingman of Seattle wrote in response to a recent tip suggesting that hard-disk users should keep their computers running rather than turning them on and off several times a day. The answer, from InfoWorld columnist Steve Gibson: Laptop hard drives use less power and don't suffer the heat variabilities, so turning them on and off is OK. Write this column care of The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle 98111. Paul Andrews can be reached on CompuServe at 76050,161 or via fax at 382-8879.

User Friendly appears Tuesdays in The Seattle Times. Paul Andrews is a member of The Times staff.