Construct and operate a functioning space station with an arsenal of out-of-this-world Tonka vehicles. Drive a Tonkonium Extraction Vehicle through a maze of lava pools and explosives, or speed a Terra Racer through the low-gravity zone of the station's sporting arena to entertain your station crew. In Tonka Space Station, you decide whether to build defence grids to demolish hazardous space waste, or focus on food production for your many hungry workers. With the ultimate motor pool at your fingertips, the fate of the station is entirely in your hands. Doing the job well can result in promotion-work your way from a lowly Photon 3rd Class all the way up to Galactic Commander. The game's primary goal is to build a functioning station, one that balances the needs of its residents with other important considerations like safety, productivity and research. To this end, players build modules-sporting arenas, habitats, communication hubs, defence grids and harvest areas-on the platforms available in the station. To build a module, you are given a specialised Tonka vehicle and an arcade-style mission; to construct a harvest module, for example, players drive a Bio-harvester through an obstacle course of hostile alien plant life, snatching edible berries from the jaws-er, pods-of the carnivorous vegetation. Tonka Space Station has some stunning anti-gravity effects, and the machinery and settings of the space-station activities are satisfyingly realistic. The need to stay on top of safety, industrial output and the happiness of the station's people provides an engaging framework for the main focus of the game: the arcade games and the Tonka vehicles these activities employ. [+]

Hey howdy hey, all you deputies out there! Now you can have as much fun as Andy does with Buzz and Woody in this activity pack that's chock-full of arcade games and printable art. Most of the games have a theme found within the movie; you'll even get to play "dodge the traffic" hidden inside road cones! There's also a hilarious trek through the luggage carousel with Buzz on a hunt to rescue Woody, and it's trickier than you might think. All the games have adjustable levels of difficulty (so kids can play at more advanced levels, while you putter around as a beginner, 'cause let's face it, they're better at these things than parents are!). One of the elements that kids can print is a fantastic colourable comic book featuring all of Andy's toys. Even those goofy three-eyed aliens put in an appearance! Also ready-to-print are posters, stickers, and greeting cards; a birthday party could easily be decorated with the stuff within Activity Center. Whether children see themselves as a space ranger or identify as a cowpoke, there's plenty of fun for a rainy afternoon or two in this game pack. -Jill Lightner, amazon. com.

Hey howdy hey, all you deputies out there! Now you can have as much fun as Andy does with Buzz and Woody in this activity pack that's chock-full of arcade games and printable art. Most of the games have a theme found within the movie; you'll even get to play "dodge the traffic" hidden inside road cones! There's also a hilarious trek through the luggage carousel with Buzz on a hunt to rescue Woody, and it's trickier than you might think. All the games have adjustable levels of difficulty (so kids can play at more advanced levels, while you putter around as a beginner, 'cause let's face it, they're better at these things than parents are!). One of the elements that kids can print is a fantastic colourable comic book featuring all of Andy's toys. Even those goofy three-eyed aliens put in an appearance! Also ready-to-print are posters, stickers, and greeting cards; a birthday party could easily be decorated with the stuff within Activity Center. Whether children see themselves as a space ranger or identify as a cowpoke, there's plenty of fun for a rainy afternoon or two in this game pack. -Jill Lightner, amazon. com.

Sir Topham Hatt is facing infrastructure problems: the island of Sodor needs more lines if it is to accommodate its increasing number of rail travellers, and Sir Topham has asked for your help in Building the New Line. Load the CD-ROM, sign in and meet Thomas and all his familiar friends. Choose Junior Engineer or Senior Engineer mode, depending on ability (or confidence!) and start laying your track. Once your track is in place, move through the activities to deliver cargo, add landscaping features such as trees, bridges, tunnels and so on. When you're happy with your track, advance to Play Mode and bring your new line to life. Your engine can now travel around the track, interacting with all the other familiar personalities and sights of Sodor. Click on the items you put in place in build mode and complete the resulting activities. For example, click on the hay bales in the Farm Yard and watch as they spill on the track. Get your engine to help clear them away, so the track is safe and debris-free. Switch tracks, control your speed, and visit The Works if you need any maintenance. [+]

Curious George stops getting into trouble in his Learning Games to direct young children in their own discoveries. This CD-ROM teaches kids shapes, colours, pattern recognition, rhyming and more, while offering fun animation consistent with the beloved storybooks. Games such as Star Patrol, Pie Fight and Jingles Jukebox help up to eight different users develop new skills, and extras like the Progress Report help parents track their child's learning. This program stresses many of the same skills that other pre-school software programs cover, but with an additional element of challenge: the different skill levels offer basic to advanced lessons that support continued learning and add to the longevity of the program. For example, Star Patrol not only supports early-learning concepts like shape and colour recognition but also introduces geometry-trapezoids and the like-a subject not ordinarily introduced to pre-schoolers. And to keep the program fun, the games are smartly animated with humorous, pie-in-the-face antics. This CD-ROM may not cast George in his traditional role of mischief, but he defiantly adds to standard educational software fare with his fun and playful learning activities. The animation is extremely entertaining-we see everything from George getting sent into space to pies flying not only at onscreen characters but also at players! The necessity of reading the directions aloud dictates parental involvement, as do the parental controls, which include the ability to track a child's performance. -Madeleine J. Miller.

If you're a budding Sherlock Holmes or fancy yourself as a top police inspector, here's your chance to start practising your crime-busting skills. Identikit tests your ability to remember faces and lets you create your own police sketches. Using the computer-based assembly kit, you can quickly click on key features like ears, noses and beards and put together your own images of people-just as if you were working on a major case at Scotland Yard. What does the suspect's hair look like? What kind of eyes did the woman have? What was the shape of the person's lips? By simply clicking and dragging with your mouse button you can complete identikits of all kinds of people. You can also create sketches of animals. So if your pet dog or cat goes missing, you could easily put together a wanted poster and add in your telephone details. You can also create fun identikit images and e-mail them on to your friends. Aimed at anyone from eight years up, this is a clearly laid out and attractively designed CD-ROM. Installation is practically effortless and it is easy-to-use. There are also links to Web sites where you can find lots of other eyebrows and noses to work with. [+]