The Magic School Bus series is a set of educational titles by Microsoft for exploring and learning about different subjects with some fun. The Dinosaurs version is for Windows only, and explores the world of dinosaurs. This software is rated for ages 6 to 10.

Starting Up
The beginning of the game starts you in a classroom where clicking on objects cause small animation effects, and clicking on students give you some information. Once you click on the bus which is parked outside the classroom, your adventure begins. First you create a license, where you pick facial features and a name. Then you use the globe selector to pick where in the world you want to visit, including which dinosaur period.

Exploring Dinosaurs
There are several places in the world to explore, from Jurassic Arizona, to Africa, to Oceanic areas, and more. Once you've selected a destination, the bus transforms into a time traveling machine, and you land in the place you selected millions of years in the past. Clicking on the door button takes you on an expedition outside, where fellow students and dinosaur creatures all await you.

Something generally occurs when you click on any creature outside. Most of the time, it triggers a student to begin discussing aspects about the creature, and of the time period. There is certainly a wealth of information provided in this game.

Occasionally, clicking on a critter activates a little game, such as dinosaur skeletons. In this game, a dinosaur skeleton is laying in a pile, and you need to pick up each piece and place it in its proper place to put the dinosaur skeleton back together. Once the skeleton is completed, the dinosaur becomes animated with a few moments. The skill level required seemed appropriate for the age range of 6 to 10.

After playing the Mac version of Magic School Bus Volcano Adventure, I was actually quite disappointed with the graphics and sounds in this game. The graphics felt extremely flat, and the sounds were mostly the children and Ms.Frizzle talking at ear piercing pitches. I found most of the voices annoying and difficult to understand. In a game where you are supposed to be learning, it was counterproductive when something is being explained and you cannot make out what is being said (in most cases I couldn't make out the name of the dinosaur). Fortunately, you can turn on Closed Captions to have text displayed.

Maneuvering was not quite as intuitive as it could have been. In some situations, I wasn't not sure what to do, and just kept clicking away until something happened. I would imagine that a child would have more difficulty. Some may choose to click away, some may get discouraged and turn off the computer.

Summary
Overall, there is a vast amount of information related to dinosaurs in this program, and the information is presented in a variety of different formats, some more interesting than others. The games are mildly entertaining, but not the highlight of the software. What I felt was really missing from the game was better graphical representations and much more clear explanations. I think a picture lookup index would have been useful, along with clearly defined information in static text (as opposed to the closed caption text which only accompanies speech). The voice qualities were also very poor, sometimes downright annoying, but always difficult to understand. This may grab the interest of many kids, and others will be turned off. For those who take hold, there's certainly some good things to be learned from the dinosaur adventures.

Pros:

• Interesting information on dinosaurs
• A few interesting games to add fun to the learning

Cons:

• Poor quality multimedia
• Voices were difficult to understand

Overall Rating:

2 1/2 out of 5 Mice