Time Scavengers Published by IncWell Age Group: Age 8 and Up Type: Social Studies License: Free to try, $10 to register

Tears in the fabric of time threaten the universe - repair them or time will cease to exist! Navigate the Temporal Maintenance Pylon to locate and fix rifts. Do it quickly to save energy and gain maximum points!

Time Scavengers is an educational game interface which challenges you to locate events in time and space. Download both the Time Scavengers Game and the Missions Directory. Put the unstuffed Missions directory into the Time Scavengers folder.

The Missions Directory comes with 1 installed mission: Tom Sawyer. Find out when and where Mark Twain's novel was first published. Click on the arrows to move the time machine through the years and centuries, and press the button to find out if you're close to the right time. Once the correct time is identified, click on the world map to mark the region in which the event occurred, e.g. Europe or N. America. Once the rift is repaired, a slide show is presented about the event, in this case the novel and its author.

There is no online help. The game is discoverable except that it was difficult to work out how to get to the next mission - it seems that you need to start a new game.

Download more Time Scavengers' missions from Mission Library Unzip them and copy mission files into the Missions Folder. Moving the cursor to the top of the game screen displays the MENU BAR. Choose SELECT MISSIONS from the SETUP menu to pick missions from the Mission Library. Choices include Julius Caesar, Magna Carta and the Wright Brothers.

Add your own missions using the Mission Writer. Put the unstuffed Mission Writer application into the Time Scavengers folder. Create a new mission or edit existing missions. Simply enter a mission name, year and world region. Add text for the mission statement and PICT (image) files.

This is a fun way to learn more about some key historical events, and will be even more interesting as the Missions Library grows. It gives excellent visual reinforcement of the timing and order of events in history.

Time Scavengers ran slowly on my Mac 8100 Power PC - I recommend its use on more powerful machines.

Ages 10 up

Download Details

Requires:
Power PC or iMac, Quicktime 3.0, Apple English Text to Speech

Filesize: 1.8 Mb

Download Sites:

US : Time Scavengers Game (1.8 meg)

US : Missions Directory - required (3.1 meg)

US : Time Scavengers Mission Writer (to make your own missions - 1.2 meg)