Some programs are just way more fun than they should be given their relative simplicity. Toy Box by Soup Toys is one such program. I remember growing up with a toy box filled with all sorts of strange toys, many of which I never remember my parents buying for me, much less what their intended purpose actually was. Yet, I spent hours just creating total chaos in my room because I was playing with so many, and such a variety of, toys. Of course, my three children are still perfectly capable of doing that themselves on a rainy Saturday morning! Now, thanks to Toy Box the mess doesn't always have to be on their floors. Now it can be on the desktop of our family computer instead!! And trust me when I say it is MUCH easier to get them to clean up their toys when you can do so with the click of a button.The program comes with dozens of toys in your toy box. Everything from little robots, to various size balls, to blocks, cars and ramps – are all in your toy box. The list is far too long to list here, and I'm sure I would forget something even if I tried. Basically, if you grew up in an era before computer games and really played with actual TOYS (marbles anyone?), you can probably find a toy like it in this virtual toy box. But, the toys are more than just cute little pictures that you can place on your screen - though at their simplest they are that. They interact with one another just as if they were having to “obey” the laws of physics.
For example, one of my family's favorite things to do with our toys is to see how far we can fling various objects with the catapult. You take the catapult and set it on the “floor” of your screen. Then click on an object to load it into the bucket of the catapult. We've discovered that basketballs are too big, steel balls don't fly well at all, and superballs bounce ALL over the place if you really pull back on the catapult. We've also flung teddy bears, robots, cars... you name it. If we can place it in the bucket, we fling it.
After the catapult, we got really creative and started to create an interactive “playset”. Set a tilt board up at just the right arc along the path and you can hit one end, dropping an object off the other and creating huge chain reactions from there. It really allows for a great deal of creativity and experimentation.
You can also download playsets that have been created by others and have fun with them yourself. And let me tell you, there's a lot of very creative people out there!! People have made everything from simple block castles (which are, by the way, incredibly fun to knock down, just like in real life), to mini-races between the vehicles available, to incredibly complex chain-reactions where it is all but impossible to predict what is going to happen. Adjusting anything in the reaction even slightly can change the results a lot. And that's what is fun about the playsets. People can create and share them with others, but you are still free to interact with them as you would any other group of toys that you'd pulled out of your toy box.
Even the youngest computer gamers can enjoy Toy Box. All they have to be able to do is click a mouse, move it around the screen, and learn to recognize the “clean up” button. It is great entertainment for kids of all ages, though I have to admit that I've had most of my fun listening to my kids giggle and giggle as they play with their “virtual” toys. I highly recommend Toy Box to anyone with kids and wants to relive the memories of their own childhood days of spending hours just playing!!
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
