Product Description

Bring history alive ! In the "Time Machine" you visit the Greeks, the Romans, the Incas and even the Roaring Twenties. Children love the rescue mission to bring back Professor Timestein and his "Timetrail". Windows 95/98/NT4/2000.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1104 in Software
• Brand: Avanquest Software
• Released on: 2000-06-07
• Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 95

Amazon.co.uk Review
Become a History Explorer is an excellent CD-ROM in this series, which will turn any child into a budding historian. It's aimed at children aged 6-10 years old and encourages them to find out about eight exciting periods in history, through games, quizzes and information screens.

Children will love the challenge of collecting the pieces of the time trail, so that they can rescue the history professor who has been trapped in time by the time fugitive. Children must travel in the time machine and explore each historical world in order to find all the pieces and become a history explorer. There is an excellent journal in which children can record their travels. This would help to consolidate what they have learnt about each period in history. Having answered questions along the way children are rewarded with stickers, which are kept in their journal. There are also activities to do, for example, design a coat of arms, which can be saved in the journals, along with photos and other souvenirs. There is also an excellent index menu that allows children to view information screens on a very wide range of topics. This would be particularly good to use if children were having trouble answering any of the quiz questions.

Become a History Explorer would be an excellent buy for children aged 7-11 years old who would love to complete the mission and rescue the history professor, while exploring an extremely good range of historical information. --Amanda York

PC Live, June 2004
One of the best educational-based CD-ROM's(Burton Mail, Feb 2002)

Customer Reviews

Don't become this history explorer
I bought this for my 8 year old (age range specified as 6-10 on disc). I buy a lot of cd roms for the kids and had only ever read good reviews of this one so thought I would give it a go. My daughter had it finished in 20 minutes!!! She had completed the time trail, with its work book style questions and had found the mad professor (the object of the mission). I could not believe that that was it - I thought she had missed a section of the menu - but no.My daughter was so disappointed (so was I) she felt it had been no fun (the questions were mere comprehension of bits of text that the narrator read to you) and the animation clips were poor (eg. a tiny mummy pops out of the coffin). If you want to buy a history disc I would suggest Where in time is Carmen Sandiego - great graphics, wonderful logic puzzles, a good challenge and it has longevity. The disc took five hours to complete and has been played again and again since.(it is also now a budget title and the same price as become a history explorer). This disc was a real stinker - I can't imagine my 5 year old or three year old ever wanting to play it. I could see a primary school finding it a useful teaching aid, but as a disc to use at home its a no, no!

It doesn't load on XP
A complete waste of money as it doesn;t load if you have XP. Have downloaded appropriate drivers and patches (after hours trying and with a very frustrated 6 year old getting upset) and it still didn't work. Don't buy it.

Why kids enjoy becoming history explorers
Become a History Explorer works both as an exciting game ( finding a mad time-travelling professor by visiting each era and landing on the topic where the piece of time trail is hidden) and as an opportunity for a vivid visit to other places and times. Each era has a main map with interesting illustrations on which children can click to discover more. There are quiz type questions after each bit of information and these provide opportunities to win stickers and make a book with them. There are also other engaging activities such as making a self portrait and having a photo taken at a site in each era. There are games which reward speed with the mouse. It is less dependent on the child's reading skills than some CDRoms so shouldn't demoralise anyone and will be a boon to those whose curiosity is beyond their years. Good for setting some kind of order on past events - I learned things from it, especially about the Incas.