May 24, 2006

The Codex Adventure Begins

AGON: The Mysterious Codex (*** out of four) is a three-episode mystery adventure game. The story begins in 1903 on a "dark and stormy night" at the British Museum in London, England. You’re in the office of Professor Hunt, with no other information. But you’re free to explore the office, examine everything, take notes and look for clues about what’s going on. For instance, you find a letter that mentions new curious museum artifacts that need further investigation. And there Professor Hunt’s hunt begins.

Ultimately Hunt is driven by his desire for more information into what becomes a dangerous quest, with hints of legends of a horrible doom. His adventures takes him to two other locations: icy, barren Lapland and tropic, paradise-like Madagascar. In the latter two locations he encounters ancient board games which you must learn to play and win in order to gain further knowledge. There’s only fragmentary information for help and a few torn pages of a codex to help in translation.

The graphics and animations are very good and add much to the game, as does the original music. Searching does occasionally become a bit tedious, so you need patience in your quest to help Professor Hunt. Some clues are not easily found, but the ability to navigate your environment with 360-degree ease helps. Be sure to take notes.

The three episodes, London Scene, Adventures in Lapland and Pirates of Madagascar, represent chapters in what will be a 14-chapter novel. Subsequent chapters will be available on line at www.agongame.com. with the next chapter to be released called Lost Sword of Toledo.

Test & Improve Your Memory (****) is designed to strengthen your brain function, including memory. Science has now shown that even older folk are still growing new brain cells, and animal experiments demonstrate that activities requiring reasoning and memory increase the number of connections between brain cells. So this program is designed to force you to use reasoning and memory by playing a series of 12 game-like puzzles, thereby exercising your brain.

Some games are verbal, such as Split-Word, where you are given a series of syllables and have to assemble them into words. Or 50/50, where you are asked to complete common phrases. Some games are visual, such as Sleight of Hand, where you must identify the hand as a left hand or right after seeing the hand doing various things, such as holding objects, clenched and the like. Or Mosaics, where you have to decide whether square-type patterns are similar or not. Other games involve solving puzzles using unfamiliar characters such as runes.

All the puzzles and games are presented in various contexts and are fun to do, so you never get bored. Play Free Route and choose any game, Tour a pre-selected (by the program) series of games or enter a Competition. Scoring lets you track your progress, and tools give feedback on individual strengths and weaknesses.

My Sim Aquarium (****) displays a virtual aquarium on your computer. You can start building your creation from scratch by picking a background from the 20 provided and continue by adding plants, rocks, wood, coral, flowers, architectural elements such as castles, windmills, churches, pagoda and more. Then add accessories such as treasure chests, statues, boats, shells and more all from the more than 70 elements included. If you’re not too sure about how to start, then choose from the 12 pre-built tanks included.

Once you like the look, start buying baby fish to put in the tank. You’ll have 48 species to choose from, but be careful because not all fish like to share the same space. Care for them, feed them properly, keep the water clean, and they’ll breed and fill your aquarium with more fish. Hunger, health and mood meters help you keep track of your fish. Sell fish if your tank gets over-populated. If you’re successful with your breeding, a mermaid will come to visit your aquarium and add her healing and calming power.

There are some fun elements in the program that you’ll not see in a real-life aquarium. For example, did you know that mermaids like pizza? Take good care of the mermaid and fish and she’ll stay. There are some fun foods you can feed to the fish to make them glow, grow large or small and even go wild. You can play with your fish by tickling them - some like that and some species don’t, so be careful.

Graphics are top-notch, and animation is extremely fish-like. You have two modes of view: stationery, where all your tank is in view, or follow mode, where you can pick a fish and follow it swimming through the tank while enjoying the 360-degree panoramic view. Several peaceful classical music selections are included, and you can set your aquarium as a screen-saver.

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