Webmaster - Fantastic Adventures in the World of the Internet
Ages 10 - 102

Clever title and even cleverer concept. This game is fun, when you finally understand what to do and how to do it - AND so I'm going to give you some hints that I think should have been in the booklet that comes with the disk. You can go to the PDF file and download the hints and carefully read them - but this is better.

First off - you have to get used to navigating the cursor/hand - and you won't find directions anywhere. As you move the cursor/hand, a ghosted image of it appears on screen, move the cursor/hand over the ghosted image and you jump there. To zoom back, you move the hand closer to you (bottom of the screen), it grows larger and you zoom back. Weird!

Now to the game. As Webmaster, your task is to get enough of the right cards to break into the hackers firewall (there are four of them) and defeat him. You can get these cards by hitting enough red diamonds as you speed, arcade style, thought the information highway or by picking them up as you visit different sites, or bully the inhabitants to give them up. Are these the right cards? Well, first you have to identify what they are - and some are drawn deliberately confusing. Posting to bulletin boards can help here. Don't think you have the right ones? You can trade for different ones by winning at a puck game. In the more advanced game play you have to find antidotes for the viruses that can destroy you.

Although the graphics are interesting, all of the scenes are static - your only motion is to zoom in or out and pick up things. The instruction suggests that you use the Navigator and bookmark scenes for easier navigation - believe them. Until you get the hang of how to play, the game feels more like work than fun and the quirky navigation doesn't help - but being webmaster isn't exactly an easy job.

Editor Review