CompuServe Thread

Dear Yves, Thanks for your message. I should start off by stating that I know very little about the ongoing battles in the Nintendo/Sega gaming business. Secondly, the issue of picking a player that will be found to be of the most use is, needless to say,a very sensitive issue for many people. But, here are a couple of my thoughts on the question/s. 1) Nintendo/Sega = Games Nintendo/Sega = Education (?) (I have never heard of any great education programs for either of these companies players. It doesn't mean they don't exist, it's just I haven't seen them. Just about everything I have seen them produce are games. In fact, there are about 6 or 7 magazines focused on providing nothing but reviews on Nintendo/Sega games) 2) In my opinion, these guys are making too much money with games to focus very much of their energies on educational discs. In fact a recent dealer magazine revealed that Nintendo shipped 1 million "STAR FOX" (new game) in one day for a nationwide release. They had a complete 12-city tour with live DJs, Parachutists, etc.. In short, games = big money. So, to answer the first part of the question, who has the best and most s/w. In my eyes I see both of them as being the same – two competitive manufacturers who will continue to try to outdue one another in the gaming/entertainment market-place. I couldn't reccomend buying one system over another today without consulting a 12 year old first !!! Maybe someone else on this forum can give some insight into the numbers and features/benefits of the competing systems ? 1) Sega vs. Nintendo vs. CD-I vs. 3DO vs. VIS vs "fill in the blank". The one thing all of these television based systems have in common is that they are incompatible with each other. I personally do not see a conclusion to this "battle of the television based standards" anytime soon. It may not even occur until HDTV has taken hold and the likes of Time-Warner, TCI, AT&T, Turner, Microsoft, etc.. have made significant investments in transmission standards, S/W, etc.. So my bias goes clearly to a computer-based CD-ROM solution. As long as you take certain precautions such as ensuring you CD-ROM drive can handle CD-ROM-XA (interleaving for synchronized audio and video), etc… You have a potential of more than 4000 discs to choose from covering the whole spectrum from Games to Business to entertainment to reference to X-rated discs. I hope this helps a bit. Maybe some of the other people on this forum can give some more insight, but; this is how I see it today. Kind Regards, RK

Yves I agree with what Rob Kerbs says. In essence, Nintendo/Sega=games, period. My 13-year-old has a Nintendo; his closest friend has a Sega; and so far as I am aware there is nothing available for either system which I'd consider educational. Both my son and his friend use the machines (weekends only <g>) for games and games alone – and both spend a hefty chuink of their pocket money on the game magazines Rob mentioned. For education, I don't think there is much real choice outside of a PC or Mac based system. My son (and his younger sister) started out with Apple ][ systems when they were very young – initially playing games (which helped them get "comfortable" with computers, then gradually moving to software which helped them learn. Today they both use PCs with multimedia CD-ROM drives. Encarta, Groliers and BookShelf are used extensively for homework research – and Mammals (both Nat'l Geographic and Audubon) have been used quite a lot. Both are using the Distant Suns CD for astronomy. They have both improved their typing skills with Mario Teaches Typing, and my daughter is using a French tutoring program which in less than a year has helped her move from being an immigrant with no French to an A student in Grade 6 in Canada. Interestingly, their familiarity and comfort with computers has paid off in other, unexpected ways. Our local library system is computerized, and both my kids now head straight to the terminals every time they visit the library, to find resources, check availability, and if needed order-in volumes from other branches on the system. Both kids frequently are asked to go with friends to the library to help them do those things. A 6-year-old will likely not want/need the same level of sophistication in software, but a close friend of mine has a 4-year-old daughter who loves programs like Grandma and Me, and Kid Pix, and is fast becoming a computer maven on her dad's 486 (she also enjoys taking over the controls on his Flight Simulator program, so she can crash 747's in interesting locations, which worries me a bit <g>. I am not as aware of the range of software available on the Mac platform, but I imagine there is a pretty good selection in the education category. Either way, I'd vote for your friend going the computer route, if necessary getting one or two simple games (like Kid Pix) and maybe a joystick to get the 6-year-old started. He will be suprised how fast his child "takes" to the computer. Ric