Sheldon on , 'Africa Trail'


Africa Trail. MECC. .

Reviewed by Kathleen Sheldon
Published on H-Africa (December, 1996)

My kids (ages 11 and 15) have had a lot of fun with the CD game <cite>Africa Trail</cite>, from MECC. It follows an actual bike trip taken from Tunisia to South Africa, with photos and information gathered on that trip. It includes video clips (of a house building, kids going to school, and more), music, and other cultural, geographical, and historical information. You can choose your traveling companions, including an African-American doctor, an African woman historian, an African linguist--and who you choose influences the information you can learn. <p> To play, you must allocate your funds to last long enough, bartering for food at markets along the way in local currencies, arranging for visas in a timely fashion, monitoring your health, keeping your bike in good repair (no easy task on African roads), and so on. When going through Zaire, the travelers are warned by local people about the border soldiers wanting money; at a market in a Mozambican refugee camp, the only food for sale is rats; for one lengthy stretch in central Africa only bananas are in the markets, and travellers meet a woman who boasts about the banana crop. I can't even remember all the interesting stuff, but I was very impressed with the quality of the game playing as well as the level of information about a wide variety of African communities. It is far superior to <cite>Oregon Trail</cite>, from the same company. I recommend this one! <p>

Printable Version: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=14838

Citation: Kathleen Sheldon. Review of , Africa Trail. H-Africa, H-Net Reviews. December, 1996.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14838

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