LEGO Creator

by Lego Media

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002EPYL
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: October 26, 1998
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,166 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From Children's Software Revue® -- "Subscribe Now!"

Children love creating with LEGOs because it's so easy to succeed- just put together a few pieces and you've got yourself a house. Grab a few more and you can make a skyscraper. The kids are in control and limited only by their imaginations. The title of this program implies the same scenario, but the reality is rather different. This program is actually more of a town programming kit, with which children position and then set into motion prefabricated cars, buildings and LEGO people. The first step to using this program is to master the navigation system that enables you to zoom around in virtual 3D space, much like a helicopter. Next, you select one of two modes. In the play mode, you merely watch a village in action as the people and cars move. But in the build mode, different blocks, buildings, LEGO people and vehicles can be dragged onto a generous 3D building area and programmed. You can make your helicopter fly in a figure eight, adjusting for direction, altitude and speed. Placing cameras around the town lets you see things from overhead in the helicopter, or perhaps from atop a building, security camera-style. You can even put a stick of dynamite inside a moving car or building to cause a random, LEGO-scattering explosion. While parents and educators might question the moral and educational value of this, our testers loved it. Although it is possible to build things block-by-block, adjusting the view and getting the LEGOs to line up just right is a frustrating process. You'll want to make sure your computer can handle the robust system requirements- a computer equipped with a 3D accelerator card- as several test families brought the product back, unable to get it running. All in all, this is a clumsy but conceptually exciting program that provides children with a unique spatial thinking opportunity.
Teaches: logic, spatial thinking, programming
Age Range: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 Copyright © 2000 Children's Software Revue

Product Description

Kids will have a blast designing interactive cities and taking the controls of the vehicles he/she created. The user-friendly interface allows kids to build to the limits of his/her imagination!

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars LEGO Creator not created well, January 1, 2000

By 

SCW (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LEGO Creator (CD-ROM)

Very disappointing piece of software. The working area is about 1/2 the screen size. It is difficult to navigate and use. The "OFFICIAL" activity book is also useless. It gives you projects to do that don't work the way they are supposed to. Definitely not worth the money.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars After travelling the learning curve..., September 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: LEGO Creator (CD-ROM)

I found that I needed to explore this game myself before turning it over to my two boys, ages 7 and 5. They both love it. It is a bit awkward to use it to build as with traditional legos but it is doable. And, you'll never run out of lego pieces with the software version of Legos. Using software is different than using traditional Legos and I think it's largely necessary that the game works the way that it does. In fact, a lot of nice features are included that could easily have been excluded.

You do need to zoom, turn, and adjust your viewing angle a lot to get yourself into position where you can see what you're building. The fly control that simulates flying a helicopter over your "Lego World" where you build your creations is fun enough to almost justify the game by itself.

A variety of environments called "Lego worlds" are your first step in building. Many pre-built Lego models are very helpful and can easily be inserted into your "Lego world". You can operate the game in "build" mode or in "play" mode. In "play" mode, the vehicles drive, the helicopters fly, and the people talk. This provides some interesting novelties and delights.

I did find it slow to get started with but certainly not impossible. There is a character who provides help information whom I nicknamed as "Mr Wizard". My boys and I did call on him a lot when we were getting started.

Also, it wouldn't run right on one of my computers. The game requires a Pentium operating at 200Mhz or greater with a good amount of memory. I had to switch to another, newer computer.

After travelling the learning curve for this product, it offers a lot of possibilities for creative and imaginative play.

38 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lego Creator, December 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: LEGO Creator (CD-ROM)

the working area is half screen in size, that in itself is annoying the other quirk is the views of your creation either very close up or very distant,its not what I expected.