Richard Scarry Busytown 2000

by Pearson Software

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002SWYL
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,278 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #15 in Software > Children's Software > Thinking & Problem Solving
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

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

This nicely designed CD-ROM contains 12 activities that children discover as they fly an "Applecopter" throughout Busytown. At the Firestation, for example, kids find a fire hose, highlighted by a blinking star. Clicking on the hose labels it and tells what the hose does. Another click loads it onto the fire truck. The star moves to a rescue net and so on. In this "follow-the-blinking-star" manner, children can further explore the fire station and help put out a fire. In 11 other activities, children can balance a seesaw, drive a delivery truck and play with the wind at the beach. They can also build a house, fix a machine by adjusting belts and gears and match food words with pictures. The guided discovery mode can be limiting at times as the animation sequences are sometimes hard to interrupt, and some of the activity icons are hard to find. No record keeping or customization options are available. Despite these shortcomings, our testers wanted to continue playing this program. This is because the software offers a nice variety of well thought out activities. For two- to four-year-old kids, this program is particularly well-suited. Older children will not be challenged by the activities, however, and will soon lose interest.
Teaches: early reading, logic, classifying objects
Age Range: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Copyright © 2000 Children's Software Revue

Amazon.com Product Description

In Busytown, children meet all their favorite characters from the Richard Scarry books, television programs, and videos. Together with Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, Mr. Frumble, Dr. Diane, Mr. Fixit, and many others, they explore 11 playgrounds rich with real-life experiences.

Give your child the thrill of learning by doing, across a wide range of early-cognitive skills. Busytown meets the guidelines set by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, guidelines that emphasize learning through play.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Busytown 2000, February 26, 2000

By 

Michael Whitley (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Richard Scarry Busytown 2000 (CD-ROM)

My first child played with the original DOS versions of Busytown and How Thing Work. They are GREAT games to learn and explore with. When we switched to a new computer with Win 98, the DOS versions had major problems finding and using the sound card properly. Tech Support was unable to help me solve them.

We bought Busytown 2000 because the older child still wanted to play it and we had a second child that we wanted to have the game also. We bought it because it was advertised as Win 95/98 compatible, and we figured that, at worst, it would be the same game with Win 9x compatibility added. Big Mistake. The game animation is nowhere near as good as the original. Gameplay is uneven at best, and at least one area we had to reboot the computer to exit. Another area rebooted the computer for us 1 out of 3 times the kids went there.

Busytown is a great franchise, particularly if you have a 486 still running DOS to play the older games on. They didn't like Win 3.1, and they really don't get along with Win 9x. Busytown 2000 does not apply the quality of the older games to the Win 9x platform. It's cheap animation matched with poor gameplay. If Amazon let me return software, it would be in the mail tomorrow.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tech problems, February 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Richard Scarry Busytown 2000 (CD-ROM)

We ordered this software twice, and each time there was a problem when we tried to enter the gas station section. Amazon was very helpful in dealing with this, however they obviously cannot solve the tech defect. Very disappointing, son loves Busytown videos.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great if you can get it to work, July 9, 2000

By 

Lily Kapp "wildviolet" (Tampa, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Richard Scarry Busytown 2000 (CD-ROM)

I understand the complaints of the previous reviewers. I could not get this program to run on the PowerMac and it also had a lot of problems when I ran it on the iMac while networked to the PowerMac. But once the iMac stood alone, I only had minor problems with this program. It is a big memory hog.

It's a really super program if you can get it to run. I'd pay special attention to the system requirements before buying.

There are 12 different activities which teach your child all kinds of things. It's great for pretend role play also. Pump gas, serve customers in a deli, build a house, get a ship ready for sea, etc.

It's too bad this title has compatibility problems with so many systems, because it really is a beautifully done program.