Thomas and Friends Trouble on the Tracks

by Atari

Product Features

• It's Thomas and Friends to the Rescue! Product Information James has derailed and it's up to Thomas and all of his friends to help him get back on track.This affects everyone on the Island of Sodor, from the Horrid Lorry who has todo James' work to Sir Topham Hatt who must organize the efforts of the otherengines. Includes eight engaging activities, 3D graphics, eight jigsaw puzzles. There's

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004T77X
• Product Dimensions: 1.5 x 8 x 1.5 inches ; 8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: October 5, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,599 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The brightly structured world of Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends will appeal to the orderly side of preschoolers as they help rescue a derailed engine, put it back on the tracks, spiff it up, and get it back to work. If your older toddler glows when told he or she is helpful or a hard worker, this CD-ROM will put them in junior train-engineer heaven.

The story begins with an engine named James eagerly heading out to get more coal for the other engines, but things don't go quite as planned; James has an accident on a sharp corner because he's being too hasty. Kids get to help rescue James and restore him to his shiny, bright-red self by completing eight activities that will test their problem-solving skills, spatial abilities, and deductive reasoning. They must find James, properly assemble crane gears to get him lifted back onto the track, collect coal, find the proper parts, and install them on James by listening to whistles, looking at train parts, and then putting everything in its place. Once James has a full tank of water and a full bin of coal, kids get to drive the repaired engine. This is the best part of this friendly CD-ROM, as it demonstrates to little locomotive fans how steam engines work, from shoveling coal to goosing the throttle.

Each activity has three levels, and Trouble on the Track also has clickable surprises interspersed throughout each activity, something that earlier Thomas offerings lacked. Kids can visit Sir Topham Hatt's office to see and print their certificates (they get one for every level of each activity they complete) or various pictures that they can color, turn into puzzles, or simply hang on their walls. Everyone from the Horrid Lorry to the Troublesome Trucks is here, and Thomas the Tank Engine fans will enjoy this program as it gently chugs along. (Ages 3 and older) --Anne Erickson

Product Description

It's Thomas and Friends to the Rescue!Product InformationJames has derailed and it's up to Thomas and all of his friends to help him get back on track.This affects everyone on the Island of Sodor from the Horrid Lorry who has todo James' work to Sir Topham Hatt who must organize the efforts of the otherengines. Includes eight engaging activities 3D graphics eight jigsaw puzzles. There's a job for everybody to do in this story that proves how useful teamwork can be.Skills Learned Listening Skills Following Directions Spatial Relationships Mouse SkillsProduct Features Eight engaging activities Story line starring your favorite friends Rich 3-D graphics and animations Print certificates and pictures of all the engines 8 jigsaw puzzles to print cut out and color Fly with Harold to find James Fit the gears to make the Breakdown crane work Repair James so he can go back to workWindows Requirements Windows 95 98 Me or XP Vista  Pentium 166MHz or faster 32MB of RAM 40MB free hard drive space 4X speed CD-ROM Drive 2MB Windows 95/98/Me compatible SVGA video card * Windows 95/98/Me compatible 16-bit sound card * DirectX version 7.0a or higher (included) required*Indicates device should be compatible with DirectX version 7.0a or higher

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thomas the Tank Engine: Trouble on the Tracks, October 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Thomas and Friends Trouble on the Tracks (CD-ROM)

I highly recommend this for any young Thomas the Tank Engine fan. My 2.5 year old loves this. The graphics are very nice and detailed. As your child completes an activity, he can click on Thomas and go to the next stage of the journey. This is especially for the child who loves James. The activities on the island are: Search for James (James fell off the tracks and the user needs to guide Harold the Helicopter over the island to find James); Collect the Coal; Fix the Breakdown Train; Find James' Whistle; Load the Freight; Locate James' Lamp; Repair James; Prepare James for his Run. It hs 3 levels of difficulty and certificates are kept in the Controller's Office. Beware of the minimum system requirements though - the software states you need at least a Pentium 166 and 32 MB RAM and we have a Pentium 233 and 64 MB RAM and it still runs a bit choppy. And it wouldn't let us do a maximum install which would allow us to play without the CD installed.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "limited" edition, November 13, 2000

By 

"aearle" (Oneonta, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thomas and Friends Trouble on the Tracks (CD-ROM)

Even though the animation and graphics are appealing, the depth of this game barely exceeds that of a birdbath. The tasks are few and simple, and the levels are barely discernable as different. The only reason my kids play this one is because of the catchy songs and images they warmly associate with the well done videos. Of little or no educational value. Hope they try again, perhaps with an education or child development consultant.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasantly Surprised!, May 4, 2001

By 

Keri D Ballard (Wichita Falls, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thomas and Friends Trouble on the Tracks (CD-ROM)

When I found this software I was excited because my son LOVES Thomas, but then I read all of the bad reviews and was scared to order it for him. I took a chance and ordered it anyway and LUCKILY we have had no problems with it so far. My son will sit and play it for hours without needing much assistance. I have noticed when you go to Sir Topham Hatts Office and print things out you have to kind of let it do it's thing and not get ahead of it. It will minimize the Thomas screen and return to the desktop while printing but you just have to click on the icon at the bottom of the page to return to the game. The graphics have been very smooth, not choppy at all. When I installed it there was an option for "minimum", "normal", or "maximum" installation. It told me we had enough memory to do the maximum so that's what I chose. I don't know what others used so I don't know if that could be the reason why it runs ok for us. We have a 128MB, 100MHZ computer with a video card that supports up to 2X AGP. I hope other Thomas fans find this helpful to them!