[jedimacfan]

I had an old iMac laying around so I installed Leopard on it for my 4yo nephew and 2yo niece. Specs are:

17" iMac
1.25 GHz G4
1 GB RAM
150 GB HD
Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6
AirPort Extreme wireless

I would really like to get them some kid's games to play on it since Leopard's parental controls let me simplify their access to make it easy for them to open and launch programs. Currently, all they have are the WALL-E games from Walmart (the free ones that came with the DVD, not the 'real' one from THQ) and access to Safari (which automatically opens to playhousedisney.com).

I'd like some recommendations from parents, teachers, etc. who know of some good (preferably cheap) titles for kids to play on old hardware. If they can actually learn something while being entertained, all the better. Game reviews for kids games seem to be nonexistent, so I'm hoping someone here can help me.

Thanks much!

[AlanH]

My two year old (three in February) grandson likes the BBC CBeebies web site. There's all sorts of kid stuff there including games, colouring activities ...

He's also a fan of Lego Star Wars.

[jackdawsson]

I don't know whether this'll be of any use, but try visiting link below & click on "Recreational". Hopefully you'll find something there to amuse a young child, though the website has more than enough different software available to interest Mac users of all ages.

TheFreeMac website

To TBC,

It may be worthwhile having a thread for this all to itself, which I'm now posting in "Off-Topic". If you disagree, just delete it.

[Edit - That's OK with me, thanks for the link - tBC]

[dojoboy]

Yea, I'd have to recommend web games for those tiny tots. My boys are older now (7 & 10), but when they were younger I picked up some toddler/kid Mac games for them. The one thing these games all had in common was that they were (don't know about recent releases) EXTREMELY buggy.

Cartoon Network, PBS, etc. have plenty of age-appropriate games.

[Rev-O]

Piglet's Big Adventure, Ollo in the County Fair, Moop & Dreadly from Hulabee are all excellent. Piglet's is pretty easy (my daughter was playing it at 3), Ollo is a little more difficult, and Moop a little more so yet. Still, the range we are talking about it 3 to 6 year olds. Of the three, Ollo is hands down the best. A very pretty game full of hidden goodies with great voice acting. Nice and long (for a kids game). Piglet's is pretty, but short. Moop is excellent as well, but with little replay.

The I Spy games (I Spy Fantasy, I Spy Spooky Mansion, I Spy Mystery, & I Spy Funhouse) are outstanding. A young one would just need some adult help with reading and explaining, but they'd have fun hunting for hidden stuff. I Spy Spooky Mansion is the best of the lot, imho. I leave out I Spy Treasure Hunt because I seem to recall that it only runs under Classic (even though it lists OS X).

Dido & Ditto are great games as well. My daughter loved the kindergarten game and the first grade, we never tried the preschool game. Based upon the other two games I would expect the preschool games to be outstanding edutainment.

Kid Pix is a great drawing/creating program.

Jumpstart Preschool was pretty good. Jumpstart Toddlers needed Classic and wasn't that good, but Jumpstart Advanced Preschool was fine. Caveat: been a long time since I even thought about the Jumpstart stuff, so my memory is sketchy at best.

Not that it's everyone's cup o' tea, but Barbie Princess and the Pauper is excellent, but maybe better for a 5 year old. Barbie Swan Lake is pretty good as well. Barbie Rapunzel and Barbie Mermaid are pure dreck.

The Dr. Suess stuff is also dull. Very short. Would rather red the book the software was based on than play the game.



[edit: just another thought: when my daughter was two I made a custom icon out of a picture of her and used it for her games folder that I kept on the dock. That way when she wanted to play one of her games she knew just to click on her picture and she was read to go. This helped her OS X skills greatly as a little one and got her used to the whole notion of OS X pretty fast. At 7 she is pretty good at installing her own software and hotkeying her way through OS X.]

[dojoboy]

Rev-O, on December 28th 2008, 12:20 PM, said:

[edit: just another thought: when my daughter was two I made a custom icon out of a picture of her and used it for her games folder that I kept on the dock. That way when she wanted to play one of her games she knew just to click on her picture and she was read to go. This helped her OS X skills greatly as a little one and got her used to the whole notion of OS X pretty fast. At 7 she is pretty good at installing her own software and hotkeying her way through OS X.]

Any interest in an early betrothal? I've got 2 sons developing sound Mac skills. They're 10 and 7, very bright and possessing advanced math skills for their age.