The Learning Company Treasure Cove & Mountain – PC

As an elementary school computer teacher, I can attest that Treasure Cove is one of the most popular “free time” activities at my school for grades 2-5. With sound and question reading turned on, however, kids as young as kindergarten can enjoy this game. I purchased both games for my 8 year old daughter for the summer, though I also got caught up in playing them! The games are quite lengthy in order to “win”, but are engaging enough to keep kids wanting to play that long. Also, after “winning”, kids can continue to play for as long as they want. Of the two, I definitely prefer Treasure Cove for its ease of play as well as the questions; Treasure Mountain appears to be more of a “vintage” game with less fluid graphics, awkward controls, and questions that are more confusing, even for an adult. Treasure Mountain also requires that your monitor resolution and color depth be changed, which is a hassle to do every time the game is played (though it’s a great opportunity to teach your kid how to change their own monitor settings!) All in all, the games are quite educational and fun, especially combined in such an inexpensive bundle!

The game was super fun and my kids love it but it is hard to get to work properly on a newer computer.

When I put either disk in my computer (I have windows XP.), it nearly crashed the machine! It hung the computer and changed the screen display. I had to get into the set-up of the computer to get my Dell back to normal. As a past teacher, I was familar with the programs, which are great, and was looking forward to putting it on the machine for the grandchildren. I was terribly disappointed and won’t dare to try installation again, becuase of what it did to the computer the first time.

Perhaps I didn’t read this right, but I saw jewel case in the description so I expected one. My grandson hasn’t tried the product but I was disappointed upon its arrival.