Review of:
Virgil Reality
by Jacquelyn Sykes, Alamo PC

7th Level's The Universe According to Virgil Reality, a science CD-ROM for ages 8 and up, teaches kids that everything is connected. 7th Level claims hundreds of activities, photos and facts demonstrate the amazing and sometimes wacky wonders of science.

System Requirements

To run The Universe According to Virgil Reality, you should have at least the following system configuration:

IBM (or compatible 486 33 MHz (66 MHz recommended)
8 MB of RAM; 4.8 to 345 MB free hard disk space
A 256-color display or better
A Microsoft-compatible mouse or other pointing device
Double-speed CD-ROM drive
An MPC-compatible sound card and amplified speakers or headphones
Windows 3.1 (or higher) including Windows 95, and DOS¨ 3.3 (or higher)

Installing the Program

I glanced through the reference manual that said I could choose from 3 options on installing the program. First, I could do a CD install, requiring 500 K of hard disk space. Second, I could do a limited hard disk install, requiring about 45 MB of hard disk space. Third, I could do a full hard disk install, requiring about 330 MB of hard disk space. Choosing the second option, I put the CD-ROM in its drive and waited for Autoplay to start the setup program. Once it started, I found I only had two choices, a partial or a full hard disk install. I let the program know I wanted a partial hard drive installation and where to put it.

Within a few minutes, it was installed and I was looking and listening to the program startup sequence. There were no problems with the installation. While writing this review, I found a file named virgil.txt on the CD-ROM. It gives all the changes made after the manual was printed. There I found updated information on the installation options. The Full Hard Disk option now requires approximately 345 MB of hard disk space. I also found the written Help file on the CD-ROM.

Running the Program

The first time I ran the program, it opened in the library scene where I was introduced to Professor Virgil Reality, "brilliant, eccentric, funny - and he knows everything there is to know about science", and his friends Cube, Bitz and Factoid. "Cube is a computer filled with information. Cube helps Virgil illustrate and explain various topics. Bitz is Virgil's pet cat, assembled by the professor from "a bit of this cat, and a bit of that cat." Factoid is Virgil's loyal student from another galaxy. Factoid helps you jump to any location in Virgil's universe."

The scene is animated and very lively. As soon as the introduction was over, I was whisked away to Virgil's laboratory. He gave me a verbal introduction to what I could do there and how to get to other parts of the program.

The laboratory is the main screen of the program. When you put your mouse pointer over an object in the laboratory, a disembodied male voice tells you the name of the item. Simultaneously the item performs some type of animation. If you just sit back, watch and listen for a few minutes various items in the scene make sounds and animate on a random basis.

When I clicked on the whale, Virgil and Cube took turns telling me about whales and showing videos, diagrams and animations. When they were finished the whale transformed itself into a dolphin. When I clicked on it this time, they told me about dolphins. After that, I heard about seals, walruses and salmon before the picture became a whale again.

This process repeats itself for each item in the scene. This makes it possible to have a limited number of objects in the scene, yet have access to many more items.

Virgil presents facts, tells jokes and makes puns as he changes position, size and expression. Cube zooms around the scene and them sets up the viewing screen in different areas. You can access The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition ((c)1993, Columbia University Press) at any time before or after a presentation.

Other areas of the program include the Theater, Microscope, Activity Center and Print Shop. You can join Virgil in the Theater and see films, photographs and cartoons of famous scientists, inventors and wacky inventions.

When you select the Microscope icon, Virgil helps you build a microscope on screen. If you don't want to do it yourself, Virgil assembles the microscope for you. When it's complete, Virgil encourages you to view slides that you can select from a slide drawer. ...You can choose to view numerous plants, animals, bacteria, protozoa, fiber or common objects.

You can see many dinosaurs in two periods from earth's prehistory: the Jurassic and the Cretaceous. You reach these periods by clicking on the Pterodactyl in the Lab. Although the landscape appears empty, as your cursor passes over certain areas, animals will appear and you will hear their sounds. Click on the animal to hear interesting facts about it and to see it move.

Once you have clicked on an animal and learned about it, it will remain on the screen. Once again, you can sit back and watch and listen as the animals move and make sounds. When you have found all the animals, you view a well-populated scene.

The Activity Center is full of experiments you can perform on-screen or print and build by hand. Browse over the icons in the room to see the experiments. Most of these use common household objects.

In the Print Shop you can choose to print a variety of games, experiments, and activities such as cards, 3-D earth dioramas, body-systems games, paper airplanes, and much more. Make sure you set your printer up before you start the program. Once you have selected something to print it goes straight to the printer.

You will want to learn and use the keyboard shortcuts in this program. While Virgil and his friends are talking, you have no control over the mouse. Also once you have heard the instructions for an area, you can only stop hearing them again by pushing the space bar.

Bottom Line

While I enjoyed the animations and appreciated the videos and the sharp color pictures, at times I felt that there was too much going on at once. Virgil over powered the videos and photos many times. The encyclopedia was straight text with no links to other topics. It did give article names for related articles, one of which I could not find. There were no pictures or links to them from the encyclopedia. In this case, a good book with captioned pictures would be better. You can copy the text or print it out so a child could use it when preparing a report.

One area I really like is the dinosaur dioramas in Print Shop. It has many more landscapes from more periods then the program presents in the Lab. There are 2 pages of animals and plants for each landscape.

I found no way of copying or printing the photos in the program. I don't consider this a serious research tool for anyone. However, I think it makes a great introduction to science for its stated target audience. Since the experiments can be done in real life and several Print Shop projects require assembly, this program does encourage children to do more than just sit at the computer.

Personally, I found Virgil rather obnoxious at times. He has a 'cartoon' voice that I don't really like. Kids should really like him though.

If you have access to the Internet, you can visit 7th Level's site at http://www.kidsworld.com/kidsworld/vreality/index.htm. You can see scenes from the program, download a demo and sound files and go to an activity area with experiments not found in the program.

Where can you get it?