Adi was learning assistant. I’m not sure if this would be classed as a game, it does contain a few games, but Adi is not considered a game in itself. Its kind of like Microsoft BOB, only more focused at primary and secondary school students, which had a focus on Maths and English exams.
Since the game was designed to run on Windows 95, I’ve captured these from a Windows 95 install running in PCem (Fantastic emulator), emulating a Pentium Overdrive based system. The game makes use in Intel’s Indeo technology and Microsoft WinG, not DirectX. Maybe this was to allow Windows 3.1 compatibility, but Adi is a 32bit application.
The splash screen, appears whenever you start Adi.
User selection screen each user has their own profile which was meant to track their progress with the math’s and English exercises and online activity.
Creating a new user for the first time, here you specify the Name, DOB, School Year and then your favourite traits. This would have been viewable online to other users, since Adi had support for online virtual classrooms, which as you have probably guess are no longer online.
Shortly after you will be transported to his attic, and its kind of a nice looking attic. This is where different sections of the application can be accessed. You can click on certain object to open different parts of Adi. Objects you can click on are indicated by the mouse cursor, which changes when you can select an item.
Objects will randomly animate if Adi is left unattended for a while, or you can animate the objects yourself.
Jukebox gives two options, Music and Background Music. Music allows you to play sample music from various genres, most likely from a generic sound library. Background music lets you select ambient music like city traffic and jungle rainforest sounds.
A picture editor lets you freehand draw on a canvas, basically MS paint but comes with some built in clipart.
Adi comes with a calculator, although you might as well just use the Windows one, unless you are already in Adi and need access to a calculator and Alt+Tab isn’t an option.
A notepad like component. This supports the use of passwords for certain memo’s
Simulations
These were an interesting part of Adi, these are like mini-games that learn you of real world issues, and how certain actions affect things like the environment or the economy. Although a bit relaxed since these simulations lack restrictions like budget, keep in mind this is aimed at kids.
Investigations the effect of water and waste pollutions near a seaside, you can change various options such as how clean the beaches are, if tanks should be cleaned at sea, the pesticides used in farming and the use of water treatment plants. Reminds me of SimCity where you had to be careful of the type of industry you zone in order to keep pollution levels in your city low.
Whilst this was engaging as a kid, its too sandbox, having something like a budget would be more realistic, i.e having cleaner batches reduced pollution but costs more since you would need to install bins and people to help clean the beaches up.
Set to emulate a random shithole in Africa, this investigates the effects on the savanna by local residents. A balance will need to be found to prevent the savanna from becoming dry, whilst keeping the residents happy and satisfied. Adding power and water infrastructure helps but again does not take into account the cost of such infrastructure.
The effect of pollution on a small valley/village, you have to balance the output of factory’s at the expense of the village health and the pollution of the environment.
The balance of nature, this explorers the relationship of Rabbits and Fox’s with human hunting, and how nature is a delicate cycle.
How a company works
A simulation of capitalism, you have to balance sales and market share with R&D in order to guarantee growth.
How a country gets developed, you choose what the type of war the country is currently in, the health and education of the population which has an effect on the population amount, farming and international investments.
Other Activities
The Solar System
Information relating to the solar system, from a time when Pluto was still a planet
Astronomy
Shows different consolations about Greek mythology
The Space Conquest
A timeline of different event from both the Russian and American space programs
Endangered Species
Animals that are at risk of being endangered, and animals that have already become extinct.
The Water Cycle
How H2O works
Online
There was an online component of Adi, where you could meet other users online and access chatroom and virtual classrooms. Unfortunately the online servers are no longer online.
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