Ahoy, matey!  Ye have earned quite a reputation for being the smartest landlubber in town!  Aye, ye have!  That's why Captain Smartbeard has sent ye this special invitation to join him and his crew on a lively adventure in the search for pirate's treasure!

Seems the Captain has some treasure maps that once belonged to Bones McNalogy but neither the captain nor his crew can figure out the special symbols on those maps!  Captain Smartbeard is willing to make ye a secret honorary pirate if ye will agree to help!  So, what say ye, matey?  Are ye ready to board the ship and sail the high seas?  Of course ye are!

The adventure unfolds at the main menu.  It is from this menu that you can choose the level of difficulty you wish to play.  Clicking the up and down arrows will change the level from 1 to 27.  You can start at any level and then adjust up if the level you are playing is too easy or down if the level you are playing is too hard.

You can move to five different areas from the main menu:  Yo Ho Ho and a Pile of Math, Landlubber's Same Game, Relationships Ahoy!, Pollywinkle's Potpourri and Smartbeard's School.

You might want to visit Smartbeard's School first so that you can see what topics are covered in the other areas and to learn more about the different topics.  These topics include:  Exponents, Order of Operations, Square and Cube Roots, Synonyms and Antonyms, and Analogies.  You can read each section yourself or follow along as each topic is read to you.  Remember, you can always return to the school at any time to review any of the information found there.

Yo Ho Ho and a Pile of Math features math exponents from picture association  up to square and cube root questions.  Landlubber's Same Game covers synonyms (words that mean the same thing) and antonyms (words that mean the opposite).  In Relationships Ahoy! you will find questions dealing with analogies (how one word relates to another).  Pollywinkle's Potpourri features questions from all the other three topics and you will never know what kind of question you will get until it pops up!

Each time you answer a question correctly, you will receive a piece of one of Bone McNalogy's treasure maps.  Complete an entire section and you can help Captain Smartbeard and his crew sail their ship to the X marked on each treasure map.  Be careful though because sea monsters and whirlpools lie between your ship and the treasure!  Reaching the treasure helps you earn gold and add to your score.  Every pirate wants the highest score possible so they can add their names to the list of Legendary Pirates!

Captain Smartbeard's Scholarly Sea Adventure can be played by any number of players, but each will have to play one at a time.  Individual games can be saved and loaded again from the main menu.  If you want to quit playing the game, just click on the quit button and you will be given the options of saving, printing and leaving the game.  This is an easy way to keep track of individual progress.

Ok, matey, the rest is up to you!  Captain Smartbeard and his crew are waiting for you to unravel the mystery of Bone McNalogy's treasure maps!  Hope I see you on the high seas of adventure!

Note to parents and educators:  Captain Smartbeard's Scholarly Sea Adventure is a learning software which can be played on an individual basis by any number of players.  Adjusting the difficulty level will allow play by the youngest school age child to the junior or middle school age child.  Tracking of each child's progress can be kept by both saving and printing the progress before exiting the software.

Installation is not required as this software will play directly from the CD-ROM Drive of both PC and MAC computers.

Gameplay:  8.  This software moves smoothly from one topic to another as well as to and from the animations.

Graphics:  7.  Captain Smartbeard's Scholarly Sea Adventure has bright, vibrant colors that are sure to appeal to children.  The animations are rather basic and perhaps a bit mundane for older children.

Sound:  7.  The music is lively and the sound effects are good.

Difficulty:  8.5.  There is a wide scope of playability on this software due to level adjustments.  The programming provides picture association for the very young and moves to very challenging play on higher levels.

Concept:  6.  The overall concept of pirates and treasure hunting is quite appealing.  Some of the animations may become rather monotonous to older children but you can click past them.

Overall:  7.  This Ohio Distinctive Software title covers a wide variety of topics which are not closely related.  As such the definitions and usages of the chosen topics are more limited than if the emphasis had been placed on one topic and broadened accordingly.  I am not sure how easy it would be to present subject matter in a classroom setting that would relate to the software.  I think that would take some exceptional planning skills.  As a learning software used in the home, however, there is a lot of useful information and a fun aspect that will appeal to some, if not all, children.