Jewish Fact Attack
6 Great Games That Teach Basic Jewish Concepts!
Created by Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz
From:
Davka Corporation
3601 W. Devon Ave.
Chicago, IL 60659
Phone: (773) 583-2333
Website: www.davka.com
Reviewed by Rochelle Caviness - December 8, 2002
Davka Corporation's Jewish Fact Attack is a CD-Rom collection of six innovative and fun to play educational games that teach basic Jewish concepts ranging from the Hebrew alphabet to the correct order that the books in the Tanach occur.
This collection contains six games, Holiday Hoops, Tanach Timer, Alef-Bet Airplanes, Parasha Puzzlers, Calendar Catches, and Torah Toss. Although designed for elementary aged students, adults who are new to the study of Judaism will also find these games fun and challenging to play. All of these games come with realistic sound affects. Many of these games also come with energetic music scores that can be easily turned off, if desired.
The games on this CD are played directly off of the CD-Rom, which can be used on both Window PC and Macintosh computers. In both cases you will need to have your display set to 800 X 600 pixels in order to have the games sized correctly on your screen. When the CD is finished loading the Fact Attack menu page will appear. From this location it is simply a matter of clicking on the title, or the picture, of the game you want to play. Here you will also find a link to the Fact Attack Reference Library Room.
The Reference Library Room contains information related to the various games in this collection. For example, in this room you'll find a complete list of all the books in the Tanach, in both English and vowelized Hebrew. You'll also find a lists of the Parshiot, the Jewish Holidays and the months they fall in, and a list of the Hebrew months. All of these lists are available in both English and vowelized Hebrew. In the Reference Library Room you'll also find a the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, listed in order. Most of the games in the Fact Attack have 'help' links, that show you the information available in the Reference Library Room that is relevant to the game you are currently playing.
The Jewish Fact Attack Games:
Holiday Hoops:
This interactive basketball game can be played in either Hebrew or English, and can be played with either one or two players. The game is played on a static basketball court in which you are the 'shooter'. As the game opens, you will find a Jewish Holiday displayed above the basketball hoop and the shooter, who is has his back to you is bouncing a basketball upon which the Hebrew Months are being randomly displayed. Your job is to click on the shooter when the month on the basketball matches the month in which the holiday displayed occurs. For example, if the Holiday listed is Chanukah, you would click on the shooter when the "Kislev" appears on the ball.
When you click on the shooter, he will shoot the basketball at the hoop. If you are correct, he will sink the basket. If not, the ball will bounce off to the side. This is a timed game, and you win 10 points for every basket you sink, but you loose 5 points for every wrong answer. Your score and time remaining is displayed throughout the game.
Tanach Timer:
This is a great way of learning the names of the 24 books of the Tanach and the order in which they are organized. In this game, you are faced with the task of setting all 24 books back on a bookshelf - in the correct order - in only 60 seconds!
The book titles are presented in Hebrew. So when you begin to set the books on the bookshelf, remember to start from the right hand side of the bookcase. You will find that the books are in a jumble all around the bookcase, but moving them is very simply. Simply click on the book you want to move and drag it to its place on the bookshelf. If you have selected the correct book, it will stay on the shelf, if not if will 'jump' of and you'll need to try again!
Alef-Bet Airplanes
This is a entertaining game where you must set the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in their correct order. In this game, you are presented with a screen that shows a classroom blackboard, over which the alphabet had been displayed - that is until all the letters had been mysteriously blown out the window. Luckily for you, the school children have run outside to catch the letters. As they catch them, they send them back to you, in the classroom, on the backs of paper airplanes. As the airplanes appear on the screen, you need to click on the letters, and then click on their correct location, where they should appear in the alphabet over the blackboard.
When you click on a letter, it will turn purple, so you'll always know what letter you are working with, as many airplanes may be in the room at the same time. If you select the correct location for the letter, it will remain on the wall above the blackboard. If not, you'll have to try again...
This game does not have a time limit, so you can take as much time as you need to fill in all the letters of the alphabet!
Parasha Puzzlers:
Parasha Puzzlers is an old-fashioned memory game where you have a board on which 24 'cards' have been laid out. Your job is to match the 'cards'. As matches are made the cards will disappear, revealing a tantalizing glimpse at a picture hidden beneath the cards - a picture that is complete when you finish clearing all the matches.
In this game, what you will be matching up the name of a Parasha with the hints about something that happened in that particular Parasha. In each game, their will be twelve matches to make. Before starting each game you will be given the option of choosing which book (Sefer) from the Chumash that you want the game to be based on. And, each time you play, the cards will be scrambled, so each game is unique.
Calendar Catches:
Here is another game that can be played in either English or Hebrew. This game also offers various levels of game play - easy, medium, or hard.
This game tests your knowledge of the order of the Jewish months. It is played in the baseball stadium where "you" are a catcher's glove. By sliding your mouse, you can move the glove along the bottom of your screen. The objective of this game is to catch the baseballs that are raining down on you . Sounds easy? Well yes, catching the balls is fairly easy, but the hard part comes in which balls to catch. You see, each ball has the name of Jewish Month written on it, and your job is to catch the 'months' in their correct order, while avoiding catching the balls you don't want.
Every time you catch the correct ball, a pennant with the month's name will appear above the stands. As the levels of this game gets harder, the balls will rain down on you faster and faster, making in more of a challenge to catch only the balls you want!
Torah Toss:
You may notice that this game has a carnival atmosphere about it - perhaps because in this game you must help a clown toss the Parshiot into their correct Sefer! Here you will find five buckets, each labeled with the title, in Hebrew, of one of the Sefers. Your job is to tell the clown which bucket to toss his balls, each labeled with the title of a Parasha, into the 'bucket' from which that particular Parasha is from. 25 tosses equals one game, and during the game a running total is displayed of the numbers of hits and errors you have made during the game.
Suitable for players of all ages, the Jewish Fact Attack offers hours of instructive play. The games can be used as a teaching tool, as well as a means of reinforcing information already acquired. They can also be used as a fun way of testing your knowledge of basic Jewish concepts. And truth be told, the games in the Jewish Fact Attack are also entertaining, and the fact that you might be learning something while you play doesn't, in the least, take away for the FUN you'll have playing these games - no matter what your age!
System Requirements:
PC (Pentium 133 or higher)
Windows 95/98
16-bit color display
16 MB of RAM
CD-ROM driver
Sound Card
OR
Macintosh System 7.5.3 or higher
16 MB of RAM
CD-ROM drive
Related Reviews:
Parasha Challenge, created by Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz.
Exciting Chumash Quiz Game Featuring Over 500 Questions on Sefer Bereishis!
Bible Quiz
Test your knowledge of the Tanach! Take the quiz in either Hebrew or English as you try to answer over 4,000 questions in this innovative Bible Quiz.
