Super Solvers Gizmos & Gadgets! :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Great building game!

2006-02-01
I used to play this game, and I used to imagine playing this game looking for pieces to build model rockets rather than race cars. Helps teach about how vehicles work. If you reach the rank of Head Scientist, there is a Wile E. Coyote/Sylvester-ish plot-the Master of Mischief tries to steal the Super Solver's trophy with a hook, but the hook pops the blimp.

Gizmos and Gadgets

2004-07-11
I got this game shortly after I got my first computer, and I spent hours playing it... the graphics don't meet today's standards, but the science still applies. I remember that I beat the thing once, but that was only without the monkeys.

The game has a sort of plot line, the plot being that Morty's taken over a place called the Shady Glen Technology Center along with his Cyber Chimps. He's challenged you to a sort of science-contest to see who can build the best vehicles... and, believe me, it takes a LONG time to beat this game.

You have to build fifteen vehicles, using the parts available in warehouses at the Shady Glen center. You have a lot of doors per room, and you have to complete science puzzles to open the doors. Some doors have parts behind them, and some don't. And the parts that you get aren't always the best ones. On any account, there are chimps running around everywhere that bump into you and take your parts. Very complicated... but you can turn the chimp feature off.

When you win (if you win), you get a 'surprise'. If you want to know what it is, it's a printable certificate. Yeah...

But this is a great way to learn science- I loved it, anyway. And there are still some puzzles that I have trouble figuring out, especially the ones with the cogs. And be warned- I don't think that this game works with Windows XP.

WinXP can play Gizmos & Gadgets 2008-02-23
This has to be one of the hardest Win95 games to get to work under WinXP.
I did it on two different systems and had an extra twist on the second system.

First, I have not been able to get it to work running the ssgwin32.exe in the installed \Tclwin\ssgwincd directory.

Put the CD in the drive and find the ssgwincd.exe in the ssgwincd directory.
Right click on this file and select Properties and then the Compatibility tab. At a minimum, check the "Run in 256 colors" and "Run in 640x480 screen resolution" and select OK. I would go ahead and select "Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows 95" for good measure, but at least one of my tests seemed to indicate this is not absolutely necessary.

Now you are ready to try and run this executable. You will still get
a MIDI error in a window titled "The Learning Company", so don't panic: "The MIDI driver for your sound card could not be found. Make sure that the current sound card drivers are installed before restarting Gizmos & Gadgets! Consult you sound card is documentation for additional protection."

Just click the "Exit" button and it may play OK.

If not, then maybe you will get a window titled "Error" with the message "Error with WaveMixOpenWave". This is what afflicted my second system I tried. To fix this, find and rename the wavemix.ini file (i.e. wavemix.ini.bak) - mine was in \WINDOWS and rename the wavemix.dll (i.e. wavemix.dll.bak) - mine was in \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32. Keep in mind that may affect other existing programs, so you may want to make note of this for the future so you could reinstate these.

Then reboot your system and try running the ssgwincd.exe in the ssgwincd directory that we fixed earlier.

Good luck!

Gizmos & Gadgets will not run on Win XP 2007-04-18
Gizmos & Gadgets is a great game but I found it will not run on Windows XP due to the lack of MIDI functionality in XP. I have not been able to find a work around for this issue

GREAT!!! 2006-09-03
First of all it is for ages around 8-14 I would say. It is really nice and I play it every time I get a chance too! It makes learing so much fun and I think they should make more as one for xp also. It is so much fun I suggest you buy it today!
P.S. the music is nice too!

Fun and educational, but won't work on XP computers 2006-07-18
My son loved all of the Super Solvers software titles when he was little (4-8 years old). I now have a daughter who would love to play them, but Gizmos & Gadgets, Outnumbered and Midnight Rescue won't work on XP computers. I've tried HP, Dell & Gateway computers and no luck on any of them. Each one gives me an error message about a MIDI Driver and kicks out of the program. However, If you have an older computer at home, I highly recommend these games for your children.

very hard 2006-02-07
out of all the supersolver games i played when i was little, this one was the hardest and the most frustrating. the plot is not intriguing at all and why would a little kid care about building robots?