The Berenstain Bears: Learning Essentials

Berenstain Bears' Learning Essentials is an educational title which consists of three separate modules: Colors, Music and Puzzles. Each of the modules has a different look and feel giving the impression that they were developed separately and may have been released in their own right at some point. Colors*: this is a standard painting program in which the player is presented with a picture and then colours it one block at a time using colours from a fixed palette. The picture that is presented can be changed, the game also has save, load and print features and an alternate colour palette. Other features include creating a picture from a selection of backgrounds and stickers, adding word balloons, auto-colouring and animation. There are indications that 'Colors' may have been released by Brittanica Software under the title Fun with Colors.

• Puzzles: though this is a DOS game it has a hidden menu bar at the top of the screen from which the player selects their puzzle. There are ten puzzles to choose from, all featuring the Berenstain Bears, and each can be played in four levels of difficulty 8, 15, 40 or 60 pieces. The game then shows the player the picture before dividing the picture into the appropriate number of tiles which the player swaps around to reassemble. When the picture has been completed a little fanfare is played and the player may earn a place on the scoreboard - the fastest five times for each difficulty settings are recorded. This game has been released as Jigsaw! but here it uses different Berenstain Bear pictures.

• Music: this is an unusual puzzle game. The player chooses from one of ten short tunes, Ba-Ba-Black-Sheep; Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and their like, each of which has an associated picture all featuring the eponymous bears. The tune is played and then replayed with a black screen - this time it pauses a few notes in and the player must select the next note from the available options. When the right note is selected a portion of the picture is revealed. When the whole tune has been played and the whole picture has been revealed, there's a short congratulatory animation. The game has seven levels of difficulty and choice of ten 'instruments', there are indications that it may have been released by Brittanica Software under the title Fun with Music.