Farmer Greenfield's Virtual Harvest

Hey, kids!  What's your favorite flower?  How about your favorite vegetable?  What kind of fruit do you like best?  Have you ever wondered how flowers, vegetables and fruits are grown?  It takes a lot of hard work and a lot of help from Mother Nature to become a good farmer!  Would you like to see how it is done?  All right then, let's mosey on over to Farmer Greenfield's Virtual Harvest and see what kind of farmers we can become!

Ohio Distinctive Software has provided four options on the main menu:  Play Game, Glossary, Tutorial and Exit.  Before you jump into playing, you might want to check out the glossary.  Here you will find pictures of all the things you can grow.  Clicking on one of the icons will give you all kinds of useful information on growing that item...like how much water is needed and how long it takes for that item to grow to harvest time!

The Tutorial will give you a complete rundown on the game menu and how to use each icon.  Spending a few minutes here will help you get a good start on becoming a successful farmer.  For extra hints and helpful tips, click on the radio icon or the telephone icon.

You begin Farmer Greenfield's Virtual Harvest with 5 points which you can spend at the "Veg O Lux", the one-stop shopping center for all your farming needs.  There are four categories of items from which you can choose:  Plants, Fruits and Vegetables, Tools and Landscape.  Once you click on the item you wish to purchase, you will be asked a question.  Answer correctly and the cost for your chosen item is cut in half!

Farmers rely heavily on Mother Nature to provide sunshine and rain, but sometimes she will give you too much or too little.  You begin the game with a limited amount of water and compost.  You can use these items for your crops as they need it, but be sure to use them carefully.  As Farmer Greenfield will occasionally remind you, "Water doesn't grow on trees!"  It is up to you to keep your crops growing in the proper ranges, so be sure to continually check the health of your crops so you can give them what they need for them to grow to their full potential.

When your crops reach harvest time, you drag them into the harvest basket where they are sold and you are credited with more spending points!  Then it is off to the Veg O Lux once again to buy more of what you need.  A farmer's work is never done so the best time to start is NOW!  See you in the fields!

Note:  Farmer Greenfield's Virtual Harvest plays directly from the CD-ROM drive on both IBM and MAC computers.  If the game does not work correctly on your computer, you may need to increase the Virtual Memory.  This is done by clicking on the apple in the top left corner of the menu screen and choosing Control Panels.  Increase the Virtual Memory by 4MB at a time until the game works correctly on your computer.

Installation is not required for this software.  It will play from the CD-ROM by accessing the Run option from your Start Menu.

Gameplay:  9.  Navigation is easy and smooth.  Simple mouse clicks and drag and drop options are all that are needed to play this software.

Graphics:  8.  The graphics are quite good and realistic.  Growing sequences are very nicely done.

Sound:  7.  The music has a "country music" quality that fits well with the subject matter and there is an option to turn the music off if it should become too redundant.  The speech is done nicely with good enunciation.

Difficulty:  8.  Game difficulty can be adjusted to accommodate play at different levels.

Concept:  8.  Farmer Greenfield's Virtual Harvest is a very realistic rendering of how crops are grown, harvested, and sold.  It is both interesting and fun and designed to grasp a child's attention, which it does quite well.

Overall:  8.  Ohio Distinctive Software has presented a very fine learning software that will help children grasp the reality of the farming process.  The software is a lot of fun to use, which enhances the learning process.  I think Farmer Greenfield's Virtual Harvest would be an excellent addition to any learning software library for use both at home and in classrooms.