Tonka Monster Trucks

Rating:
Summary: tonka monster trucks
Review: I liked the game and so does my son, but I was disappointed to find out that the dig and rigs playset does not work with the monster trucks.

Rating:
Summary: More than a crash & burn
Review: If you run Windows XP, and really enjoy rebooting your computer, then I highly recommend this software package. We own the "Dig & Rig" play set and it works great, but this software is developed by a different company and they figured out how to make XP an unstable environment. The graphics and games are very well done, but I think the instability is too much for this adult let alone a child.

Rating:
Summary: More than a crash & burn
Review: If you run Windows XP, and really enjoy rebooting your computer, then I highly recommend this software package. We own the "Dig & Rig" play set and it works great, but this software is developed by a different company and they figured out how to make XP an unstable environment. The graphics and games are very well done, but I think the instability is too much for this adult let alone a child.

Rating:
Summary: Great fun for busy boys
Review: If your kids (especially boys) dont give you a minute to relax do yourself a favor and purchase this game. Your kids will have hours of fun BY THEMSELVES - after a little explaining from mom about the basics of the game. It is a action packed game with alot of variables so when they get tired of one aspect of the game they can switch to another. I think most anyone will be happy with this game. Its not violent or one of those shoot em up games but it does include all the "tough" action that kids love.

Rating:
Summary: LOADS of fun!
Review: My son got this 2 1/2 months ago for his birthday and he LOVES it so much! He hasn't lost interest and plays it constantly! He loves the Tonka series and it was a great addition to our collection.

Rating:
Summary: Great Fun
Review: Overall, this was a great purchase. My 3 1/2 yr old little boy just loves driving these Monster Trucks, he keeps himself occupied for hours. The game is a lot of fun for Dad too-we love playing it together. It is great to see such prolonged concentration in a little boy. The graphics and sounds are fantastic. He especially enjoys designing and customizing his truck. One of the best features is that it works with Tonka's "Digs and Rigs" (also highly recommended) steering wheel controller that quickly mounts over your keyboard. Without this feature, I would not have purchased it for him. This is a game that is easy to get up and running properly within a few minutes of installing the software.

Rating:
Summary: Great Fun
Review: Overall, this was a great purchase. My 3 1/2 yr old little boy just loves driving these Monster Trucks, he keeps himself occupied for hours. The game is a lot of fun for Dad too-we love playing it together. It is great to see such prolonged concentration in a little boy. The graphics and sounds are fantastic. He especially enjoys designing and customizing his truck. One of the best features is that it works with Tonka's "Digs and Rigs" (also highly recommended) steering wheel controller that quickly mounts over your keyboard. Without this feature, I would not have purchased it for him. This is a game that is easy to get up and running properly within a few minutes of installing the software.

Rating:
Summary: Works with Digs N Rigs console! FUN FUN FUN!
Review: Santa brought my 4yo this program for Christmas. It installed easily on Win98 and ran first time. I installed the whole disk to the hard drive hoping to improve performance. The program still does take about a minute between games to prepare itself. But this is understandable considering the incredible graphics and sound in the game.

Santa had previously brought the Tonka DigsNRigs game last year. I was hoping to use the control console from that with Monster Trucks. ...- however the software's printed manual inside the box says that it is compatible, but gives no instructions on how to make it work. The DigsNRigs console is not the default input device, the keyboard arrows are. The manual refers you to the readme file, which also gives no specifics.

DigsNRigs Solution: In the game itself, there is a building which lights up red when selected, called "Options." Click in there and you will see the setting for input device. Keyboard, DigsNRigs, or game controller can be used. I have not tried my Microsoft Game Controller with this game. Once selected, just "go back" and you are done. Digs and Rigs will now work well.

Problems: On my P3, 450MHz Gateway, 128MBRAM, W98SE, The program will freeze and lockup the PC if you try to exit gracefully. I have found that "End Task" (Ctrl+Alt+Del) works better, but is still not always effective in preventing a hard power off to recover. Using Win2000 or XP should solve this. Also, we frequently get a blue screen error message saying too many stacks, suggesting increasing the 'MinSPs' variable in System.ini. WIN98 System.ini does not have this variable to change! I added it at the bottom of the file and still got the error message, so that will require contacting the company for tech support. It happens after about 2 hours of solid play, so it is not a big problem.

The online help at the company's website seems helpful and thorough, but there were not specific solutions to these problems. I followed the guidelines they suggested to improve performance and prevent lockups in general (reduce video acceleration) with slight improvement.

Despite the fact that the game requires P2 250MHz with 30MB RAM, I am fairly sure that these problems would not occur on more modern PC than my P3, or while running an NT based OS, like W2K or XP. And so, based largely on the fun factor of this game for both my 4yo and 2yo, I have to say 4 stars. I am a computer professional, so an extra hour debugging this program is no big deal for me. If you are not computer savvy, you may not enjoy configuring this on your older computer.

Rating:
Summary: Great Program!
Review: This program works great. Be advised though that it is VERY graphics intensive. If you have an old system, it won't run very well. We are running Windows XP on a P4 1.9Ghz and it hasn't skipped a beat. The graphics really are decent. My five year old loves to play it, and dad even sneaks in from time to time to blast the nitrous over a row of cars...

Rating:
Summary: Great Program!
Review: This program works great. Be advised though that it is VERY graphics intensive. If you have an old system, it won't run very well. We are running Windows XP on a P4 1.9Ghz and it hasn't skipped a beat. The graphics really are decent. My five year old loves to play it, and dad even sneaks in from time to time to blast the nitrous over a row of cars...