By Dale Farris, Secretary
Golden Triangle PC Club
November 2005

Game Overview

In Genius you become an entrepreneur who can take a small start-up company to a multinational company as you combine invention, innovation and luck. As you play through this marvelous new sim from Viva-Media, you will witness the key inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries, and see first hand how these key events changed the world as you implement the inventions in your own scenarios. Experience history through an all new kind of tycoon-style sim game. You'll make the decisions, take risk and reap the rewards.

Starting with a humble bicycle shop, you gradually build up the shop to a large multinational in one short century, and you play as the key person who starts and manages the business to a rich success.

Genius combines real science and events from history with great sim-tycoon style game play. You play as the entrepreneur who takes risks, makes business decisions, invents and discovers new technologies, and solve problems while creating others. You manage your workers and resources to create productive factories. If you play your cards right, you could be the real Genius.

Players witness 100 years of technical innovations that have changed the world, as you grow your company into the 20th Century. Genius lets players slip into the role of an inventor and entrepreneur, and move among the realm of great thinkers and inventors of the past, including Edison, Siemens, or Braun. With the help of basic business knowledge, knowledge of physics, and skillful management, you can become the head of a large multinational company.

You enter the world of real-time 3-D graphics in which you can actively manage the affairs of your business. All the scenarios and puzzles that you encounter are taken from physics and are organically linked into the story. You experience physics through concrete applications and experiences, and you decide what can be built using the specialized knowledge that you gain on the way. This includes bicycles, cars, zeppelins, airplanes, and even rockets. You dive into a complex structural simulation, the success of which results from applying your physics knowledge.

You build research facilities and explore new technologies as time progresses. This includes engineering from 1858 onwards, thermodynamics from 1875 onwards, optics from 1895 onwards, electricity from 1915 onwards, and astronomy from 1935 onwards.

Game Characters

In Genius, you frequently will interact with various of the game's primary characters. These include the following:

Mr. Hoffman is the founder of the bicycle shop and your partner in the game. Together you have the ability to grow your business. His demeanor will accompany you throughout the game, and help you become successful. He cares a great deal about you and when you have problems or make mistakes he will encourage you or give you tips.

George is Mr. Hoffman's apprentice and he somehow attracts chaos and creates small catastrophes wherever he goes. He is never too far from you since he wants to profit from your knowledge, since he will soon be taking his apprentice exam.

Production manager Cunningham supervises all general production. When something goes wrong, he will deal with it. He is a go-getter who speaks his mind, but when he is not sure about something tricky he will contact you.

Mrs. Friedrichs is a professional accountant and nothing slips by her. She has eyes and ears everywhere, and if you make a mistake she will quickly point out the error. She has a keen interest in science and is very proud of the company.

Assistant Mary Rogers is an attractive, well-educated woman. She is intelligent, gentle, and sensitive. As a scientist, she is also knowledgeable and her abilities should not be misjudged or underestimated.

Assistant Henry Wagner is a young, highly intelligent scientist. He works independently on scientific problems, but will often turn to you with more complicated problems. He loves to discuss science with you, but he also tends to enjoy a good joke here and there.

Game Scenario Settings

In Genius, you have five areas available to start up your business. These include Pittsburgh, Detroit, Berlin, London, and Melbourne. These land sites also provide various levels of difficulty in creating and then running your business, from very easy to easy, to medium, to hard, and finally to very hard. The levels of difficulty are determined by the amount of resources available in the site and the varying degrees of land altitude and terrain limitations that are naturally indigenous to each site. This provides an added level of reality to creating your business, and nicely simulates what has to be considered when locating a business, especially a manufacturing type of business.

Neat Features

5 Locations around the globe: Detroit, Pittsburgh, London, Berlin &
Melbourne

More than 40 types of buildings

Solve and apply over 100 challenging physics puzzles

Stunning real-time 3D graphics

Complex strategy game based on real people and discoveries

Take your start-up company to a massive multi-national conglomerate

Excellent replay value -enjoy a different game every time

Minimum Specifications

Pentium 700MHz processor
Windows 98, 2000, XP
990MB free hard drive space
128MB RAM
32MB graphics card
DirectX 8 compatible graphics card
CD ROM drive

Age Group

Genius  should be relevant to anyone age 8 and up. However, younger gamers may need a little help from their parents when getting started, as well as with some of the more challenging scenarios you can simulate. Also, as with any sim program, Genius does assume some basic problem-solving skills and the fundamentals of decision-making. The game also provides a realistic set-up for your technology business you wish to create and manage, and of course as with any sim game, Genius also provides an open-ended, nearly never-ending process of simulating the reality of creating and then running a business.

In Genius, players face a multitude of decisions, including the exciting start by creating an invention you wish to begin to create and sell. The management of the business has been relatively scaled down to better relate to the expected age group, and the game focuses on the major decisions that are made in running any business, while not bogging down the player in the endless details that do encompass most business operations. In Genius, the focus is on having fun while learning about creating and running a manufacturing business that will sell a creatively designed new product.

Price

$29.95

This is a bargain price for the tremendous value built into this marvelous game that will be fun for players of all ages.

Installation and Setup

The game comes on one CD, and should install and set up with no problems. You do not need the game disc in the CD ROM drive to play the game.

About Viva Media, LLC

Viva Media, LLC is a privately owned New York company dedicated to publishing a wide array of interactive content of the highest standards. The company's collection of more than 40 multimedia titles tout more than 30 awards for excellence in publishing. Viva Media features the award winning line of Tivola Publishing CD-ROM games and the Viva range of titles including:

Viva Chess
Viva Astronomy
Viva Kids
Viva Adventure
Viva Music

Contact Information

John W. De Feo, Media Coordinator
Viva-Media
580 Broadway, Suite 604
New York, NY 10012
212-431-4420
FAX 212-431-4537
john@viva-media.com
www.viva-media.com

You can also order from other retailers or online vendors.