by Dale Farris, President, Golden Triangle PC Club
July 2001

Game Overview

If you enjoy reading, buy this CD ROM. If you enjoy reading to your children, buy this CD ROM. You will be glad you did.

Even if you have already read or own the book, The Little Prince, that is the basis for this CD ROM program, I urge you to strongly consider buying this CD ROM so you can experience the story in a manner only possible with the power of computing technology.

TIVOLA's marvelous The Little Prince is an absolute delight and deserves a place in all homes with computers and children.

For the remaining few that for some strange reason have still not read the book The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who also created the artwork in the original, this CD ROM adaptation will provide a wonderful first-time experience with the book in this splendorous animated telling of the story.

Although primarily focused on children, The Little Prince is an amazing story replete with profound concepts and principles that most adults will readily grasp. Saint-Exupery's famous book is actually an allegorical fable that has powerful meaning beyond the surface of the initial storyline, and has rightly maintained its presence on all children's bestseller lists.

The CD ROM program is an absolute must for all educational institutions and public libraries interested in adding quality computer learning material to their collections.

The Little Prince Story

First published in 1943, Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince is an endearing children's classic that will never go out of print. The narrator of the story, Saint-Exupery's alter-ego, is a downed pilot in the Sahara Desert on Earth, frantically trying to repair his wrecked plane. His efforts are interrupted one day by the apparition of "a little, well, prince, who asks him to draw him a sheep."

In response to this curious query, the writer states, "In the face of an overpowering mystery, you don't dare disobey. Absurd as it seemed, a thousand miles from all inhabited regions and in danger of death, I took a scrap of paper and pen out of my pocket." Thus, begins this now famous dialogue which stretches the imagination of the reader in all sorts of surprising, childlike directions.

The main character, the Little Prince (yes, he is very little), tells the pilot about his journey to Earth from his own tiny home planet, not much bigger than himself, and his travels to other planets, each also a tiny world inhabited by a single adult. The sequence is as mysterious and entrancing as all the great fairy tales, and as whimsical as Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities." Amidst the gentle bemusement of the tale, the author also finds ways to pull off satiric touches. For example, there is the king, the one-man ruler of his one-man planet, who commands the Little Prince to function as a one-boy judiciary.

As the pilot narrator, Saint-Exupery pokes fun at a businessman, a geographer, and a lamplighter, each the single inhabitant of their tiny world, all of them signifying some futile aspect of adult existence. The story is tender and a heartfelt exposition of sadness and solitude, while never ending up in "Peter Pan" style syrup.

The cryptic, enigmatic aspect of the story is what I think has enabled the tale to develop its endless life that has charmed generations. While children may be drawn to the tale of loneliness and childlike creativity, and the simple but colorful drawings, the many symbolic meanings challenge adults more adept at recognizing Saint-Exupery's deeper, significant meanings of the tale, the characters, and the ultimate ending that has been interpreted by some as characteristic of Christian mythology.

The original The Little Prince was published in French, and TIVOLA's CD ROM version is based on the latest edition of the book published by Harcourt Trade Publishers (see below), in celebration of the author's 100th birthday. The translation is by poet Richard Howard, who also did a fine job in 1999 on Stendhal's "The Chronicles of Parma." Poet Howard manages to convey the power of the original French into a wonderful effect, all the more meaningful in the super narration by British actor Kenneth Branagh in this CD ROM program.

Howard is the author of 11 books of poetry, including his 1970 Pulitzer Prize winning "Untitled Subjects," and has translated more than 150 French works. He also received the American Book Award for his translation of Charles Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du Mal."

With this CD ROM version, this indestructible classic is wonderfully animated and narrated and literally comes to life. Countless times we have witnessed failed efforts to translate children's stories to computer versions. In this case, TIVOLA's The Little Prince is a must for all families with children yearning for a computer product that represents the best of how to integrate the potential of computer technology into such a children's classic.

The program embellishes the original artwork in full color, and as you would imagine, enlivens this artwork as can only happen in computer animation. Children can now sit back, click on the bird to activate the animated and narrated book, and experience The Little Prince in a way never before possible without the use of this technology.

British narrator Kenneth Branagh is an excellent choice to read the story, a feat so successful that many times I felt as if he were reading this story only to me. Even for parents that have realized the importance of daily reading to their children, and that have even already read The Little Prince to their rug rats, I still think the experience of listening to Branagh read the story, while watching the superb animated rendition of the artwork from the book, will further enrich the important learning that comes from this story. For families that have not yet added The Little Prince to their library, you cannot imagine any better story in computer form to provide your children than this wonderful program from TIVOLA.

The secret of The Little Prince, revealed toward the end, the importance of life and sharing with others, the true meaning of genuine friendship, and of course, unequivocal love for others, has forever changed the lives of millions that have read this classic in children's literature. The Little Prince truly deserves its unique place among the rare, few titles in the Canon of children's literature, and now you can add this rare experience to your household.

Interactivity Features

As you listen to the heartfelt narration and become mesmerized by the dreamy background music and the superb animation, you travel the universe of the Little Prince, visit strange planets, and learn of his adventures. In addition to the story of The Little Prince, this CD ROM version includes other interactive features that are all equally well done and succeed with children.

These include the following features.

The universe can be "traveled," opening up access to other planets
The book is opened by clicking on the planet Saturn
The planet Earth opens up interactivity with the Fox
The Fox's game, once "solved," opens up the Notebook
Asteroid B-612 requires you to click on various areas to maintain it
The plane opens an animated biography of author Saint-Exupery
The Geographer opens a logbook of information about the planets

The interactivity with the book starts with a table of contents that allows you to go to selected chapters in the book. Each chapter's animation begins when you click on the bird. Narrator Branagh's superb rendition seamlessly flows and excellently times with the animation, a must for wee readers with less patience. To interrupt the animated story, just click on the black border of the book, and this will take you back to the book and then back to the universe.

In the Fox game, you work through this part of the story by going to see the fox many times, at the right time, in order to tame him, just as in the story. You will hear the lamplighter call Hello, Good Morning, or Good Night. In the universe of The Little Prince, this symbolizes the start and end of days, and this means you need to return to the Fox.

For the very wee ones, more likely to be easily frustrated by this process in the fox game, you can bypass this once you get to the landscape and the fox on Earth. Just hold down the Control and Shift keys while double clicking on the top right corner of the screen. The fox will bark, and give you a present, the Notebook, by placing another icon on your desktop that you control with a password. A very neat feature, once you get the fox game under control. The notebook allows you to keep a secret diary, write letters, and decorate them with illustrations from the CD ROM.

In the Asteroid game, the goal is to keep the rose from withering and the baobab from smothering the planet.

As you move your mouse cursor, shaped like a star, over the universe, the planets mentioned in the story move around, and as you see these, you click on each and this enlarges the planet and introduces you to the character that lives on the planet, just as in the story. To quit, you just click on the border of the universe, bringing up the moon, that you click on to quit this wonderful program.

Game Features

Famous story comes to life in this marvelous adaptation
Wonderful narration by British actor Kenneth Branagh
Translation of the original French by poet Richard Howard
Original score enhances the beauty and mystery of the story
Travel all around the universe of the Little Prince
Experience enchanted animated images
Visit the Little Prince on Asteroid B-612
Play the Fox Taming Game
Fox rewards you with a secret notebook that loads onto the desktop
Design and print your own diary and stationary
Lovely full-color photo-realistic graphics
First-person perspective
Very impressive background display
Well designed, integrated background soundtrack
Super integration of the printed book into the computer game
Classic point-and-click interface to work the game
Beautifully drawn backgrounds

About Antoine de Saint-Exupery

As it turns out, this fascinating story was written by someone with an equally fascinating personal life story. Saint-Exupery was born in Lyons, France, in 1900, and developed a passion for flying. He flew from Europe to Africa for the French Airmail Service. He also flew pioneer planes, such as the Brequet 14, which had an open cockpit, single engine, and no brakes, headlights, or radio. He tinkered with invention and obtained several patents on aviation devices.

In Spring 1940, Hitler's army invaded northern France, and Saint-Exupery, a daring and accomplished pilot, volunteered to fly surveillance missions over German-occupied France. On May 23, he set out on a dangerous flight which he later documented in his book, "Flight to Arras." Published in both the US and France in 1942, this book was immediately forbidden by the Nazi dominated Vichy government as a "Gaullist manifesto." 

Unwilling to support de Gaulle's exiled government, Saint-Exupery accepted an invitation from his New York publisher to emigrate to America. After visiting his mother for the last time, he set sail from Lisbon by way of northern Africa. Before embarking from Algiers on a Portuguese ship, he vowed to return. He said, "When the Americans land, I'll be there, I swear." On December 31, 1940, he stepped onto American soil.

In a beautiful apartment on Central Park South, friends tried to console the melancholy writer, unaware that it was exactly this frivolity and ignorance of the severity of the situation in France that was the source of his homesickness and depression. Injuries suffered during a plane crash in Guatemala further aggravated his poor physical condition, and his mood darkened.

He later moved from Manhattan to a luxurious villa, Bevin House, on Long Island. Here, in 1942, he worked on and completed his The Little Prince. However, he remained depressed, frustrated by homesickness and his inability to help his homeland from the passive security of his American exile. Finally he again volunteered to fly military missions, and returned to Algiers on May 4, 1943. Though he was initially turned down for duty, due to his age, he used the influence of friends to resume his surveillance flights one month later. On July 31, 1944, he took off for Grenoble and Lyon, the city of his birth. He was never seen again. 

However, just like his Little Prince, this gifted writer and patriotic Frenchman lives on in his work. As the Little Prince sadly bids his farewell to the downed pilot toward the end of the story, he tells the pilot, "I'll look as if I'm dead, and that won't be true." So has Saint-Exupery said to us all. More than a half century later, his fable of love and loneliness continues to impact readers with its powerful meaning.

Targeted Customers

TIVOLA's marvelous The Little Prince may appear to be a simple children's tale, and rightly deserves a place in the homes of all. The story is also profound and deeply moving, written in riddles and laced with philosophy and poetic metaphors.

These many levels of meaning are enhanced by the author's uncanny artistic skills in conveying the meaning of the story in simple line drawings that now come to life in this superb computer rendition of the book. The CD ROM approach succeeds here, and TIVOLA is to be commended for their concentrated diligence and perseverance in creating a computer version of this special book that excellently conveys the special meaning of this unique story. 

The powerful, evocative reading of the tale by narrator Branagh makes you wonder if anyone else could have read this story as well as he does. We all owe actor Branagh a great deal of gratitude for agreeing to take on this very difficult challenge of reading this special story.

With the never ending life of this story that has charmed millions, and will likely continue to do so long into the future, finding the right person to record the narration must have been as difficult as striving to produce the animation of the artwork in such a manner that also succeeds in bringing life to The Little Prince. If Saint-Exupery were still around, I think he would also be very proud of what TIVOLA has done with his book.

All public libraries ought to have multiple copies of the CD ROM version of the book, to accompany their multiple copies of the hardcover book. Even though for children the experience of having the book read to them in the library would of course not be as meaningful as having the book read to them as they sit in their parent's lap, nevertheless I still think this program has potential for all the "Little Bookworm" programs in the libraries across the country.

Install and Setup

The installation and setup presented no difficulties on my machine. You just locate the installation.exe file in the Run command and follow the instructions.

The installation may suggest you install Apple's QuickTime (QT), so choose this option if you don't already have these components. On my machine, I had already loaded QuickTime 5.0, and even upgraded to the newest 5.1 version, but in this install routine, the program did not find these components. Thinking this might have been due to the location of the QT files on a different partition from the one used to install The Little Prince, I uninstalled the program, rebooted, and then re-installed the program on the same partition that also housed the QuickTime files. During the next installation, the program still did not recognize that I did have QuickTime on my machine, and I had to let it install these QT files, in this case the older 2.12 version, in order to play the game.

However, this older QuickTime version did not interfere with the latest 5.1 version, and the newer version was still functional after I uninstalled The Little Prince. Presumably this older 2.12 version of QuickTime remains on my machine, as I am not exactly certain about this process.

To run the program, you will need the CD in the drive.

Price

$19.99 (super bargain!)

Minimum System Configuration Requirements

Windows 95, 98, NT 4, 2000
P-133 processor
16MB RAM
29MB free hard disk space
16-bit high color graphics card (640 x 480 with thousands of colors)
Sound card
4x CD ROM

Mac System Requirements

Mac Power PC 5 320 (120MHz)
Operating System 7.5-9.0 or later
16MB RAM
29MB free hard disk space
16-bit high color graphics card (640 x 480 with thousands of colors)
Sound card
4x CD ROM

At the time of this writing, no patches for this game had been released, and very likely, none will be needed.

Not requiring a 3d graphics accelerator card, and needing a minimally powered CPU means this game is playable on many more systems, a wise move on the part of TIVOLA. While it is true that more newer systems either come with or are being customized with newer, 32MB or 64MB 3dfx video boards and high-end, 3d audio boards, driven in part by the high-end requirements of many computer games, in fact I suspect there are many more legacy systems still working that will likely be fine for this game.

The above system configuration requirements indicate the minimum and recommended system configuration requirements, and as any experienced gamer knows, if at all possible, you just don't ever want to load and run any computer game on minimally configured systems. Computer games are notorious for taking over machines, and this is why users will need to be sure and close out all their other open files, before playing this and any computer game. However, in the case of this TIVOLA title, I think we have an example of a computer program for children that will actually very likely play just fine even on a minimally configured system.

About TIVOLA

TIVOLA Publishing creates and publishes a wide range of award-winning multimedia products designed to open up a world of interactive fun and learning to children and young people. The German based company has offices in New York, London, and Berlin, and produces a wide range of innovative interactive CD ROMs that stimulate a child's curiosity, while encouraging smart play. In 1995, TIVOLA published its first title, and has developed six distinct categories of software.

These include Play and Learn, The World Around Us, Quest for Knowledge, Stories and Adventures, Crimes and Clues, and Games for Fun. The company has a commitment to producing high-quality, multilingual CD ROMs that tell exciting, entertaining stories through beautiful graphics, witty animation and original games. TIVOLA titles are currently in more than 49 countries worldwide.

TIVOLA began in 1995, when founding partners, Karsten Voelker, Mil Thierig, and Barbara Landbeck founded the Berlin office to fill the need for original CD ROM games that are clever but also promote learning. In 2000, TIVOLA was named "Company of the Year" by the Berlin Association of Self-Employed Entrepreneurs, who recognized the company's fast development into an internationally successful multimedia company with an innovative brand building strategy.

The TIVOLA UK offices opened in 1998, and with the launch of 10 new titles in 2001, the company continues to grow in the UK children's software publishing market. The TIVOLA US offices opened in 1999, and the company signed a contract with the Navarre Corporation to distribute their products in the US and Canada. 

The company develops books and story games on CD ROM, and all titles are simultaneously produced in English so that they can be understood by potential international licensees. The software is also produced for the PC and the Apple platform.

TIVOLA also buys and sells license for different products. For these purposes, the company has developed optimal localization standards. With this new system, TIVOLA titles are obtainable in countries all over the world.

The TIVOLA line of CD ROM programs are products parents can depend on to provide a fun and educational computer experience for their children. Teachers can also feel secure in integrating the educational lineup of TIVOLA products into their curriculum, especially those teaching entry level classes. TIVOLA's series of learning CD ROMs for children that include the many Oscar the Balloonist titles, the many Max adventures, the super Physicus science-based program, and of course The Little Prince, all assure a solid worthwhile computer experience for all ages, especially young learners.

With the worldwide notoriety of TIVOLA products, the company has also ventured into a new online interactive arena. Companies can now rent online games from TIVOLA to make available at their Web site for their own customers. This new portfolio of online games for rent expands still further the success of the company.

Recent news has also revealed that TIVOLA has been granted worldwide licensing rights to develop and publish educational discovery games based on the legendary comic strip icon, PEANUTS, through United Media. The most widely syndicated comic strip in history, PEANUTS reaches over 350 million readers in 75 countries, appealing to adults as well as children. The first TIVOLA PEANUTS CD ROM will be introduced at the 2002 Toy Fair, and will combine PEANUTS humor with the suspense of a discovery game. As would be expected from any TIVOLA title, the game will integrate educational elements into the distinctive humor of the PEANUTS world. 

Contact Information

Tivola Publishing
580 Broadway, Suite 604
New York, NY 10012
212-431-4420
FAX 212-431-4537
www.tivola.com
mail@tivola.com

You can also order from other retailers or online vendors.

Ordering the Book

For the book, "The Little Prince," check your local library. Or, you can order the latest edition book from the following publisher.

"The Little Prince"
by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Translated by Richard Howard
Hardcover
$18.00
ISBN: 0152023984

Harcourt Trade Publishers
(A Reed Elsevier Company)
525 B Street
San Diego, California 92101-4495
1-800-543-1918
www.harcourtbooks.com