Widget Workshop for OS/2 - by Colin L. Hildinger

ate in 1995 Maxis released a batch of OS/2 ports of their games. They included SimCity 2000, SimTown, and Widget Workshop. Of course, you may not realize that these games ever existed because they never appeared on store shelves; they were only available from OS/2 only vendors like Indelible Blue and directly from Maxis. These games were all ported by Softport (formerly WinWare), who also ported Doom and Links to OS/2.

Installation

The installation of Widget Workshop is straightforward, since it uses the IBM installer. If you aren't familiar with installing software, there's even an OS/2 specific pamphlet in the jewel case telling you how to install the game from the CD -- a nice touch. The only minor flaw I found with the pamphlet is that I believe the game requires DIVE and uses DART (which I think it will install on any Warp 3 system which doesn't already have DART installed), but the pamphlet only mentions SVGA and an OS/2 supported sound card.

What is a Widget Workshop?

Maxis describes it as a "Mad Scientist's Laboratory," but I think a "Mad Engineer's Laboratory" might be a better description. (OK, so I'm a little biased.) There are basically two aspects to the game. The first aspect is the laboratory. You can create "widgets" from literally dozens of different parts. The second aspect is that of a puzzle game. You are given partial widgets and have to make them work properly.

The Puzzles

The box says that the game is for ages 8 and up and this is probably accurate, since you'll have almost as much fun with this game as your 10 year old would. The puzzle (GIF, 17.7k) aspect of the game sort of reminded me of Sierra's "The Incredible Machine," except that there weren't enough puzzles for my taste. The 25 puzzles included with the game only lasted me through one afternoon of tinkering (but it was a fun afternoon). If they'd included 100-200 puzzles I would have played the game until I finished them all. Of course, I am a Mechanical Engineer, so this stuff was right up my alley. A 10 year old (or even a 14 year old) would probably take significantly longer to finish them (or at least I can hope he or she would!).

Widgets

Since there were only 25 puzzles, I assume that this is the main focus of the game. The books included in the package include instructions on how to make a variety of different widgets. They also tell why they work. If your child is a budding engineer, or if he or she is the type who spends hours playing with Lego toys (especially the Technics ones), this is sure to teach them a few things in a way that they will enjoy. Parts used in the widgets include timing devices, switches, and logic gates. One of the sample widgets is a grandfather clock (GIF, 27.2k) which chimes just like a real grandfather clock.

You can also upload your widgets to Maxis and download ones that others have created. Maxis has a "creations" web page where you can find a variety of widgets that other people have uploaded. Since the widget files (.WGT files) are platform independent, you can share with Windows and Macintosh users. I tried a widget from the creations page called "gate.wgt" (GIF, 29.6k) that worked just fine.

There are also "stand-alone widgets" which are widgets with a wrapper containing the necessary executable code. I was also able to create and run these under OS/2 without problems. When you create a stand-alone widget, you can run it on any OS/2 machine, but you can't edit the widget after creating it.

I also tried to import some stand-alone widgets I downloaded from the Maxis web page but didn't have any luck. Every time I tried I just crashed the game. I'm not sure why someone would upload a stand-alone widget without including the .WGT file, but most of the files that were uploaded seem to be of that format. I suspect that the failure to import them is a bug since the readme file specifically talks about creating stand-alone widgets that you expect to import onto a Macintosh (the OS/2 version allows a much larger work area than the Macintosh version, which is limited to 800x600).

A Rant

Electronic Arts recently purchased Maxis, and it appears that they've removed every trace of the OS/2 versions of all their products from their web page (the fix for SimCity 2000 is still on their FTP server), which was already the only place in the world to find information about them. I didn't realize this until shortly before press time, but this gives me a little chance to rant.

Maxis created a good game. They did a good job of porting it -- it ranks near Links in polish which really says something for the work of Jim Thomas and Softport. Jim seems to do a good job on everything.

Unfortunately, Maxis never made any attempt to sell the product. The Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Macintosh versions are all included on one CD which you can find at software stores. OS/2 is the only platform the game runs on which isn't in the box and therefore never made it to software stores. Whatever their logic in doing this, it ensured low sales for the OS/2 port of the game, and it ensured that they wouldn't look at porting future games to OS/2. Finally, to top it off, they take the OS/2 information off of their web page which further reduces the chances of anyone finding the information and ordering a copy.

I give them a B+ for porting the games (the ports are well done but they reached OS/2 well after they reached the Windows and Macintosh platforms) and an F- for marketing them.

Conclusions

Widget Workshop is a fairly entertaining toy that may well be something which your kids will enjoy and from which they will learn. Like every game, this won't be true for everyone, so make your judgement based on your knowledge of your family. If you want to get a peek at the game, check out the OS/2 Warp version 4 "Applications Sampler" CD. There is a very limited demo version on that CD. But for US$27 plus shipping, it's not that bad of a gamble.

Widget Workshop for OS/2

by Maxis Software
MSRP: US$26.95 (CD only)

Colin Hildinger is an Aerospace Engineering senior at Oklahoma State University and has been using OS/2 for the last 3 years. In addition to being the Games Editor for OS/2 e-Zine! , he maintains The Ultimate OS/2 Gaming Page and the AWE32 and OS/2 Page in his "spare" time.

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