Installation took 8 minutes on a reasonably quick machine. The total hard disc space required was 1500MB, the install media was a standard CD. While the software still comes in a box the size gets smaller to the point that the CD will only fit corner to corner in the box. The only other content is a six language notes sheet of paper. It will work on XP, Vista and 7 and it even works fine on 64bit Windows.

Joining the Avanquest Click & Play catalogue of games is Adventure Chronicles: The Search for Lost Treasure.  This game features Susan Anderson who some might remember was the central character of Escape the Museum.  Now sufficiently recovered from the ordeal of escaping from the wreckage of the museum with her daughter, Susan is back at work when she takes delivery of a journal from an unknown source.  This journal is the work of T. R.

Hidden Mysteries: The White House forms part of Avanquest’s Click & Play range.  It brings together the familiar mix of hidden object game play with a scattering of puzzle-based mini games  This  game places you in the role of Miranda Hunt, a college student.

Only very recently have I reviewed any Vista systems they really seemed to work well with the operating system. Here however I expect Windows 7 to settle down very quickly. No manufacturer has so far offered me a Windows 7 system to look at even under a non disclosure agreement. So my tests have been with my own notebooks.

But what are the key dates? RC will be available for download at least until the end of July and will expire on 1 June 2010. This means that there is some 3 months to gain experience before the Win 7 scheduled launch date of October 22. However, starting from 1 March 2010 RC will begin shutting down every two hours. The user will be given two weeks warning and so will have time to decide whether to revert to a previous operating system or install a “non-expired” version.

An on-going process of regular checks and maintenance sessions are required to make sure that overall performance of your computer is not handicapped by a variety of hardware and software related factors.  One of these maintenance checks should deal with hard disk performance which can be compromised by the defragmentation brought about by normal everyday activity as files are deleted and the regained space allocated on a first-come basis to new files.

Sea Journey is a game from DivoGames, a Russian based company that was founded in 2001 and specialises in the development of casual games.  This game brings together sea battles, pirates, hidden treasure and maps aplenty with the traditional match-3 genre.  The whole package is encased in a story line that casts you as a young captain of a merchant ship.

On a fast modern Vista notebook this took a total of 44 minutes to install. It required 1320MB of hard disc space. As the requirements are high I will add them here so you will know if your system can cope. 1.8GHz processor, Windows XP service pack 2 or 3 or Vista SP1. 512MB RAM. IGB hard disc space. 1024x768 display and a DVD drive. All the figures I have given are and the recommendation is often more.

I was told that the public beta became available on the 9 January. No exact size is currently available but an ISO download done by the presenter earlier this week was 2.7GB, it is expected that this will probably be smaller by launch date. This should use the same or less resources than Vista and you should be able to install it on top of a Vista installation. When I asked about XP I was told you would need to do a full install so you would need to reinstall all your applications afterwards.

As with the original Peggle Deluxe, the follow-up title of Peggle Nights Deluxe takes the player to that mysterious location known as the Peggle Institute.  The Institute, for those who have not been there before, is the home of a super-intelligent group of characters that have achieved Peggle Master status.

Although various competitive formats have appeared since its introduction, MP3 remains the choice for many when storing their music.  It does not matter whether the original tracks were stored on vinyl, tape, CD or Internet based sites, the content generally ends up in MP3 format on a computer’s hard disk.  But once it there, what do you do with it?  Magix MP3 Maker offers a range of features designed to help you take the next steps.

Birth of America II: Wars in America 1750-1815 is not only a lengthy title for a game but also a follow up to Birth of America from the AGEOD and Ascaron Entertainment partnership.  This is a turn-based strategy game that sets the player the challenge of taking part in various battles based on historic events with authentic characters and fighting units of the period.

Xtreme PhotoStory on CD&DVD Deluxe 7 is the rather long title of Magix's latest software for burning photos to optical media so that they can be viewed on a television.  Various options are available from PhotoStory's installation routine.  These options include either accepting or changing the three different default locations used to store the program; templates and files; plus user files.

My friend Don has been a semi pro musician (keyboard player) for more than forty years. He has only a few years computing knowledge and only a few months with Broadband. He had some software by Finale -Print Music- but he always wanted more than it could give, and Sibelius will import Print Music files. So around five months ago I gave him Sibelius 5.

This week the spotlight falls on Disney Interactive Studios, the interactive entertainment affiliate of the Walt Disney Company, with its range of multi-platform video games and entertainment products for the young and young at heart.

While most companies involved in the development of graphics software tend to concentrate on a traditional approach to market their wares, even though they might also have a web-based store, Xara is an exception in that the company adopts a total web orientated strategy. If you want to purchase a Xara product, such as the company's Xtreme Pro 4.