MindRover Voted Educational Game of the Year

ACTON, MA. April 12, 2002 MindRover: the Europa Project, the highly acclaimed intelligent robot simulation/strategy game from CogniToy, was voted the 2001 Educational Game of the Year by the readers of Game Industry News. Over 10,000 viewers cast their votes in a variety of categories.

In MindRover™, players take on the challenge of programming virtual robotic vehicles for races, games, sports and robot combat. After choosing a base vehicle and components such as motors, sensors, and timers, the player then programs the robots brain using MindRover's innovative drag and drop "wiring" system. The autonomous robots then compete in a 3D arena taking on their friends vehicles or the games own AI robots.

CogniToy has continued to support their players and fans by releasing add-on packs and upgrades, many of them free of charge. The version 1.08 upgrade was released last week with support for Joystick control among other things. "MindRover robots have always had to take on challenges without the help of their owner. Now our players can combine automated behaviors with direct control for even more exciting gameplay," explained Kim Quirk, CEO of CogniToy.

The recent release of the RCX Add-on pack that allows MindRover to program and simulate LEGO™ MindStorm™ robots may have also been a factor in the vote count to win Educational Game of the Year. MindRover is the only affordable software on the market that lets you program and simulate home or hobbiest robots, such as the LEGO products. After viewing the 3D simulation on the computer, the robot code can be downloaded directly into the RCX intelligent brick.

MindRover: The Europa Project is available for Win9x/ME/2k/XP and Linux for $25.00 at CogniToys website: cognitoy.com. The RCX Add-On pack is an extra $15. LEGO products are sold separately.

ABOUT COGNITOY, LLC :

CogniToy, cognitoy.com, is a privately financed independent developer and publisher of computer software and games for robots. Founded in 1997 and based in Acton, MA, CogniToys virtual robot game, MindRover: The Europa Project, is available for Win95/98/NT/2000 and for Linux. An Apple Macintosh version should be available soon.

Game Industry News, www.gameindustry.com, is a website containing daily news of the gaming industry. Listing of all the Game of the Year winners can be found here:

LEGO™ and RCX are trademarks of the LEGO Group. CogniToy claims no affiliation with the LEGO Group.