The third game on my 1999 ToolBook CD was a bridge. Eleven stones over a black chasm, a doorway in the cliff, and a title in the loudest pink ToolBook had: The Third Challenge. Answer a question, step to the next stone. Reach the door and you win.
It worked. Kids leaned toward the screen on every stone. But nothing could go wrong on that bridge, and a crossing with no risk is just a quiz with pictures.
So the rebuild has a new name, a real canyon, and somebody chasing you.
What changed on the bridge
- Somebody is after you. In the two-player game one student is the Seeker, crossing to the temple, and the other is the Guardian, a knight coming across the bridge behind them.
- The stones crumble. Miss a question and the stone under your feet cracks. Miss again and it breaks away for good, and now there is a gap to leap. Miss the leap and you fall.
- One stone is barely there. Somewhere in the span is the Leap of Faith stone. Reach it and the question is double or nothing.
- You can push your luck. Wager: Leap Two lets a player go for two stones on one question.
- Torches and a clock. Each player gets 2 to 5 torches for lives, and the turn clock runs 30 to 90 seconds, or off.
- The Hall of the Chosen. Every crossing ends on a leaderboard.
- One player works too. A solo crossing for a student reviewing alone.
Bring your own questions
Open the Question Bank and type your own: multiple choice with four answers, or fill in the blank with alternate spellings allowed. Save As keeps the bank as a single file you can load next class or hand to the teacher down the hall. The sample bank is 14 questions from Prime For Life, which is why the Seeker above is filling in a Prime For Life blank.
Twenty-seven years later, the bridge asks the same thing the title screen does: how much are you willing to risk?
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