Software Reviews : BALANCE OF POWER: GEOPOLITICS IN THE NUCLEAR AGE Reviewed by Joseph Behar,Dowling College Publisher: Mindscape,Inc.,3444 Dundee Rd.,Northbrook,IL 60062 (telephone: [phone]) Year of Publication: 1985 Materials: Program disk,87-page manual,59-page teacher's manual Price: $45 Machine Specificity: Macintosh System Requirements: 128K memory Effectiveness: Fair User-Friendliness: Good Documentation: Good

Abstract

This is a software game that purports to give instruction on the strategies of geopolitics in the nuclear age. Chris Crawford, in attempting to cross over from entertainment to education, offers a fascinating, complex, and reasonably sophisticated simulation model in which the United States and the Soviet Union act and react in a competitive struggle for world power and prestige. Unfortunately, for all of its intrigue and complexity, the game fails as an educational experience by rigidly programming unexamined assumptions, constructing artificial models that promote deceitful ideologies, and suggesting that superpower manipulation and subversion are equivalent to world historical forces.