Tonka Monster Trucks

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $1.98

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine	Zonealarm Internet Security Suite [Old Version]	Pimpjuice Premium Energy Drink, Extra Strength Formula, 8-Ounce Cans (Pack of 24)

Customer Reviews:

tonka monster trucks [Posted on 2002-04-04]
I liked the game and so does my son, but I was disappointed to find out that the dig and rigs playset does not work with the monster trucks.

Great Program! [Posted on 2002-05-25]
This program works great. Be advised though that it is VERY graphics intensive. If you have an old system, it won't run very well. We are running Windows XP on a P4 1.9Ghz and it hasn't skipped a beat. The graphics really are decent. My five year old loves to play it, and dad even sneaks in from time to time to blast the nitrous over a row of cars...

Works with Digs N Rigs console! FUN FUN FUN! [Posted on 2003-01-17]
Santa brought my 4yo this program for Christmas. It installed easily on Win98 and ran first time. I installed the whole disk to the hard drive hoping to improve performance. The program still does take about a minute between games to prepare itself. But this is understandable considering the incredible graphics and sound in the game.

Santa had previously brought the Tonka DigsNRigs game last year. I was hoping to use the control console from that with Monster Trucks. ...- however the software's printed manual inside the box says that it is compatible, but gives no instructions on how to make it work. The DigsNRigs console is not the default input device, the keyboard arrows are. The manual refers you to the readme file, which also gives no specifics.

DigsNRigs Solution: In the game itself, there is a building which lights up red when selected, called "Options." Click in there and you will see the setting for input device. Keyboard, DigsNRigs, or game controller can be used. I have not tried my Microsoft Game Controller with this game. Once selected, just "go back" and you are done. Digs and Rigs will now work well.

Problems: On my P3, 450MHz Gateway, 128MBRAM, W98SE, The program will freeze and lockup the PC if you try to exit gracefully. I have found that "End Task" (Ctrl+Alt+Del) works better, but is still not always effective in preventing a hard power off to recover. Using Win2000 or XP should solve this. Also, we frequently get a blue screen error message saying too many stacks, suggesting increasing the 'MinSPs' variable in System.ini. WIN98 System.ini does not have this variable to change! I added it at the bottom of the file and still got the error message, so that will require contacting the company for tech support. It happens after about 2 hours of solid play, so it is not a big problem.

The online help at the company's website seems helpful and thorough, but there were not specific solutions to these problems. I followed the guidelines they suggested to improve performance and prevent lockups in general (reduce video acceleration) with slight improvement.

Despite the fact that the game requires P2 250MHz with 30MB RAM, I am fairly sure that these problems would not occur on more modern PC than my P3, or while running an NT based OS, like W2K or XP. And so, based largely on the fun factor of this game for both my 4yo and 2yo, I have to say 4 stars. I am a computer professional, so an extra hour debugging this program is no big deal for me. If you are not computer savvy, you may not enjoy configuring this on your older computer.

LOADS of fun! [Posted on 2003-05-14]
My son got this 2 1/2 months ago for his birthday and he LOVES it so much! He hasn't lost interest and plays it constantly! He loves the Tonka series and it was a great addition to our collection.

Very entertaining [Posted on 2006-03-28]
We bought this game for our 4 1/2 year old boy. He loves it! You can design your own monster trucks and race them down a track and do freestyle as well (jumps over cars and airplanes). You pick up bonus points as you race so you can get new decals for your trucks. It's simple to play since you use the arrow keys to move left, right front and backwards. The only thing is that we have xp and it freezes up when you create your own track - but since there are tracks already made for you, we just bypass the 'makeing your own track' option

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