Download MindRover: The Europa Project

You are a researcher on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. In your free time you like to make working rovers from improvised things and program it for different tasks.

Your task is to construct small robotic rovers that compete with one another in a variety of challenges. What's particularly new and unusual is that it's not just a matter of choosing weapons. The player actually gets to control how the robots react through a visual programming metaphor that CogniToy calls "wiring." In the construction lab, players choose bodies, drive trains, sensors, weapons, and manipulators for their robots from a large array of possibilities, then visually wire the sensors to the controls to give each rover a unique set of behaviors.

The rover is then moved to the competitive arena and set free to take on all competitors. In one arena, the competition may be a race, and players would likely choose small, fast vehicles with sensors tuned for staying on the course and avoiding obstacles. But in the very next room, the goal may be simply to be the last robot standing, in which case it might be a good idea to festoon a tank with a whole array of weapons, along with radar units to guide them.

The game includes puzzles, mazes, treasure hunts, and other unique problem-solving tasks.