'Monkeys' evolve from salt lake to screensaver

By Larry Blasko
Associated Press

One of the great straw-into-gold marketing stories has made the leap to computers and it's worth a look, but some history is in order.

It begins with a fish food, Artemia salina, or, as its buddies call it, brine shrimp. In the wild, they're found in salt lakes and salt evaporation flats. Those who keep aquariums use them, whether as dry eggs or live crustaceans, to feed fish.

In 1960, a man named Harold von Braunhut looked at A. salina and didn't see shrimp — he saw "Sea-Monkeys." If you've read a comic book since then, chances are you've seen an ad for "instant life," offering a packet of eggs that you hatch in water, and depicting monkey-like creatures, advertising them as "pets." Educational Insights holds the brand license and the wee beasties are available worldwide.

While a shrimp might be only a notch above a pet rock in terms of interaction, the "Sea-Monkeys" are still around, and now they've been published by Xicat Interactive as "The Amazing Virtual Sea-Monkeys" for the Windows PC platform. At least this way, they can't leave water rings on the end table.

The software version runs as either a game or a screensaver, and it's mildly amusing, as animated Sea-Monkeys swim through a virtual environment. Although the software carries an E (for Everyone) rating, it's difficult to see it holding the interest of someone much over 10 years old. That's something of a departure for Xicat, whose "Carmageddon" game for example, is all about drivers running down pedestrians.) The animation on "Sea-Monkeys" is nicely done, but the game's background score makes you feel trapped in a virtual elevator. The user interface is very simple and didn't require downloading the manual.

"The Amazing Virtual Sea-Monkeys" is available for $19.99 at amazon.com. It will run under Windows 95/98/ME/XP/2000 and requires at least a 233-megahertz Pentium or equivalent and 32 megabytes of memory.

Parents take note: Some of Xicat's titles are for mature audiences, so if you want the little ones to check out the title on the Web, be there to make certain that's all they check.

On the Web: xicat.com