State-of-the-art educational software Video games have entertained generations of children for over three decades. New creative efforts are exploiting this well-known platform for educational purposes. Digital Economy © Photodisc One of the primary uses of computing technology has been entertainment. Video games first made their appearance in the early part of the 1970s. The first games were based on simple two-dimensional graphics and were not very sophisticated in terms of user interaction. As technology has advanced so have video games. Three-dimensional graphics are now standard on most video games. The Internet has also provided a new forum for multi-user interaction. A group of software developers in Europe are looking to exploit the popularity of video games for educational aims. Two important tools have been created in the framework of a research project funded in part by the European Commission. The Renaissance API-Server administers the user-related features of video games operating within the Internet environment. For instance, it can be used to define user privileges. With respect to expandability, it has been designed to interface easily with other Artificial Intelligence applications. In parallel, the Renaissance CyberSocket API manages the complex interactions between multiple users. It handles the exchange of various types of information between players, such as multimedia files, chat messages, player data, etc. It also ensures that when several players are engaged in one scene that all actions are accounted for, synchronised and experienced by each player in real time. These innovations represent the state-of-the-art in multi-user Internet-based video games. The pilot application of the Renaissance API-Server and CyberSocket API was an educational game in the form of a typical Italian Renaissance court. The realm of application for these tools is enormous and includes other types of educational software as well as traditional entertainment style video games. The tools' creators have applied for copyrights and seek licensing agreements with large-scale distributors.
