C.Y.P.H.E.R. Operation Wildlife 
(1991 Tanager)


One of the most obscure, underrated edutainment titles ever, 
Tanager's C.Y.P.H.E.R. Operation Wildlife and Operation US 
Presidents are two wonderful games designed for kids aged 8 
and up that teach a range of subjects in a unique and addictive 
gameplay that will keep both kids and adults hooked for hours 
on end. Both games star you as an undercover agent who works 
for C.Y.P.H.E.R. (short for Courageous Young Partners in 
Hush-Hush Electronic Radiotelegraphy -- obviously meant to 
abbreviate to CYPHER ;)), a top-secret organization. According 
to the game manual, C.Y.P.H.E.R. "...provides its clients 
with a confidential message delivery system, allowing them 
to send secret telegrams to one another. A message, called 
a CYPHERGRAM, is coded and then broken up into pieces before 
being sent out to the city where the client is located. As an 
agent, your mission is to located the message pieces, and then 
decode and deliver the CYPHERGRAM to the client."

Gameplay is a very enjoyable mix of detective games, cryptography, 
and trivia. You start each mission with 3 "contact sheets", 
which contain the locations of contact agents. Their addresses 
are not spelled out directly, but are clues to the correct 
location. You must match the contact sheets to the correct 
district to contact the agents who will transmit a piece of 
the CYPHERGRAM into your Microscan watch. If you choose incorrectly,
 you may run into evil agents from L.U.R.K., who will scare 
away your contacts or even steal information from you. Each 
contact agent will also give you a clue to the animal (or US 
President in the sequel) that you must identify. You must 
identify several animals/Presidents correctly to obtain the 
entire CYPHERGRAM to decode. This last segment of the game 
is standard cryptography in which you must deduce the correct 
letters to decode the message. 

C.Y.P.H.E.R. contains many fun tools to help you along in your 
missions. The FunCyclopedia contains a wealth of information 
about animals / US Presidents, but you must not use it too 
often as each use drains your watch energy (i.e. time limit 
you have to finish a mission). There are also many extras that 
make the games even better than they are. You can send personal 
CYPHERGRAM to other agents (perhaps your sibling, or friend who 
shares the same computer), and they'll get it in undecoded format 
when they log on. If decoding CYPHERGRAM in standard English 
isn't challenging enough, you can choose to decode it in American 
sign language, Morse code, Braille, or even Semaphore. There are 
four difficulty levels, including Expert which will provide a 
solid challenge for adults/parents. Overall, both C.Y.P.H.E.R. 
games are highly recommended to kids and adults alike. You'll 
learn a lot of fun facts about wildlife and US Presidents, while 
sharpening your cryptography and related skills. Too bad Tanager 
never made more games in the series. True classics!