St. Boniface has an interesting and exciting new way for children to learn about the gospel and teachings of the Catholic Church through a game called "Gospel Champions".
Gospel Champions is a home Video game series for grades K-8 that recreates Gospel stories in a fun interactive gaming environment that kids enjoy. The game extends the Gospel message and Catholic teachings to the family’s home Windows PC during children’s game playtime. The game sequences with the Liturgy such that each month families play a new Gospel story adventure that corresponds to a Gospel Reading from the same month.
Gospel Champions 2007-2008 includes 12 monthly Gospel adventures that begin September 2007 and run through August 2008. The game also includes 2 Bonus Gospel adventures for Christmas and 1 Bonus Gospel adventure for Easter - totaling 15 Gospel adventures in all.
You may get the file to install the game 2 ways, on a CD supplied by St. Boniface religious education or download it from the link below. To obtain a game install CD contact Dee Ruegemer at St. Boniface School 320 685-3541. Once you have the CD, insert into the PC CD drive and start the game install process. If the install does not start automatically go to Start > My Computer > CD drive and double click on gospelchampionssetupv2_1.exe. You will need the 9-digit access code (supplied by religious education) and an email address to install the game.
*** Important Information System Requirements ***
Gospel Champions will run on most PC's with an 800 MHZ (or higher) processor
running Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, or Vista. We strongly suggest you visit your
graphics card manufacturer's website to download the latest free software drivers
for your graphics card. Note: Not compatible with Apple OS.
Download Gospel Champions
Note: this is a very large file (154 megabytes) and it not recommended to download
on a dial-up Internet connection.
Note: This software is license to the parish of St. Boniface. Gospel Champions was created and is maintained by ThirdDayGames. St. Boniface does not support or take any responsibility for this software or any any computers it is installed on.
Gospel Champions Game Information
| Overview | Controls |
| Frequently asked questions | Updating your Drivers |
| Printable PDF version of this page | Download Adobe Reader |
Gospel Champions Overview
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Gospel Champions is a take home Video game series for grades K-8 that recreates Gospel stories in a fun interactive gaming environment that kids enjoy. The game extends the Gospel message and Catholic teachings to the family’s home PC during children’s game playtime. The game sequences with the Liturgy such that each month families play a new Gospel story adventure that corresponds to a Gospel Reading from the same month.
Gospel Champions 2007-2008 includes 12 monthly Gospel adventures that begin September 2007 and run through August 2008. The game also includes 2 Bonus Gospel adventures for Christmas and 1 Bonus Gospel adventure for Easter - totaling 15 Gospel adventures in all.
Parishes and schools that purchase Gospel champions receive a license to send the game home with every family and visitor and to put the game on all parish or school computers. When you install your game you will need your parish or school 9-Digit Access code. Also be sure to register your game online so that you can receive information about updates to the game.
The design objectives of Gospel Champions are:
- Utilize home playtime to reinforce Gospel Readings from mass.
- Help children memorize their Catholic prayers and teachings.
- Reinforce Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.
- Teach children about the lives of our Saints.
- Promote the Liturgical seasons.
The game has 3 age appropriate settings that control the difficulty of the game play and the selection of Catholic Prayers, Gospel Summaries and Questions of The Month:
- Grades K-2 (Easy)
- Grades 3-5 (Medium)
- Grades 6-8 (Hard)
Everyone in the family can create their own user account (up to 6) to compete all year long on the Family Leader Board.
The main control screen of the game includes a bulletin board that allows your parish or school to send your family a message that will appear each time you start the game. Only your parish or school can modify the contents of this message.
When you play Gospel Champions you will:
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Go Back to Biblical Times
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Explore Gospel story settings
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Find Gospel story characters
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Watch Gospel story cinemas
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Listen to and read along with narrated the NAB Gospel Text
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Perform tasks related to the Gospel story
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Find age appropriate Catholic prayers and teachings
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Find and learn about a Saint per month
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Help people you encounter by performing Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy
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Solve challenging puzzles
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Avoid menacing adversaries such as spiders, scorpions and lizards
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Collect Faith, Hope, and Love tokens for bonus points
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Find The Gospel Focus which provides an age appropriate Gospel Summary
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Wrap-up the adventure with a Question of The Month
Controls
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There are two control configurations for Gospel Champions. It is recommended that you start with the " Learn To Play" orientation to learn the controls.
Following is a high-level overview of the controls.
Player Controls:
Up Arrow - Walk Forward
Down Arrow - Walk Backward
Left Arrow - Turn Left
Right Arrow - Turn Right
Enter - Pickup/Use/Open
Space - Jump
H - Player Respawn (in case you are stuck)
e - Zoom View
P - Pause the game
Mouse - Look Around
ESC - Quit
Alternate Player Controls:
W - Walk forward
s - Walk backward
a - Side Step Left
d - Side Step Right
Mouse - Turn Left/Turn Right/Look Around
Mouse Left Button - Jump
Mouse Right Button - Pickup/Use/Open
ESC - Quit
Frequently asked questions:
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Question: Why does the game bring up a web page saying it can't find a compatible display device?
Solution: Make sure the drivers for your graphics card are up to date (see below). Gospel Champions requires an OpenGL compatible graphics accelertator with up-to-date drivers.
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Question: The game is choppy or running very slowly.
Solution: First, close all other applications that may be running in the background. To do this, hold down the control and alt keys, and then hit the delete key. You should see a list of programs. (Windows XP users will have to click the "Processes" tab). From the list of programs, select an item and then click END TASK. Do not close "Explorer" or "Systray" items (Windows XP users should not close items in the "SYSTEM", " LOCAL SERVICES", or "NETWORK SERVICES" groups).
We also recommend clearing your system of spyware. Spyware is software that may have been installed on your computer by advertisers without your knowledge. You can use programs like Adaware (available at http://www.lavasoft.de/) and SpyBot: Search & Destroy (available at http://www.safernetworking.org/en/home/index.html) to get rid of spyware.
If the game's performance does not improve, consult the following questions:
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Question: I closed all other applications and got rid of my spyware, but the game is still running slowly.
Solution: Your machine may not be equipped to handle the medium or high graphics modes. Try selecting the low graphics mode from your options menu. Also, try reducing the resolution to 640x480. You may also have to update your display drivers (see Updating your Drivers , below).
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Updating your Drivers:
A driver is a piece of software that tells your hardware what to do. Gospel Champions' performance is dependent on two specific pieces of hardware: your 3D Video Accelerator and your Sound Card. The video accelerator is responsible for drawing Gospel Champions' graphics and sending them to the monitor. The Sound Card is responsible for playing back the game's sound and music. It is very important that you update to the latest video and audio drivers before playing the game -- it will give you the best experience that you can get!
In order to update your driver, you first need to determine what brand video card you are using:
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Click the Start button.
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Click Settings.
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Click Control Panel.
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Double-click the Display icon (Windows XP users may need to select Appearance and Themes to get to Display).
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Click on the Settings tab, at the top of the window.
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Click on the Advanced button at the bottom of the window.
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Click on the Adapter tab or the Information tab at the top of the window. Information on your hardware and software should be listed here.
Once you know which brand video card you are using, you can go to your manufacturer’s website to find updates for your drivers.
Nvidia: http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
ATI: http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html
Matrox: http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/latest/home.cfm
Intel: http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/support_intel.asp?iid=HPAGE+header_support_download&
S3: http://www.s3graphics.com/DRVVIEW.HTM
Hercules: http://www.hercules.com/us/
SiS: http://www.sis.com/download/agreement.php?url=/download/
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Question: My audio sounds strange.
Solution: Some on-board sound processors may have problems with Gospel
Champions. Try updating your audio
drivers:
First, determine which audio card your computer is using:
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Click the Start button.
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Click Settings.
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Click Control Panel.
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Double-click the Sounds and Audio icon.
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Information on your hardware and software should be listed here.
Once you know which brand audio card you are using, you can go to your manufacturer’s website to find updates for your drivers. Use a search engine like google or yahoo to find your particular manufacturer’s website.
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Question: I have a problem other than the ones above.
Solution: Check the Gospel Champions web site http://www.gospelchampions.com for the latest help and information. You can also email us at support@thirddaygames.com and we will reply within 1 business day.