History Creator / Edmark

Edmark Corporation was an American software developer and publisher of {{Edutainment Game}}s and print materials based in Redmond, UsefulNotes/{{Washington}} (the city where the headquarters of Creator/{{Microsoft}} and Creator/{{Nintendo}} of America are based). It was founded in 1970 by Gordon B. Bleil, who combined the assets of an educational material supplier called Educational Aids and Services Co. and research and development company L-Tec Systems Inc. Edmark originally used University of Washington research to create an educational reading program for people with severe mental disabilities. Bleil left Edmark entirely in 1980, relinquishing all interest in the company. In 1985, the company started developing special education software for the UsefulNotes/AppleII, then later started a strategic plan in 1990 to develop multimedia educational software. They hired Donna Stanger, a software developer and former teacher from Minnesota, in October 1991. The following year, she became the company's CEO, and the company released their first software products under her, the educational game ''Millie's Math House'' and an alternative desktop program called [=KidDesk=].

* ''Strategy Challenges Collection 1'' (initially released as ''Strategy Games of the World'') (1995)
* ''Strategy Challenges Collection 2: In the Wild'' (1997)
* ''[=ThemeWeavers=]: Animals''
* ''[=ThemeWeavers=]: Nature''
* ''Travel the World with Timmy!''

* ''[=MindTwister=] Math''
* ''Space Academy GX-1''
* ''Virtual Labs: Light''
* ''Virtual Labs: Electricity''

* ''VideoGame/EarlyLearningHouse'' series
** ''Millie's Math House'' (1992)
** ''Bailey's Book House'' (1993)
** ''Sammy's Science House'' (1994)
** ''Trudy's Time & Place House'' (1995)
** ''Stanley's Sticker Stories'' (1996)

* ''Imagination Express'' series
** ''Destination: Neighborhood'' (1994)
** ''Destination: Castle'' (1994)
** ''Destination: Rain Forest'' (1995)
** ''Destination: Ocean'' (1995)
** ''Destination: Pyramids'' (1996)
** ''Destination: Time Trip, USA'' (1996)
* ''Mighty Math'' series
** ''Mighty Math Carnival Countdown'' (1996) ― ages 4–8 Release date: July 1996
** ''Mighty Math Number Heroes'' (1996) ― ages 7–12 Release date: July 1996
** ''Mighty Math Zoo Zillions''
** ''Mighty Math Calculating Crew''
** ''Mighty Math Astro Algebra''
** ''Mighty Math Cosmic Geometry''

[[quoteright:640:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/edmark.png]]
[[caption-width-right:640:Edmark's most familiar logo, used during the [=1990s=].]]

IBM acquired Edmark in 1996 for $102.3 million to expand its home software presence but later sold it to Riverdeep Interactive Learning, today Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology, for about $85 million dollars. Edmark went defunct by 2017, and in 2021, parent company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt sold away the rights of many of Edmark's products to another company called Rise Global.