Educational Games Don't Suck

That's The Amazon Trail.

First "typing game" I remember was Doodlebug (or at least I think that was the name). It was a text-based game where the two bugs (@ signs of course) charged each other while a letter flashed up in the center. You had to hit that key to keep them from crashing, and the earlier you pressed it, the better the "animation" of the jump (I remember that the best one involved flips).

Favorite educational game, hands down, was Robot Odyssey. How many games these days would teach children how to program robots via logic gates? Honorable mention for PRobots which was a Pascal-based robot combat game with surprising depth of strategy available with minimum programming knowledge.

I used to love this game I forget the name of. It was a spelling game, I think. You were a little monster called Rave who had to save these weird people in a mansion because the bad guy had turned them into appliances or something. Also there was a ghost called Lydia who was sort of helpful but also sort of a dick

Also I loved the Magic School Bus.

And Kid Pix, but I only ever did one thing with that game. My signature should tell you what it was.

I can't be the only one who has a couple of installments of the Living Books series. I would spend hours playing those. My favorite one was Arthur's Computer Disaster Adventure. Along with the usual book stuff, it had some pretty fun mini-games attached to it, even including the game Arthur's obsessed about in the story: Deep Dark Sea. The eponymous location and the creatures that live there, as well as running out of air, were unexpectedly terrifying, but finding "The Thing"^note  A giant treasure chest chock full of treasure was always fun.

I also loved Jumpstart. Even now I still own Jumpstart Kindergarten 98. It's so well love that it even has a couple of cracks, but still works like a charm (unbelievably enough). I'm more than 10 years too old for it, but sometimes I'll pop it into the ol' Windows 98 for a nostalgia trip (along with the Living Books games).

I also enjoyed and/or still have various Learning Company games. Such as The Cluefinders (3rd Grade and Math Adventures...the former is much better), Logic Quest 3D (the newer version with improved controls; gone AWOL), and The Oregon Trail.

So I'm not the only one who remembers Living Books!

Back in the day those were really fun. I had most of them, actually. I spent a hell of a lot of time playing them, trying to find everything, playing the minigames, sitting through the credits to look at the animations that played during them, just everything.

Even now, I can derive a ton of entertainment value from them. The great music scores, the surprisingly fluid animation...

Also - anyone heard that they've been brought back?

I had a couple of Jump Start games as well. I believe I had the third grade one with Botley the robot; that's one I want to play again, actually.

edited 10th Mar '15 6:43:05 PM by Aldo930

I wish GOG would pick up all the old Treasure Mountain games, and Yukon Trail.

• JumpStart
• Reader Rabbit — though I failed to finish the 2nd grade game. I was very scared of the Runway!
• The Magic School Bus — The solar system game was hard!
• Blaster Series — especially Science Blaster Jr.
• Fisher-Price Outdoor Adventures Ranger Trail — Finding Wonderoo was fun!
• Typer Shark — This is where I learned to touch-type.

edited 10th Mar '15 9:41:01 PM by TroperNo9001

Ah yes, the Blaster Series...I still have Math Blaster Jr./Ages 4-6 and Math Blaster Ages 9-12...but unfortunately, I just can't get the former to run anymore. (And it's in better condition than the aforementioned Jumpstart Kindergarten CD.)

Speaking of Fisher Price games, my cousins used to have the Cowboy/Wild West themed game where a bandit stole all the gold you would become deputy if you caught him (or something like that), and they would let me play the game sometimes when I came over. My favorite activity in the game (and the one I remember the best) was a shooting gallery type of game where you used a huge boot to kick barrels at bandits running around in the distance. If you hit one, something goofy would happen, such as the bandit wearing it like he had just lost his clothes, riding it like a horse, or taking a bath in it or something.

Geesh I grew up on a lot of these. Oregon Trail 3D, Amazon Trail 2, The Reading/Math Blasters, Logical Journey of the Zoombinis 1, and Yukon Trail, easily. I'm sure there were others, but those were the main ones.

Then there's the marginal ones, like the Total War series and historical 4X games.

/ Ah! The blaster series! That's the one I was talking about above. I had Reading Blaster Ages 9-12. I think it came in a three pack. A "Reading, wRiting, "Rithmetic"" type deal.

edited 11th Mar '15 3:08:21 PM by Murataku

Memphis Math and the Novell games suite had some really fun kids games. Like some game where you spell words to explore an island. and a game where you had to type words to ascend higher. Also for some reason had 40 different variations of the ABC song :/

I loved Reading Blaster Ages 9-12! Especially the part where you jump on ghosts to get the matching synonyms and antonyms!

edited 11th Mar '15 9:25:14 PM by TroperNo9001

That was my favourite minigame too