Fungi Forums
Miscellaneous => General Chat => Topic started by: AbercrombieBaseball on March 16, 2008, 12:36:28 PM
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I just posted about it in another thread but I thought I'd give it its own thread here.
Is anyone here a veteran of the old-school education programs for computers? Maybe you had them at school on those old Macs that everyone had in their labs or maybe you had them at home...or both!
Here were the ones I had at home...I used to have these on this really old Macintosh called a Macintosh LC, most schools seemed to have these computers too. I actually used that computer up until five years ago or so.
Math Blaster: There were four games in this one, they taught the four basic operations. One of the games was solving problems to build a rocket. There was another where you had to find the missing addend (or whatever number was in the middle) and got points you could use to shoot outer space trash. Another game was finding the right numbers to make the problem work called "Recycler" and there was the arcade-type game where you guided the little guy up to the right answer and also got to eat the food for extra points. I had this at school and at home.
Oregon Trail: I think everyone born in the 1980s knows about this game. A simulation of the westward migration which usually took the place of that chapter in your social studies book. You could cross rivers, hunt, and die of cholera. Lots of fun times with this game. I had this at school and at home.
Carmen Sandiego: If I recall, the computer game came out before the TV show did. I used to watch the TV show when I came home from school. It was always fun plus the singing group on there, Rockapella, was really cool. The game has you chasing a crook from country to country based on a clue, just like the TV show. You got a desk encyclopedia with it so you could look up anything you didn't know. I had the "where in time" one, my school had the "where in America" one in elementary school and "where in the world" in middle school. There was also a Europe one at middle school which I think was the hardest, probably because schools in the US don't teach much world history. The time one had to be my favorite.
Number Munchers: Another classic from what I hear. This one had prime numbers, factors, multiples, etc and you were this little green dude who had to eat the right answers while not eating the wrong ones or running into the monsters. My school had this one as did I. At my school there was also a game just like it but you had to eat vowel sounds, we used this in our phonics units in first grade all the time (the math one is a lot more advanced though--even someone in Algebra I could probably use it to brush up on their factors).
OutNumbered: An arcade type math game where you walked through a TV station and had to solve word problems. You also had to shoot this guy who looked like a TV who would give you regular math problems and code. The code matched up against what you got for solving word problems and you had to pick a combination to figure out where the bad guy was. This one was really addicting. I played it first at the computer camp my school had one summer (that just about everyone from my class went to) and got it for my birthday later that year.
Kid Pix: Not really a game but my school had it. I had it too. Basically you drew pictures and could add these awesome rubber stamp things to them and you also had some cool erasers like a firecracker. There was an addon pack you could get to make movies from your pictures.
Battle Chess: I learned to play chess with this one. It plays just like chess but when you capture someone they fight. This started out as a black and white program but they later came out with a color version that had music. My school didn't have this one but I did.
Windows Solitaire: Good time waster from high school. I lost so many minutes of productivity when we had computer classes with this one. There's a Mac version too but it's called Klondike and costs ten bucks or so to register it.
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<3 Math Rescue and Word Rescue.
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Go Oregon Trail!
(https://themushroomkingdom.net/board/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwheresdezzer.googlepages.com%2Foregontrail.jpg&hash=45fdba7ad37fab1a66cd7f9f6e3f5c38)
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Fripples 4 Life!
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Yes, I remember and love Oregon Trail, I had a few Math Blaster games, I was usually terrible at Carmen Sandiego, and I remember wasting a lot of time in Kid Pix.
And as ShadowBrain has brought up, Thinkin' Things was also a fun series, I've played all three versions.
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I remember PC genius it was a magazine you got every week or so and you got a disk with it.
i can not remember when it was out does anyone know. queeny
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You forgot the Jumpstart series.
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I loved Jumpstart! My favorite was Jumpstart 4th Grade.
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I remember PC genius it was a magazine you got every week or so and you got a disk with it.
i can not remember when it was out does anyone know. queeny
you know instead of putting "queeny" at the end of all of your post, just set it as a sig.
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Mmm.. Fond memories of losing people in Oregon Trail. After naming them something funny, it became even funnier (We is lost!).
I recall being ok at Carmen Sandiego, but I always ended up getting a warrant for the wrong person. Usually one or two things would be off. The sad thing is that it didin't matter if you solved a mystery at school: they didn't have the handbook for answering the question that pops up after the fact.
Fond, but random, memories of Math Blaster and Kid Pix. I'm not sure which one was more fun, but I recall liking Math Blaster alot because the little guy could fly (in the arcade like game). Kid Pix was alot of fun also, but I usually just clicked on things to hear them make the noises.. and I loved to draw.
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Hmm... I played Oregon Trail a lot, and I don't ever recall a time when someone in my party got lost. Weird.
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Oregon Trail and Math Blaster were awesome.
Also, I remember I had this Dinosaur 3D thing that was pretty cool.
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There was this thing in my second (or third) grade classroom that could, like, phonetically read aloud whatever you typed. I was particularly frustrated about a passage I was typing describing a pig being attacked by a giant spider, as my inept spelling skills (at the time) created the sound byte: "Atta-kid by a gi-ant spi-der".
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This brings back way too many memories. I played Carmen Sandiego, JumpStart 1st Grade, and Math Blaster more than any real game back when I was a little kid. Sadly, my innocence was shattered forever when Secret of the Stolen Drums came out.
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There was this thing in my second (or third) grade classroom that could, like, phonetically read aloud whatever you typed. I was particularly frustrated about a passage I was typing describing a pig being attacked by a giant spider, as my inept spelling skills (at the time) created the sound byte: "Atta-kid by a gi-ant spi-der".
Your talking about Microsoft Narrator aren't you?
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Wow.
This thread just restored completely lost memories of my childhood schooldays making violent Kid Pix animations.
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I had this game called Spiderman Cartoon Maker. Man I had such great times making cartoons about various things. I think it was that game that taught me how to come up with plots.
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I had this game called Spiderman Cartoon Maker. Man I had such great times making cartoons about various things. I think it was that game that taught me how to come up with plots.
omg it's over.
But actually, I had that too. It was among one of my favorite PC games back in the day.
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There was this thing in my second (or third) grade classroom that could, like, phonetically read aloud whatever you typed. I was particularly frustrated about a passage I was typing describing a pig being attacked by a giant spider, as my inept spelling skills (at the time) created the sound byte: "Atta-kid by a gi-ant spi-der".
My Spanish teacher has that. It's essentially like Microsoft Sam, but with different voices, and able to read Spanish. Naturally, we all use it to say dirty words.
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There was this thing in my second (or third) grade classroom that could, like, phonetically read aloud whatever you typed. I was particularly frustrated about a passage I was typing describing a pig being attacked by a giant spider, as my inept spelling skills (at the time) created the sound byte: "Atta-kid by a gi-ant spi-der".
Is it featuring an old guy?
I remember there was one in my one class back in 7th or 8th grade. I'd make it say cursewords and call my teacher gay at full volume.
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That's terrible =/
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My Spanish teacher has that. It's essentially like Microsoft Sam, but with different voices, and able to read Spanish. Naturally, we all use it to say dirty words.
And thus, the speakonia video craze on the internet was born.
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You mean using Microsoft Sam as voice acting for almost every single video with voice acting?
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Maybe you folks are referring to Kid Works 2. That one used to talk. There was also a speech editor on there...you could make the word "the" sound like, well, you know.
Also, don't forget ClarisWorks if you had a Mac. Or Print Shop. Remember those awesome banners you could make on those printers where you tore the little scrappy things off the pages?
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That's terrible =/
The teacher was always mean to me from the start. >.>
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Still, I wouldn't call my worst enemies gay if it wasn't true. =/
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Well, also, I was 12 or 13. Now when I hate a teacher I just ignore them.
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Well, that's fine, it appears you learned and grew since that time.
Sorry, CTOAN aftermath still stuck in my head.
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I also remember I highly enjoyed the classic Lego PC titles.
Esp. Lego Island.
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Ah! That reminds me! I have no idea where I got it, but many hours were spent in the company of LEGO Creator! That was a neat sort-of-game. It didn't have much purpose but to make crazy vehicles and buildings and such-- and blow them up in neat fragmented explosions. My old computer could hardly take it.
I wonder where that disk went. Err, disc.
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Lego Island was pretty great. I need to figure out how to rip the soundtrack off my copy one of these days.
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Oregon Trail/Number Munchers <3
Also I remember this game where you ran around a maze and there were gates in the way and you had to solve math problems to open the gates and the puzzles got more complex as the game went on, I forgot the name of this one though.
Also I remember finding ways to cheat games, I remember one in particular where you had to press "s" if the words were synonyms and "a" if the words were antonyms, you got a set time but were not penalized for wrong answers in any way so I'm jam on the A and S keys as fast as possible and get scores like 6 times higher than anyone else. Fun.
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Oregon Trail rocked, but I never saw the version seen in the screenshot.
There was something on Mac where you could create storyboards or comics or whatever. It was awesome.
Oh dear lord, memories of "Fine Artist" and "Creative Writer" on Windows... what in blazes ever happened to McZee anyway?
Number Munchers was a favorite of mine. I drew a fanart of Muncher once. Thought he was the coolest thing.
There was some game where you're sailing the Amazon River, trying to spear fish. Looked revolutionary.
Super Solvers: Gizmos and Gadgets was THE game for me. 90% of the time I had no clue what I was doing, I was just trying different combinations until I built a vehicle that worked. For the life of me I can't find a copy online that I don't have to jump through hoops for. Video of Gizmos and Gadgets: http://youtube.com/watch?v=yRkl2Ek03A0
I remember there was also another game in the Super Solver series where you went to Egypt or something, retrieving priceless artifacts and assembling them back together, like the Sphinx. I remember the manual had black-and-white pictures of all the artifacts.
Lego Creator... CD game... I played that a few times. Great fun, used to create race tracks so I could race around in first-person view. Then I'd blow stuff up. But at some point the game stopped working, where it'd always freeze at the load screen. You remember the load screen: the wizard dude juggles blocks for ages.
And then there was some animated storybook program, featuring characters from some popular book series back then (character looked like a hedgehog or something. No, not Sonic). Instead of watching the story, everybody was interested in seeing all the possible animations. Then I'd scream whenever they forgot an animation, no matter how petty it was. I believe those animated storybooks also had an icon of a running man whenever the next scene was loading.
KidDesk. 'Nuff said. I spent more time customizing my workspace than using the thing.
I think I played Reader Rabbit... I'm sure of it. I don't remember being wowed by it though. I'm surprised that darn series is still around. Actually, I'm surprised that Mavis Beacon is at version 22 now. They're very secretive. I swear every time I'm aware of a new Mavis Beacon title, they skip two or three numbers. You can't find any information about some of the versions. And I can't fathom how it can improve much past version 9.
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I loved Gizmos and Gadgets. It was on the computers in my elementary school's computer lab, and I played it all the time when I went in there. Also, I have a copy of it on CD in this desk somewhere...
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In elementary school, we had a bunch of old pre-mac Apple computers. They may have been Apple II's. I liked number munchers alot.
And when playing Oregon Trail, several people liked to name the characters after our teachers, so when they died, it would have the teacher's name on the grave.
I had this game called Spiderman Cartoon Maker. Man I had such great times making cartoons about various things. I think it was that game that taught me how to come up with plots.
I had that game too. It was pretty cool. I also figured out how to add your own characters and backgrounds to it, which made it even better.
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Reading Rabbit was fun, but I liked Math Rabbit even more. The whole game was set around a carnival and whenever you did good in the number-related games, you'd get a ticket, and had to save them up for buying prizes, etc.
I remember getting a deluxe version for my own computer from the library later on.
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Speaking of math games, I loved Treasure Math Storm and Math Galaxy (maybe?). It was such a simple game, but it made me proficient at simple arithmetic and problem solving. Those games were made by the Learning Company, the same company that made Reader Rabbit.
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The Learning Company also made something called Pokémon Project Studio. I happen to have the red version on my compy to this day. XD I used to use it all the time, but lately I just use it for backgrounds.
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Lego Island was pretty great. I need to figure out how to rip the soundtrack off my copy one of these days.
Now that you bring that up, I'd like to obtain the soundtrack too. It was awesome.
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There was some game where you're sailing the Amazon River, trying to spear fish. Looked revolutionary.
Welp, you have restored yet more memories of mine that were previously completely unreachable.
-Lizard Dude
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Anyone remember Opening Night? It was this game where you could make plays with your own plots and dialog. It was supposed to serve a purpose as a great mind builder, however, me and my friend just made a bunch of random plays where he would add some dirty words and such.
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I had a lot of fun with Microsoft's 3D Movie Maker. I need to figure out how to put those movies into a more portable format.
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I remeber 3D Movie Maker. That was my Garry's Mod before Garry's Mod.
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Nah, the best movie maker of them all was Fantavision. Before I had a Mac LC I had an Apple IIe and Fantavision is the best movie-making/animation software out there for it.
I think the program is ©1985, so it's probably the grandaddy of that Microsoft one!
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It doesn't occur to you that something developed 10 years later is going to be technologically superior?
P.S. Who said anything about the best?
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Not Really Video Games...but Games Nonetheless
That is the adjective of our time, my friend.
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And here comes another "All Nintendo is now is just a bunch of useless shovelware for DS and Wii and not really games" courtesy of ShadowBrain.
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Anyone remember Opening Night? It was this game where you could make plays with your own plots and dialog. It was supposed to serve a purpose as a great mind builder, however, me and my friend just made a bunch of random plays where he would add some dirty words and such.
haha, I remember that game. I really wish I still had it. I have no idea where mine is now...
But I had that game along with a similar one called "Storybook Weaver", or something along those lines. I made a pretty long, but sort of terrible book... of which I can't see again.