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General discussion (archive)What about Old educational games?(50 posts)(50 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted May 29, 2012
Operation Neptune was hard (at least I remember it being so). Never finished it as a kid.
Posted May 29, 2012
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tfishell: I'm wondering if anyone (besides myself) would pay 5.99 for a Pajama Sam, Spy Fox, or other HE title.
I wouldn't lump those in really with educational games. At any rate, they're mostly SCUUM games so they should be easy to "update" for GOG.
Posted May 30, 2012
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Blackdrazon: (Speaking of the Carmen games, another good game was the Where in Time that was renamed Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through TIme or something like that, and its World sequel, Treasures of Knowledge. The first was actually a pretty high-quality old school adventure game, though again there's the low difficulty, and I believe the latter was similar though I never had the chance to buy it. Seriously, overlook the difficulty and any old schooler would like them. Certainly better than the Putt Putt games. My brother actually bought the CD a few months ago just for the hell of it. I didn't know it had left an impression on anyone but me!
Dam I loved Where in Time... Still have the big box for it (Without the name change) :D (Would pay to play other games in the series)
Posted May 30, 2012
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romulus16: Dam I loved Where in Time... Still have the big box for it (Without the name change) :D (Would pay to play other games in the series)
Is Where in Time... the one where you follow Carmen through weird wormholes or whatever into different important historical moments and you solve puzzles, starting in ancient Egypt (with Hatshepsut) and you finally get back to the present?

Because yeah, that game was awesome!
Post edited May 30, 2012 by SheBear
Posted May 30, 2012
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romulus16: Dam I loved Where in Time... Still have the big box for it (Without the name change) :D (Would pay to play other games in the series)
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SheBear: Is Where in Time... the one where you follow Carmen through weird wormholes or whatever into different important historical moments and you solve puzzles, starting in ancient Egypt (with Hatshepsut) and you finally get back to the present?

Because yeah, that game was awesome!
Yea. It was that one, got to go hey look its my great great great.... however many greats grandfather :P.
Probably the easiest Carmen game, only one I beat (well other then Carmen Sandiago Jr.). I would personally like to get USA and World (CD versions) so I can actually beat those.
Posted May 31, 2012
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Titanium: I have this old game called GlobeTrotter. You basically fly around the world and do odd-jobs so you can live in the country you came to. You have some funds at the beginning the game, and you have to pay for airplane tickets and lodging. As you arrive to a new country, you get asked some various questions about the city you are in (usually the capital) and the nation in general. If you get through that OK, then you are considered well acquainted with the country and can apply for better jobs. When you get a job, there is a simplistic minigame that determines how much money you get in the end, obviously the better you are, the more cash you get.

Although the game gets boring after a while (repetitive minigames), it's quite interesting at the beginning. It could be considered somewhat educational, since it teaches you some things about different countries you visit, but it's quite outdated now (probably older than 15 years).
You just reminded me of a game that apparently got installed all over... well, Ontario at least, during the ninteties, called Cross Country Canada. It was a graphical text adventure, in a manner of speaking. You had to control a shipping truck and deliver goods across Canada via text commands as rudimentary as buckling up to as complicated as ordering shipments from some of our more northern cities off the highway, or picking up hitch hikers. Surprisingly involved for a game that was really just trying to teach you provincial imports and exports. I'd buy it too (actually, I think they might still sell it or a sequel I've never played, I heard a friend say something out of hand), but I'd only buy it out of nostalgia. Your GlobeTrotter sounds more fun.
Post edited May 31, 2012 by Blackdrazon
Posted May 31, 2012
The Carmen games would be an instant-buy for me.
Anybody remember AJ's World of Discovery? I played the game when I was about six or seven, but the annoying thing was I could never do the activities in the house because I didn't have the right floppy to do so. I also remember playing a Curious George game. I think it was Downtown Adventures, it was a decent game but difficult for me back then. I don't remember much about it though.

Man, this topic brings back memories :)
Post edited May 31, 2012 by Thunderstone
Posted May 31, 2012
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Starsmine: Looks like all the old broderbund games are owned by TLC, who is owned by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt... whoever that is, and a few of the IPs are now owned by Ubisoft.
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hedwards: They're text book publishers. Houghton Mifflin are well known in the educational field. It isn't strange that they would have an interest in educational games, although, I'm curious why they bought them if they aren't selling them.
Easiest explanation would be that they bought them to get the rights to the IPs so they could make new games using said IPs but like any big company people behind decisions and those who supported them come and go at a drop of a hat so when they leave often times the people who come in have different ideas and plans which can conflict with those of the previous people and so those get axed and eventually forgotten.

Plus retail Edutainment isn't as big now as it was back in the early home computer boom, so it stands to reasons that they feel it's not worth the time and the investment to make them.
Post edited May 31, 2012 by DCT
Posted May 31, 2012
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Starsmine: I dont see very many of them on Gog, Im sure many have a fond memory of Zoombinies, Carmon Sandiago, the trail games (Oregan, Amazon, Yukon), games from TLC, or Knowledge adventure. Getting some of these games to run on modern computers is a pain, and I would love to pay for a digital version since the disks I had since a kid are all beat up.
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orcishgamer: No way am I paying 5.99 USD for Math Blaster on GOG! As for Oregon Trail I think various forms of it might be playable for "free" (as in, maybe even with permission). Odell Lake has so many remakes there's no point, etc.
If you liked Oregon Trail, you should play this:



http://hatsproductions.com/organtrail.html
Posted May 31, 2012
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hedwards: They're text book publishers. Houghton Mifflin are well known in the educational field. It isn't strange that they would have an interest in educational games, although, I'm curious why they bought them if they aren't selling them.
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DCT: Easiest explanation would be that they bought them to get the rights to the IPs so they could make new games using said IPs but like any big company people behind decisions and those who supported them come and go at a drop of a hat so when they leave often times the people who come in have different ideas and plans which can conflict with those of the previous people and so those get axed and eventually forgotten.

Plus retail Edutainment isn't as big now as it was back in the early home computer boom, so it stands to reasons that they feel it's not worth the time and the investment to make them.
Was it ever really big? I think most people got their games out of the scholastic catalog, its not like I get those anymore.
I remeber we used to get them since scholastic did not have a way to check if my mom was a teacher or not, so I never bothered with the ones my teacher gave us. Ended up collecting and using bonus points for ourselves :D.
Then scholastic got smart and started checking who subscribed and we had to stop.

Our book and game flow into the house dramatically shrunk at that point.
Posted June 01, 2012
By the way, make sure to ping any of your old favourite Educational games on the Wishlist. I don't know if there ever would be a GOG Kids section (GOG Parents, more like...), but I know if I were going to fling a kid of mine into the wilds of gaming, I'd probably give them Oregon Trail and Carmen on the way out.

Hey, speaking of rights holders, does anyone know who owns Mecc's properties? I know there was an Oregon Trail re-release a year or so ago, but was that by someone who owned the whole collection, or just that?
Post edited June 01, 2012 by Blackdrazon
Posted June 01, 2012
Mecc games where published by TLC. The Mecc developer team no longer exist. TLC has the IPs. Im noticing TLC sort of has a monopoly here....
Posted June 02, 2012
Two words, Number Muncher!

Make it happen GOG!
Posted June 02, 2012
I remember Interactive Math Journey being rather fun. but that was for rather little kids, probably would not buy that for myself.
Posted June 06, 2012
Huh, Knowledge adventure merged with Davidson, the people who make math blaster.
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General discussion (archive)What about Old educational games?(50 posts)(50 posts)
(50 posts)