Moments in Edutainment Excellence
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
The best kinds of child-oriented, educational material are the ones that make learning fun. Works for Bill Nye. So, video games should be an awesome vehicle to teach kids to learn. Sadly, a lot of titles fall flat and "Edutainment" titles are normally something you see in your elementary school computer labs or forced on you by parents.
Nonetheless, there are several titles that successfully made learning fun for kids. What follows isn't an all-encompassing list: just titles I recall enjoying when I was young. A lot of us are now at an age to start raising our own kids or already have kids. And while they're dated, some of these titles surely age well enough for the next generation to experience.
As a bonus, I'll later update this OP with free, legal downloads of these games (if I can find them). I'll also add other games to this list as people post their own.
Number/Word Munchers
The Munchers series is kinda based on Pac-Man gameplay. You had a green little muncher on a grid and had to "munch" the number or words that fit the category. For example, "Multiple of Five". Munching the wrong word would cost you a life. Troggles were basically the "ghosts" of Munchers, costing you a life if they collided with your muncher. But they had a variety of species and had difference movement behaviors or effects on the board. One, for example, would change the contents of a square.
Word Munchers was a spin-off that dealt with english. There was also a Super Munchers series that added a bar that would fill up as you munched. When filled, a square on the grid would light up an entering it turned you in to Troggle-killing Super Muncher. As I said before, the game seems inspired by Pac-Man but does a nice jog of incorporating the educational bits. Troggles are a subtle learning device as they teach kids to recognize patterns and adapt to these situations.
Oregon Trail
I think the Oregon Trail series was awesome, but probably not a good pick for class. If you are aiming to do more than hunt buffalo and get everyone killed, the game is pretty damn complicated for kids. Not too complicated, but I personally got maybe an hour tops in Computer Lab and that's simply not enough time to learn and play the game properly. But it did do an excellent job in teaching decision making, dealing with the consequences of yoru decisions (no sugar-coating, people DIED if you fucked up) and resource management.
I think Oregon Trail's success is that it doesn't teach standard school subjects. A kid isn't going to think that the old Western era is going to have much of a link to education. The downside is that they'll believe rattlesnake attacks are a regular occurrence.
SimCity
In all honesty, SimCity probably should be its own thread and might be a stretch giving to kids. But SimCity 2000 definitely gave me insight about taxes and what makes a city run. Not something for younger kids as failure will be constant and unforgiving, but those who stick with it will find a lot to learn about basic government. And uh, how their mayor deals with Alien attacks.
For me, SimCity 2000 was the best of the bunch. Beware the adviser who has street lust.
Carmen Sandiego
Barring the (in my opinion) crappy Fox cartoon, Carmen has been one of the best edutainment titles out there. It even had its own game show on PBS that was better than crap like Deal or no Deal. Do I need to mention Rockapella? Do I?
But let's focus on the games, which are geography games that also teach about major landmarks and artifacts. There's also a bit of logic and problem solving, as heading to the wrong location or fingering the wrong suspect can result in botching the case. There was also a "career" progression for your character as more cases resulted in promotions. You also had multiple goals in each case: it wasn't enough to track down the bad guy, as botching the warrant also spelled failure. It also didn't hurt that the series wasn't too serious and had a nice cartoonish feel to it.
And as a bonus, Carmen doesn't follow normal gaming stereotypes. She's a villain, and while she has the face of a decent-looking woman, she's covered up in a trenchcoat and matching hat. She's also a woman in charge of a entire organization. Very classy and truly a role model for young girls. Er, except for the whole international theft thing.
This is by no means a complete list. Add your own and I'll add it to the OP. If you have links for any free LEGAL downloads for any games in this post, pass it on and I will add them to the OP.
Nonetheless, there are several titles that successfully made learning fun for kids. What follows isn't an all-encompassing list: just titles I recall enjoying when I was young. A lot of us are now at an age to start raising our own kids or already have kids. And while they're dated, some of these titles surely age well enough for the next generation to experience.
As a bonus, I'll later update this OP with free, legal downloads of these games (if I can find them). I'll also add other games to this list as people post their own.
Number/Word Munchers
The Munchers series is kinda based on Pac-Man gameplay. You had a green little muncher on a grid and had to "munch" the number or words that fit the category. For example, "Multiple of Five". Munching the wrong word would cost you a life. Troggles were basically the "ghosts" of Munchers, costing you a life if they collided with your muncher. But they had a variety of species and had difference movement behaviors or effects on the board. One, for example, would change the contents of a square.
Word Munchers was a spin-off that dealt with english. There was also a Super Munchers series that added a bar that would fill up as you munched. When filled, a square on the grid would light up an entering it turned you in to Troggle-killing Super Muncher. As I said before, the game seems inspired by Pac-Man but does a nice jog of incorporating the educational bits. Troggles are a subtle learning device as they teach kids to recognize patterns and adapt to these situations.
Oregon Trail
I think the Oregon Trail series was awesome, but probably not a good pick for class. If you are aiming to do more than hunt buffalo and get everyone killed, the game is pretty damn complicated for kids. Not too complicated, but I personally got maybe an hour tops in Computer Lab and that's simply not enough time to learn and play the game properly. But it did do an excellent job in teaching decision making, dealing with the consequences of yoru decisions (no sugar-coating, people DIED if you fucked up) and resource management.
I think Oregon Trail's success is that it doesn't teach standard school subjects. A kid isn't going to think that the old Western era is going to have much of a link to education. The downside is that they'll believe rattlesnake attacks are a regular occurrence.
SimCity
In all honesty, SimCity probably should be its own thread and might be a stretch giving to kids. But SimCity 2000 definitely gave me insight about taxes and what makes a city run. Not something for younger kids as failure will be constant and unforgiving, but those who stick with it will find a lot to learn about basic government. And uh, how their mayor deals with Alien attacks.
For me, SimCity 2000 was the best of the bunch. Beware the adviser who has street lust.
Carmen Sandiego
Barring the (in my opinion) crappy Fox cartoon, Carmen has been one of the best edutainment titles out there. It even had its own game show on PBS that was better than crap like Deal or no Deal. Do I need to mention Rockapella? Do I?
But let's focus on the games, which are geography games that also teach about major landmarks and artifacts. There's also a bit of logic and problem solving, as heading to the wrong location or fingering the wrong suspect can result in botching the case. There was also a "career" progression for your character as more cases resulted in promotions. You also had multiple goals in each case: it wasn't enough to track down the bad guy, as botching the warrant also spelled failure. It also didn't hurt that the series wasn't too serious and had a nice cartoonish feel to it.
And as a bonus, Carmen doesn't follow normal gaming stereotypes. She's a villain, and while she has the face of a decent-looking woman, she's covered up in a trenchcoat and matching hat. She's also a woman in charge of a entire organization. Very classy and truly a role model for young girls. Er, except for the whole international theft thing.
This is by no means a complete list. Add your own and I'll add it to the OP. If you have links for any free LEGAL downloads for any games in this post, pass it on and I will add them to the OP.
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Gizmos & Gadgets
(From Wikipedia)
The object is to build vehicles that win against Morty Maxwell's at Shadey Glen Technology Center. In order to do this, you must collect pieces of vehicles from the buildings. Make sure to avoid the Cyberchimps, Morty Maxwell's goons! You must solve puzzles to get through doors that allow you to get to other pieces. When the player wins all 15 races, Morty must leave.
The great thing is that there were varying levels of success. You could be a perfectionist and get all the best parts, or you could just take whatever you find first and try to win.
Pokemon FC: 2749 7579 5931
Oh my yes.
Key Lingo: Simple puzzles involving word searches/crosswords/fill in the blanks/etc. that you'd access via Uncharted Waters-like exploration. Fun facts about piracy also prevalent.
Taipan: Totally unstoppable game where your business sense and knowledge of economics determined your victory. You're a trader/pirate who sales back and forth between various east Asian islands upgrading yoru ship, avoiding/destroying pirates, and bartering/selling/buying up various supplies to distribute/obtain at a better cost elsewhere. Got a poor GBA iteration called Sea Trader: Rise of Taipan.
Odell down under - played as a fish, slowly moving up the food chain. You had to know what each fish liked to eat, or you would get sick and die. I had some fun with this one in middle school
There was also a Bill Nye game i had when i was a kid, you had to save the world from some big asteroid? or a rogue satellite? something crazy like that, but you did it by solving riddles, and damn were they hard. I don't think i ever beat the whole thing.
LoL Summoner: infobrains | XBL: cwap4brains | PSN: infobrains
I got to explain vocabulary like, "mumps", "ford a river" and "drown". The students were more interested in being the last person alive than anything else. It was good fun.
You play as a white dustball trying to go to the top of a building via elevator, jumping over vacuums and such with some spelling thrown in for good measure.
I also played an old game in second grade where you're stuck in a mansion haunted by ghosts. It played like an adventure game for kids, 2D side views of rooms and you solve the ghosts' problems. It was in color though I'm not sure if it was DOS or Apple or whatever. All I can remember is you had to wind up a ghost clown with a key to win the game...what was this one called?!
Probably the first computer games I ever played.
There was a trucker one too... you could haul minerals and stuff, sleep in your truck, pick up hitchhikers who would often rob you... forgot the name though.
The Oregon Trail is wonderful as well. Living in Oregon, my elementary school was convinced that we should play the game all the time during our computer lab visits, which was funny. We were often advised to buy 99 boxes of bullets.
PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51
They were playing it wrong.
Clearly, the only way to play Oregon Trail is to shoot as many pounds of animal as possible.
I just flat out sucked at Oregon Trail with all my character's either dieing from diseases or getting bitten by those damn snakes. I remember the hunting portions of the game were pretty fun though.
I am fervently agreeing with you right now. Rock on.
I liked that game too but mostly for the different remixed Mario songs.
If you kill enough animals, the Indians come to help you carry away the meat.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Yes.
Also, not as good, but:
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buried_in_Time
It was really informative and had a guide that I found hilarious at the time.
Man I wish I still had that game.
Oh fuck, is that Incredible Machine?
Mario Teaches Typing was a far better title for the plumber. I thought it was clever that typing would send Mario through a standard side-scrolling level. Harder stages put you on a timer of sorts, as things like Thwomps would eventually fall and either block your path or crush you.
To add context, my dad didn't dislike Wolfenstein 3D because of the violence but because the 1st Person perspective gave him a headache. He didn't want us playing because of potential nightmares and motion sickness.
Back to Lemmings, I wish we had more of those these days. I know they've had a comeback of sorts on the PSP/PS3, but nothing major.
I recall there being several "hell" levels in Lemmings. When I was but a young lad, I sometimes dreamt about how to solve some of the difficult levels. The hell levels fucked up my dreams pretty badly and scared the shit out of me.
Also, similar experience with Wolfenstein 3D. Especially the zombies with guns in their chest and when they bark they shoot bees at you.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
And Treasure Mountain as well.
And Super Spellicopter. It came with a joystick and you would fly around shooting down aliens that looked like letters to complete your mission, which was spelling words.
Once you got to the actual game part of it, you would go around to the different exhibits and have to "fix" them somehow. Like creating a working airplane for the Wright Brothers, or building a steam engine.
Aw man, someone has to remember this game.
Edit: I remember, it is called Museum Madness!
I don't know about the museum game, but it does sound a little familiar. Hmm.
PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51
That game kicked ass. Full voice acting and from what I can remember, great graphics and animation. It took me a while to realize it was supposed to be educational. Though I can't say the game really taught me much.
I need to see if I can find my CD.
mo'fuckin' zoombinis.
I mean, I really wanted to understand what all that historical stuff was and did, but I needed to develop some grasp of a foreign language for that.
It also taught me that Democracy was a very difficult form of government, but pretty worth its while in the end.
Oh, and I played Mega Math Blaster a lot too. I loved the platforming parts. :P
Someone mentioned a museum game...I recall playing a game involving being in a musuem at night and stuff, but I can't remember much else about it. I wish I still had the cd so I could check if it was the same thing.
It also came with 3D glasses, and I think it was in another game where it let you go around a dinosaur museum in first person mode, and view 3D videos of dinosaurs or a video of a 3D T-Rex skeleton model. The videos were all weird mishmashes from different creators, it seemed, but there was some awesome animatronic and stop motion work.
Man, buying PC game packs from Price Club/Costco was awesome. We had a helluva time trying to get some games working, though. Alone in the Dark was neat. It also had some weird game called uh... Jack O Lantern or Jack or something? It was about a girl who went into a haunted toyshop...
Anyway, later on my parents got me Math Munchers Deluxe. It had some wicked cartoon graphics. http://www.worldvillage.com/wv/school/html/reviews/mathmun.htm
It taught me that carnivores are a bitch to upkeep and the importance of having maintenance people.
It also taught me to exploit a glitch until I was a multi-millionaire.
Man I forgot how much I grew up on this stuff. I should thank my dad for buying some good edutainment software when I was young.
like the Super Seeker / Treasure series like the aforementioned (and best known) Treasure Mountain. Treasure Cove:
The Super Solver series like OutNumbered! and Midnight Rescue
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OutNumbered%21
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Rescue%21
Reader Rabbit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reader_Rabbit
Operation Neptune
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Neptune_%28game%29
Eco-Saurus
http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=4479
Quarky & Quaysoo's Turbo Science
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarky_%26_Quaysoo%27s_Turbo_Science
BushBuck Charms, Viking Ships & Dodo Eggs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BushBuck_Charms,_Viking_Ships_&_Dodo_Eggs
Eco-Quest & 2 (Just as good as King's Quest, Space Quest, or Willy Beamish - CLASSIC Sierra adventure)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EcoQuest
Eagle Eye Mysteries / In London
http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=349
Castle of Dr. Brain and other Dr. Brain Games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Dr._Brain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Brain
Mixed-Up Mother Goose and Mixed-Up Fairy Tales
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed-Up_Mother_Goose
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed-Up_Fairy_Tales
Ancient Motherfucking EMPIRES <
You cannot call yourself a platformer guru if you have not gone through this one. It's AWESOME
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge_of_the_Ancient_Empires
Can't find much info on:
Rock and Bach's Studio http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=2990
Wild Science Arcade http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=1262