Childhood Computer Games
I’m cleaning up my room, and I found a big stack of computer games that I grew up with. Leo Laporte is right. It’s probably games that got me into computers to begin with, just like most of history’s great programmers. I don’t know what to do with them. They’re really old, and probably not worth anything on eBay. I would highly recommend them to kids, though. Here’s the list.
Math Blaster Episode 2: Secret of The Lost City
I remember playing hours of Number Hunt, Positron Splash, Maze Craze and Creature Creator. This is really a great game. Check out the system requirements: Super VGA or VGA graphics, Windows 3.1 or higher, 4 MB of RAM and hard drive required (256 color requires 8 MB RAM), 25 MHz 486 or faster, Double-speed CD-ROM drive. I remember that we had a 33 MHz 486DX with 16 MB RAM. It was far more expensive than the PC I’m using now, I think– we used to be cutting-edge ;)
Aladdin Activity Center
I think my favorite part of this one was coloring pictures with “crayons” or “watercolors”. The musical games were great, too.
Super Solvers Treasure Mountain
This was a really fun game that I was afraid to play at first, so I just watched my dad play. 3.5″ & 5.25″ disks enclosed ;) 8 MHz or faster recommended. Fully compatible with Tandy 1000 family and all other IBM-compatible systems. Requires DOS 2.0 or greater. Hard Disk Installable! The puzzles and items in this game were really, really fun.
Treasure MathStorm
Runs from DOS or Windows! This taught me how to read analog clocks and measure weights on a scale (less than, greater than). Hey, I was around 5 years old.
Scholastic’s Magic School Bus Explores the Human Body
Wow.. I spent hours playing the pinball arcade game in this one. Of course, I learned a thing or two about the human body, too. “Travel in three dimensions as you travel through different organs.”
I have a lot more games to talk about, but I don’t have time right now, so I’ll save them for next time.
Death to analog clocks!
Didn’t know you spent that much time on those games. All I had was comic books and library books.
Dude, all those Super Solvers/Learning Company stuff…I was all over them. Treasure Mountain, Treasure MathStorm, Treasure Cove, Midnight Rescue, Gizmos & Gadgets, and Reader Rabbit (although that one was too noob for me). Oh yeah, and the Magic School Bus Explores the Solar System or something like that, that was fun too.
Here’s my Old Guy Rant.
I was a teenager before we got our first “computer game”.
Yes, it was the original “Pong”.
The game was expensive enough in the mid-seventies that we decided to forgo all other Christmas gifts to get it.
It was a very fancy model with a ‘rifle’ to shoot at what was a basically just a pong ‘ball’,
the regular game and a practice mode which left a screen burn-in on our other extavagant purchase: a 26″ colour TV the size of a Volkswagen.
Excruciatingly simple by later standards, but our degree of awe approximated that of the visitors attending the exibition of electricity at the 1904 World’s Fair.
So, yeah. Young people take a great deal of what they’ve had for granted.
Now, turn down that damned music, and stay off my lawn.
Omg if you could send me the set up for treasure mathstorm you would be a god please email me at [email protected]