My Childhood in PC Games

Gaming has evolved into a constantly revolving door of new content, new technology, and all things bright and shiny. Yet, for whatever reason, I think more fondly on those games I played in my childhood. I spent hours in these virtual worlds, yet now they are either gone completely, or at best difficult to find. There are places in which I will never set virtual foot in again, and I feel melancholy thinking of those abandoned worlds.

So here is a list of the games I can remember playing - most of them educational, as per my parents directives - and in no particular order.

What games do YOU remember playing when you were young? 

Mario Teaches Typing

My dad took a cardboard box and cut it in such a way that it covered the keyboard but had space for our hands to fit; it forced me and my sister to type without staring at our hands the whole time. Gameboys and N64 systems were big at this time, and it was a compromise I was happy to make, since it was a Mario game still, after all. This game combined with my piano lessons helped me learn great typing habits that I still use today.

Oregon Trail

This one definitely wasn't educational, and it took FOREVER to play (does anyone else remember the times when you couldn't save your game for later, and you just had to play through to the end??), but it was one of my favorites! Eventually I learned all the tricks for success: leaving at the best time of year, choosing the best profession (doctor, because you could heal your party and you started with the most money), just when to shoot when hunting deer and buffalo, and how to steer down the streams without crashing into rocks. After you win the game a few times, with everyone surviving and having really good stats, though, the next best thing was dying on PURPOSE. The funniest way to play it was to leave at the worst time of year, with the lowest paying profession and the least supplies, then force your oxen to go at the fastest pace and put the people on the lowest rations and see how soon you could kill your entire party. Not morbid at all for little kids! 

Math Blaster

I remember shooting the garbage and having to save Spot. This game was great for reinforcing rote memorization with math facts, and I enjoyed it, but I don't remember much else.

Lemmings

This was another game that took forever, and while it wasn't educational per se, there was a lot of logical projection required to problem solve and figure out each level. This was another game that would often end in purposeful destruction (stack as many lemmings in a hole as you can, then blow them all up). Usually this would only happen after failing a level several times; it was great stress relief!

Super Solvers: Midnight Rescue

My folks liked this game because it helped develop critical thinking skills in regards to reading. You had to wander a school at night, find clues about who was behind the crime, and defeat the evil robot causing all the mischief. The character you played was dressed oddly, and you could never see their face or hair. (This was probably to appeal to both boys and girls, but it was rather awkward-looking.) I remember the evil robots creeping me out a little, as they would appear any time, without warning. 

Zoombinis Logical Journey

I loved playing this game whenever we went to visit a certain aunt and uncle's house! I even begged my parents to buy the game for me so I could play it at home as well, but they either figured I had enough games already, or that I wouldn't enjoy it as much if I had access to it whenever I wanted. This game heavily emphasized the use of logic and finding patterns, as there was virtually NO instruction for how to solve each level. Through trial and error, I learned to design Zoombinis that were all the same, or I made sure that they shared at least one trait in common with another, as some puzzles involved arbitrary sorting of the Zoombinis. It almost felt unfriendly in the lack of instruction for solving the puzzles, but I still loved it.

Number Munchers/Super Munchers

This was probably one of the very first PC games I played, and I came across it at school. I don't think I ever played it at home. I think it was a bit like PacMan, in that you had to avoid monsters while trying to "munch" the correct numbers on the screen. I remember beating it at least once, and feeling relieved when it was over. I guess I've always been sensitive to stress! There was also a reading/spelling version of the game.

Word Invaders (?)

This was probably the VERY FIRST game I ever played on a computer, and I'm not even sure this is the correct name. This image isn't exactly what I remember playing. It was on a tiny Apple computer screen (you know, where the screen is black and the text is in green, with no graphics whatsoever), and you had to type the letter as it "fell" from the top of the screen towards the bottom. Later versions had words and series of random key combinations, but both/all were modeled after the Space Invaders arcade game.

BONUS: Ski Free

Not educational in the least! It was often my objective to go out of bounds and get the Abominable Snowman on the screen to come eat my character on purpose :p