Educational Games You Remember Liking

[Shoggoth2588]

Recently, I got a bit out of My Japanese Coach but it's more education and less game. Games from my childhood that I enjoyed and could have accidentally taught me something were games like Number Munch and, Oregon Trail. I played Jumpstart Kindergarten and, First Grade with my sister when I was middle-school age too but that may not count.

 

[Mezahmay]

Reading Rabbit, Carmen Sandiego (damn those games were good... and if they get a digital release I would play the crap out of them again), and math blaster. So many good memories of those games.

Jump Start, Freddie Fish, and, most importantly...

PUTT PUTT ENTERS THE RACE BOIII! Just saying that makes the theme come into my head. Same with Freddie Fish. Some of my earliest memories of life. They hit with a weird type of nostalgia. They give me feelings that I hadn't felt in over 10 years. It was such an odd experience playing them again. Honestly, life didn't really feel real. I felt like I was a young child again, and it was really fucking weird.

Oh yeah! Damn, how could I forget those games?! Man, good times...except Putt Putt. I mostly played Freddie Fish games at my cousins' house and they never had Putt Putt. I only know it exists because it was on the front page of Steam a few weeks ago. Go figure :I

 

[happyninja42]

A typing game in DOS way back in the 90s. It was set up basically like Space Invaders, or Missle Command. The words would fall from the top of the screen to the bottom, and you had to type them out as printed on the screen before they got to the bottom. It was very fun, and a really good way to help me improve my typing speed. I was already familiar with the typing method, but having a game and a goal to work towards my speed was very entertaining and effective.

I remember there being a zombie fighting game like that, I watched the guys at Team Fourstar play it in one of their Let's Plays. It was most amusing.

 

[xaszatm]

Carmen Sandiego, Math Blaster, The Reading Company, Clue Finders, Jumpstart Educational, and The Oregon Trail were all great educational games I enjoyed.

 

[Araneyl]

This thread reminded me of a "game" I used to play in first or second grade at school but I cant remember the name of sadly. I have a few fragmented memories of musical instruments but not all of them were real(i.e. a sax or flute), more like various objects and things that you clicked (I think) that made noises you could string together into music. I remember the visuals best (though still not well) as early 3d rendering, nothing looked photo real it was all solid colors and 3d shapes used to make the instruments and objects on the screen. I want to say there was some kind of scifi or alien theme to it(maybe?). Also I'm not sure but I want to say that there was more than one "game" in the application but i cant remember any of the others. Oh, and part of my memory is that there was Rube Goldberg'ian kind of thing to it, but im not sure if thats my memory playing tricks on me.

Anyway, I loved that game so much back then (20ish years ago). Anyone remember that one or know its name by chance?

 

[NeutralDrow]

I had a lot of fun with the Carmen Sandiego games I owned back then (World, America, and America's Past). In fact, I kinda want to try Where in America's Past again, just to see how well I can do without the game's dictionary.

Also, Eco-Saurus. In retrospect, that game was kind of odd, but I have very fond memories of it.

I never actually owned Amazon Trail 2, but I played it at a relative's house, and liked it quite a bit.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Number Munchers, Cross Country Canada, Operation Neptune, Oregon Trail, and the Carmen Sandiego games. Although not so much Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego because that game was nearly impossible.

 

[Rayce Archer]

Operation Neptune! A DOS/Win3x game where you captain a submarine to recover nuclear waste from the ocean floor. You have a limited supply of ink bullets to confuse hostile animals, and periodically you encounter some kind of mechanical issue which serves as a framework for math problems. At the end of each level you have to rapid fire basic equations to unlock a sea base.

I liked it because the sub parts were pretty fun and the math parts were pretty well integrated into gameplay.

 

[mecegirl]

Oh wow...I remember all of the games that have been mentioned. They were the highlight of going to the computer lab as a kid. Are there any modern equivalents? Because I don't think that a lot of these gems are still used in school.

Edit: Who am I kiddin? The American school system is far too busy prepping kids for tests to let them have fun while learning.

 

[Colress]

I'm still trying to find the name of one educational, 2D DOS game I played in elementary school. The only distinct memory I have to go by is a point where a weird object would be blocking a door and you had to solve some sort of puzzle to remove it. The weird object changed constantly each time you reached that point in the level, but the one I always remember is a giant stuffy nose. Anyone else remember that?

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

I'd say Flight Simulator would count as educational. It trains you how to fly a plane as realistically as it possibly can.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I'd say Flight Simulator would count as educational. It trains you how to fly a plane as realistically as it possibly can.

Totally forgot about that one. Probably because I don't remember ever successfully landing a plane...

Still, it's where I learned about the Beechcraft Starship, so it holds a forgotten place in my heart.

 

[Mezahmay]

Oh wow...I remember all of the games that have been mentioned. They were the highlight of going to the computer lab as a kid. Are there any modern equivalents? Because I don't think that a lot of these gems are still used in school.

Edit: Who am I kiddin? The American school system is far too busy prepping kids for tests to let them have fun while learning.

Fun? What's this fun crap you speak of? We don't have time for that while we're being trained to read technical manuals and lines of big words through rote learning.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

I'd say Flight Simulator would count as educational. It trains you how to fly a plane as realistically as it possibly can.

Totally forgot about that one. Probably because I don't remember ever successfully landing a plane...

Still, it's where I learned about the Beechcraft Starship, so it holds a forgotten place in my heart.

Neither did I. I always enjoyed turning off all the engines and then attempting to land it. Never did and it was scary to do so while it was thunderstorming, low visibility, sound turned up and my lights turned off. No lights on the ground to guide me. No way of telling how far it is. I used a joystick that had a vibrate feature. When I inevitably crashed, I jumped out of my skin.

Years later, I began to watch a show called Mayday where it would walk you though investigations into airline crashes. Saw an episode about a plane that lost control at night. I can't imagine what they went through.