In this section I tell the detailed story of the creation of two of the best-selling educational software games
of the 1980s -- The Oregon Trail and Number Munchers. I had the good fortune to serve as the principal designer
on both of these titles, working collaboratively with a team of colleagues at a company called MECC.
The Oregon Trail
In 1984 I was given the mandate to design a new game called "The Oregon Trail", to replace a much older and much shorter game that MECC had sold for years, named "OREGON". The original "OREGON" was a text-only game from the 1970's, played over a timeshare system. In 1979 MECC adapted this game to the Apple II. The 1979 version was still mostly text, with a few simple outline graphics. The entire game took perhaps 10 minutes to play. My mandate was to take the same basic theme and design a much bigger game, suitable for the home market. The resulting game, released in 1985, was a huge hit in both the home and school markets, and was later adapted for many other platforms.
See the full story
(Sorry, but this link doesn't work yet. In the near future I'll write and upload this story.)
In 1984 I was given the mandate to design a new game called "The Oregon Trail", to replace a much older and much shorter game that MECC had sold for years, named "OREGON". The original "OREGON" was a text-only game from the 1970's, played over a timeshare system. In 1979 MECC adapted this game to the Apple II. The 1979 version was still mostly text, with a few simple outline graphics. The entire game took perhaps 10 minutes to play. My mandate was to take the same basic theme and design a much bigger game, suitable for the home market. The resulting game, released in 1985, was a huge hit in both the home and school markets, and was later adapted for many other platforms.
See the full story
(Sorry, but this link doesn't work yet. In the near future I'll write and upload this story.)
Number Munchers
In 1984 I submitted to MECC a proposal to design an original game, which I called "Number Munchers". This proposal was quite a departure for MECC, because we had never published an action game before. My proposal was approved, on the stipulation that I change the content to fit a language arts curriculum! Although I was taken a bit aback by this turn of events, I soon designed "Word Munchers", which was released in 1985. But even before "Word Munchers" was released, I got the green light for "Number Munchers", which was released in 1986.See the full story
(Sorry, but this link doesn't work yet. In the near future I'll write and upload this story.)
In 1984 I submitted to MECC a proposal to design an original game, which I called "Number Munchers". This proposal was quite a departure for MECC, because we had never published an action game before. My proposal was approved, on the stipulation that I change the content to fit a language arts curriculum! Although I was taken a bit aback by this turn of events, I soon designed "Word Munchers", which was released in 1985. But even before "Word Munchers" was released, I got the green light for "Number Munchers", which was released in 1986.
See the full story
(Sorry, but this link doesn't work yet. In the near future I'll write and upload this story.)