I am not certain of the origin of that word, although I suppose a quick Google or Wiki will yield info on its etymology. However, I can tell you all about my first exposure to edutainment. In order to see through my eyes, we will take a journey on a time machine, all the way back to the bygone year of 1989. In 7th grade, we had some sort of computer class. I forgot the name, but I won't forget the old Apple computers: black screens with green text. We might've even had one Apple IIe, which was color!
But we all know the reason those computers were even invented: The Oregon Trail. No computer game ever compared to that, or ever will. (OK, maybe some other games were equally innovative, like Civilization, Wolfenstein 3D, or Doom. But those are hardly edutainment. Well, maybe you could learn something from Civ, but how about Lemonade Stand?) I remember how hard it was to even survive the trip to Oregon, nevermind having all of your party live.
Two days ago, I stumbled across disk images and an Apple IIe emulator for Windows. Since then I've played a game or two, and had loads of fun. Honestly, how many people my age first heard of dysentary through this game? Probably everyone. That's why this tshirt is so funny.
Well, as an adult with some cognitive ability, let me tell you that it is not hard to finish the game as it was before. But attaining a real high score is. In three games my highest score is about 3900. The world record? >53000! I can't even fathom how. If you load the game and view the top ten scores, you can see how the scoring works. Anyone who figures out a reasonable method to break 20000 points is one smart person.
Well, download the game and reminisce. For those of you who've never played the game, give it a whirl. If you type in the names of people you know, it's pretty funny when they get cholera and die. Sort of. You know what I mean.
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same old adjective, brand new citrus.
8 comments:
It was really sad when we played and Hama was the first to die. Poor Hama. It was also sad/funny how we laughed every time it said, "Mike has dysentery/cholera/died."
Ah, such a wonderful game.
thanks...
I met Carmen Sandiego on the Oregon Trail. She was dying of dysentery and I buried her. No wonder no one can find her.
I remember you playing that game but I found a emulator of the apple II for the mac with rom, disk image, and game files for Oregon Trail, and also "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?". So next time you are home, you and your brother can have a gaming session on both. Thanks Dan for the reminder of Carmen.
I can give y'all the exact location of her burial... but it'll cost ya.
If I downloaded emulators for old video game machines, I'd be finished. My life would end. I'd be playing the orignal Mario Bros for Atari, and Dragon Warrior, forever. And let's don't get even started on the Monkey Island series, if I happened to start those again.
Oh god. If ever I'm rich I'm taking a year to play video games. Get a huuuuge flat screen, have super mario kart parties.
there was that time in college where i brought the 8bit nintendo to the suite. i think we all dropped half a letter grade there. also, you would all probably recognized these computers on display at the Smithsonian American History Museum
Apple brings me back to elementary school...where we thought it was SO cool to be able to draw LINES and CIRCLES on the screen and print it out. I still have my printout from 5th grade in my school scrapbook.
As for emulators...we have MAME on Kevin's computer and can play all the old school games. Good Times.
Well...after finally playing, i managed a whopping 4400 points as a carpenter. and Russ only broke his arm twice.
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