Now I did my freshman year of college at a school that was brand new and had a computer lab paid for by some big corporation. Think old school mainframe. Not even a CRT.
After 5, they paid a TA to allow students to play the only game they had. It was called STRTRK. You typed in a command, waited while it processed, and it typed the reply on paper. You read it, typed in another command. The line was always out the door and it was only open a couple hours a week. You got maybe 2 or 3 plays a quarter, if you were lucky.
I was in college on my way to my Elementary Ed degree, (circa 1990) and I can’t tell you how much time I wasted…err…spent in the computer lab on the new Apple 2e’s (I believe), lol! For educational purposes of course. I had to know how to best instruct my students how not to die of dysentery.
I had the old coleco triangle game (pre Atari) that had pong, racing and a shooter game. That and my TI994a were my first intro to gaming/computers. I guess I was like 10 or thereabouts.
@k4evryng My first experience with school computers was also Oregon Trail on Apple IIes. Ah, good old 5.25 inch floppies, back when they were actually floppy.
I confess that I have purchased almost every iteration of Oregon Trail over the years…for my kids of course.
I recently got the one available in the App Store (although I haven’t played it through yet so I don’t know if it’s any good), and as a joke, my husband bought me the board game version last Christmas.
It was just such an engaging game that had a cool educational component as well.
@pooltoywolf…after looking at release dates of the Apple computers…I’m thinking that I might have been playing on the Apple IIgs…maybe. And I loved those floppy discs, lol! I found it fascinating that so much info could be on such a small thing. And look at where we are now. It’s incredible!
Okay, in school we played things like Number Munchers and later on Thinkin’ Things, in its various incarnations. In elementary school, we started out with the Apple IIe and things evolved through several generations of CRT Macs…I remember PowerPC models, and the last ones I personally used while in 5th grade were the first generation of ‘fruity’ iMac G3s. The last time I saw the computer lab there, a few years after that, they had iMac G4 towers I believe. I wonder what it looked like when they shut the school down a couple years ago.
@PooltoyWolf DK was excellent! I remember DK jr math!
I used to ‘sell’ DK books and computer games (mostly to myself ), and they were the best! I still have almost all of my books because my kids loved them so much. My oldest son has a PB Bear. I’m sure I have a few of the game CD’s somewhere…I wonder if I could get them to play on a modern PC with a CD drive?
@k4evryng No worries lol it made me laugh! Donkey Kong Jr. MATH kinda rode the line between pure edutainmnent and video game, seeing as it was made for the NES and I don’t know of any institutional versions. I’d have been delighted to play it in school!
@pakopako And for 40 years I remembered that game being called “Walden Lake.” That name fits the game, but couldn’t figure out why I could find no search results for it.
Those text adventure games (Zork and the like) weren’t necessarily educational, but it was playing those that basically forced me to learn to type (more or less)…
Besides Oregon Trail of course
well, high school graduation was 1972 . . . so
Now I did my freshman year of college at a school that was brand new and had a computer lab paid for by some big corporation. Think old school mainframe. Not even a CRT.
After 5, they paid a TA to allow students to play the only game they had. It was called STRTRK. You typed in a command, waited while it processed, and it typed the reply on paper. You read it, typed in another command. The line was always out the door and it was only open a couple hours a week. You got maybe 2 or 3 plays a quarter, if you were lucky.
Lunar Lander in BASIC, 1973 .
It was text only, no graphics
Oh come on….no Oregon Trail? No fair!!
I was in college on my way to my Elementary Ed degree, (circa 1990) and I can’t tell you how much time I wasted…err…spent in the computer lab on the new Apple 2e’s (I believe), lol! For educational purposes of course. I had to know how to best instruct my students how not to die of dysentery.
I had the old coleco triangle game (pre Atari) that had pong, racing and a shooter game. That and my TI994a were my first intro to gaming/computers. I guess I was like 10 or thereabouts.
My how times have changed.
@k4evryng My first experience with school computers was also Oregon Trail on Apple IIes. Ah, good old 5.25 inch floppies, back when they were actually floppy.
@k4evryng Yes, politeness is a good skill for students to learn.
@xobzoo that’s hysterical!
I confess that I have purchased almost every iteration of Oregon Trail over the years…for my kids of course.
I recently got the one available in the App Store (although I haven’t played it through yet so I don’t know if it’s any good), and as a joke, my husband bought me the board game version last Christmas.
It was just such an engaging game that had a cool educational component as well.
@pooltoywolf…after looking at release dates of the Apple computers…I’m thinking that I might have been playing on the Apple IIgs…maybe.
And I loved those floppy discs, lol! I found it fascinating that so much info could be on such a small thing. And look at where we are now. It’s incredible!
@k4evryng @xobzoo I love that joke lol, I’ve used it many times!
Carmen Sandiego series. Where in the World… Where in Europe… Where in Time…
Obviously Oregon Trail. Stupid dysentery.
DK Jr. MATH!
Okay, in school we played things like Number Munchers and later on Thinkin’ Things, in its various incarnations. In elementary school, we started out with the Apple IIe and things evolved through several generations of CRT Macs…I remember PowerPC models, and the last ones I personally used while in 5th grade were the first generation of ‘fruity’ iMac G3s. The last time I saw the computer lab there, a few years after that, they had iMac G4 towers I believe. I wonder what it looked like when they shut the school down a couple years ago.
@PooltoyWolf EDIT: The G4s were Power Macs, not iMacs. (I’m not well versed in Apple, heh)
@PooltoyWolf DK was excellent! I remember DK jr math!
I used to ‘sell’ DK books and computer games (mostly to myself
), and they were the best! I still have almost all of my books because my kids loved them so much. My oldest son has a PB Bear. 
I’m sure I have a few of the game CD’s somewhere…I wonder if I could get them to play on a modern PC with a CD drive? 
@k4evryng DK in this context stands for Donkey Kong rather than Dorling Kindersley.
@PooltoyWolf oh my gosh! That’s so funny!! Sorry! (In my defense, I’m pretty sure there was a Dorling Kindersley jr math computer game too.
)
The Donkey Kong one was probably waaay more fun!
@k4evryng No worries lol it made me laugh! Donkey Kong Jr. MATH kinda rode the line between pure edutainmnent and video game, seeing as it was made for the NES and I don’t know of any institutional versions. I’d have been delighted to play it in school!
Oregon trail, Carmen SanDiego, Odell lake, Mathman… oh wait that one was a TV show
@pakopako And for 40 years I remembered that game being called “Walden Lake.” That name fits the game, but couldn’t figure out why I could find no search results for it.
Robot Odyssey on the Apple ][e
Anyone remember toolin’ around with Logo? That was supposed to be a “language”…
Those text adventure games (Zork and the like) weren’t necessarily educational, but it was playing those that basically forced me to learn to type (more or less)…
Number Munchers from MECC
@SpocKirk -brofist- Man that brings back memories!
Everything by Sierra Online.
Drug Wars on TI-83