The second level you were a frog that needed to catch these little flies before the fishies ate you. On the first board you were an ameoba eating all these little bits while trying to avoid sea animals and one big coconut-like thing tha we used to call "Big mama" LOL. You went through six silly levels of trying to eat the type of food you need to survive as a certain type of animal and you killed some little enemies. A certain power-up will, when collected, turn all the enemies into coins for a short period. Enemies such as birds, mummies, turtles, and orbs float around the screen, making Jack lose a life if he touches them. The lit fuses have no strategic purpose other than the bonus a lit bomb left unattended does not explode. It also delays the appearance of the game's bonuses and power-ups. Jack may also defuse an unlit bomb by touching it, but this impedes his opportunity to score the bonus for that screen. A player can score a bonus in each round by touching all 24 bombs in the correct lit-fuse sequence. As soon as he has touched the first, he triggers a sequence in which another bomb's fuse lights up, and so on. Jack "defuses" the bombs by simply touching them.
Eventually, the levels reoccur a number of times with increasing difficulty. Each screen uses a different configuration of platforms upon which Jack may run on, or jump from, or remain at rest. Jack must fly around the screen to collect the bombs before a timer runs out. Someone has planted 24 bombs at famous tourist sites (the Sphinx and Great Pyramids, the Acropolis, Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, and two cityscapes resembling Miami Beach and Hollywood, which appear only as screen backgrounds rather than unique game locations). While educational games the 90s may not seem as engaging and exciting as current games, they provided the framework for many of the most popular educational games of today.Ĭlick through the following slideshow to take a trip down memory lane and learn about how games have advanced from the 90s to now, and how they have helped improve learning.The player controls Jack, a superhero who can leap and glide.
Many games are available in app form as well, allowing students to continue to play and learn on their own digital devices outside of class. With the rapid advancement of technology, current educational games offer crystal clear graphics and many more features than those from the 90s.Įducational games today include various challenges, unique premises and, most importantly, a plethora of learning opportunities. In comparison to current educational games, the games many of us remember playing in our elementary school computer lab may seem boring to today’s K-12 students. Furthermore, many of these games were stored on a CD-ROM and had to be downloaded onto the computer, which could take up to an hour to complete. The most popular educational games of the 1990s certainly seem “old school” now, as graphics look blurry and boxy, and seem to move slowly.
Once computers were introduced to K-12 schools, education software companies began producing computer games focused on providing students with meaningful learning experiences through gaming.
Learning through game-play has been a rising trend since the early 90s.