Freedom! (video game)

Last updated
Freedom!
Freedom main screen.png
Start screen
Developer(s) MECC
Publisher(s) MECC
Platform(s) Apple II
Release1992
Genre(s) Edutainment, simulation

Freedom! is a 1992 educational video game for the Apple II developed and published by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC). Based on similar gameplay from MECC's earlier The Oregon Trail , the player assumes the role of a runaway slave in the antebellum period of American history who is trying to reach the North through the Underground Railroad. The game was developed with help of an African-American consultant who guided MECC on appropriate graphics and dialect that represented the era. It is recognized as one of the first video games dealing with the topic of slavery. [1]

Contents

The game was meant to be used in a school curriculum when it was released in late 1992, but most schools simply released the game to students to play without prior lessons. This led to numerous parents complaining to MECC and their schools about the racially offensive nature of the game, and threatening to sue MECC. Though MECC offered to make changes to alleviate these concerns, the company ultimately pulled the game from sale.

Gameplay

Players choose one of two characters (male or female). Attributes such as literacy and ability to swim are randomly generated, providing the player with different experiences during each playthrough. [2] If the player's character is illiterate, written signs and notes appear onscreen as indecipherable symbols. Literacy also affects other areas of play. For example, early in the game, the character may receive a pass from his slavemaster in order to escape to the North. If they do not receive a pass, players are also given the option to forge a pass if the player's character is able to read and write.

Freedom! was the first educational game to use an open-world environment, simulating real-world areas of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. [2] During gameplay, players can travel in any direction using the stars, moss, or a compass to orient themselves. During travel, the player encounters random events such as interactions with slavecatchers, who pursue the player with dogs, as well as sympathetic members of the Underground Railroad, who provide the player with food and shelter. [2]

Development and release

MECC had previously developed a graphical version of The Oregon Trail in 1985 as part of its educational software library, and had developed a number of similar games based on the same themes involving similar historical treks, such as The Yukon Trail based on the Klondike Gold Rush. [3] While simulating the escape through the Underground Railroad also fit this theme, the primary influence for Freedom! came from a local Minnesota activist, Kamau Kambui, who had begun organizing live Underground Railroad reenactments in the late 1980s to show young people what the slaves at the time had to suffer to make their escape to freedom. [1] MECC designer Rich Bergeron met with Kambui and designed the basics of Freedom! around Kambui's reenactments, and Kambui became a consultant on the game. [3] Under Kambui's consulting, the game included elements such as the player-character being illiterate and the use of era-specific dialogue. [3]

Like most of MECC's games, Freedom! was released in late 1992 with instructions for use in a classroom setting, with the expectation that the teacher would first guide students on certain lessons before letting them play the game; because of the cultural nature of the title, the manual had included numerous cautions to teachers to avoid perpetuating racial biases. However, the game was most often used by students without any curriculum set by the school. [3] In one of the first known events, the game's release at a Merrillville, Indiana elementary school led several African-American parents to demand the school pull the software. Similar situations rippled through other school systems in the United States. MECC and Kambui met with concerned Merrillville parents and members of the NAACP to discuss concerns about the game and if there were ways to fix it. [4] At these meetings, MECC was criticized for having "Nintendoized" slavery, in addition to the offensive imagery and slang they used in the game. While the parents did acknowledge that the Merrillville schools lacked the curriculum to support the game, they were still concerned about the subject matter of Freedom!, as "slavery was not a game in our history". [5] [6] Following these early 1993 meetings and threats of lawsuits should they continue to promote the software, MECC made the decision to pull all copies of Freedom!, instructed all schools to destroy the copies of Freedom! that they had, and forwent any changes to address the concerns. [3] [7] Despite this, a suit was filed against MECC in 1995 by parents in the Tempe, Arizona school system which had failed to destroy their copy. [8]

Freedom! had impacts on future MECC games. When producing Africa Trail , which features a 12,000-mile (19,000 km) bike ride through Africa to learn about its various cultures, MECC hired a focus group to ensure the game would be marketed and presented properly so as to avoid the same pitfalls that had occurred with Freedom!. [3]

In 2020, screenshots from the game were jokingly posted on the unmoderated Internet forum AutoAdmit by a user who was later identified as Tucker Carlson’s top writer, Blake Neff. Due to this and other offensive posts Neff made on the forum, he was fired shortly thereafter. [9]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Oregon Trail</i> (1971 video game) 1971 video game

The Oregon Trail is a text-based strategy video game developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) beginning in 1975. It was developed as a computer game to teach school children about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail. In the game, the player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon via a covered wagon in 1847. Along the way the player must purchase supplies, hunt for food, and make choices on how to proceed along the trail while encountering random events such as storms and wagon breakdowns. The original versions of the game contain no graphics, as they were developed for computers that used teleprinters instead of computer monitors. A later Apple II port added a graphical shooting minigame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Still</span> American abolitionist, writer, businessman

William Still was an African-American abolitionist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a conductor of the Underground Railroad and was responsible for aiding and assisting at least 649 slaves to freedom towards North. Still was also a businessman, writer, historian and civil rights activist. Before the American Civil War, Still was chairman of the Vigilance Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, named the Vigilant Association of Philadelphia. He directly aided fugitive slaves and also kept records of the people served in order to help families reunite.

The Oregon Trail was a historic migration route across the western United States.

The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, most commonly known as MECC, was an organization founded in 1973 best known for developing the edutainment video game series The Oregon Trail and its spinoffs. The goal of the organization was to coordinate and provide computer services to schools in the state of Minnesota; however, its software eventually became popular in schools around the world. MECC had its headquarters in the Brookdale Corporate Center in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. It was acquired by SoftKey in 1995 and was shut down in 1999.

<i>Number Munchers</i> 1986 video game

Number Munchers is a 1986 video game and a spin-off to the title Word Munchers. It was made by MECC for Apple II, then ported to DOS and Macintosh in 1990. The concept of the game was designed by R. Philip Bouchard, who also designed The Oregon Trail. Two versions of the game were released the Consumer Version and the School Version. After The Learning Company acquired MECC, the game was rebranded as "Math Munchers".

<i>Word Munchers</i> 1985 video game

Word Munchers is a 1985 video game and the first of the Munchers educational series. It was made by MECC for Apple II, then ported to MS-DOS and Macintosh in 1991. It was re-released in 1996 for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh as Word Munchers Deluxe. The concept of the game was designed by R. Philip Bouchard, who also designed The Oregon Trail.

<i>Africa Trail</i> 1995 video game

Africa Trail is an educational computer game developed by MECC and published by The Learning Company. The gameplay resembles that of MECC's other "Trail" games, in which players must prepare for a long journey, choose their traveling companions, and make it safely to their destination. In Africa Trail, players must travel across Africa via bicycle. The game includes a Multimedia Resource Tool to allow players to make their own journal and presentation of the journey.

<i>Reader Rabbit</i> Video game series

Reader Rabbit is an educational video game franchise created in 1984 by The Learning Company. The series is aimed at children from infancy to the age of nine. In 1998, a spiritual successor series called The ClueFinders was released for older students aged seven to twelve.

<i>Oregon Trail II</i> 1995 video game

Oregon Trail II is an educational video game released by MECC in 1995. It was published by SoftKey Multimedia. It is a revised version of the original The Oregon Trail video game. It was redesigned with the help of American Studies PhD Wayne Studer. In contrast to the original version of the game, Oregon Trail II made an effort to include greater roles for women and racial minorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Educational video game</span> Video game genre

An educational video game is a video game that provides learning or training value to the player. Edutainment describes an intentional merger of video games and educational software into a single product. In the narrower sense used here, the term describes educational software which is primarily about entertainment, but tends to educate as well and sells itself partly under the educational umbrella. Normally software of this kind is not structured towards school curricula and does not involve educational advisors.

<i>Freedom: The Underground Railroad</i> Board game

Freedom: The Underground Railroad is a 2013 co-operative board game designed by Brian Mayer and published by Academy Games, their first game in the Freedom Series. The game has drawn positive attention for its approach and handling of the topic.

<i>The Oregon Trail 3rd Edition</i> 1997 video game

The Oregon Trail 3rd Edition is the second sequel to the 1985 edutainment video game The Oregon Trail after Oregon Trail II. It was developed by MECC and released in 1997.

<i>The Oregon Trail 4th Edition</i> 1999 video game

The Oregon Trail 4th Edition is a 1999 video game, and the third sequel to The Oregon Trail. Players learn teamwork, supply management, critical-thinking, and decision-making.

<i>Jennys Journeys</i> 1984 educational video game

Jenny's Journeys is an educational video game published in 1984 by MECC for the Apple II. From a first-person view, players use a compass and a map to navigate a car containing the protagonist, Jenny, through a pixelated town. The player, acting as Jenny, provides directions at each intersection while the car's owner, 'Aunt Jenny', rides along. The objective of the game is to successfully travel from point to point while using the map. There are three levels of difficulty.

<i>Amazon Trail II</i> 1996 video game

Amazon Trail II is a simulation video game developed by The Adventure Company and published by MECC for the Macintosh and Windows. It was released in September 1996. The game is a spin-off of The Oregon Trail.

<i>Opening Night</i> (video game) 1995 video game

Opening Night is a 1995 education/simulation video game by MECC, and developed in cooperation with The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. It is aimed at children aged 10 and up.

<i>Math Blaster!</i> 1983 video game

Math Blaster! is a 1983 educational video game, and the first entry in the "Math Blaster" series within the Blaster Learning System created by Davidson & Associates. The game was developed by former educator Jan Davidson. It would be revised and ported to newer hardware and operating systems, with enhanced versions rebranded as Math Blaster Plus! (1987), followed by New Math Blaster Plus! (1990). A full redesign was done in 1993 as Math Blaster Episode I: In Search of Spot and again in 1996 as Mega Math Blaster.

<i>The Oregon Trail</i> (series) Series of educational computer games

The Oregon Trail is a series of educational computer games. The first game was originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) in 1974. The original game was designed to teach 8th grade schoolchildren about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail. The player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon's Willamette Valley via a covered wagon in 1848.

<i>MayaQuest: The Mystery Trail</i> 1995 video game

MayaQuest: The Mystery Trail is an educational computer game created by MECC and inspired by the actual MayaQuest Expedition. It is a spin-off title of The Oregon Trail series, featuring cities of the Classical Mayan civilization. While travelling across the lands by bicycle, the player learns all about the ancient culture and history of the indigenous people. The game also contains some Spanish language for additional learning.

<i>The Oregon Trail</i> (1985 video game) 1985 video game

The Oregon Trail is an educational strategy video game developed and published by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC). It was first released in 1985 for the Apple II, with later ports to DOS in 1990, Mac OS in 1991, and Microsoft Windows in 1993. It was created as a re-imagining of the popular text-based game of the same name, originally created in 1971 and published by MECC in 1975. In the game, the player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon's Willamette Valley via a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail in 1848. Along the trail, the player makes choices about supplies, resource management, and the route, and deals with hunting for food, crossing rivers, and random events such as storms and disease.

References

  1. 1 2 Lucas, Julian (February 10, 2020). "Can Slavery Reënactments Set Us Free?". The New Yorker . Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 MECC, Freedom! instruction manual, 1992
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Whitaker, Robert (November 3, 2020). "The 'Oregon Trail' Studio Made a Game About Slavery. Then Parents Saw It". Vice . Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  4. ↑ Dodd, D. Aileen (February 19, 1993). "'Freedom' makers, NAACP to meet. Group wants 'more sensitive'". The Times of Northwest Indiana . Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  5. ↑ Schuytema, Paul C. (September 1993). "What cost freedom". Compute! . Vol. 156. p. 82.
  6. ↑ West, Peter (March 24, 1993). "Reaction to Software on Slavery Raises Issues Surrounding New Types of Media". Education Week . Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  7. ↑ Juba, Joe (April 7, 2017). "A Pioneer Story: How MECC Blazed New Trails". Game Informer . Archived from the original on April 8, 2017. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  8. ↑ "School's Computer Game on Slavery Prompts Suit". The New York Times . Associated Press. August 28, 1995. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
  9. ↑ "Tucker Carlson's top writer resigns after secretly posting racist and sexist remarks in online forum".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.