Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion. Many puzzle games involve a real-time element and require quick thinking, such as Tetris (1985) and Lemmings (1991).
Zork is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded and split the game into three titles—Zork I: The Great Underground Empire, Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz, and Zork III: The Dungeon Master—which were released commercially for a range of personal computers beginning in 1980. In Zork, the player explores the abandoned Great Underground Empire in search of treasure. The player moves between the game's hundreds of locations and interacts with objects by typing commands in natural language that the game interprets. The program acts as a narrator, describing the player's location and the results of the player's commands. It has been described as the most famous piece of interactive fiction.
The Learning Company (TLC) was an educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and productivity tools. Its titles included the flagship series Reader Rabbit, for preschoolers through second graders, and The ClueFinders, for more advanced students. The company was also known for publishing licensed educational titles featuring characters such as Arthur, Scooby-Doo, Zoboomafoo, and Caillou.
Robot Odyssey is a programming game developed by Mike Wallace and Dr. Leslie Grimm and published by The Learning Company in December 1984. It was released for the Apple II, TRS-80 Color Computer, and MS-DOS. Most players have found it challenging. The player is readying for bed when, suddenly, they fall through the floor into an underground city of robots, Robotropolis. The player begins in the sewers of the city with three programmable robots, and must make their way to the top of the city to try to find their way home again.
Rocky's Boots is an educational logic puzzle game by Warren Robinett and Leslie Grimm, published by The Learning Company in 1982. It was released for the Apple II, CoCo, Commodore 64, IBM PC and the IBM PCjr. It was followed by a more difficult sequel, Robot Odyssey. It won Software of the Year awards from Learning Magazine (1983), Parent's Choice magazine (1983), and Infoworld, and received the Gold Award from the Software Publishers Association. It was one of the first educational software products for personal computers to successfully use an interactive graphical simulation as a learning environment.
Challenge of the Ancient Empires!, also known as Ancient Empires is an educational computer game created by The Learning Company in 1990 for both MS-DOS and Macintosh. It is designed to improve history, logic, and problem solving skills in children ages 7 to 10.
Treasure Mountain! is an educational video game published by The Learning Company in 1990 for DOS, Windows and Macintosh. It teaches children aged five to nine reading, basic math, and logic skills. Treasure Mountain is the third installment of the Super Seekers series.
Treasure Galaxy! is an educational computer game published by The Learning Company in 1994 for both Windows and Macintosh. It is aimed at children ages 5 to 9 and is intended to teach children reading, basic mathematics and logic skills. Treasure Galaxy is part of the Super Seekers games.
Richard Scarry's Busytown is a 1993 educational video game that was developed by Novotrade for preschool gamers. It was released for DOS, Macintosh, and Sega Genesis. This game was based on the series of Best...Ever! series of VHSes distributed by Random House's home video division preceding the TV series' The Busy World of Richard Scarry that was produced by CINAR and Paramount Television. It was remade in 1999 by Pearson Software for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS, with the visuals and animation updated to resemble that of The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and the dialogue re-recorded with Boston actors.
Mission T.H.I.N.K. is the final addition to the Super Solvers series created by The Learning Company. Morty Maxwell tries to take over the Shady Glen Game Factory with help of the Metal Minions. Also the original score in the five levels is by the famous fusion ensemble Yellowjackets. The game cultivates critical thinking skills by encouraging players to solve puzzles and create strategies.
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.
Booty is a platform game published in 1984 for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Commodore Plus/4, and ZX Spectrum. The game was one of Firebird's initial releases.
Stickybear is a fictional character created by Richard Hefter and an edutainment series starring the character headed by Optimum Resource, Inc. The character was a mascot of Weekly Reader Software, a division of Xerox Education Publications.
The Treehouse is an educational point-and-click personal computer game developed for DOS and then ported to Macintosh and the FM Towns, with Windows versions arriving later. Following the success of The Playroom, Broderbund created The Treehouse, which provides more content and furthers the user's ability to explore. First released in 1991, most copies were sold in educational supply stores rather than mainstream stores that sold computer software; it included a sing-along cassette tape. It was re-released in 1996 for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Although the Windows version has the same general activities, the characters, interface, and locations are different.
There have been a variety of Sesame Street video games released for video game platforms. Most of the Sesame Street video games were published and developed by NewKidCo.
Spelling Jungle, also known as Yobi's Basic Spelling Tricks or Yobi's Magic Spelling Tricks, is an educational adventure game created by Bright Star Technology and released by Sierra in 1993 for both Windows and Macintosh PCs. The program is designed to strengthen reading, spelling, and logic skills in children ages 7–10.
An escape room, also known as an escape game, puzzle room, exit game, or riddle room is a game in which a team of players discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to accomplish a specific goal in a limited amount of time. The goal is often to escape from the site of the game. Most escape games are cooperative but competitive variants exist. Escape rooms became popular in North America, Europe, and East Asia in the 2010s. Permanent escape rooms in fixed locations were first opened in Asia and followed later in Hungary, Serbia, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and South America.
Learning with Leeper is a 1983 game developed and published by Sierra On-Line. Similar to Learning with FuzzyWOMP (1984), it teaches colours, numbers, and the alphabet to players. It reuses the character from the Sierra On-Line game Lunar Leepers
Reader Rabbit's Ready for Letters is a 1992 video game and the fifth game of the Reader Rabbit franchise. Although a spin-off title, it is designed for ages 3 to 6 to teach prereaders about becoming literate and phonics.
Gertrude's Puzzles is a 1984 edutainment video game for the Apple II, Commodore 64, and IBM PC compatibles by The Learning Company. It is considered a sequel to the game Gertrude's Secrets. Gertrude's Puzzles was designed by Teri Perl. Gertrude's Puzzles, like Gertrude's Secrets, consists of a series of rooms, each of which contains a logic or categorization puzzle to solve using shapes and colors.
