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.
Davidson & Associates, Inc. was an American developer of educational software based in Torrance, California. The company was founded in 1984 by husband-and-wife Bob and Jan Davidson, the latter of whom led the company as president until January 1997. Specializing in the production of edutainment software, the company was acquired by CUC International in February 1996 and served as the base for CUC's CUC Software division, being made responsible for the sales and distribution of the combined company.
The Blaster Learning System is an educational video game series created by Davidson & Associates and later published by JumpStart after the two companies were acquired and merged by CUC Software. The games primarily focused on mathematics, later expanding into language arts and science, and spawned an animated children’s television series in 1999 called Blaster's Universe.
Zoombinis was a series of educational puzzle computer games that were originally developed by TERC and published by Broderbund. In 1998, Broderbund was purchased by The Learning Company, who took responsibility for developing and publishing the series in 2001. The series consists of three games: Logical Journey of the Zoombinis (1996), Zoombinis: Mountain Rescue (2001), and Zoombinis: Island Odyssey (2002). Logical Journey was remade as Zoombinis for modern operating systems in 2015. The series focuses on the Zoombinis, small blue creatures each with different appearances and personalities, which the player must guide through strange puzzle-filled lands.
The ClueFinders is an educational software series aimed at children aged 8–12 that features a group of mystery-solving teenagers. The series was created by The Learning Company as a counterpart to their Reader Rabbit series for older, elementary-aged students. The series has received praise for its balance of education and entertainment, resulting in numerous awards.
Dr. Brain is a series of educational games introduced by Sierra On-Line in 1992. The objective of each game is to solve a series of puzzles to aid characters named Dr. Brain who changed from title to title. After Sierra was acquired by CUC International in 1996, the series would be continued by their Knowledge Adventure division who turned it into a more action-oriented game.
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, known as Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? in PAL regions, is an edutainment puzzle video game. It was developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. Nintendo has stated that it is an entertainment product inspired by Tohoku University professor Ryuta Kawashima's work in the neurosciences.
Murderous Maths is a series of British educational books by author Kjartan Poskitt. Most of the books in the series are illustrated by illustrator Philip Reeve, with the exception of "The Secret Life of Codes", which is illustrated by Ian Baker, "Awesome Arithmetricks" illustrated by Daniel Postgate and Rob Davis, and "The Murderous Maths of Everything", also illustrated by Rob Davis.
Castle of Dr. Brain is an educational video game released in 1991 by Sierra On-Line. It is a puzzle adventure game.
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, known in PAL regions as Big Brain Academy for Wii, is a video game released for the Wii. A sequel to the game Big Brain Academy for the Nintendo DS, it too measures a player's brain's weight, but with new games and puzzles to solve. The game makes use of Miis and uses WiiConnect24 features, allowing competition amongst users' friends, whose codes are automatically imported from the Wii's internal address book.
Brain Age Express are three educational puzzle video games developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo DSi's DSiWare download service. They are the third series of games in the Brain Age series, and are repackaged versions of both Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! and Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day! games, featuring both old and new puzzles.
Body and Brain Connection, also known as Dr. Kawashima's Body and Brain Exercises in PAL regions, is a puzzle video game developed and published by Namco Bandai Games for the Xbox 360's Kinect platform. It was released in Japan on November 20, 2010, in North America on February 8, 2011, and in Europe on February 11, 2011.
Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math is a series of five games released in 2011/2012 for the Wii, and is part of the Carmen Sandiego franchise. The style of the games are reminiscent of comic books. The 5-part series were the first English language console games from the Carmen Sandiego franchise since The Secret of the Stolen Drums. These "short, educational detective adventures" were only available as a download through the Nintendo Wii Shop. The games were developed by Gamelion Studios, and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. They could take up to 6 players, and required 600 Wii points. Maths topics included in the games include: Symmetry, Identifying angles, Graphing coordinates on a grid, Logic puzzles, Working with fractions, Solving equations, and Tangrams. The games are designed for elementary learners across grades 3–5.
Math Rabbit is a 1986 video game spin-off from the Reader Rabbit edutainment series. It was made by The Learning Company for MS-DOS and Apple II series. A Deluxe version was released in 1993 for MS-DOS, Macintosh, and Windows 3.x. In 1997, the game was remade for Windows and Macintosh as Reader Rabbit's Math 1. The final remake for Windows and Macintosh in 1998 is Reader Rabbit's Math Ages 4-6, with a personalized version released in 1999.
Math Blaster! is a 1983 education 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.
Math Blaster Jr. is a 1996 educational video game in the Blaster Learning System series aimed at teaching mathematics to children in ages 4–8. The game was rebranded as Math Blaster: Ages 4-6 in 1997.
DragonBox is an educational game series developed and published by WeWantToKnow AS, a Norwegian studio. DragonBox Algebra was released on May 9, 2012 for iOS. It was created to teach children math, such as algebra.
Big Brain Academy is a puzzle video game published and developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was released in Japan on June 30, 2005, and subsequently in other regions in summer 2006. The game was planned to be released in China for the iQue DS system and appeared in the system's trailer, but it remained unreleased. It has been compared to Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!. It was marketed under Nintendo's Touch! Generations brand. A sequel, Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, was released on the Wii in April 2007.
Math Blaster Mystery is a 1989 educational video game developed by Davidson & Associates for Apple II, Apple IIGS, and Macintosh computers. It followed Math Blaster! and Alge-Blaster! as the third title within the Blaster Learning System franchise.
