Math Lander (Does anyone remember this?)

[jbanes]

I've been trying to remember an educational title I played as a kid. It was a Lunar Lander clone that forced you to "purchase" fuel by answering math questions. This made things really difficult, as you were trying to guide your craft all while loading up on fuel. I *think* it was called "Math Lander", but I don't remember for sure. I remember playing it on an IBM PC, but it may have been available for other platforms.

 

Does anyone else remember this title? Did a Commodore 64, Amiga, or Atari 8-bit version exist, or was it just the PC?

[MCHufnagel]

I've been trying to remember an educational title I played as a kid. It was a Lunar Lander clone that forced you to "purchase" fuel by answering math questions. This made things really difficult, as you were trying to guide your craft all while loading up on fuel. I *think* it was called "Math Lander", but I don't remember for sure. I remember playing it on an IBM PC, but it may have been available for other platforms.

 

Does anyone else remember this title? Did a Commodore 64, Amiga, or Atari 8-bit version exist, or was it just the PC?

It's been a while, but I think you are thinking about the first Math Blaster. My kids played that and a later version on our old Win95 PC, but it also could be played on Win 3.1. I believe that the lander part is at the end of the game. The thing I remember most about this game is that when the year 2000 arrived the games internal clock said 1900! I guess it wasn't Y2K ready.

[jbanes]

It's been a while, but I think you are thinking about the first Math Blaster. My kids played that and a later version on our old Win95 PC, but it also could be played on Win 3.1. I believe that the lander part is at the end of the game. The thing I remember most about this game is that when the year 2000 arrived the games internal clock said 1900! I guess it wasn't Y2K ready.

No, I don't think that's it. This game was back in the mid-to-late 80's, was DOS based, and was entirely a Lunar Lander game. There were a couple of pads you could chose to land on each level (with more points awarded for the harder pads, obviously) and the game had quite a few levels. It was pretty slow moving to give you time to punch in the answers to the math problems.

 

From what I know of Math Blaster! in the 80's, it was more of a math drilling program that used animations for encouragement.

 

Thanks for the guess, though! I figured this might be a hard one. There was just so much software back then, that a lot of it wasn't cataloged. Heck, I can't even find a mention of the PCjr version of Tink Tonk anywhere. However, this did come in a shrink wrapped box, so I'm hopeful that someone knows about it.

[MCHufnagel]

Oh well, I didn't know your age. My kids were born in the early to mid 90's and so I wouldn't know about any educational software from before the Windows era.

[shadow460]

In Math Blaster you had a cannon and a stuntman. A problem would flash briefly at the bottom of the screen, and answers would appear momentarily at the top of the screen on the targets. The objective is simple--blast the correct target within the time allotted.

 

I played it on an Apple II clone.

[Video]

That sounds cool, I played one bomber game, where a plane would fly across the top of the screen and a math problem would pop up, and as the plane flew over the right number, you'd drop a bomb on it or something. Don't remember what it was called, but it was for the Apple 2something (I think, but wouldn't swear to it, that we had 2e's)

[jbanes]

That sounds cool, I played one bomber game, where a plane would fly across the top of the screen and a math problem would pop up, and as the plane flew over the right number, you'd drop a bomb on it or something.

Interesting. No, I've never heard of that one either. A quick googling finds that someone came up with a similar idea for the Mac. Perhaps he was influenced? There was some pretty cool edutainment back then, wasn't there?

 

I just found out about a neat title for the Commodore 64 called Chopper Math. Apparently, the idea was to solve the math problems in order to get the chopper on the ground. It sounds like the same basic concept as Math Lander, except I don't know how interactive it was outside of the math problems.

[vdub_bobby]

If you search www.mobygames.com for "Math" you get a whole bunch of Math games for various platforms.

 

Also, searching www.atarimania.com for the same thing turns up even more for the 8bit computers - over 100!

 

None that looked similar to a Math Lander, though.

[jbanes]

Thanks VDub! I did check Mobygames, but I didn't find much in the way of educational software documented there. Most of the Spinnaker stuff is missing, for example. I'll poke through AtariMania a bit and see if I can find it. It doesn't look promising so far, but you never know.

[Video]

One of my favorite edutainment titles was for the Commodore 64, it was called Cave of the Word Wizard, you ran around in a cave Pitfall2 style, and this wizard would pop up and ask you to spell a word. If you guessed right, you got more batteries for your flashlight, if not, you didn't, and it could die on you and you'd just run around in the dark. You also hunted for gems and had to avoid badguys in there too. That game was sweet.

 

Interestingly enough, the game had a good enough voice, that you could tell what most words were, but funny thing is, when it was a one syllable word, it was often hard to understand and you had to guess what was said.

Edited October 4, 2006 by Video

[panda_racer]

actually, i remember playing a game like that on an apple II.. i think.

my elementary school had a computer lab with lots of floppy games. i remember that i didn't like that game because it was really slow. I liked Oregon Trail and Otter Pond better.

The name sounds about right... but i think it had another word to it. Like Math Moon Lander. Or Apollo Math Lander.. or something.

Hell, I bet that school still has the games. I went there until '98 and we were still using the Apple IIs. I might call them up and see if they still have the games laying around....

[jbanes]

actually, i remember playing a game like that on an apple II.. i think.

Ah hah! Someone else who remembers the game! Now we can both sit here confused, trying to find details on it.

 

my elementary school had a computer lab with lots of floppy games. i remember that i didn't like that game because it was really slow.

That sounds about right. Back in those days, I didn't mind the slowness quite so much. Especially since it gave me time to do math problems to fill up on fuel.

 

The name sounds about right... but i think it had another word to it. Like Math Moon Lander. Or Apollo Math Lander.. or something.

You might be correct. Unfortunately, that realization doesn't help me remember the name any better.

 

Hell, I bet that school still has the games. I went there until '98 and we were still using the Apple IIs. I might call them up and see if they still have the games laying around....

I'd be very surprised if they haven't junked it by now. Many schools couldn't afford PCs back in '98, but in 2006 PC's can be had for less than the Commodore 64 cost back in the day.

[Avid Fan]

Count me in, I remember playing this game (or a clone of it) in the 80s and early 90s on our old Apple IIe's in elementary school. I didnt care for it much.

I preferred Number Crunchers. Our computer teacher was a real B*&^H and would only let us play the good games (Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego) on the last computer day of the year. Luckily she quit in 6th grade and we actually got to play those games all the way through. I remember my group (which were the only kids to have computers at home) was the only group to beat Carmen Sandiego, and if we had 2 more classes could have beaten again. Those were the days

[panda_racer]

I just emailed the school librarian about the computers.

I think she's the same one from when i went there, so she might actually remember the names of the games.

[jbanes]

Thanks panda! Let us know what you find out.

[jbanes]

To quote Blue's Clues:

 

A clue, a clue!

[panda_racer]

Well, i got an email back today.

 

Hi Kara,

I am so sorry. You are about 3 weeks too late. I just got rid of all

that old stuff. The computer lab has been moved to the main hallway

across from the office. The old computer lab is now a preschool room.

 

What in the world would you do with that stuff?

 

Elaine

 

I emailed her back and asked if she remembered the game.. I can't believe they actually still had those computers!

[panda_racer]

To quote Blue's Clues:

 

A clue, a clue!

i knew it had another word in there...