I actually have Zoombinis downloaded and play it regularly. Although I hate the pizza man.

Troggle Trouble Math.

I thought that the Brain Age "games" were fun for about 10 minutes.

I know I will get a lot of flak for this but I don't care. I think math/word Muncher was one of the best games I have ever played. If you gave me Starcraft 2 or that I would not hesitate to pick the little green hero. It is probably lame but it was so thrilling trying to avoid those purple bastards from eating you, not to mention THEY WOULD CHANGE THE VALUES IN THE SQUARE!! Hell I should go out and get a tatoo of those purple SOBs chasing the green guy on my ass or something...

I've got Oregon Trail on my Ipod.

Oh, how I miss playing Oregon Trail on our school's Apple 2e's...

Number Munchers! I loved that game. I think even more than Oregon Trail....wait, how was Oregon Trail educational?

Carmen Sandiego = awesome too, anyone know if they make a version for current computers? I haven't had a copy since 92 I think.

What about Scribblenauts or Brain Age? They were sort of fun...although the asian speaking to you was creepy as hell.

The only qualm I have with this list is that Super Munchers did not get mentioned, even with word and number munchers. That game was preposterous and tricky. I just think it should have at least been grouped in with the other two.

No love for The Journeyman Project?

"I'm trying to prevent the collapse of all time. Please tell me about growing corn."

good lord, i remember nearly getting into a fistfight with another kid over carmen sandiego! a FISTFIGHT!! over an EDU-GAME! lil' prick wouldn't give up his turn no matter WHAT despite of promising to take turns. ahhh, those were the good ol' days...

Hey, what about the best educational Game ever? THE TYPING OF THE DEAD! published by Sega

For everybody who doesnt know that glorious moment of game history: It is based on House of dead 2 and teaches u some good typing skills - u can even connect and play with ure friends

Cite:

"Kill zombies with ure bare hands!"

Cant believe u missed this one here

Reader Rabbit? Magic School Bus?

The levels of nostalgia I'm experiencing right now are astounding. Dr. Quandary was practically my archnemesis - I'm pretty sure I had nightmares related to this game at some point. For God's sake, HE TURNED YOU INTO A DOLL. That's some supernatural shit.

Question: How about The Incredible Machine ? That was an 'educational' game, too...right?

I tumbled upon lil flash game called "Third World" where you play an African farmer struggling to bring in the Harvest & raise your Kids. Circa 4 of 5 Times you will loose this Game because of natural disasters you couldn't possibly protect yourself this early in the game. Resulting in seeing your Family die. Message is clearly to see, the 3rd World needs our Help.

I recommend this lil depressing Simulation.

You'd be surprised how many people haven't played Oregon Trail. I have a "You have died of dysentery" shirt, and I can't even remember how many times I have had to explain it.

http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/OregonTrail/

I would be remiss if I didn't post a link to this classic epic account of trying to stitch together a (progressively insane) plot to a run-through of Oregon Trail (where readers of the thread got to vote on various choices).

(Thanks, TVTropes.org! Their page of links to hilarious LPs, is a dangerously addictive time-sink of many, many months of reading and watching. AVOID AT YOUR OWN PERIL! http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitle8zx0nomxzqc5?from=Main.LetsPlay)

i remember coming close to capturing carmen a few times when i played it in school. only to have her escape . oregon trail wound up just quiting the game instead of playing it any more. love number one.for it looks like an early version of power rangers invovling weather.

Americans may not be familiar but Crosscountry Canada was a great educational game for my Apple IIC where you were a trucker whose job was to pick up natural resources from different Canadian provinces. You had to know which province produced what and don't forget to sleep, eat and not speed - all things that could lead to your perile if you forgot.

Carmen was always my favourite though...

no love for SimEarth? ecology, geology, and biology tied into one game!

I liked making sentient carnivorous plants the dominant life-form.

No love for Dino Park Tycoon ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DinoPark_Tycoon )? You made your own Jurassic Park...though less blood and mayhem, but the sheer fact it has Dinosaurs puts it above some of the entries in the list.

OMG, I just traveled back in time when I used to play Number Munchers, Math Blaster, Gizmos and Gadgets and the Zoombinis in elementary and middle school. Also not mentioned on the list was Treasure Math Storm.

It's weird, the Amazon Trail game, everytime I tried to play the Catch the Poison Dart Frog mini-game, the computer would freeze and crash and then I'd have to start all over again. I always wondered if that was because of my computer or a software glitch :/

Man! This makes me miss 1990's PC gaming! Back when a 486DX2 66mhz, 4mb of RAM, double spin CD ROM, 1mb SVGA card, and Sound Blaster 16 were all you need to be top of the line.

I like to think Red Dead Redemption is the bastard great grandchild of Oregon Trail, particularly when you shoot way more animals than you need.

This list makes me very happy.

Thanks for making my day a little brighter.

Wow, I didn't realize how many of those I had actually played when I was a kid.

While not necessarily educational, i liked playing EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus too

Operation Neptune and the Zoombinis were awesome. I actually still have copies of them...and now I want to bust them out and play them.

Also, I always found Who's Bayou to be the hardest part of the Zoombinis. The raft is a bitch, and then the frogs. Dear God the frogs.

Glad to see G&G mentioned, that game was fantastic, but where's the greatest typing game of all time- Mario Teaches Typing?

Oh man, I remember the thrill of getting to go to the computer room back in primary school, and get to play the likes of Zoombinis and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, good times.

An AFGNCAAP shoutout. Very nice.

Star Wars Battle Chess

no love for Mixed-up Mother Goose?

i would have to vote for Rocky's Boots. but that's just me, i'm ancient.

God, I'm old.

I played the hell out of Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail, but most of this list was after my time.

Anybody else remember Tai-Pan? Probably the only educational game in history where you got to buy and sell opium.

I'll add another one to the "no love for" list. Mickey's Space Adventure. Taught kids about the different planets (and moons) and had a lot of problem solving. It was also one of the first Sierra titles that came out for DOS.

The two that I played the most in school were Orgen trail and one about Mitosis....I loved the Shit out of that Mitosis game and it was the roots of my science obsessions ever since.

Yes! Zoombinis! Me and my best friend had to pitch an already created game for one of our university assignments, and whereas most of the class did hardcore games we did the Zoombinis ahd got the second highest mark in the class. XDDD

I remember zoombinis! That game was beast.

Yukon Trail

I played that before I could read, much less survive...

I always always bought the kittens, even though they always died ;w; but sometimes I didn't get far enough for them to die, so that worked out.

Heh, I never could figure out the first mission on Amazon Trail. Something about needing curare or something like that. But I liked spear fishing.

I did best in Oregon Trail when I didn't try. Made it to the end once after only buying coffee and sugar. Half of this list is how I wasted my day in my Gifted classes back in elementary school.

3) The Oregon Trail i played this one and no one in my party ever died

4) Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

i remember this one thanks rob!

for the tangram one i would have done good i solved all 500 puzzles in my tangram book in less than a month

There was a game I vaguely remember but I don't think I ever knew the name of. Basically you were asked a question, usually math I think, and various answers were rolled down a conveyor belt. You controlled some sort of laser and blasted the right answer as it rolled underneath it. I remember enjoying it simply for the fact that I got to blast shit with a laser in school, even if it was just a computer game.

Ah, yes, I remember the zoombinis, I wasted countless hours on the game, I actually filled up the getaway town or whatever it was, Now I have to play it again so I can remember what happens. Also you misspelled 'greener' in the zoombini article Rob.

Typing. Of. The. DEEEADD.

Really curious if anyone else had ever played Bill Nye the Science Guy: Stop The Rock, my friends ALWAYS wanted to play that one when they came over. Still own it too.

I remember I played Operation Neptune, even though I was like 5-7 years older then the recommended age.

I still love a good platform.... Good times....

Oh man Amazon Trail was so fun as a kid. I remember there was this one medicine that you got that would cause hallucinations and death if ingested. Then, later on in the river you meet a pirate that is threatening to kill you. If you follow the right dialogue options you can give the pirate the medicine and tell him that it taste like candy, prompting him to eat a large amount of it.

Good Times

I played the crap out of Mario's Time Machine when I was in middle school; when I reached high school I realized the game had taught me material covered high school level history classes. Thanks Mario!

Helloooo SIM CITY,

it contained the subjects of Business, and economics, budget, and even enviroment.

can't believe no one mentioned it. and someone even mentioned Cross Country Canada.That game kicked ass too.in my opinion, every politician should be able to succesfully start and maintain a city in sim city on Hard Mode and if they cannot, they can't run for office.

WTF is Team Extreme? Oh well guess I can't knock it.

Oregon Trail was my #1, didn't know we were counting Amazon Trail though. Never played that one. Obviously it rocks as well as Carmen Sandiego and also:

We played Oregon Trail, Dr. Quandry, and Word/Number Munchers in my reading elective class in high school. The class description basically amounted to "Sit in a room for 40 minutes and player computer games."

Wow, Team Xtreme is a super educational game. Just watching that video I learned two things.

1. Missiles can blow up tornadoes. In fact, they can prevent any kind of natural disaster. Want to solve global warming? Fire a bunch of missiles in the air.

2. Never go full retard.

Operation Neptune!!! That was my very first game soundtrack love affair - I still get those damn MIDI BGMs stuck in my head from time to time...

Finally finished the game when I was 15. I was so proud. Amazon Trail was another favorite that I never actually beat until I was well into my teens...Gosh, I wish my old Win 95 PC still worked >.>

I remember this one I played where you are a robot and you have to babysit this mad scientist's daughter who had different levels that asked you certain science questions. The final level I think was where you were in biosphere's and you couldn't touch the sides and each airlock you had to answer a question to get through...

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Where is reader rabbit?

Fuck yes, Dr. Brain!

I'm not surprised that you didn't mention this, but I like Chefren's pyramid http://www.alega.se/english/pyramidmath/Chefrens_Pyramid/chefrens_pyramid.html

I'm guessing few outside of sweden have ever played it

If there's gonna be a shout out to Magic School Bus, it should be on a list of Educational Cartoons...I'll let you decide whether that's prefaced by "Bad" or "Good".

Personally, I enjoyed the games yet hated the Magic School Bus cartoon; that Frizzle bitch was totally unfit for teaching and that fucking ginger kid got way too much camera time.

I loved OWD!!!

Video games are more educational they we believe they are. Remember the barefoot bandit who stole airplanes? He supposedly did so because of his video game experience. Many strategy games and simulator games are educationally useful.

I played the F out of the Munchers and the Super Solvers in school.

Couldn't beat that blasted Alt. Energy building until I got better parts. Too me so freaking long to get a better set of pedals for it.

Those were fun. I don't know how much I learned though.