I’m not going to come and accuse play practice as the reason for me not posting in a week - the real reason is I just haven’t bothered. But I’m in the blogging mood again, so you all get to hear about my favorite childhood computer games. Sure, the 3D games that everyone loves now are fine and all, but there is just something about the classic 2D floppy disk games that will never lose their flavor.

First on my list: Zoombinis. This is the obvious choice that I would hope you’ve all heard about. The Zoombinis are a race of creature that have various features about themselves that you have to pass through a combination of puzzles so they can reach their new home in Zoombiniville. They have different hair, different feet, eyes, ect., and these differences in features will determine how you solve the puzzles given to you. I grew up on this game - my sister and I could go down to my dad’s office downstairs and play Zoombinis until our minds could no longer handle the puzzles. If I were to name the top game of all time, this would tie with the Myst series in overall greatness. You can imagine my surprise when I learned that there were two sequels I had never played, “Zoombinis Mountain Rescue” and “Zoombinis Island Odyssey”. Ah, the memories this game holds for me.

Number two on the list: Of course, Myst. You just have to enjoy the simply blissful nature of this game. Given, there were parts I never beat when I was only 8, but I enjoyed every minute of it. The series has unfortunately gone down hill for me. I can’t say the newer games are boring, but then again, I can’t say anything about them, because they have deemed my computer unworthy of supporting them. You can’t make a sequel to the best game ever that only runs on the newest computers!

Spelling Jungle. This little known game from Sierra taught us how to spell with the help of Yobi the Talking Tribe Tutor. You raft upriver, making 100 stops along the way to solve spelling puzzles and collect trinkets. Alas, I never beat it, but there was apparently a sequel called Spelling Blizzard which is now too old for me to find online. Alas.

You know I wasn’t going to leave off The Incredible Machine! Yet another brilliant piece of work from our friends at Sierra, this game let you play around with levers, gears, basket balls, and of course Mel, that gave you dozens of hours of enjoyment. I sadly have not played this game in years, but I’ll find it again someday and do the whole baseball to light to tinder to fire to hot air balloon to lightswitch thing all over again.

One more brilliant game was Math Rescue, or as we referred to it, “Gruzzles”. This game, from Apogee, had you run around a side scrolling world, collecting numbers to open doors and solve math problems along the way. You went underwater, in space, and to candyland, looking out for the evil Gruzzles that stole the numbers, so you can slime them with the help of a butterfly! Games were so much more creative back then… There was also Word Rescue, but it could never compare.

The rest of these games I can’t remember enough about to write much, so I’ll just list them:

Mission T.H.I.N.K.

Marble Drop

Cluefinders

I couldn’t imagine a childhood without these games, it just wouldn’t be complete. If any of you can think of any childhood games you loved, tell me, I’d love to hear about them.

#m

Awesome memories here!

Remeber getting Zoombinis for Crimbo ‘99! Hours of fun!

Also remeber Spelling Blizzard, and am now desperately trying to find a copy somewhere to relive the memories! Any ideas where I might find one?

Keep up the good work!