Mario Teaches Typing

Today I waned to write about a game I played in 5th grade called Mario Teaches Typing. I loved this game. It was a fun way to learn typing while playing as your favorite Mario characters and familiar levels.

Background:

Created by Interplay, this game was a way to get kids excited and want to learn how to type. The game play featured Mario, Luigi, and princess toadstool (now know as Peach).

Like standard typing games, it starts out with a few keys and then move up to advanced key strokes. This game however uses characters from the series in an attempt to make typing more like a videogame and less like well typing exercise... for awhile anyway. Typing games generally become repetitive which can be fine for kids but sometimes even with Mario, can become dull and forgettable.

My experience:
As a 5th grader we had two computers in the back of the classroom. I think we had about 20 students in the class so we had to sign up to use the computers and we usually played with another students so everyone can play at least once a week. When it was my turn, I usually played with two other students and we would play Jeopardy. When my teacher installed Mario teaches typing, I would play with my two friends and we would take turns playing each level. Since the game was 1 player, I played a few turns and would move so my friends could play. While I played I can honestly say that I was more about making Mario live then learn typing.

As a 5th grader in the 90s, this was a difficult level which is sad because it is level 1. But that is the fun of learning how to type.

 

I also found that for me, all the repetitive typing and lack of computer knowledge, I ended up giving up and playing Jeopardy with my friends and soon no one played Mario Teaches Typing again.

Overall opinion:

I am looking back on a memory of this game and say it was harmless fun but would a kid really learn typing from it? I can say that I would have if I had more time playing the game by myself much like I did with Type to Learn which I will talk about later. You can play it online currently. Simply Google Mario Teaches Typing and you can either download it or you can play it online through a site. I would recommend checking it out and seeing for yourself if it holds up.

Ahh, The Oregon Trail

Oh no!

 

Oregon Tail is an example of a game where it can become both educational and entertaining. It can also be an example of what aspects are being used and what is not in a game that make it memorable.

I remember the first time I played Oregon Trail. I was in 1^st grade which was in the late 80s and video games in the classroom was starting to pick up in the classrooms. I know in the 70s they had video games to, but the industry of video games was trying new avenues by incorporation games into schools until the 80s. When we had free time from class, I would go to one of the 5 computers we had in our classroom and play this game. The game was on an Apple 2 so no blast processing for this system. It would have been to rad for it.

Such a beast! I can't believe the cost was $2638 when it first was released!

Anyways, I remember one time me and a friend playing. We both would skip the text dialogue and go straight to the hunting part of the game. We would also try to ride the rapids every time we got to a river and sometime crash it into some riverbed so we can write on the tombstone when someone died. The popular etching on the stone was something along the lines of the commercial Tombstone pizza stating "Here lay’s pepperoni and cheese, his favorite topping" or something similar to that statement.

 Love this commercial!

Now that I’m older, I played the iPad version of the game and surprisingly it hold up. I miss the 8 bit version sure, but the newer version has a better text layout, colorful design, and a variety of choices with decent animations.

I don’t know if kids are playing it as much as I did back in the day, nevertheless with the updated graphics and animations, they are getting more out of the journey than just hunting and purposely killing their wagon mates for kicks.

By the way, hunting in that game is just as amazing.