When looking back at the most influential early edutainment games,
The Oregon Trail is often the first to come to mind.
And for good reason: it was a true force to be reckoned with, appearing on thousands of
Apple II computers and teaching countless kids about the dangers of crapping yourself to death.
But right up there with Oregon Trail is another Apple II edutainment classic: Math Blaster!
Released by Davidson & Associates on February 23, 1983, Math Blaster! was originally coded in BASIC for the Apple II,
with ports to the IBM PC, Commodore 64, and other computers following shortly.
It was the first product from Torrence, CA based startup Davidson & Associates,
being programmed by Richard Eckert and designed by the president of the company, Janice Davidson.
It wasn't long before the game sold in massive numbers,
and became one of the most popular edutainment games up to that point,
eventually surpassing The Oregon Trail and placing second only to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
As a result, it spawned exactly seventeen million follow-up games, like:
Math Blaster,
Math Blaster, Math Blaster,
and even Math Blaster.
The first version of the game from 1983 is extremely basic, and not only because it was coded in BASIC.
Well... Actually, maybe that is why it's extremely basic, so never mind.
This is the IBM PC version here, and there's not much to look at.
It lets you solve math problems and play a short mini-game, and that's about it.
But the seed of a great idea is here, and that brings me to the next release of the game, Math Blaster Plus! from 1987.
Like the first game, this one came in a neat little binder that
fit in quite nicely with other references and curricula teachers had at their disposal.
The gameplay is pretty freakin' similar to the original, but being in Forth instead of BASIC, it runs much faster,
has a nicer interface, better graphics, and even more options to screw with.
It also introduces the green Blasternaut character, as the very first version of the game only had a faceless
little stick figure dude that nobody gave a crap about.
This Tandy version here only came with a low-density 3.5" floppy disk, although other disk formats were available.
You also get a handy little perforated manual,
complete with all the information a manual could possibly hope to give.
Like installation info, gameplay tips, teachers' notes, and even a cheat sheet.
Er, "math facts appendix."
They even thoughtfully included a full-color product catalog,
covering all of the random educational Davidson stuff sold at the time,
and even a brief message from our sponsor, Jan Davidson,
reminding us that Davidson is awesome, and you should buy more of their stuff, because...
Think of the children, man! The children!
Math Blaster Plus! begins with the option to enter a name and the current date,
then choose from one of four aerospacey-sounding activities: Countdown, Ignition, Lift-off, and Orbit,
as well as a bonus Blasternaut Game, called... um, Blasternaut Game.
You can also finagle with the other options if you feel so inclined,
giving you the option to alter the difficulty, the subject matter,
and whether or not you want your PC speaker to stab your eardrums with evil noise.
We'll just go through these in order, starting with Countdown.
And... it... I don't know why it's called that.
As you'll notice pretty quickly, the names of the games have almost nothing to do
with what's actually going on.
All that's really happening here is you're flashed a completed problem,
and then asked to type in the sum from that problem.
Do this enough times and you'll get a dinky little animation,
and a message of positive reinforcement.
And... that's it.
In fact, all four games are like this.
Ignition has you solving those same problems,
Liftoff has you filling in missing numbers,
and Orbit has you correcting multiple errors.
There are no mini-games, and it doesn't even make use of the mouse input; you're just solving math problems
and getting a virtual pat on the back every so often.
And really, that was all Math Blaster did any differently than working these same problems on paper.
It was all about positive reinforcement; it never reprimanded you, so you were always
getting rewarded in some way.
And it was great for lazy teachers, since they didn't have to go back and check the answers,
since the computer did it for them.
Of course, there's also the Blasternaut Game, which appropriately enough, I suppose,
is the only thing that resembles a game in Math Blaster Plus!
You take control of the Blasternaut on the bottom of the screen,
changing the direction he walks and then pressing Up whenever he's underneath
the answer to the problem at the top of the screen.
Try to answer as quickly as possible, as there is a countdown timer,
and it can run out pretty fast, depending on the difficulty chosen.
Sometimes you'll get the chance to score some bonus points by saving a wayward astronaut,
which appears to be a spiky floating head.
Ram your spaceship into the poor disembodied fellow, and the head will join you
in one of the space stations above.
And that's it. That's Math Blaster Plus!
There are some other options for teachers, like printing out records or creating customized sets of problems,
but the program really is that simple.
And, dare I say it, not fun.
It wasn't until New! Math Blaster Plus! in 1990 that Math Blaster became... well, Math Blaster,
in my eyes, at least.
Improved graphics, animation, sounds, game modes, and a whole lot more
make this the earliest Math Blaster game you should bother playing nowadays.
From the start, four new activities are included: Rocket Launcher, Trash Zapper, Number Recycler,
and Math Blaster.
Rocket Launcher has nothing to do with RPG-7's or anything,
and in fact has everything to do with building the silliest-looking rocket ship imaginable
by--you guessed it--solving math problems.
Do this, and the Blasternaut will strap in and take off, traveling into space towards an unknown location.
Just a rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone.
[beep boop beep]
Next is Trash Zapper, where you're in space, trying to solve enough problems to power your Trash Laser
in order to zap the space junk that permeates the area.
Unfortunately, this section only controls with the keyboard arrow keys,
even though the mouse is RIGHT FREAKING THERE and would be a whole lot easier.
I guess maybe they wanted to make it tougher to play, but it just feels like I'm being stupidly held back.
Like trying to drive a semi-truck with a Kit-Kat bar.
Next is another eco-friendly game, Number Recycler,
which is somewhat similar to the Orbit mode of Math Blaster Plus!
Move the Blasternaut over the area of the problem that needs correcting,
recycle it, and get some goop for your mercury thermometer-looking thing.
Just be careful not to drop down the wrong column, since the laser at the bottom of the screen
will vaporize any numbers that drop, and you could get stuck without a proper answer.
Lastly we have Math Blaster, which is a re-imagining of the old Blasternaut Game.
And for some reason, here you're actually given the option to control this one with a mouse,
even though it controls just fine with a keyboard.
Just like old times, solve the problem at the top of the screen by flying your Blasternaut
into the proper space station.
One notable change is the countdown timer, which is now a stupid-looking alien stomping on a piece
of spaghetti or something, moving downward to molest your little blue protocol droid.
You also need to make sure that you avoid all the flying space crap.
Otherwise you'll hit something, and since that is not the goal of the game,
you do not want to do that.
There's also a pretty fun little bonus round, which has you going around in the most awkwardly-controlling
jetpack, collecting junk food... in space...
I don't know how you're gonna eat it.
And there you have it. That's all three original Math Blaster games for the PC.
New Math Blaster Plus and onward were pretty cool little games back in the day,
and I have lots of fond memories of playing them as a kid.
But the first two games are surprisingly not that fun at all, at least if you look at them as games.
Looking at them purely as learning tools, they still get the job done,
and they're a heck of a lot better than just solving problems on paper, unless that's just your fetish.
But they're kind of lacking in the "entertainment" area.
Thankfully, New Math Blaster Plus fixes this problem entirely,
and really is an awesome edutainment game even today.
If you haven't played any of them, or have only played maybe some of the later games in the series,
I would definitely check it out.
And I'd probably just leave the first two games in the past,
because they've aged about as well as Lindsay Lohan. Eugh.
Captions by Headset Guy