Zombie Will Think for Food

Once again, Megan came to the rescue with a topic for this week’s Review:

On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 1:45 PM, Megan wrote, “your next blaaaaaag topic:”

MECC.

yes. MECC. The company behind Oregon Trail, O’dell Down Under, Number Munchers, every. thing. awesome.

once you read it’s history, you’ll see why it just REblew my mind.

Brilliant, right? Most of us probably played a MECC game at one point or another. But what I only realized as I perused MECC’s Wiki page was that Megan just wants me to promote her own personal Minnesotan agenda WHILE discussing top shelf early computer games!

So I thought, what better way to communicate the greatness of MECC than to let Megan herself do the talking? Guest post! Take it away, Megan:

MECC: For the Love of Learning

Most of you have heard of the software company MECC. You’re most likely familiar with its flagship product, The Oregon Trail, the classic edutainment game that anyone enrolled in the public education system could not get away without playing. But before we all get nostalgic and talk about those rattlesnake bites or who died of cholera, we need to take a step back. And explore the history of MECC: the greatest creation in the history of computing software.

Created in 1973, MECC (the Minnesota Education Computing Consortium) was created by the state of Minnesota to help schools plan for the funding and use of computers. That’s right, 1973. In case you weren’t aware, Minnesota has had a long history as a haven for excellent public education (Example A: me). MECC introduced their first real “game” in 1974, Oregon, an early text-based version of what would become their most lucrative series.

Lots more after the jump!

The game had been created a few years earlier by three students from Carleton College, one of whom went to work for MECC and installed Oregon onto its state-wide computer system. It was the success of Oregon, and later The Oregon Trail, that led MECC to sell the software nationally for profit (all of which went to fun Minnesota educational endeavors). And here’s where your mind is about to get blown:

After discovering interest in accessing the software from people outside of Minnesota, copy security became an issue. MECC’s solution was to ignore copyright issue and to sell site licenses (MECC membership). A school district in another state paid a flat fee for an entire year, could make as many copies as possible.

That’s right. They sold the rights to make copies, caring less about copyrights and their profits and more about getting their games into schools for children to play (and learn!) Sigh, it gives me goose bumps just thinking of it. If you’re still unimpressed, how about this:

MECC established the first state-wide purchase contract for computers in schools. When microcomputers appeared on market, MECC studied various brands, created a specification, accepted bids from companies. A dozen companies bid to be included in MECC’s recommendation, but newly created Apple Computers was winner. MECC established a purchase contract for Apple—it became a defacto standard in state of Minnesota.

So, be sure to thank MECC that growing up you had computers in your school at all. Okay, maybe they shouldn’t get all the credit. Let’s give credit to the wonderful Utopian paradise that is Minnesota.

In 1984, MECC was changed to the Minnesota Education Computing Company, a public corporation owned by the State, and was one of two State organizations that was not state funded, being that it garnered a profit. Basically MECC went on to create more baler games until they were sold off to The Learning Company (for 250 million, bee tee dubs.) So let’s get to what we’ve all been waiting for: the part where we talk about these games that blew our elementary school minds.

The Oregon Trail

Did this game ever feel like learning to you? Maybe because we really didn’t learn all that much…or maybe because it was so intense, so unreasonably fun that you were always surprised it was something you were allowed to do in school.

Buy your oxen, pack your wagon and begin your 2,000 mile journey to the beautiful Willamette Valley. Somehow you had to manage to get you (and your party…but let’s be honest, just you) to survive. And what a startling array of things to survive! There was disease (cholera, dysentery, typhoid), banditry, snake bites, broken axels (and wagon tongues! What are wagon tongues?), oxen injury.

There were those tough decisions (Caulk the wagon and float? Ford it? Or hire a Native to ferry you across, you pussy!) that could result in your death, or worse!, loosing your rifle! Were you a banker? Or a farmer (answer: banker, duh!) Did you drag your party at a grueling pace, feeding them meager meals along the way? Or did you take your time, fatten up your healthy party, only to get stuck in the Rockies during the winter time? (While “your party is stuck in the mountains and has begun to consume each others flesh” was something not said, it was certainly implied.)

Then there was the hunting. Who cares if you over hunted an area and help contribute to the near extinction of the majestic bison? This was the best part of the game! And why couldn’t you carry more than 500 pounds of meat back to the wagon? Absurd!

And the game only got better as the years went off. They upped the graphics, made the items so absurdly specific that you could buy a banjo and a deck of cards (thank you Oregon Trail II). I think we owe a big thank you to MECC for bringing the greatest software edutainment to a computer lab near you.

The Amazon Trail

Think Oregon Trail, only set in the Amazon Jungle, in a canoe! Also your goal is much more noble (you’re told in a dream that you have to save the Incan people from none other than malaria! Too bad you couldn’t save them from Pizarro). Instead of hunting buffalo, you could spear fish (satisfying.) And you had a scrapbook to take picture of all the sweet animals you discovered. Playing this game was like being in The Rainforest Café without the waffle fires.

The Yukon Trail

Travel from Seattle to Alaska…to mine for gold! I have much less to say about this game, since I didn’t own it (I could only play it at my cousin Maggie’s house) and every time I did play it, I was unsuccessful in actually striking it rich. If its goal was to teach me about the disappointment 1890s miners felt, it succeeded. (Click to bigafy the picture; it’s worth it).

Odell Lake

You’re a fish. You eat smaller fish. It’s genius. You could explore or play for points (duh) by eating the right fish and food and by avoiding otters, humans and larger fish.

But it was its sequel, Odell Down Under, that totally took this game to a new level. Set in the Great Barrier Reef, you could play any of 50+ varieties of fish, including rays, barracudas, and the ultimate…the Great White Shark. Your only enemy? Other Great White Sharks! Your objective? The ultimate survival game: keep eating and don’t get killed.

Number Munchers

Number Munchers. Number. F@#&ing. Munchers. You must munch numbers. Your frog like avatar moves cardinally on a grid filled with numbers. There are five modes of play: multiples, factors, primes, equality and inequality. Let’s take multiples. Eat all the multiples of 3. Eat the 6s, the 9s, the 12s, but dear God stay away from that 5! It’s like poison! And the troggles. Stay away from the troggles! Okay, so basically this was Pac-Man with math, but it sure seemed like awesome.

The above shows my most difficult mode of play. The primes. Mostly because when I was playing this game (age 9 or so?) no one had bothered to explain to me what a prime number was. So I guessed. Every. Time.

So, now that I jogged your memory to the awesomeness that was (still…is?!) MECC, you should response by posting your memories of these games. Don’t have any? Make some.