Did your school use the PlayStation Lightspan games?

[DigitalSpace]

I don't think I've ever read anything here about anyone actually playing any of the Lightspan games at their school.

This is a question for the younger members and any teachers that may be out there. I figure most DP'ers are too old (though we didn't miss out - if you're like me, you got some considerable time with Oregon Trail and Number Munchers), but if you knew of a local school using these (or acquired Lightspan games for your collection from said school), feel free to chime in.

For those of you who played them in your school, what was it like?

[Kamisama]

Hmm, in fact I never heard of this. And I've been too 3 different school in the last years. Dunno since when it's out o:

[Pantechnicon]

They were after my time. I didn't even know such things existed until I was doing some computer support work once at a BIA-run boarding school out in the boonies west of Albuquerque. I walked through a couple of classrooms where I saw the kids, each with a personal PSOne/LCD combo no less, playing these edumacational games. I was surprised with both the fact that these games existed, to say nothing of the largesse implied in a school where every kid gets his own Playstation.

[CosmicMonkey]

Back in my day we had BBC Micros at School. And if we were lucky, we got to play with the 'Turtle' robot. Later on they upgraded to Archimedes. We didn't even get proper PCs till halfway through the final year.

So how educational are these Lightspan games? Are they actually decent?

[DigitalSpace]

Here's some information on Lightspan from our very own Dangerboy:
Link (http://game-rave.com/psx_lightspan/index.htm)

I've never played or seen any of the games myself. I do remember hearing about them on CNN in their heyday. "These kids are playing video games at school! But these aren't your normal video games..." I quickly forgot about them until I came across a post about them here on DP.

[dlopez9069]

ive never heard of these so im guessing they arent that great. im still in high school and instead of ps1s everyone got a brand new G4 apple laptop.(tons of people got suspended for porn) so i guess they arent that great either.

[Rogmeister]

When I graduated, home video game systems hadn't even been introduced yet... ;)

[Dangerboy]

Having been doing the reviews / features on them, I can actually see why they bottomed out so quickly. Most of the games were either:

a) Just videos from like, 1970+
b) Odd interactive playsets that didn't quite gel with the controller
c) Cool, but ultimately destroyed by poor load times and odd sequencing

The worst part was that the numerical values of the Discs (i.e. Google 1, 2a, 2b, etc) didn't follow in the the actual order; you bounced around from each one depending on what the curriculum was.

What *was* cool about the set was how much personality they gave some of the characters. The Mars Moose cast was the scholastic equivalent of the Shirt Tales gang, just without the T-Shirts, complete with Saturday morning like intro and some pretty good voice actors.

I'm *still* trying to track down the modem, keyboard adapter (for a sane price), and LIghtspan Memory Card dongle so I can take a PSX online. Any leads in acquiring one will be graciously rewarded.

Jason

[Snapple]

No, they didn't. I'm pretty sure if there were PS1s in my school, I would've flipped.

I think the reason Lightspan games are so rare, is because most schools don't give a shit about different learning techniques. Anything more than a chalkboard, a textbook, and the overhead projector, is a waste of money to most schools.

[cyberfluxor]

Seems interesting. The only things we ever got were interactive educational games for Windows and MACs throughout the years. One of my favorite classes was Computing Systems which consisted of "simuation training" using SimCity 2000 and playing Bugdom for some reason.


When I graduated, home video game systems hadn't even been introduced yet... ;)

We all know you've been around since before video games. Aren't you the one that came up with the idea and invented them? :p

[PapaStu]

When I graduated, home video game systems hadn't even been introduced yet... ;)



We all know you've been around since before video games. Aren't you the one that came up with the idea and invented them? :p

No, that was Al Gore. So close though!

[GrandAmChandler]

Nah man. We used the Apple ][e straight up yo.

I will school you in Number Munchers, find Carmen Sandiego, and give you dysentery on the Oregon Trail all in the same day.

[The Shawn]

All we had was TRS-80's and trash-80 model 4's.

[Oobgarm]

C64's for us.

[DigitalSpace]

Nah man. We used the Apple ][e straight up yo.

When I was in elementary school, we had 1-2 of those in every classroom. They were usually reserved for the kids who got their work done the fastest, and as you may have guessed, Oregon Trail was the most popular game, with Number Munchers as a close second (especially in my fourth grade class, where we only had one copy of Oregon Trail).

I moved to a different school in fifth grade, and all the Apple II's were in a computer lab.

[wyatt8]

We also had the Apple IIe computers with the fly monochrome green monitors. We had a whole computer lab in grade school. I think I was in 2nd grade when they introduced the computers. Oregon Trail was king...by far. I vaguely remember number munchers and they tried to force the typing tutor down our throats. I remember that I could type "a a a s s s sa as sass" or something at like 87 words per minute!

The one game that was 2nd to Oregon Trail that we had was Odell Lake and Odell Woods. I can vividly remember that you played as a fish and you would have to make decisions on which fish you could eat or those that you had to stay away from. It was pretty fun!

Wyatt

[cyberfluxor]

The one game that was 2nd to Oregon Trail that we had was Odell Lake and Odell Woods. I can vividly remember that you played as a fish and you would have to make decisions on which fish you could eat or those that you had to stay away from. It was pretty fun!
We had that as well. Some people were making some mutated hybrids that ate everything and would die simply from being energy hogs.

[Captain Wrong]

Was I the only one who used a Commodore PET in school?

[mb7241]

I distinctly remember Apple IIc's and IIe's (I think there was one original Apple II, as well as one lone Apple IIgs) being used at my elementary school while I was there. Some of you have mentioned Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, and Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?...great memories there. I remember sitting in a 6th-grade classroom (when I was 6 years old...1st grade) and playing the aforementioned Carmen Sandiego. As for Number Munchers, I think I missed a total of 2 questions in the 300-500 hours I logged into that game in my first three years of school (kindergarten through 2nd grade).

Back on topic, can't really say I know that much about Lightspan's games...they sound interesting from a collector's standpoint, though.

[jjessop]

I'm *still* trying to track down the modem, keyboard adapter (for a sane price), and LIghtspan Memory Card dongle so I can take a PSX online. Any leads in acquiring one will be graciously rewarded.

Jason

You mean this thing?

[PapaStu]

You mean this thing?

Thats exactly what he means (at least for the tracking down of the keyboard dongle).

[Dangerboy]

Yes, that thing...

wait...

Why does that one look different from the one PSmuseum and BuyAtari had...

God please don't let there be a variant to an item I can't find. >_>;;;

Now gimmie! ^_^;;;


You mean this thing?

[CosmicMonkey]

So what sort of insane prices do those keyboard/mouse adapters go for then when they do show up?

Pretty nifty design there though. I like that.

I'm assuming the memory card dongle looks just like a normal PS mem card, but with a Lightspan sticker? Anyone got pics of the modem, and what speed was it?

[Dangerboy]

So what sort of insane prices do those keyboard/mouse adapters go for then when they do show up?

Pretty nifty design there though. I like that.

I'm assuming the memory card dongle looks just like a normal PS mem card, but with a Lightspan sticker? Anyone got pics of the modem, and what speed was it?


Never seen one, either of them.

As for price, you answered your own question.

[Iron Draggon]

all we had when I was in school was LED or LCD handheld games, and they usually got taken up if you got caught playing them in class.... but we all had them... usually it was Mattel Football or Coleco Football, but over the years some of us were lucky enough to get one of the more versatile handhelds like Microvision... and of course before that, everybody had a Merlin or a Simon...

you could usually get away with playing a Comp IV in class, because it was actually educational... ditto for some of the later educational quiz games, whose names I no longer remember... everything else you had to be really sneaky about playing it in class, if you wanted to keep it, so disconnecting the speaker wires was the most popular mod for any game with no volume control... otherwise you had to tape over the speaker vents with a shitload of duct tape, to muffle the sound enough that no one else could hear it...