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neoelectronaut

Cancelled
Original poster
Dec 3, 2003
3,417
2,093
Anyone remember the old mouse practice "game" that came with old Macs in the early nineties that had you drag the little man through the cave and stuff? ...ahh, the memories.

Number Munchers, too, and the Oregon Trail. These two games and the 5.25 disks they were carried on made 3rd grade liveable. Long live the IIgs!
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,858
7,725
Los Angeles
I saved and still have copies of Mouse Practice. It was a simple but excellent program. You directed a diver underwater. First, it taught you to move the cursor with the mouse, then to click, double-click, and click-and-drag. You uncovered sea creatures and finally recovered a treasure chest.

When I encountered elementary school students who were new to computers (which doesn't happen nearly as much as it used to), I assigned them this program, which takes about 5 minutes to run, as their first task. If they completed Mouse Practice, they got to go on to other activities. It was even suitable for adults who were learning to use a mouse. Everyone has to start sometime!

I think Mouse Practice shipped with Performas and with At Ease version 3.

Edit: Don't forget good ol' Word Munchers too!
 

Balin64

macrumors 6502a
Jul 23, 2002
772
1
In a Mauve Dream
Oh Yes...

I rememer all those fondly.

Although I vaguely remember the mouse tutorial, I clearly recall Shufflepuck. My 7th grade Journalism teacher banned the game because we ruined a mouse playing it.

But you know what my most fond Mac memory is? The first time I tried laying out a Tabloid size page in ReadySetGo! back in 1991. Then I found.... Aldus PageMaker! I stole the program from the Yearbook class in a floppy (!), and used it to re-design our High School newspaper. I can't believe I used to layout a newspaper in a 9" diagonal screen. But, those were the days!
 

mainstreetmark

macrumors 68020
May 7, 2003
2,228
293
Saint Augustine, FL
Well, my early memory was on an Apple //e, possibly on some typing game with a rabbit. If you weren't fast enough, the rabbit would look at you and tap his foot, his foot being only about 2 pixels that moved up and down. Way better than the "portable" Kaypro the //e replaced.

My first three games were Choplifter, Sneakers and Sabotage (Sabotage is that parachute game on the 3G iPod). Then came rescue raiders, and Ultima 3-5. Lode runner and Stellar 7.

the IIgs takes the cake as far as favorite computers go. Soundsmith and FTA demos and Brian Greenstone/Pangea games.
 

dxp4acu

macrumors regular
Jul 25, 2002
180
0
Texas
I remember a mouse tutorial on the original Mac Plus we had. It was awesome! I was like 6 or 7 at the time (in 1986 or 1987 I think).

We had a lot of fun with it.

Anyone else?
 

benixau

macrumors 65816
Oct 9, 2002
1,307
0
Sydney, Australia
ahhh the "olden days". I'm only 18 now but i can remember sitting on my dads lap in the study on his IIgs. Load in the 5.25" floppy on side A for choplifter and on side B for David's Pinball.

My first games were:
Choplifter
Davids Pinball
Silent Service

I also remember that if on the IIgs, I typed fast enough in MS Word (can't remember version) I could actually out-type the computer.

Man - those are some sweet memories.

ps. I also remember the yellow fake-floppies that went in to the dual external 3.5" floppy drives.
 

phrancpharmD

macrumors regular
Apr 22, 2003
247
0
Historic Norcross
cool to see so many other "ex"-IIgs users! I definitely remember the mouse tutorial, I seem to remember opening the hood of a car? My favorite was Silent Service by Sid Meier (I think). Man was that game cool. I've looked for it online to see if I can find it and run it on my iBook, but no luck so far. Oh well, maybe someday. . .
 

sonofslim

macrumors 6502a
Jun 6, 2003
742
0
i remember first learning to program, in BASIC on the IIc. (that's right! i said IIc!) there was a magazine for young coders, although i can't remember if it was BASIC specific... anyone remember what it was called?
 

Kingsnapped

macrumors 6502a
Oct 16, 2003
929
3
Los Angeles, CA
I remember the diver tutorial. And word munchers. Ahh... word munchers. That game was great using the arrow keys and the spacebar, but when the mouse came out, it was a revolution. You could just click out the correct words and sit back and watch the action.

Anyone remember this game where you were in a school, and you had to take pictures of robots to idnentify them?
There were vending machienes full of film to reload your camera, then when you could figure out what the robot was by looking at your pictures. I believe this game was on an Apple][, but I'm not sure.
 

idea_hamster

macrumors 65816
Jul 11, 2003
1,096
1
NYC, or thereabouts
Feel free to flame if I don't belong....

I was a late-comer to the Mac, but I vividly recall my first real Mac experience. It was 1994 and while I had used DOS some, I was switching to a PowerBook 180c.

I was going through the tutorial that walked me through creating a folder on the desktop. I got to the end and there was my folder, "Untitled" or whatever it was by default. I wanted to rename it, so I started looking for the some menu item to use. Nothing. I read the whole quick-start guide that I had. Nothing. I looked everywhere -- there was, it seemed, no way to rename the folder once it was created! *sigh* I accepted that this must be one of the limitations of the Mac OS (see -- I told you I had used DOS!) and decided that I would just throw the folder out and create a new one.

I went to drag the icon, but missed and accidentally single clicked on the name. Clouds above broke apart to angel song and a ray of heavenly understanding shone down on the highlighted text!

Well, that's as good of a good-old-days story as I have.

Ciao.
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,858
7,725
Los Angeles
Originally posted by krimson
i have it somewhere in the closet.. along with moon patrol, q bert, lode runner and some other games on 5.25" floppys..
I forgot about Q-bert! He jumped up and down a triangular staircase. Maybe I should change my avatar!
 

MoparShaha

Contributor
May 15, 2003
1,646
38
San Francisco
My favorite game was Lunar Lander, which I used to play on the old Mac SE in our classroom. I remember "borrowing" it onto a floppy to play at home on my Performa. I'd get a system bomb everytime I launched it. I figured it was because of the different resolutions. Good times.
 

neoelectronaut

Cancelled
Original poster
Dec 3, 2003
3,417
2,093
Originally posted by benixau


ps. I also remember the yellow fake-floppies that went in to the dual external 3.5" floppy drives.

Yep, I remember them. Wasn't there a 5.25 fake floppy too? I assume the giant square of plastic was just to protect the drive, right?

Anywho, most of my early Mac experiences are tied to games released by Mecc.
 

tpjunkie

macrumors 65816
Nov 24, 2002
1,251
5
NYC
I think you could also use them the clean the drive heads, as well...I learned BASIC and LOGO on my old apple IIc, which was running fine until i left for college last year and my mother threw out...I'm still pissed about that. My favorite Apple II game by far was "Space Quarks" one of Broderbund's first title, it was hard as hell, but insanely addictive, and since it was programmed in assembly, it ran fast even on the IIc.
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,858
7,725
Los Angeles
I've written a few LOGO programs, and taught a class using it. Calling that triangle a turtle was a clever way to make the language seem friendlier to kids!

This thread probably belongs in the Mac Gaming forum. Number Munchers was edutainment before they had that word.
 

latergator116

macrumors 68000
Sep 30, 2003
1,689
20
Providence, RI
Originally posted by MoparShaha
I remember the nun at my school telling us off for shooting the buffalo in Oregon Trail. Ah, memories.

That game was great! I always sank the wagon when we crossed the river.

Does anyone remember the game Out of This World? That was the best game ever.
 

TEG

macrumors 604
Jan 21, 2002
6,622
172
Langley, Washington
Well my memories go back to my ][+. I wrote several BASIC programs, learned how to save to disk. I even had some of the early tape games. I borrowed my boombox to load Star Trek (On an Apple Tape) into my ][+, it was awesome.

I also had a joystick for my ][+, and loved playing choplifter, sabotage, etc. I also had a cool D&D style game, I believe it was called Dragon Warrior (I think), also I had a cool game called "Queen of Phobos", however, I never got past the warp sequence, because I was always sucked into a sun, and had to restart.

BTW I had my ][+ 1993-1998

I also had a 386sx for family use. I ended getting it, and my ][+ was forced out on the street. I miss my ][+.

TEG
 

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,521
Re: The Olden Days...

Originally posted by neoelectronaut
Anyone remember the old mouse practice "game" that came with old Macs in the early nineties that had you drag the little man through the cave and stuff? ...ahh, the memories.

Number Munchers, too, and the Oregon Trail. These two games and the 5.25 disks they were carried on made 3rd grade liveable. Long live the IIgs!

Ah memories. Walking back and forth to school, 5 miles and uphill both ways carrying my original MacPortable.
 
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