Computer Games that Shaped Me as a 90s Kid
Barbie Party Print 'n Play is the foundation of everything I am
The smell of my elementary school computer lab stays with me — a swirling combination of refurbished wood and hand sanitizer. One whiff of Purell, and I’m immediately sitting with my friend Melissa working alongside Botley in a race against time to stop Penny from overthrowing the world with robots in JumpStart 3rd Grade as team “Chattanooga” (I think my friend had gone to Tennessee that summer and thought the city name was funny). There are so many computer games that shaped me during my formative years that do I credit them for being an AP student, honors college graduate with a masters degree? Yes, I do. But it wasn’t just the educational games that shaped me. There were games that formed parts of my personality even to this day.
I’ll admit, I don’t have a frame of reference when it comes to kids educational computer games these days. Do they still make educational computer games? I guess they’d be on tablets now. People don’t have designated computer rooms anymore, and I’m fascinated thinking about how culture has changed in that regard. There are days when I want to put my phone in another room and only have a designated amount of time in which I’m allowed to be on it before someone else needs to use it for work or we have to unplug the internet entirely to make a phone call. What I wouldn’t give to go back to my childhood computer room (honestly the entire house) for one more day.
How is it that an hour walking through Captain's Cove Amusement Park in Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel felt like all the time in the world yet an hour scrolling on TikTok flies by in the blink of an eye? How was I able to watch 5 episodes of Nick GUTS, complete an entire game of Fatty Bear, read through a Mary-Kate and Ashley book, play with my Barbies, and swing outside in the span of a summer day? The difference in the passage of time as a child versus an adult is an entirely different conversation — one that makes me feel sick if I think about it for more than 30 seconds. I feel that aching sense of nostalgic grief when I think about the thrill of freeing a student in JumpStart 4th Grade.
To even flip through my case of childhood computer games one more time would heal me. To be able to play one again? I can already feel my spirits lifting at the mere thought. I have spent time going down rabbit holes of playthroughs on YouTube, but it’s not the same. I’ve played some digital downloads of Nancy Drew games as an adult, and while the newer ones are nowhere near as good, it does bring some joy to my life. If you tell me any of the following games are playable on modern computers, I will float up to a little cloud of happiness. And I’ll say it now, I didn’t really play Oregon Trail. I know that is essentially the apex of computer games for 90s kids. I know it well enough to get by, but it was not one of my games.
These are just some of the computer games that shaped me growing up.
The games that laid the foundation for my education:
JumpStart:
I didn’t play every grade level of the JumpStart games, but I did play the majority. My favorite was 3rd Grade, which ironically was one I didn’t own at home and only played during computer lab at school. The younger JumpStart games were primarily set at schools with a different animal host. In the older grade levels, the games centered a completely different theme and there were no through characters or plots. It was something exciting though about entering a new world with each grade level. I didn’t always stick to my own grade level, often playing above or below where I was, deciding which to play simply on the vibe I was looking for. These are the ones I played:
JumpStart Preschool: this one was below my level, but I had a younger sister. This game takes place at a schoolhouse with animal characters leading you through academic games to learn counting, memory development, and introducing reading concepts. We still quote “one pat of butter” quite often.
JumpStart 1st Grade: another school setting with your host Frankie a dog. Playing games earned you points to be traded in for milk cap rewards. You learned fractions in the cafeteria and money sense with a vending machine.
JumpStart 2nd Grade: I also didn’t own this one, and I don’t have many memories playing this one, but I’m pretty sure I did at least once. Our host in this game is a frog named C.J. and I think we’re in a classroom in this one again.
JumpStart 3rd Grade: Now we’re getting into my bread and butter. The next 4 games were ones I played a lot more and have vivid memories playing. As I mentioned, this was my favorite. Botley is your host and while he himself is a robot, he’s one of the good ones. Penny, the daughter of a wealthy inventor tries to alter history with 25 robots to take over the world. With each robot, you are set on a mission to collect objects related to where in time that robot was sent. The objects are collected through different learning games such as music in the concert hall with a futuristic organ or geology in the biosphere. Once you collect all 4 items, you move to the wheel of invention and answer a quiz to figure out where the robot is to rescue them. It sounds like a complex game, but once you’re in it, it’s quite fun.
JumpStart 4th Grade: This is the game I played most often. Set on a haunted island, a substitute teacher transformed all the students in your class into monsters. Your task to earn keys to the haunted house to unlock where all the students are being kept. Your guiding host is a purple bat named Flap. Honestly, this game was quite spooky, but I always had fun while playing it. Your division skills were tested with a vampire maze trying to avoid ghosts like PacMan. You worked on spelling in a spider web, moving your spider to letter-shaped bugs. Your history knowledge was tested in a matching game in the mummy’s tomb, and you had to keep your ship afloat in the geography pirate challenge.
JumpStart 5th Grade: To be honest, I don’t think I fully understood the premise of this game when I was a kid, but here’s what I’ve gathered in my research. Rather than a host guiding you as the player, in this game, you play as 5th grader Jo. She wakes up to learn that Dr. X blew up the local television station. On a field trip to an art museum, the museum’s janitor’s nephew is kidnapped. After solving an art history crossword puzzle from a talking rat (I know, I know), you get a message from the nephew who is being held hostage by the same Dr. X, an evil scientist who has plans to destroy factories and power plants to get revenge on them for cutting his research funding. You are sent on a series of challenges and puzzles that lead you to the collect items needed to defuse the bomb (as a 5th grader, I know). You navigate the town on Jo’s skateboard (I thought she was so cool as a kid) to visit locations such as the Squishy Juice Bar to work on fractions (the sound effects of which I’m pretty sure were the foundation of my mixology hobby as an adult). This game was far-fetched, but I loved it.
JumpStart Typing: Sure I learned some basic typing skills in computer lab, but I really learned how to type through this game. Back with Botley and Penny from Jumpstart 3rd Grade, this game is an Olympics-style extreme sports competition with typing games like rock climbing with slime falling on you and snowboarding down a dangerous mountain. The goal was always speed and accuracy in these typing challenges.
Super Solvers Midnight Rescue:
This is another game I only played during computer lab, but often teamed up with my friend Melissa. The evil Morty Maxwell is hiding somewhere in the school before midnight as he plans to use robots to paint the school invisible. There really was something with evil robots in the 90s that maybe we should have listened to more. The player in this game is a faceless kid with a blue jacket (collar popped obviously) and a red baseball cap pulled down low. As you explore the school, you will answer questions as you find robots who try to attack you before you can take a photo to use as evidence to determine where Morty is hiding.
Carmen Sandiego’s ThinkQuick Challenge:
Another game in which robots are taking over the world? Say less. I played quite a few of the Carmen Sandiego games, but this was a favorite. In this game, Carmen has sent KnowBots to steal the world’s data and information from various texts. We play as recruited Acme agents to stop her and the robots. You work through missions with each KnowBot who is knowledgeable in a different subject area and you have to answer their questions. For example, the red KnowBot was over creative arts and she taught me what a prima donna was. The purple math KnowBot was my nemesis.
Reader Rabbit 2:
I didn’t realize until doing research that there were multiple iterations of Reader Rabbit games, but I’m pretty sure the one I played was Reader Rabbit 2. This game was set on a farm and you play through games that strengthen your reading skills. One in particular that brought the memories flooding back was the Alphabet Dance. Reader Rabbit goes to a barn and dances with his friends in an alphabetical line by name, collecting eggs laid by a chicken in the process. At the vowel pond, you catch vowel fish in a bucket.
The ClueFinders Reading Adventures: Mystery of the Missing Amulet:
Again, there were multiple games under ClueFinders, but the one I played was the mystery of the missing amulet. The ClueFinders are a group of 4 friends with a laptop mascot named LapTrap. In this game, the ClueFinders explore a crashed asteroid and are sent into space on the planet Millenia. They meet the princess of Millenia who brought them to help save her planet from the evil sorceress. The only way to stop her and return to Earth is to locate the two halves of the Amulet of Life
Math Blaster!:
I feel this one is pretty high up there in terms of nostalgia for 90s kids. This isn’t some deep cut. But if you’re unfamiliar, it is an arcade-style computer game to build your basic math skills. A series of mathematics problems appear on the screen, and the player must move to fire the cannon pointing at the correct answer. This was another one I only played at school.
Encarta MindMaze:
Encarta was a digital multimedia encyclopedia in the 90s and early 00s, but it also had a game. Think of it like the big sister to Wikipedia who was cool. It was a trivia game with this renaissance aesthetic. Honestly, I don’t think I made it very far in the game because it was pretty challenging. But it was such a vibe. I think Encarta ‘95 holds more memories for me than the game, but I still had to include it on this list. If you were an Encarta kid, please go down the rabbit hole of the Utopian Scholastic aesthetic, you’ll thank me later.
The games that shaped my personality:
Barbie Party Print ‘n Play:
If there is a game that shaped who I am now, this is the one. In this game, you can plan themed parties for Barbie and her friends while at the same time, plan matching real life parties for you and your friends. You can create invitations, decorations, and games for the party in the game and print them out at home. There was a Christmas theme, a slumber party, birthday party, fun in the sun party, and a tea party. I was obsessed.
Madeline European Adventures:
This is the game that most likely launched my love for Europe. If you aren’t familiar with the Madeline franchise, essentially it's about a young French girl who lives at a boarding school in Paris. There were a series of computer games based on the books. In the one I remember playing, Madeline tracks down a man who stole a genie's magic lamp and travels to Zermatt, Venice and Istanbul. The artwork from this game was beautiful and was such a vibe.
Kid Pix Studio:
Oh I was a little graphic designer with this game. Basically, you were able to let your imagination and creativity soar in this program. In doing research, this is a bitmap drawing game for kids. Bitmap is an image formed from rows of different colored pixels. I don’t fully know what this means, but I thought I was an Avant Garde artiste! This adaptation of the game allowed for simple animation too which basically meant I was unstoppable.
Humongous:
While not as near and dear to my heart as JumpStart, the Humongous games were very beloved. Typically, these games contained a story and you’d complete tasks and puzzles to move the story forward. These games are sweet with loveable and endearing characters and taught me compassion.
Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon: Putt-Putt was a little purple convertible with a dog named Pep. In this game, Putt-Putt and Pep visit a firework factory and Putt-Putt is accidentally launched into space. He lands on the moon and gameplay involves exploring the moon and working on a rocket to get back home.
Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo: In this game, a new Zoo is opening, but some of the baby animals have gone missing, and it’s up to Putt-Putt to find them.
Pajama Sam, No Need to Hide When It’s Dark Outside: I don’t really know what Sam is supposed to be. He’s sort of humanoid with all one shade of blue for his body and hair. But when he goes to bed without a nightlight for the first time, he’s afraid of the darkness. He ends up in the Land of Darkness through a portal in his closet where he has to collect items to face the Darkness.
Fatty Bear’s Birthday Surprise: Young Girl Kayla falls asleep the night before her birthday and her toys come to life to prepare her party. They bake a cake and decorate for the party, and it’s just a sweet game.
Titanic: Adventure Out of Time:
I am a Titanic girlie to my core, so of course, I played a Titanic computer game. This one was a little older for me, so I actually played it with my dad. It’s not based on the movie (I hadn’t seen the movie at the time of playing this game and I think this was actually my introduction to Titanic) and there is a gun shootout scene at the end that scared me pretty bad as a kid, but I still loved this game. Similar to the Nancy Drew point-and-click games, you explore the ship and complete puzzles to collect items to advance the story and talk to characters. I only learned this through research, but there are actually 8 different endings to this game, all of which except one end in death. This is one I NEED to be able to play again as an adult.
Purple Moon:
There were 2 series of Purple Moon games I played. One were the Rockett games in which I played multiple of and the other I only played one iteration, Secret Paths in the Forest. In Secret Paths, there are 7 girls in a treehouse and they share their biggest fears. Then you go down a path in the forest for one of the girls, learning a valuable lesson about that fear through folklore. In the Rockett games, you play as new middle school student Rockett in a “choose-your-own adventure” style game. You interact with other students in the school while also discovering secrets in their lockers. In a unique iteration of the Rockett series, Rockett’s adventure maker, you got to make your own comics using art of characters, scenes, and props from the Rockett series.
Nancy Drew: Now it would not be a list of computer games that shaped me without mentioning my girl, Nancy Drew. These were my favorite and as I mentioned, ones I’ve returned to as an adult. As I write this, I’m actually listening to a Nancy Drew playlist. I could write an entire substack on the Nancy Drew games alone (I probably will) and I did a cozy case file on them for our Blanket Fort Files Podcast. So I’m not going to go into as much detail here, but I will quickly share my favorites:
Secret of the Scarlet Hand (my first love and I named a pet fish after Henrick)
Danger on Deception Island
Curse of Blackmoor Manor
Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon
Danger by Design
Nancy Drew Computer Games
Honorable mentions of games I loved:
Diva Starz (they were Bratz before Bratz were a thing)
101 Dalmatians Animated Storybook
Disney Princess Fashion Boutique
Barbie Fashion Designer
Arthur’s Reading Games
The Wild Thornberrys: Rambler
Sims 2
I also need to write about the website games that shaped me too. What were computer games that shaped you?
More cheers, less fears,
Larisa
Memories unlocked, my school also had games on the computer labs. I remember one with a vampire to learn math and history. And in my house computer we had a game with Snoopy to learn geography. They were good times.
CLUEFINDERS