It would take just under a century later for touch typing to be utilized in educational software, and more specifically, edutainment. Meet Mavis Beacon: The Face of Typing Softwareĭesigned to improve the user’s typing skills, touch typing is said to have been invented by an American, Frank Edward McGurrin, after he won a typing contest in Cincinnati in 1888. It was only natural, then, that spinoffs and franchising opportunities would emerge – especially in the fields of television, puzzle games, and, to no-one’s surprise, the burgeoning genre of educational software.Īt the same time as the Mario franchise was building and expanding throughout the 1980s, however, another phenomenon was on the horizon: the rise of touch-typing software. 3 would later be included in the Library of Congress as one of the most important video games of all time, and 1990’s Super Mario World sold more copies than any other title made for the Super Nintendo Entertainment Console. Multiple similarly successful and acclaimed games in the series followed 1988’s Super Mario Bros. World 1-1, the first level in Super Mario Bros., is one of the most iconic levels in video game history. for the Nintendo Entertainment System, eclipsed it in commercial success and critical acclaim, selling over 40 million copies worldwide. It was moderately successful, but its follow-up, 1985’s Super Mario Bros. Introduced as Jumpman in the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong, the monosyllabic plumber quickly grew in popularity, becoming the mascot of his own franchise two years later with the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros. The header image is from MobyGames, and all references, visual and otherwise, are cited throughout.īy 1991, Mario was a genuine phenomenon, both as a character and as a brand. Today, we’re looking at one of the more unexpected educational titles of the early 1990s, a game born of two seemingly disparate genres: Mario Teaches Typing. We’ll examine the trends that contributed to the title’s development (with an in-depth look at its forebearer Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing), its commercial and critical reception, and its remarkably enduring legacy. Welcome back to That’s Edutainment, which looks at educational video games of the past and considers whether they hold up today, focusing on their development and on the relationship between education and entertainment.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |