Number Munchers

When I was in school, computers were still a brand new thing in a classroom setting. We were using Apple computers and were required to bring in a floppy disk on which to store our work. In elementary school, with computer usage on the rise, we had one class a day that focused on just that subject. Some days we had to type things and we, of course, learned how to navigate around the computer but my favorite days... the best days... were the days we got to take a break from our lessons and play games.

I only remember two games ever really being an option for us at that time, Number Munchers and The Oregon Trail. Number Munchers was an educational game but it never struck me as that because it was so much fun. The object was to make your way around a grid of numbers, "munching" only the numbers that met a certain criteria set for that level.

This screen capture, for example, shows that you can only pick the prime numbers to earn points.

You had to do this while avoiding the monsters, called Troggles. I'm not sure why this game was so much fun but I've always loved math so maybe that was part of the appeal for me. If you want to get nostalgic, you can find an online version of this amazing game through VirtualApple.org which is an amazing site with a lot of games from way back when.

Stay Troggle-free!