Re:More nurturing reading environment may stimulate brain de...
by dubya on Friday January 24, 2020 @10:12PM
(#22144381)
I have fond memories of some of the old Apple II games, and my kids have enjoyed the ones they've tried. No real emulation of anything physical, usually played by kids in pairs, and the feedback loop was slow enough that you couldn't just try lots of random things instead of thinking. Some I've tried with my kids at various times are The Pond, The Factory, and Rocky's Boots. I don't know of modern equivalents. Maybe Manufactoria?
What kids play in school though these days (does that make me sound old?) are things like Prodigy (prodigygame.com), featuring decent graphics but mind-numbing content, with constant nags to upgrade to a premium account.
From what I remember all of the "educational computer games" I played in the early 1990s were more or less this.
There have been some better ones though, over the years. Say Lemmings or World of Goo.
The best is probably something like Logo or Scratch, with some help/guidance from an adult.