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this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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Yes. We had this on CD-ROM.
Oh yeah. I remember this. You learn lessons and then apply them to build a pinball system, at least in the sequel, creatively named The New Way Things Work. I spent years on all kinds of edutainment software made by these guys.
I genuinely believe that our generation got some kind of golden age for interactive educational stuff. DK/GSK were releasing banger after banger, I believe I’d still enjoy these as an adult! The virtual museums just speak to me, conceptually. I don’t know what similar stuff came after, but all the software I see young kids interacting with now is ad riddled digital nonsense sludge. Even the stuff that should be more than just entertainment.
All those old DK CDs should be available on the Internet Archive, by the way. Just need to finally get around to setting up a damn Windows XP VM and I’ll be looking through a lot of these with fresh adult eyes.
It was definitely Proper Software that did its job teaching kids without ulterior motives like the ads/micro transactions/addiction probably present in kids games today. I remember my parents having me use another educational package by DK called Learning Ladder. I hadn't found out about computer games yet and I remember finding the tasks quite captivating.
I was a proper TWTW fanboy, it's all fooding back now. I had the New book where I really liked all the drawings IIRC but then I got a bit lost in the last chapter called The Digital Domain, where they tried to explain digital electronics with pumpkins and I had no clue what was going on. My parents also got me the DVD which was constantly on in my house. I still remember the name of some of the characters: Olive was the girl, Troy was the guy, Brenda was the old woman, idk if the inventor had a name. I'm genuinely impressed I've managed to remember this after 15 years of snowballing new memories.
The guy's name was David. In the game, you're chasing after an inventor who crossed different parts of the world, building giant pinball games on fields. You're following in his footsteps, fixing the pinball games that have fallen into disarray using the lessons you learned.
Googling a little, it seems like that was a different game called Pinball Science, also by David Macaulay. So I definitely had both, probably got them both around the same time. I vaguely remember the setting for TNWTW being an island with different buildings with different themes of things to discover.
Those disks were super hard to get where I was, too. I live in Lebanon. My parents moved heaven and earth to get me quality entertainment, and the older I get the more I realize how much effort they put into making me a cultured kid.
Now I really need to spin up a VM! I also want to waltz around Beaumaris Castle in Encarta, and check out all the stuff in Encarta that I didn't know to appreciate when I was a kid.