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Softkey
SoftKey International (originally SoftKey Software Products, Inc.) was a software company founded by Kevin O'Leary in 1986 in Toronto, Ontario. It was known as The Learning Company from 1995 to 1999 after acquiring The Learning Company and taking its name. SoftKey played a major role in the dissolution of the edutainment industry by the turn of the millennium. Contributing factors include its reduction of the market price by releasing shovelware discs of freeware and shareware, hostile takeovers of major edutainment software companies, reduction of these acquisitions to a skeleton staff, and questionable financial practices to maintain its stock price. In 1999, the company was acquired by Mattel in what ''Businessweek'' called one of "the Worst Deals of All Time". It was subsequently folded into Mattel Interactive, Riverdeep Interactive Learning, and Software MacKiev. Products SoftKey published and distributed CD-ROM-based personal computer software for Windows and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Kevin O'Leary
Terrence Thomas Kevin O'Leary (born July 9, 1954), also known as Mr. Wonderful, is a Canadian businessman and television personality. From 2004 to 2014, he appeared on various Canadian television shows, including the business news programs ''SqueezePlay'' and '' The Lang and O'Leary Exchange'', as well as the Canadian reality television shows '' Dragons' Den'' and '' Redemption Inc.'' In 2008, he appeared on Discovery Channel's '' Project Earth''. Since 2009, he has appeared on ''Shark Tank'', the American version of '' Dragons' Den''. O'Leary co-founded SoftKey Software Products, a technology company that sold software geared toward family education and entertainment. During the late 1980s and 1990s, SoftKey became a major consolidator in the global educational software market, having acquired rival companies via hostile takeover bids, such as Compton's New Media, the Learning Company, and Broderbund. SoftKey later changed its name to The Learning Company and was acquired by M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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The Learning Company
The Learning Company (TLC) was an American educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and productivity tools. Its titles included the flagship series '' Reader Rabbit'', for preschoolers through second graders, and '' The ClueFinders'', for more advanced students. The company was also known for publishing licensed educational titles featuring characters such as Arthur, The Powerpuff Girls, SpongeBob SquarePants and Sesame Street. In December 1995, the company was acquired by SoftKey in a hostile takeover bid, at which point SoftKey assumed the Learning Company name and brand. History The Learning Company was founded on May 8, 1980 by Ann McCormick; Leslie Grimm; Teri Perl; and Warren Robinett, a former Atari, Inc. employee who had programmed the game ''Adventure''. They saw the Apple II as an opportunity to teach young ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Reader Rabbit
''Reader Rabbit'' is an educational video game franchise created in 1984 by The Learning Company. The series is aimed at children from infancy to the age of nine. In 1998, a spiritual successor series called ''The ClueFinders'' was released for older students aged seven to twelve. The games teach language arts including basic skills in reading and spelling and mathematics. The main character in all the titles is named "Reader Rabbit". History The first ''Reader Rabbit'' computer game was conceived by the Grimm sisters and titled ''Reader Rabbit and the Fabulous Word Factory''. It was released initially in 1984 and featured in the 1983 holiday special ''The Computer Chronicles''. In 1986, both ''Reader Rabbit'' 2.0 and ''Math Rabbit'' were released. In 1987, ''Writer Rabbit'' was released with the intention of having a ''Rabbit'' series that featured different academic subjects. Ultimately, the developers decided to have a ''Reader Rabbit'' series that explored subjects bey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Mattel
Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, Ruth and Elliot Handler in January 1945, Mattel has a presence in 35 countries and territories; its products are sold in more than 150 countries. It is the world's second largest toy maker in terms of revenue, after the Lego Group. Two of its historic and most valuable brands, Barbie and Hot Wheels, were respectively named the top global toy property and the top-selling global toy of the year for 2020 and 2021 by the NPD Group, a global information research company. History Origins and early years Businessman Harold "Matt" Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Elliot and Ruth Handler, Ruth Handler founded Mattel as Mattel Creations in January 1945 in a garage in Los Angeles. The company name chosen is a portmanteau of the surname of Mat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Optical Disc Packaging
Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case A jewel case is a compact disc case that has been used since the compact disc was first released in 1982. It is a three-piece plastic case, measuring , a volume of , which usually contains a compact disc along with the liner notes and a back card. Two opposing transparency and translucency, transparent halves are hinged together to form the casing, the back half holding a media tray that grips the disc by its hole. All three parts are made of injection-moulded polystyrene. Aroun1993 there was a general shift to the rear jewel case being made of clear plastic instead of black or coloured. The front lid contains two, four, or six tabs to keep any liner notes in place. The liner notes typically will be a booklet, or a single leaf folded in h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Broderbund
Broderbund Software, Inc. (stylized as Brøderbund) was an American maker of video games, educational software, and productivity tools. Broderbund is best known for the 8-bit video game hits '' Choplifter'', '' Lode Runner'', '' Karateka'', and ''Prince of Persia'' (all of which originated on the Apple II), as well as '' The Print Shop''—originally for printing signs and banners on Dot matrix printing, dot matrix printers—and the ''Myst'' and ''Carmen Sandiego'' games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, and moved to San Rafael, California, then later to Novato, California. Broderbund was purchased by SoftKey in 1998. Many of Broderbund's software titles, such as '' The Print Shop'', '' PrintMaster'', and '' Mavis Beacon'', are still published under the name "Brøderbund". Games released by the revived Broderbund are distributed by Encore, Inc. ''Brøderbund'' is now the brand name for Riverdeep's graphic design, productivity, and edutainment titles such as The Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Storybook Weaver
''Storybook Weaver'' is a 1990 educational game originally released on floppy disk for the Apple IIGS, aimed at children aged 6–12. An updated version, ''Storybook Weaver Deluxe'', was released for Windows and Mac computers and featured much more content than the original. Both versions were released by MECC. The Deluxe version was made available for both home and school environments. A Teacher Resource CD for the software included lesson plans and user guides. Gameplay Storybook Weaver ''Storybook Weaver'' is a program that is intended to enable and motivate children to easily create their own stories on a computer. The most noticeable feature of the game is the sizable space allowed for illustrations on each page of a story. The game offered hundreds of backgrounds, objects and characters that could be selected from easy-to-use categories and placed anywhere on the page through a simple click-and-drag process. Backgrounds in the original featured mostly natural, outdoor l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Number Munchers
''Number Munchers'' is an educational video game and a spin-off of '' Word Munchers''. It was released by MECC for Apple II in 1986, then MS-DOS and Mac (computer), Mac in 1990. The concept of the game was designed by R. Philip Bouchard, who also designed ''The Oregon Trail (series), The Oregon Trail''. Two versions of the game were released the Consumer Version (for home use) and the School Version (for classrooms). After The Learning Company acquired MECC, the game was rebranded as ''Math Munchers''. Gameplay The player controls the muncher who must move around a grid and munch on numbers that match the logic rule above while avoiding the threatening troggles. As the player progresses the levels, the logic rules have bigger numbers, and harder difficulty and multiple troggles pursue the muncher. Modes of play There are five different modes of play in Number Munchers to advance players' mathematical skills. These modes include Multiples, Factors, Primes, Equalities, and Inequ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Word Munchers
''Word Munchers'' is a 1985 video game and the first of the ''Munchers'' educational series. It was made by MECC for Apple II, then ported to MS-DOS and Mac OS, Macintosh in 1991. It was re-released in 1996 for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh as ''Word Munchers Deluxe''. The concept of the game was designed by R. Philip Bouchard, who also designed '' The Oregon Trail''. Gameplay The player controls the Muncher who must move around a grid eating words that match condition at the top of the screen, while avoiding the threatening Troggles. As the player progresses through the levels, the difficulty of the matching conditions increases, and multiple Troggles pursue the Muncher. Educational goals The game was designed for first- to fifth-grade students, emphasizing vowel sounds, while teaching students grammar, phonics Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing to beginners. To use phonics is to teach the relationship between the sounds of the spoken language (phoneme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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The Oregon Trail (series)
''The Oregon Trail'' is a series of strategy computer games. The first game was originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) in 1974. The original game was designed to teach eighth grade schoolchildren about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail. The player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon's Willamette Valley via a covered wagon in 1848. History Precedent version In 1971, Don Rawitsch, a senior at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, taught an eighth grade history class as a student teacher. Rawitsch recruited two friends and fellow student teachers, Paul Dillenberger and Bill Heinemann, to help with his student-teaching project. Bill Heinemann used HP Time-Shared BASIC running on an HP 2100 minicomputer to write the original computer program. The original core ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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MECC
The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (later Corporation), most commonly known as MECC, was an organization founded in 1973 best known for developing the edutainment video game series ''The Oregon Trail (series), The Oregon Trail'' and its spin-offs. The goal of the organization was to coordinate and provide computer services to schools in the state of Minnesota, but its software eventually became popular in schools around the world.and Canada. MECC had its headquarters in the Brookdale Corporate Center in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. It was acquired by SoftKey in 1995 and was shut down in 1999. History Origins During the 1960s, Minnesota was a center of computer technology, what ''City Pages'' would describe 50 years later as a "Midwestern Silicon Valley". IBM, Honeywell, Control Data Corporation, Control Data and other companies had facilities in the state. In 1963, their presence inspired a group of teachers at the University of Minnes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Math Rabbit
''Math Rabbit'' is a spin-off of the ''Reader Rabbit'' educational video game series. It was published by The Learning Company in 1986 for MS-DOS and Apple II. A ''Deluxe'' version was released in 1993 for MS-DOS, Mac (computer), Mac, and Windows 3.x. In 1997, a remake was released for Windows and Mac as ''Reader Rabbit's Math 1''. The final remake for Windows and Macintosh was published 1998 is ''Reader Rabbit's Math Ages 4-6'', with a personalized version released in 1999. Gameplay The game takes place in a circus and teaches addition, subtraction, and counting in four different games, each of which with multiple difficulty settings. The game is for ages 4–8. The four games are: # Clown's Counting Games - the player is required to count with a number as a guide to pitch the tone of the musical instrument. # Tightrope Game - the player has to help Reader Rabbit match a picture of objects with a displaying number and discard the pictures that don't match. # Circus Train Game ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |