''Math Rescue'' is a

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engines ...

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action game, action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform game ...

created by Karen Crowther of

Redwood Games Karen Chun (previously Karen Crowther) is an American computer game designer and programmer. The president of Redwood Games, she has created educational games including ''Math Rescue'', ''Word Rescue'', as well as the game ''Pickle Wars''. Educat ...

and published by

Apogee Software 3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game ''Kingdom of Kroz''. In the l ...

. Its early pre-release title was "Number Rescue". Released in October 1992 for the

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few oper ...

platform, it is a loose successor to the earlier game ''

Word Rescue ''Word Rescue'' is an educational platform DOS game written by Karen Crowther (Chun) of Redwood Games and released by Apogee Software in March 1992. It was re-released in 2015 for Steam with support for Windows and Mac OS. The game can also allow ...

'', whose

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term " software engine" used in the softwar ...

was used to power the new game with minor changes. ''Math Rescue'' was initially released as shareware but later achieved a retail release. It was followed by ''Math Rescue Plus''. There were plans to have a sequel to the game called "Gruzzle Puzzles" but it was never started. The registered version of ''Math Rescue'' remains available for purchase.Math Rescue page
at Classic DOS Games It was also released on Steam in 2015 with support for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

and

Mac OS Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded " ...

. The game can also allow the player interact with a pair of Stereoscopic Vision Glasses.

Gameplay

''Math Rescue'' revolves around solving math problems. Boxes float in the air. Touching a box transports the player inside it, where they solve a math problem to get points. Math Rescue includes three episodes, called Visit Volcanoes and Ice Caves, Follow the Gruzzles into Space, and See Candy Land. Only the first episode is distributed as shareware, while the others are available commercially. Each episode contains 15 levels. The game also has a learning mode to permanently enable word problems in the game.

Plot

The world's numbers are stolen by the Gruzzles, which causes problems. The player character spots a Gruzzle removing numbers from the front of a house. Benny the Butterfly comes to the player character's aid and they begin a quest to stop the Gruzzles and retrieve the stolen numbers. It turns out that an alien race called the Glixerians from the planet Glixer II have sent their pets, the Gruzzles to steal Earth's numbers so that the humans will become the new Glixerians' pets. It is revealed that Benny was once a Gruzzle who took refuge on Earth. Benny recognises a Gruzzle named Zorja as his cousin and convinces her that the Gruzzles can be free on Earth away from the Glixerians. The Gruzzles return the stolen numbers and provide gardeners with built-in slug control, while the Glixerians hatch some other plot against Earth.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through t ...

'' called ''Math Rescue'' and ''

'' "excellent choices for younger children ... though us older 'kids' will still find them entertaining. They are difficult to quit playing". The game was also given the award as "Best Education Software" in 1993.

References

External links

Redwood Games

Official webpage
at 3D Realms
''Math Rescue'' manual
* {{Apogee Games 1992 video games Apogee games Children's educational video games Classic Mac OS games DOS games Mathematical education video games Platformers Redwood Games games Shareware games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Video games with gender-selectable protagonists Windows games