In 1984, Coleco released an educational application called Richard Scarry’s Best Electronic WORD BOOK Ever! meant for children ages 5 to 8, but I think it is really for pre-schoolers. Who is Richard Scarry? He was an illustrator and author of children’s book. Most of his characters were animals that were given human characteristics. The bit of software starred “Lowly Worm” driving in his apple-shaped car. You steer him to different locations in the town using the ColecoVision joystick. And while in the location, say the construction site, you drive to different points in the site like a bulldozer, press the joystick fire button, and you will see the word “bulldozer” printed on the screen along with a sound effect or music. It impresses the heck out of me, especially for something from 1984. The one drawback is the load time; you have to wait about 2 minutes before you can get going in the application. Here is a video I made, in real time, using real hardware (not an emulator) and software which is on a digital data pack (cassette). Unfortunately, I could not capture the sound; my video capture equipment needs an upgrade. I provided some music for the sound track. Enjoy!
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For YEARS I have been trying to find information about the computer system that my parents owned when I was a toddler, but all I could remember was A) the look of the tape deck, and B) the Richard Scarry “game” that I played over and over again. Lo and behold, the tape deck looks exactly like I remember, and there’s Richard Scarry. Incredible! Thanks for the nostalgia.
Hi ya M! So glad you found this blog. And I’m especially glad you remembered the ADAM computer. Got one to the right of me that works and even got the 5.25″ disk drive too
Been trying to get off the lazy train and type a new entry into this blog before the month is over.