old educational game on the apple II?

April 24, 2015 7:26 PM

I'm trying to find an old Apple II educational game we used to play in school in the early to mid-eighties. Played in a first-person perspective, it involved puzzles that you had to solve in order to advance from room to room. I remember there being a wine cellar at one point, but not much more than that. I've looked in the Internet Archive and Wikipedia's lists of games, to no avail. This has been driving me nuts for years - any help would be appreciated!
posted by amyshmamy to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Spelunx
posted by grobstein at 7:32 PM on April 24, 2015

Possibly The Bard's Tale.
posted by the webmistress at 7:40 PM on April 24, 2015

Gertrude's Puzzles? I don't remember a wine cellar but otherwise it sorta fits?
posted by treehorn+bunny at 8:08 PM on April 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Rocky's Boots? Robot Odyssey?
posted by at at 6:24 AM on April 25, 2015

Response by poster: None of those, I'm afraid - I know that you were making your way through a mansion of some sort. I wish it were Bard's tale, but I know that it was definitely an edutainment title.
posted by amyshmamy at 10:29 AM on April 25, 2015

It sounds like Cranston Manor, but I wouldn't call it educational.
posted by mudpuppie at 10:37 AM on April 25, 2015

We played "L: a Mathemagical Adventure" at school in the late 80s - not on Mac but on BBC Micro computers. It involved moving from room to room in a mansion...
posted by altolinguistic at 11:16 AM on April 25, 2015

Was it The 7th Guest?

(Edit - Probably not as it's not educational!)
posted by sascha at 12:13 PM on April 25, 2015

If you're looking for something similar, The Castle of Dr. Brain and subsequent games in the series are almost exactly this. Castle didn't come out until 1991 and I don't think it was ever released for Apple II but it sounds very close to what you've described (first-person perspective, making your way through a mansion, solving puzzles to advance from room to room).

You might have a look here for a good list of Apple II educational titles, in case the title of the game might ring a bell.

Do you remember what kinds of puzzles were in the game? Logic, science, math, words, find-the-item, jigsaws? That might help a lot.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 1:59 PM on April 25, 2015

Response by poster: From my memory, it LOOKS like Cranston Manor, but the puzzles were more of the math/spelling/words type...maybe logic? I don't think I would have been able to navigate text-based adventures at ages 5-7, but maybe...

Dragon's Keep is also similar in appearance, but navigating required more than just choosing where to go.

Upon further searching, I'm seeing references to something called "Crickety Manor". Does that ring a bell to anyone? I can't find any screenshots of it, unfortunately.
posted by amyshmamy at 3:28 PM on April 25, 2015

You might have some luck posting this over at the Apple ][ Enthusiasts group on Facebook.
posted by blueberry at 6:32 PM on April 25, 2015

This is supposedly a screenshot of Crickety Manor. Is that it? It's very elusive! I did some googling and it seems there are quite a few people obsessed with it.
posted by the webmistress at 11:05 PM on April 25, 2015