merritt k: wrote about Mindmaze, the Microsoft Encarta edutainment game from the 90s www.otherstrangeness.com/2024/07/02/m...

wrote about Mindmaze, the Microsoft Encarta edutainment game from the 90s www.otherstrangeness.com/2024/07/02/m...

MindMaze Was the Original Wikipedia Rabbit Holewww.otherstrangeness.com Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia software came with a trivia game that many still think fondly of.

hello i have a patreon where i post writing and comics everyday and also there's a discord where we just talk about movies and music and stuff and it's not one of those weird discords you hear about. would love to have three new people join today! www.patreon.com/merrittk

Joined!

Well, that's a core memory unlocked.

oh no the hot magma of forgotten pleasures is welling up

edutainment used to be so fuckin good (my parents bought me a PC game that was all pinball physics puzzles demonstrating weight and mass of solid elements) but then it all got sort of rolled up into artgame flOw-type mnmlst shit... chalk it to the expense of development and consoles-as-toys, I guess

I spent hundreds of hours in Mind Maze. Not sure I ever played as intended (looking up the answers in the encyclopedia) I just brute forced my way and memorized the right answers. We had nothing better to do in 1995.

Oh I am pounding the desk!!!

This is one of my favorite games ever, I love all the art & music. The Encarta and other dictionary CDs at the time (I think Encyclopedia Britannica?) had such an interesting variety of educational games, they were some of the first computer games I ever played

Jumping on the “can’t believe how long it’s been since I thought about this” train

I loved this game SO MUCH

This is what the metaverse should have been.

Hell yeah

so beautiful! my kids are playing horrific versions of quiz games in roblox and all I can think is that we have to go back.

Wow. unlocked a core childhood memory I wasn't aware was still up here in the filing cabinets Encarta / Winbrick afternoons on a nicotine-beige Windows 98 running monster

lmao at the bill gates anecdote

I remember so little about Mindmaze, other than I really enjoyed playing it. Thanks for the memory.

Oh hell yeah

I remember being obsessed with that

My jam

Looks like it’s still available…? www.myabandonware.com/game/microso...

Microsoft Encarta (Included game)www.myabandonware.com Microsoft Encarta (Included game) (aka MindMaze) is a video game published in 2006 on Windows by Microsoft Corporation. It's an educational and puzzle game, set in a game show / trivia / quiz, geograp...

Yes, the software that taught me the idiom "Even a broken clock is right twice a day".

Mom! I need to take the Internet cd out of the cd drive so I can go on Encarta! Can't even begin to calculate how many hours I sat at the Gateway desktop watching those goofy animations.

I used to love mindlessly clicking around this game on the school computers and seeing what would happen. I refused to read anything on the screen for some reason.

Strong memories of the entire class in the computer lab trying to see who could get through the whole thing fastest.

memories from elementary school

Oh my god Mindmaze

oh hell yeah

Fucking yes

Oh HELL yeah

I saw that image and was rocketed back in time.

haha i played this

I remember watching Outside Xbox stream this on youtube a couple years ago, such a wild blast from the past www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj4U...

WE COMPLETE ENCARTA MINDMAZE! | Defeating the Hellish Trivia Maze from Microsoft Encartawww.youtube.com Help us, hivemind, as at last we battle our way to the heart of the castle in Encarta MindMaze and, presumably, murder the trivia-loving jester that trapped ...

Played this all the time as a kid and loved it.

I remember this one! I don't think I'd even thought about it in years

I am Haunted by the memory of my stint as the school librarian and of a girl who would come in EVERY DAY and play it very loudly and badly.

Loved this game so much as a kid. If anyone knows of similar games, I'd love to play something like this again. The trivia type games like in Jackbox are fine but they aren't the same.

holy shit i was just reminiscing about it!!

It really WAS the original Wikipedia rabbit hole! I spent so many hours in that game. So very, very many.

Oh my! I LOVED Mindmaze

My subconscious thanks ye very much.

yooooooooooooooooooooo

YES YES!

Oh the memories! I loved everything about Encarta

I had no idea this existed and I was all over the extras on the Win95 installation disc

Post