Post by dreamyjelly on Mar 8, 2023 3:22:46 GMT
Hi all! This has been itching me for years because I can never seem to find evidence of it existing online but I am very certain there has to be someone out there who remembers this too!
I remember in the 2nd grade (2004-2005) our classroom had computer free time where you could play various educational PC games. There were the likes of the Jump Start games, and Living Books ones, but I always gravitated towards one in particular I can't seem to recall the exact name of. I think it was just called Technology but unsure if they tried to use a pun or something because there are no results for this online.
The game had various chapters and lessons you'd play. Each chapter had a character representing it and focused on a specific part of a computer. Chapter 1 for instance, would have a desktop computer (I think he was purple) with a bit of a gruff voice explaining the different components that make up a computer. Eventually you'd get to learn about the desktop interface, which I'm sure was Windows XP. It was a stark contrast to the Mac OS the school computers had, and very new compared to my family's Windows 98 PC, so I remember that bit quite vividly. I remember it would let you interact with the desktop for specific tasks it wanted you to do, like opening Word or the like (think of virtual labs if any comp sci/IT majors are here).
Each chapter also had full motion video animated cutscenes at the start of them at least, showing a wacky scenario that has one of the characters (all which are computer parts with limbs and faces) requiring a reason or another to learn about what you're about to be taught. Whilst you were in the virtual computer environment, the character representing the chapter would always be in the bottom right corner and you could click them for help.
One character I remember super strongly was the Mouse! He was a green computer mouse with mouse ears I think, and his section was about the world wide web. I remember this quite vividly because it was way before our house had internet, and the school computers didn't either! So it was super cool visiting fake websites to learn about how Internet Explorer worked. I remember even the opening cutscene had Mouse (I think that was literally his name) using a magnifying glass to look at a spider web, and a character (can't remember who) goes up and asks what he's doing, to which he says something along the lines of "I'm looking up the world wide web!" and then he gets corrected by the character saying something like "Not that kind of web! The world wide web refers to the internet... " and I can't recall the rest, just that bit that was super cheesy and funny to me at the time.
I've tried to look for something regarding this specific game/learning software but have come up empty handed. I remember loving it so much that my mom asked the teacher where we could buy it and was told it was sold only to schools. I'm not sure if that was true or not, but probably was because I had never seen it in stores either. I'm unsure if this was specifically made for schools in the Dallas/Fort Worth regions as that's where I went to school without getting into more specific areas, or if it was a more generally wide school release. If anyone remembers this or has any leads to what it may be or where it can be found please let me know! It was a super cool piece of software that I wouldn't want to go lost 
Edit: To add some more details, there were sections to learn about Word, Excell, and the like. I'm fairly certain the internet chapter was the last one, because I was the only one in my class to get as far as it. Most just stopped around Word either due to disinterest or just things not sticking as easily. With that said, it all points to be very Microsoft heavy in what it teaches you, so maybe it was made or endorsed by Microsoft? Though surely, it would be easier to find if that was the case. But yeah, for the CD case I'm fairly certain I remember it saying Technology in the biggest letters, with all the characters below it. Kinda like generic looking, nothing remarkable compared to something from Jump Start or the like. It may have had more words in the title, but the most prominent word was Technology.
