Games - Munchers

	Games - Munchers

Munchers was a series of educational/edutainment computer games produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) for several operating systems. They were popular among American schoolchildren in the 1980s and 1990s and were the recipients of several awards. The two original games in the series were Number Munchers
and Word Munchers
.

Gameplay

In all the Munchers games, the player controlled a green "Muncher" character across a grid of squares containing a short numerical or word expression. The objective is to consume all and only the grids containing information satisfying a specific criterion (determined by the mode of play) while also avoiding the deadly "Troggle" monsters (name probably derived from troglodyte) which roamed the grid.

Eating a grid containing information that did not match the criterion of the play mode chosen or being caught by a Troggle resulted in the loss of a life.

If all grids containing information matching the criterion were eaten from the screen, the level ended and the player was presented with an amusing short scene, similar to Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner scenes, in which the Muncher foils the Troggles' plans to catch it and often destroys the Troggle in some comical manner. The game gets continually faster and harder each level.

Troggles

There are several type of "Troggles." Each type of Troggle moves in a specific pattern. Some types of Troggles repopulated the grid with information.

Tips and tricks

Better players of the game used a number of tricks. First, they memorized the fixed Troggle movement patterns, making possible such tricks as "dogging" a Troggle, following along right behind, just one square away, from the Troggle.

Since a player gained extra lives whenever the player accumulated enough points, it was possible for a player to eat all relevant squares in a level except one, and then sit around and wait for Troggles to repopulate the grid with information. This had the advantage by that staying on the same early level, the level remained at the same easy setting while the player is able to rack up both points and extra lives.

If the Muncher stands in a square next to a square occupied by a Troggle, if one times the move correctly, one can move into the Troggle's square just as the Troggle moves out of the square into the square previously occupied by the Muncher.

Easter egg

An Easter egg in the game was that on Christmas, the Muncher would wear a Santa Claus hat.

Versions

The Munchers series included:

Number Munchers
Word Munchers
Fraction Munchers
Super Number Munchers
Super Word Munchers
Super Munchers

The original version only allowed navigation through the keyboard arrow keys. Later versions featured better graphics and added mouse support. Super Munchers was released on the Macintosh, which was a better version of Number and Word munchers.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Munchers ]

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