Gizmos & Gadgets

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Gizmos & Gadgets
Developer(s)	The Learning Company
Publisher(s)	The Learning Company
Platform(s)	PC, Mac
Release date(s)	1993
Genre(s)	Platformer, Puzzle, Racing
Mode(s)	Single player
Media	Floppy Disk, CD-ROM
Input methods	keyboard, Mouse

Gizmos & Gadgets is an educational science computer game designed by The Learning Company. It is intended to teach children between the ages of 7 and 12 introductory mechanics, namely simple machines, magnets, basic electronics, and forms of energy. The original game is compatible with IBM and Windows computers running DOS 3.3 or higher although a later CD release added Macintosh compatibility. A popular game through 1997, The Learning Company, then incorporated with Brøderbund, discontinued Gizmos & Gadgets in 1998.

1 Gameplay
2 The Characters
3 The Races
4 The Warehouse
5 Educational value
6 External links

Gameplay

The object of the game is to win 15 races in different vehicles against Morty Maxwell at the Shady Glen Technology Center. This is done by moving the Super Solver around a series of warehouses to collect vehicle parts by solving puzzles involving principles of physics.

The Characters

Super Solver

The Super Solver wins again!

The Super Solver is the user-controlled main character. He moves around warehouses collecting parts that are used to build the vehicles.

Morty Maxwell
Morty is the Antagonist. He battles the Super Solver in all 15 races.

Cyberchimps
These are Morty's Goons. They hang around the warehouse and if you run into one it steals one of your parts. The only way to stop them is to throw bananas at them, causing them to sleep and relinquish any part(s) they had taken.

The Races

There are 15 races; 5 races in each of 3 categories, automobile, alternative energy car, and aircraft. The races get progressively harder and the vehicles more complex as the player nears the fifth race in each category.

The Warehouse

The warehouse where the parts are kept is a maze-like building through which the player must navigate. There are multiple levels and the only ways to travel between them are to be blown by vents (to move up) or to fall (to move down.) There is also a "front" (where the player can see the whole warehouse and few boxes are generally visible) and a "back" (which is a small portion of the front where the majority of boxes are.) They are separated by doors. Doors begin locked and can only be unlocked by solving a science-related puzzle. Once unlocked the player can move back and forth freely through that door. However, because the only way to reach the majority of the warehouse is through the "front" but most boxes are on the "back" the player must unlock many, if not most of the doors.

Educational value

In solving the puzzles, players learn about science and math principles, including:

Electricity - constructing various types of series and parallel circuits
Energy - matching activities to energy types: chemical, electrical, kinetic, nuclear, potential
Force - propelling various sized objects
Gears - constructing machines using gears of various sizes
Magnetics - constructing various North-South pole patterns
Machines - building common objects out of simple machine pieces
Moments - balancing a scale using different weights and distances

In building vehicles, players learn about good, better and best principles. For example, that a rounded nose on a car is more aerodynamic and faster than a flat nose.