Super Solvers series

The Super Solvers series is a series of computer games released by The Learning Company that contain both educational and entertainment qualities. Midnight Rescue! is the first program of the series to be released. Other programs in this series include OutNumbered!

OutNumbered!

OutNumbered! is an educational computer game published by The Learning Company in 1990 for both Windows and Macintosh PCs. It is aimed at children ages seven to fourteen and is designed to teach children mathematical computation and problem solving skills....

, Spellbound!

Spellbound!

Spellbound! was a computer game made by The Learning Company. The original game is compatible with computers running DOS 3.3 or higher and a later CD release added Windows 95 and Macintosh compatibility.-Gameplay:...

, and Gizmos and Gadgets! among others.

Midnight Rescue! contains over 200 reading sections that consist of character written letters and diary entries as well as excerpts from famous novels. There are over 400 possible questions for these reading sections, meaning that a particular passage will not always have the same question at the end of it. To help build vocabulary, Midnight Rescue! provides definitions and, in many cases, pronunciations of over 500 different words. By making the player choose the correct robot, the game also helps build deductive reasoning skills.

Music

In lieu of original scores, Midnight Rescue! plays famous classical compositions in the background during gameplay. The music heard at the beginning of the game and in the hallways of the school is The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas)

For the 2010 film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, see The Sorcerer's Apprentice .The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a symphonic poem by the French composer Paul Dukas, written in 1896-97. Subtitled "Scherzo after a ballad by Goethe," the piece was inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1797 poem of the...

 by Paul Dukas

Paul Dukas

Paul Abraham Dukas was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man, of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, and he abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions...

. The music heard inside rooms is In the Hall of the Mountain King

In the Hall of the Mountain King

In the Hall of the Mountain King is a piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg for the sixth scene of Act II in Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, which premiered in Christiania on February 24, 1876....

 by Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg

Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...

 from Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...

's Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...

.

Later versions

Midnight Rescue! was later released under the name "Super Solvers Super Learning Collection!" with both OutNumbered! and Spellbound! in one of the first bundle packages

Product bundling

Product bundling is a marketing strategy that involves offering several products for sale as one combined product. This strategy is very common in the software business , in the cable television industry Product bundling is a marketing strategy that involves offering several products for sale as...

 ever released. Later, it was also merged with Spellbound! and released under the name "Super Solvers Reading Ages 9-12". In 1995, a more Windows-friendly version with slightly enhanced graphics and sound was released on CD-ROM.

Reception

Midnight Rescue! was one of the first successful combinations of educational program and entertaining game. It has received lukewarm to positive reviews. Users at Abandonia

Abandonia

Abandonia is an abandonware website, focusing mainly on showcasing computer games and distributing games made for the MS-DOS system.Abandonia also features a music section and an Abandonware List, a continuously expanded database of over 4600 games including information about their publishers,...

 gave it a rating of four out of five, saying that "while the 'action' stopped for the educational parts, many of the stories relate to the game (being played), so it never felt like (the game was left)". A review at Home of the Underdogs

Home of the Underdogs

Home of the Underdogs was an abandonware archive founded by Thai Sarinee Achavanuntakul , aka: Underdogs or Fringer on her own blog, in September 1998, and grew to be one of the most significant abandonware websites on the Internet, despite losing its domains to cybersquatters and then briefly...

 gave Midnight Rescue! two thumbs up and their Top Dog Award due to the strength of its ability to both teach and entertain at the same time.

External links

• Midnight Rescue! at Abandonia
  Abandonia
  Abandonia is an abandonware website, focusing mainly on showcasing computer games and distributing games made for the MS-DOS system.Abandonia also features a music section and an Abandonware List, a continuously expanded database of over 4600 games including information about their publishers,...
  
  
• The Learning Company Official Site