What is Logical Journey of the Zoombinis?

An educational game, teaching logical skills such as, deduction, quantitative reasoning, etc., published and developed by Broderbund in 1996.

Players lead groups of 16 Zoombinis through 12 different puzzles on their quest to escape servitude and build a new home.

The first six downloads are various versions of the game. The seventh is a bonus CD that came with later editions with printable activities.

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There's no shortage of math education software for kids 8 to 12 years old; dozens of programs teach arithmetic using drills and practice games. Logical Journey of the Zoombinis is a different kind of math education program, helping children develop mathematical and logical thinking skills without manipulating any numbers. Most kids won't even know they’re doing math while they’re playing the game.

The Zoombinis — a race of small, bouncy animated creatures that look like the offspring of a Muppet and a Smurf — have to travel to a new home, and your job is to figure out how to overcome the obstacles in their way by solving puzzles involving mathematical concepts such as set theory, graphing, algebraic thinking, data sorting, and pattern finding.

One puzzle calls upon you to satisfy a hungry but extremely picky Pizza Troll, You must experiment with different combinations of toppings, and test hypotheses until the troll accepts the pizza and lets the Zoombinis pass. Another puzzle requires you to complete a pattern of shapes and colors formed by mud balls on a two-dimensional grid...

At the end of the journey lies the promised land of Zoombiniville. But since Zoombinis can only travel in packs of 16, and the total Zoombini population is 625, there are plenty of repeat trips to attract you back, and each adventure brings more-challenging puzzles. Most younger kids will need lots of help on all but the simplest levels.

Our team of junior testers unanimously praised Logical Journey. Ten-year-old Alex didn't take his hand off the mouse for three hours, and he would have stayed longer if his mother hadn't called him home for dinner. Fourteen-year-old Johanna, who's usually bored by computer games, came back to play several times. Even her 18-year-old brother enjoyed the program.

The younger kids weren't really sure what they were learning, but they were sure they were having fun. In fact, many parents may not be able to tell exactly what their kids are learning as they play. Fortunately, the user's guide explains the educational underpinnings of each adventure.

The Last Word Logical Journey may not find its way into many traditional classrooms; it's noisy, silly, and hard to fit into lesson plans, but in situations where education doesn't need to be packed into 50-minute periods and tested with multiple-choice quizzes, Logical Journey is a worthwhile trip.

Beekman, George; Beekman, Ben. (July 1996). Logical Journey of the Zoombinis. Macworld. (pg. 78).

Download Logical Journey of the Zoombinis for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.0 up to Mac OS 10.4

Compatibility notes

Version 1 will NOT run on OS 9-10, use pre OS 9 for version 1

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II