Ludography
Reader Rabbit cover

1984 · The Learning Company · Educational · Point-and-click adventure

Reader Rabbit

Reader Rabbit is an educational game for children 3 through 7 designed to help reading and spelling skills. There are four different word games to play of increasing difficulty: a word sorter, a picture labeler, the word train, and a variation of the game memory.

Released
31 December 1984
Platforms
Apple IIApple IIGSAtari 8-bitCommodore C64/128/MAXMS-DOSmacOS
Genres
EducationalPoint-and-click adventure
Developers
The Learning Company
Publishers
The Learning Company
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
First person
Themes
Educational

About

Reader Rabbit (fully titled "Reader Rabbit and the Fabulous Word Factory" or alternatively known as "Reader Rabbit Builds Early Learning & Thinking") is a 1984 educational video game and the first of the long-running Reader Rabbit edutainment series. It was made by The Learning Company for Apple II and later for other computers. It supports the KoalaPad graphics tablet. The Connelley Group helped with the Atari 8-bit computers conversion in 1984.

A Talking version was developed for the Apple IIGS in 1989. An enhanced version was released for MS-DOS in 1991. x. In 1997, the game was remade for Windows and Macintosh under the title "Reader Rabbit's Reading 1".

Keywords

  • rabbit
  • edutainment

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game takes place in the titular Word Factory, which teaches reading and spelling in four different activities and has over 200 three-letter words and more than 70 pictures for learning. The following four activities are:

1. Sorter - the player is required to pick words that start with a chosen letter and discard the rest.

Development

Reader Rabbit was originally conceived by the Grimm sisters; Leslie authored the game while Corinne and Cindy contributed the art. Version 1.0 of Reader Rabbit, titled Reader Rabbit and the Fabulous Word Factory, was released in early 1984 (and featured in the 1983 holiday special for Computer Chronicles), while versions 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 were released in 1984. Development for an updated 2.0 version began at the start of 1984. By this time, Leslie Grimm had suffered a disc fracture but was able to develop the game while bedridden, thanks to a detachable keyboard provided by her colleague Pete Rowe. Many critics and gaming historians erroneously assert that the Reader Rabbit series officially began in 1986.

In 1988, the first "talking" version of Reader Rabbit was released for the Apple IIGS and Tandy 1000 computers. The game was remade as an enhanced version for MS-DOS in 1991 to incorporate the 256-color VGA mode, sound card option and mouse compatibility. Another remake was done as a deluxe version along with its two sequels and implemented digitized speech.

Reception

The Learning Company showcased the game alongside Number Stamper, Word Spinner, Addition Magician and Colorasaurus in the 1984 Winter Consumer Electronics Show. Dr. Ann Piestrup praised the game for its ability to aid young learners in overcoming the difficulties of reading and its word recognition.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Commodore C64/128/MAX31 December 1984Worldwide
Apple II31 December 1984Worldwide
Atari 8-bit31 December 1985Worldwide
Apple IIGS31 December 1987Worldwide
MS-DOS31 December 1987Worldwide
macOS31 December 1987Worldwide

Games like this

Collections2 collections

Platform libraries

Genres

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.