Treasure Mountain!
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| Treasure Mountain! | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | The Learning Company |
| Publisher(s) | The Learning Company |
| Platform(s) | PC (Windows, Macintosh) |
| Release date | 1990 |
| Genre(s) | Educational/Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Treasure Mountain! is an educational computer game published by The Learning Company intended to teach children reading and basic math skills.
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
The player plays as a Super Seeker who must navigate the three levels of Treasure Mountain to collect treasures and keys to advance to the next level. In each level there are three "clue words", numerous treasures, and terrain features. Dropping coins in front of terrain matching two of the clue word descriptions would reveal a treasure. The terrain feature matching all three words contained the key to the next level.
To find the clue words, the player had to catch elves who are carrying scrolls with nets and solve a simple word or math problem. Catching any elf with a net gets you 1 coin, solving the problem on the scroll awards the player a further 2 coins. If the player has less than 4 coins (the amount needed to buy new nets) coins will randomly appear on the level, making it impossible to "lose" at Treasure Mountain. 10 nets are acquired at the cost of four coins. In harder levels, the elves cast magic pixie-dust which, when hitting the player, deducts one coin.
There are 3 separate levels needed to climb to the top of the mountain. Once you reach the top, you must enter and climb to the top of the castle to get your prize. The layout of ladders in the castle becomes more complex as the player earns more stars and at higher star levels the Master of Mischief will try to poke the player off the ladders.
In the room at the top of the castle the player deposits all of the pieces of treasure found. If the player found any treasure the player can keep a random piece of treasure as a "prize". The player and his prize then falls down a chute back to the bottom of the mountain. The prize is stored in the Prizes Cave to the right of the chute exit and the amount of collected treasure is shown. The more treasure collected results in more Stars for the player. Once acquiring 7 stars the player is titled "Champion" and the game continues forever.
The more stars a player has, the more pieces of treasure the player can find per level. Initially you can find 2 pieces per level, then 3 pieces at 2 stars, 4 stars grants you 4 pieces and level 6 where you can find 5 pieces. To reach the limit of 300 treasures the player will need to traverse all three levels over 30 times, making for very repetitive gameplay.
There is a limit of 39 prizes (one for each unique piece of treasure) in the game. If the player ascends the mountain again he is awarded with duplicate prizes which double-up in the Prizes Cave. The player can continue beyond 300 treasures (there is no hardcoded limit) but there is no specific reward for doing so (except when reaching 400 when the lid of the treasure chest counter in the Clubhouse lights up).
[edit] Trivia
The music heard in the game's introduction is Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's "Solfeggietto". It is also heard in the initial cave.
The theme heard in the outdoor levels is a conflammation of those of two of Beethoven's contredanses WoO 14 (no. 1 in C major and no. 3 in D major, although in the game they are played in the same key).
The theme heard in the other caves comes from the first movement of J. S. Bach's Keyboard Concerto no. 1 in D minor.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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