I have dreamt of this game for nigh on 2 decades straight each time being just groggy enough to let its name slip from memory this brought me to tears I've been going manic unable to remember which parts of my childhood were real I'm not alone this is surreal
I was a lonely child. The first time I can remember feeling proud of myself was all the way back in 2002 in third grade when I and a girl were the two best players of zoombinis in our classroom. What a deep wonderful memory. Our “computer lab” teacher used this game to teach us problem solving skills on the rainbow plastic iMacs. The richness of the art and music filled my dreams and was something I thought about for hours after I came home from school every day.
I was also very lonely when I was a kid. I played this game a lot back in the 90s and playing games like this helped me feel better. Life seemed very boring and lonely to me back then. I don't know why that was.
YOOO same I was the only one to make it all the way to the lily pad level in my computer lab and everyone thought I cheated or something. I just had played a ton of it at home on our old shitty laptop. Still have the rom in my room to this day :)
It was me. I was the genius who actually beat all the levels. Crowds would gather in the computer lab as I spent all of lunch recess at the machine. Kids would stop a person from tattling that I wasn't sharing so they could watch me get to the end
I played this so much as a kid, but to come back as an adult and hear, "Soon the bloaks stole everything. . . Taking profits. . . CANCELING HOLIDAYS. . . the zoombinis were getting VERY STRESSED OUT" This clearly proves parents in the early 2000s were wrong, video games prepared children for adulthood probably more than school 💅🏽
My elementary school had this game on all the computers and it was a favorite among us. So much so that I asked my mom to get us the game for PC. I always loved the pizza troll and would sometimes say "MAKE ME A PIZZA!!!" whenever I wanted pizza. But one thing I'll never forget was being in college and scribbling around in my planner. I wrote in big letters "MAKE ME A PIZZA!!!" and showed it to a couple of my classmates trying to strike up a conversation about childhood nostalgia. They had no idea what I was talking about, and that made me super bummed.
Yeah, I played this in my 7th and 8th grade computer class. I had transferred in for 7th grade and never played it before, whereas everyone else had. I was the only one who didn't know how to play it, haha. I don't know why, but I never realized that the question mark button would give you tips on each section, so every time I played I would leave behind many Zoombinis (especially at the Allergic Cliffs XD). I really, really, REALLY want to play this game again, but I have no clue where I'd get a CD of it, I don't have an old PC, and the updated version of the game is apparently a mess. :( It really bums me out...
@@akajulester The game still really good! It's exactly the same, but with updated design-they even kept the same audio from the original! Yeah, the fleens level gets broken around "very hard" (yellow), but overall, it's great!
So many great memories from school, we had the Mac version on an old G-Mac system. Absolute genius of a game to help kids learn things and think about things
This took me 17 years of painfully lucid memories to find you have no idea how much serotonin is currently coursing through my veins gorging on the pure nostalgia from my 4 to 7 year old self this one of almost innumerable core memories that has for almost 2 decades been relegated to vague confusing seemingly false memories that have long proved impossible for myself to verify if they indeed occurred at all as looking back and trying to decipher fact from fiction in my childhood delirium is a simultaneously agonising and yet ectasy filled endeavour I AM A HAPPY MAN NOW THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU BEAUTIFUL BEING!!!
There are tons of games like this from the 90’s and 2000’s. Zoombinis, Freddy Fish, man there’s so many but I can’t remember them all now. Definitely want to raise my kids if I have any on games like this like I was! Educational games like this are so great for kids.
Cool, I spent several months in 2018 creating speedruns for every level on all difficulties, as well as all full path routes. I have 72 world records in the game now using the steam version
This was loaded onto every computer in the computer bay in the library of my primary school, though most of the speakers and headphones never worked so when the monster asked you to make a pizza I could never get it right
Maaaan I loved this game in 2001 back when I was in the 5th grade. I’m 33 now and was just randomly thinking about it. It’s a beautiful thing when something magical from your childhood caries over into your adulthood ❤
This is the only educational game ever that kids actually wanted at home. I just thought about it the other day and man… it’s exactly how I remember it.
I finally found this gameeee, I remember I played it when I was boosting, but that was about 6/7 years ago. I thought I would never play this game again
I remember we had this in school and we would try to finish our class work as fast as possible so we could jump on the computer and play. I was in the 4th grade. I am 32 now. Wow. Great memory. Thanks!
Played this in like the third grade back in 1994-95. I couldn’t ever get far i was too stupid to figure out the puzzles but mmmaaaan this is soo nostalgic
I remember playing this with my mother *all* the time as a kid, it was only in one of those nostalgic 3AM dreams that I remembered this existed. The amount of time spent on this game was unreal. I have such fond memories of this. Even at 25 I can easily say this was a staple in my life, playing this with my mother
In like 2008 we had a windows 95 or some shit at my great grandmas house and me and my sisters would spend hours playing this. I have no idea how my great grandparents acquired a copy of this game as back then you had to buy the cd, however whenever I try to tell anyone about this game they think I am crazy. I always wanted to play more but it also gave me nightmares. Its so somber and such a listless lonely vibe. I'll always remember the pizza minigame, and watching my older sister beat it so easy when I couldn't understand anything
Oh wow, that's really incredible to be honest. I love hearing stories from people who played anything I played past its prime, and how you can find common ground with people worlds apart in age. They may have found the game either at a thrift store or on eBay, not sure how they would have known of its existence though. But regardless of that I'm glad you got to experience the game, and it doesn't sound like every memory is fond but I still enjoyed hearing you recount that. Thank you for sharing your story!
I remember playing this as a elementary school kid. Problem being was that it was AT said school so nobody was able to finish it. In fact, if i can recall correctly, nobody got past the level 1 version of the pizza minigame so most of this was namely blind for me.
A Jazz Conductor, hotel owner and one of the few folks on the island that ain't a jerk to the Zoombinis, tell me I wasn't the only one to have a crush on Ulla Instantaneous as a kid.
Wow I completely forgot about this game. What brought me here is a TikTok video with the pizza part sound in it and I thought that it sounded familiar so I looked it up and then I found this video. It has been so so long since I played this game back when I was in elementary school in the '90s. I am now 33 and this makes me feel extremely old. Lol
At the beginning I didn't realize the whole patterns of solving the puzzles to this game. In fact I used to just randomize the Zoombinis which was a big mistake because you have to arrange them all in a certain order according to Hair, Eyes, Nose Color and feet.
Since people were sharing memories and how they got here I'll share mine. I had this game in mind for months. I didn't know where i played the game or much of anything. I was just looking up random key words and hoping for the best. I finally found it by looking up game about a rock island for computer. I remember something about a door/gate puzzlr and a catapult. Something like that.
Funny how the zoombinis never minded how much they looked alike, but everyone else does to the point of not serving and violence.😅 I was 7 and it was only at home. I loved the narrator and the jokes. I've always wanted to complete it, but never had that kind of time.😅😂
This is the first time I've been confronted with the failure sequence from the Stone Cold Caves since primary school. That used to freak me out SO badly when I was younger, especially since that puzzle didn't have a visible number of tries before failure like many others did.
I feel you man wasn't allowed to see any of my friends from school for a long time only had my cat and my brother to guide me through these games it was magical
the only thing i remember about this game is "Make me a pizza!!" and nothing else 😂😂 it's also the only part that stood out to me and other classmates who played it in elementary school; thanks for sharing! 😁
I remember this game very well only there was never any background music during the activities, the help would be immediately read to you once you opened it, and some music like at the beginning when creating your zoombinis was quite deeper.
You are thinking of The Learning Company's re-release. That one has a recorded version of the original MIDI file from the beginning and it got rid of all the other MIDI music. So yeah, sadly that makes it the lesser experience by default.
Is anyone here who was reminded that this game, concept, or atmosphere has given you a kind of anxiety or scary feeling (yet still enjoyed the game) back in childhood? just like me? (I'm Japanese and there was a Japanese-speaking version of this game btw) I'm guessing this feeling is coming from those emotionless faces and wondering what will happen to those who can't pass and were left in each stage.....
Fun fact: If you have a small number of Zoombinis at the start of Titanic Tattooed Toads, the crabs will move based on flowers or colors instead. I don't know why. A few of the puzzles will change if you only have a few Zoombinis. I can see why the devs did that with, say, Bubblewonder Abyss but I don't get why it does that with the toads since it's not based on the Zoombinis themselves.
I remember 4th grade we had one computer in the classroom and everyone else got to play this game....except for me. I was so cheesed about it back then lol
I legitimately don't understand the mirror panels where the pieces shuffle around. How were you able to ensure it would be the correct reflections back to back? EDIT: I understand it now, and wow it is a doozy.
The sounds in this game god!!! as a kid I did not understand the camp sights were checkpoints I never got past the chain link platforms I think the library’s computer weren’t the best that or I was dumb I mean I’m still dumb
Correct! I must have left the computer set to some random date when I recorded this, since it obviously doesn't line up with when I posted this (it certainly didn't take me a year to record and then post this). This was played on a real Windows 95 machine and sometimes I don't pay much attention to what I set the date and time to on my vintage machines.
Oh yeah back in grade school daycare this was one of the several games we had on our PC along with Carmen Sandiego and Humongous Entertainment titles like Putt Putt and Backyard Baseball. Kindergarteners can play any day of the week, first graders can play on Monday, second graders on Tuesday, third graders on Wednesday, fourth graders on Thursday and 5th graders on Friday
