Midnight Rescue! facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Midnight Rescue! |
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Box art
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| Developer(s) | The Learning Company |
| Publisher(s) | The Learning Company |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS, Macintosh |
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| Genre(s) | Educational |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Midnight Rescue! is an exciting computer game released in 1989. It was made by The Learning Company for Windows and Macintosh computers. This game helps kids in grades three to five improve their reading and critical thinking skills. It's a fun way to learn!
In Midnight Rescue!, you play a side-scrolling adventure. Your main goal is to stop a school from disappearing by midnight. You need to figure out where the sneaky villain, Morty Maxwell, is hiding. To do this, you explore the halls of Shady Glen School. You find clues by reading different articles and answering questions about them. The game has many articles, from diary entries to parts of famous books.
This game is part of several collections from The Learning Company. These include "Super Solvers Super Learning Collection" and "Super Solvers Reading Ages 9–12". In 1995, a new version of the game was released on CD-ROM.
Contents
How to Play Midnight Rescue! Game
Midnight Rescue! is an educational game where you scroll through different scenes. Your mission is to stop Morty Maxwell, also known as the Master of Mischief. He is a common bad guy in The Learning Company's Super Solvers and Treasure games. Morty is using his robots to paint the school invisible by midnight!
You must figure out which robot Morty is hiding inside. To do this, you compare photos of robots to clues you find. You get clues by reading passages around the school. Then, you answer questions about what you read. You have nine minutes to solve the mystery!
Dealing with Robots
While playing, Morty's robot helpers will try to stop you. These robots are named Buffo, Lectro, Pogo, Rollo, and Turbo. They look like different kinds of paintbrushes. They might try to crash into you or throw things like marbles or pies. If they hit you, you lose either time (45 seconds) or film (one picture).
But you have a camera! If you take a picture of a robot before it hits you, it will run away. The photo will also show you special features about that robot. These photos are very important. They help you identify the robot where Morty is hiding.
Solving the Mystery
Once you have all four clues and photos of each robot, it's time to make your guess. You need to compare the clues from your answered questions with the robot photos. These photos show you what each robot looks like.
If you guess the correct robot, you get a bonus score! This bonus depends on how much film and time you have left. This score is added to your total lifetime score. If you guess wrong, or if you don't find enough information by midnight, you lose. One of the robots will cover you with invisible paint! Losing a game does not affect your lifetime score.
Game Difficulty and Ranks
Every time you finish the game, your lifetime score goes up. In the 1995 version, you even get points if you guess wrong. When your score reaches certain amounts, you move up a rank. As you get to higher ranks, the game becomes harder.
At higher ranks, you need more photos of each robot. The robots also move faster. Some articles around the school might not have clues. Plus, the reading passages become more challenging.
About the Super Solvers Series
The Super Solvers series includes computer games from The Learning Company. These games are both educational and fun. Midnight Rescue! was the very first game released in this series. Other popular games in the Super Solvers series include OutNumbered!, Spellbound!, and Gizmos and Gadgets!.
Midnight Rescue! has over 200 different reading sections. These include letters and diary entries written by characters. There are also parts from famous novels. The game has more than 400 possible questions for these readings. This means a passage won't always have the same question. To help you learn new words, Midnight Rescue! gives definitions for over 500 words. It even tells you how to say many of them. By making you choose the correct robot, the game also helps you build your deductive reasoning skills. This means you learn to use clues to figure things out.
Game Music
Instead of new songs, Midnight Rescue! uses famous classical music during gameplay. When you start the game and walk through the school hallways, you hear The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas. When you go inside rooms, the music changes to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg. This piece is from Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt.
Later Game Versions
In 1995, a new version of Midnight Rescue! was released on CD-ROM. This version worked better with Windows computers. It also had slightly improved graphics and sound.
Midnight Rescue! was later released as part of a collection called "Super Solvers Super Learning Collection!". This was one of the first bundle packages ever released. It included OutNumbered! and Spellbound! together. Later, it was also combined with Spellbound! and sold as "Super Solvers Reading Ages 9–12".
