#004: Mathdice

Release Date: 21 March, 1972

Platform: DEC EduSystem 30

Genre: Educational

Developer(s): Jim Gerrish

Publisher(s): DECUS

Welcome to 1972! This is a landmark year in gaming for several reasons, one of which of course being the arrival of Atari's Pong, bringing video games into the public limelight for the first of many times to come. There's a few other things happening in this year, but I won't mention them here. For now, we're continuing with the available computer games from this time - starting with what could definitively be described as an edutainment game: Mathdice.

There isn't much information available online concerning Mathdice, which is the standard case. Honestly, I spend almost an entire morning doing a write up on UNIX, under the assumption that Mathdice was developed on it (courtesy of MobyGames' shoddy page for it), but it turns out this isn't the case (it was ported to UNIX in 1975), so all that work went to waste. Frustrating, to be sure, but I should've got the basic information in place before launching into research. UNIX might get a discussion later, as it's a foundational operating system that's still in use today.

On the flipside, there's a surprising amount of tangentially related information that allows the piecing together of a short, theoretical development history of how Mathdice came to be. What is known for certain is that Mathdice was originally developed for the DEC EduSystem 30. DEC's EduSystem was a series of computers designed for school use based on their 4K PDP-8 minicomputer, and featured DEC BASIC. The Salesman's Guide for the EduSystem 10 states that the target market for the EduSystem was schools that lacked a computing program, but were interested in integrating computers into their current curriculum. It was not intended for schools that already had a computing program, which is oddly specific. Mind you, in the early 1970s, computers weren't entirely commonplace in schools as they are now, so DEC would've been taking advantage of the continuing growth of the burgeoning computer industry, and the increasing ease of access and appeal of computers to schools.

While this may seem tangential, it's entirely relevant to Mathdice, as the game was developed in a school, likely as a fruit of DEC's clever marketing. Mathdice comes to us from Jim Gerrish, a teacher at the Bernice A. Ray School in Hanover, New Hampshire. This school is also an elementary school (equivalent to primary school for us Aussies), which is different to the norm, as most of the school games thus far have come from high schools, and mostly from the students, at that.

However, there's also a rather interesting connection with this school that may explain Mathdice's existence more than DEC's marketing ploys. Hanover is the same city that's home to Dartmouth College, the college where John Kemeny invented BASIC - the programming language used by the EduSystem 30. It also turns out that Kemeny himself was on the Bernice A. Ray School board before becoming president of Dartmouth College! No doubt he would've had some influence on the school's integrating computers into their curriculum, and potentially the purchase of an EduSystem due to its use of his programming language.

Unfortunately, I could not find any definitive information on Jim Gerrish. However, there may be an unfortunate reason for that. In 2023, there was a lawsuit filed against the East Orange Board of Education over claims of sexual abuse by a teacher named Jim Gerrish in an after school kids' magic program called "Wiz Kids." This Gerrish taught in New Jersey from 1976 - 1983, which is not too far removed locationally and temporally from the Jim Gerrish that taught at the Bernice A. Ray School and programmed Mathdice there. Based on these factors it's very plausible that it's the same Jim Gerrish in both instances. Oh dear. Not exactly what I hoped to discover.

It's best we turn to something more positive. There are enough tidbits of information to create a sequence of events that potentially led to the development of Mathdice, which is far more than can be said for a lot of games I've reviewed thus far. John Kemeny on the school board potentially leading to the school's purchase of the EduSystem 30, which used Kemeny's BASIC language. From there, Gerrish takes the EduSystem 30, and creates Mathdice.

From there, the game somehow ends up in the hands of David Ahl, and added to his 101 BASIC Computer Games book. There's no information available on how it made its way there - I can only assume Gerrish or someone from the school submitted it for publication in the book. Ahl describes Mathdice in the book as a: 

"pictoral drill on addition facts using printed dice with no reading involved... good for beginning addition." 

So it's in essence a game designed to teach young children basic arithmetic. In today's language, we'd classify this as an edutainment game. That term was not around in 1972, but it neatly fits the game's description. 

The original 101 BASIC Computer Games write-up of Mathdice.

Other good news is that Mathdice was not changed between version of BASIC Computer Games. Other than being renamed to Math Dice. Wow. Such an important and necessary change.

And with that, I think it's now time to load up the game. Judging by the target audience of Mathdice, I think this'll be a quick one.

I play my role with the cast of a die.

The game doesn't mess around and throws you straight into a dice roll. I assume the instructions are more for the teacher than the kids.

It's incredibly simple - just look at the numbers on the dice, add them, type your answer and press return to see if you were correct. That's it. And then the game generates another dice roll.

I'd be concerned if I got it wrong...

I really don't have a lot to say other than that, to be honest. There isn't anything else to the game. I played for a literal minute just to get footage for YouTube. I could do this kind of addition in my sleep. It turns out the story of how this game came to be is far more interesting than the game itself. Onto the scores.

Time Played: 1 minute. Literally.

Difficulty: 0 (Very Easy)

Addition between numbers 2 and 12. It's kindergarten level stuff.

Gameplay: 1/20

I can't give it a zero as it at least requires the use of your brain. Even if only a marginal amount. Can't say that for certain other games I've played.

Contols: 5/10

Type integer. Press enter. What more do you need?

Visual: 6/10

You'd hope that the visuals work as intended, as that's the entire point of this game. Fortunately, they do. The dice look like dice, and the numbers can be clearly discerned.

Functionality: 5/5

I don't think anything could possibly go wrong with a game as simple and tiny as this (seriously - go look at the source code.)

Accessibility: 4/5

Mathdice was designed to require almost no reading, which is the typical barrier to entry for text-based games. It makes visual elements the star so that even the youngest children can play it.

Fun Factor: 1/20

I'll give it the fact that I think the dice are a cute little concept, and that's it.

Mathdice earns a total score of 22 (31/42%). Ironically, this ties it with LEM in the E-tier, arguably the most complex game played to date. Mathdice loses out on the gameplay tie-breaker.

Down goes the first game of 1972. I have at least one big project coming up for 1972, and it's due pretty soon. If you look at the master list, you'll likely know what it is. While a good chunk of it is already done, there's still quite a ways to go, so I'll likely try to do some of the smaller games while I work on it some more. Another term of study has begun for me this week, so don't expect the articles to be coming out too quickly.