Googol Math Games (DOS)

Let’s start 2025 with something educational. A math game by Paul T. Dawson: Googol Math Games (1989).

 

There’s address of the game’s maker right in the opening screen. Feel free to send him letter about anything about his game here. Personally, I want to ask him what’s the meaning of “Googol”. I don’t think I can find the answer on Google Translate or maybe it’s some sophisticated word that you can find in Webster or Oxford dictionary but don’t quote me on that.

Updated note: According to Wikipedia “A googol is the large number 10¹⁰⁰ or ten to the power of one hundred”. The more you know.

 

There are 4 games in the collection and they all have “Googol” word: Googol Climber, Googolpede, Googolvaders, and lastly Googol Review. I shall play the game from top to bottom. So, first is Googol Climber.

 

But first, I have to write my name first. I don’t know why the game thanks me many times. You’re welcome, I guess?         

 

Thankfully, there’s in-game instruction. However, you can’t change the button setting. Don’t be fooled by word “Boss” near the bottom. You expect pressing “B” button will bring the boss level but no. It brings screen with lines of America’s states along with numbers. Not sure what it does and it’s hard to escape from that mysterious screen. By “you”, I mean me along with child me. I’m fooled twice with the “Boss” button. I’m not wiser than 8-years-old me.   

 

Then I have to choose the level. I reckon I’m adult. I can take on all of the basic math operation so I choose the most bottom.

 

So, here’s the game. The title is close to Nintendo’s Ice Climber however the gameplay has mix with Nintendo’s Mario Bros. The googol climber starts at the bottom left corner. He is constantly hopping while moving either left or right. The guy doesn’t know how to stand still. To dodge the deadly balls on each floor you have to time the hopping correctly like this.

 

To jump up to a floor or reach the answer, you press up arrow button. Be careful though to not jump into wrong answer or -God forbids- bump your own head into ceiling. Both will result in reducing your live reserve.

 

Like this for example. It’s not like I deliberately did mistake out of generosity or to demonstrate the bad example. I did this because the climber moves too fast even though the speed setting is in “Medium”. So, it’s difficult to me to time the jump correctly. What I did correctly before just coincidence. Thus, I decide to redo the playthrough and reduce the speed setting to slow by pressing left arrow in level select.

 

Luckily, this time the correct answer is in the lowest floor. You don’t have to move via the centre. You can just move pass the left border and you will instantly move to right border as though Yukari Yakumo is helping you for some mysterious reason you have same ability to move between border like Pac-Man or Popeye from classic arcade game.    

 

So, what else should I talk about this game? I want to point out that the ball defies gravity as you can see on the left of me. Another thing that I want to say is: you get different score point depends on the correct answer’s location. If it’s in first floor, you get 10 points. If it’s in second floor, you get 20 points and so forth.

 

If you answer the question correctly enough times, a robot compliments you and wink at you. Which makes me uneasy a bit. Having romantic relationship with robot by solving math questions is the thing that I like the least in early year of 2025. 

 

Suddenly, I have to advance to level two after beating more question. I like the stretch effect on the text.

 

This is ludicrous. The answer is right in the starting point. How’s this level 2 that supposed to be more difficult than level 1?

 

So now, I’m into level 3. Let’s see what you got.

My Googol climbing is stopped by a deadly ball. Level 3 felt harder but I’m not sure which aspect that makes it harder than previous level. My best guess is the ball’s speed. Usually, I don’t have problem hopping these balls but it becomes more difficult in this level.

 

At least I beat my previous high score. Let’s move on to next game.

 

Next is Googolpede and I have to work with 1 more arrow key than Googol Climber. So it’s should be more advanced game, right?

 

Judging by the look of level select that become entire table, the game is advanced indeed. The speed setting is no longer just 3 options: slow, medium, and speed. It becomes number between 1 and 9. I feel bit intimidated. Just for the safety measure, I choose speed 2.

 

I hope you don’t overly excited for Googolpede because it’s just Snake game but math question and you have to eat the correct answer chosen between T (for true) or F (for false). It’s not so interesting, at least for me. The snake, I mean the Googolpede itself is not interesting to look at. You can barely see which end is head or tail. But when in motion you can easily see which end is the head.

Here's some math tips for you. Multiplication of 9 is pretty easy. The result of multiplication of 9 is always a number away from 10 times the number that being multiplied by the 9. For example: 9 X 8 = 72, because 72 requires a number of 8 from become 80. Or alternatively 80 – 8 = 72. Simple, isn’t?    

 

If you hit the correct answer, there’s this weird circular explosion effect. Spy_sf12_goodmagic01.wav

The correct answer is very near the wall, which is troublesome to get. Check out my ability to make short turn. I’m as skillful as my parents.

 

But I miscalculate to make the critical turn so I ram into myself. Unlike Googol Climber, Googolpede has no continue at all. Game over.

The scoring is determined by the snake’s length, speed, and skill level that you choose. Apparently, all four operations yield 7 score in skill factor.

 

Next game is Googolvaders. Star Wars franchise be damned! I have pun for this occasion. “Luke. I’m you Googolvaders”

Because there’s lots of fire and shoot in the instruction, you can assume that the game’s genre is shooter kind.  

 

The level selection is lots simpler than in Googolpede because there’s only 3 speed setting. Why Paul doesn’t make the level selection similar to Googol climber due to 3 speed setting? I can only assume the reason is to make the level select screen different and there’s no other real reason than that.

 

From the look and the gameplay. You see that Googolvaders is Taito’s Space Invaders but with math question and it doesn’t have anything to do with Darth Vader. So, the pun that I made is not correctly timed. *shrug*

Anyway. HMS Sirius there,  volunteered to be part of this math game. I know regarding anti-air, USS San Diego is the best (although she’s airheaded) but I sent her in a commission for a while. By a while, I mean 8 hours counting from this moment.

My job is simple. I press the correct number and HMS Sirius will fire it to fill the math equation. Nice and simple.   

 

Of course, The Googolbot pops out every now and then to congratulate me. I manage to capture the screenshot when his eyes are both 7. Where’s my juicy prize then?

We’re doing so well that the game draws abstract scribble and moves us to next level.

 

Naturally, the unfinished equation will be stacked along with the fresh ones. The game is over when one of the equation stacks reach the sea level.  

 

Haha. *Weak monotone laughter*

 The only thing that I can truly score is shipgirls at Azur Lane. Just ask HMS Sirius there.  

 

Goddamnit, Googolbot! What did I say about scoring before? I’m not romantically interested in you so stop flirting me.

 

Now, we’re about to face level 4 invasion. The thing is the screen is not cleared when we move on to next level. So those unfinished equation still remain there. I don’t think we can survive longer.

 

Just like this. Entire screen is filled with columns of tractor beam. But don’t worry, HMS Sirius is fine although moderately injured. 

The difficult part is i have to input  -, and = to fire 11, and 12 respectively. 10 represented with "0" key is understandable enough.

 

Next game is Googol review. Unlike other games, this one has limited levels. There’s 20 of them. I can finish this.

 

No speed setting in level selection. So, the difficulty only determined by the type of the question. As usual, I pick the all 4 math operations.

 

I hope you didn’t expect something sensational because Googol Review is barely game. Just fill the answer of the math problem with correct number. That’s it.

 

For the add, subtract, and multiply question. The answer is on the bottom separated with line from the other number with addition the operation symbol. Whereas in Division question. The divider number is on left while the divided number is within the 2 lines while the answer is on the top.

That just to refresh your elementary mathematics lesson.  

 

Pressing “X” key, will give you the math explanation of the current question. It’s very well made and understandable. I think it’s suitable for kids.

 

The reward for me to finish the Googol Review is a screen where Googolbot cheers me thrice for my victory.  Engineer_thanks01.wav

That’s it for Googol Math Games. However, some of you probably yell at the scream. “There’s updated version of that game with color!”. Fine. Let’s get to that for a bit.

Here’s Googol Math version 3.6 which is the latest version that I can find. In this version, there are only 3 games excluding the Googol review. It becomes extra content if you pay Paul some money. Other thing that very apparent in this version is Googol Bot appears occasionally when you idle. As I check my phone for a bit, this git suddenly appears and surprises me. Given, back in the day kid don’t have mobile phone and don’t get surprised by this Googol jerk. But still, I don’t like him suddenly appears as I check my phone even for a bit. He also obscured the menu for God’s sake!

 

That’s not the only dialogue he has when you idle. In previous version, Googolbot is creepy flirt. Now he’s also attention beggar. I can tell that I don’t like this game’s version.

 

I replayed Googolpede and Googol Climber. There’s nothing different in the former game except it’s colored. Whereas the latter game has speed change. The medium speed becomes more serviceable and the jumping speed becomes slower that may or may not be beneficial. I feel like the fast jumping on previous version make me hit the ball less. So the slow jumping in recent version make me hit the ball more often as I ascend to next floor, which is bad.

 However you get second chance in this version of Googol Climber. If you manage to match the number on the right with your number on the left, you get free continue! This reminds me of Data East's arcade game: Nitro Ball.

Then I replay Goofolvaders. This time HMS Dido is willing to participate in this game. Her motive is to avenge his younger sister. This time around, Googolbot is not the only one that pops out to congratulate me. There’s this banner either with word “Great!” or “Awesome!” then the word gets erased by this guy with funny car. It’s not that he tells me to eat because it’s lunch time but he is in the middle of erasing the word “Great!”

 

There’s also this tall creepy clown. I usually don’t assume clown to be scary. But this one is definitely eerie and makes me unsettled even though he compliments my math ability.

Of course, Googolbot is here too. Compared to that scary tall clown, he’s way less creepy. Like comparing normal ice hockey player with Jason Voorhes.

When game is over you can choose to print this novelty diploma. It’s nice feature that it tracks the date that I achieve this score. I will definitely add this diploma along with my Curriculum Vitae on my next job interview. [definitely lie]

I think we’re done here.

Both versions have this screen full of racing car when you exit the game. Maybe Paul T. Dawson really like car like 5 years old me. But when I got older by 2 or 3 years, I change my favorite things into tank and combat chopper. I am violent person if you can’t tell.

Paul T. Dawson’s Googol Math Games (1989) is pretty great math games for DOS and it doesn’t include licensed cartoon character because it doesn’t need to. It’s pure math educational game with arcade-y gameplay. I exclude Googol Review for further review because it’s barely game. First, Googol Climber is quite neat and probably the hardest of the bunch. Because the climber is constantly moving, it’s quite hard to jump to next floor and to avoid the rolling ball. Getting the correct answer itself is not big problem. Second, Googolpede is -in my opinion- the most boring one. I mean there’s so much variation on Snake game. You can put maze on it for more variation but that doesn’t sound fun to me. If I remember correctly, Googolpede isn’t revert back to its original length as you move on to next level, which lead to possibility of softlock. Lastly, the Googolvader is the one that I like the most because I love shooting stuffs. But because the game doesn’t clear the screen everytime I move on to next level. Softlock may occur, like in Googolpede. The sound design is creative at the time. The graphic is fairly good for relatively old DOS game.  

Overall, Googol Math Games (1989) gets my A+ recommendation. Maybe I kind of overshoot the recommendation because of my childhood bias but I don’t lie that the game is quite great. Because you’re an adult that doesn’t mean you can enjoy the game. There’s intense fun in solving basic math problem while being chased by ball, or having worried to hit wall or yourself, or facing impeding alien invasion. Plus, you aim for high score. The only bad thing about this game is the creepy tall clown and the Googolbot who can be overly excited about you.