495 Words About: Remembering Super Seekers-Treasure Mathstorm
The sad fact is I’m reaching an age when I’m regularly asking myself the question, “was that real?”
This question is employed almost exclusively these days for cartoons and videogames, and one of them hit me the other day while I was discussing educational computer games with a coworker. I mentioned taking a computer class in grade school, and one of the games involved climbing a mountain and avoiding evil snowballs with faces. My coworker immediately said, “Oh yeah Treasure Mathstorm.”
I was, to quote Emperor Justinian and Elvis Presley, shook up.
Before The Learning Company became TLC and moved from broadcasting The Magic School Bus to Milf Manor, they also managed to produce educational videogames. Treasure Mathstorm was one of their early titles, and I do mean early (the game was originally published on Disc Operating System (DOS) and was released in 1990).
The plot of the game is simple. Master of Mischief has frozen the realm of Treasure Mountain in snow, leaving its citizens (a collection of cartoon elves) stuck under the oppressive weather. Treasure Mathstorm was part of a series titled Super Seeker games, and the playable protagonist just happens to have the same name. Players will control Super Seeker through a point and click interface, moving him around the levels of the mountain where they will encounter elves that offer riddles and, what I most remember, Math problems. The goal of the game is to solve these puzzles in order to collect climbing equipment, snowballs, and finally, of course, treasure. Once a player has reached the top of the mountain (which I never did for the record) they will deposit the treasure back in the chest and thus undo Master of Mischief's curse.
I remember playing this game at least two or three times a week after completing whatever assignment our computer teacher had for us. I remember the vibrant pink (maybe it was a fuschia) of Super Seeker’s jacket. I remember the time setting puzzles, and the math problems that eluded me.
But I mostly remember the evil snowballs that chased me around the mountain.
Snowbullies were enemy non-playable characters(npcs) that would generate a sound file that would trigger my fight or flight response, and, more frequently, would inspire me to just run away. Clicking the mouse at the borders of every new screen I watched these snowballs chase Super Seeker, and me, around the mountain. The act of turning around and swiping them up with my net was beyond cathartic, it was a straight jam.
Educational media is frequently forgettable. That’s a horrible sentence, but it’s honest in the fact that I remembered the impression more than the actual content. Like LEGO Loco, I approached this essay more from the attitude of “wow, this actually happened.” Over 36 years of life, at least 30 of it working regularly on computers for professional and personal reasons, and I’m still haunted by the memory of being chased by grumpy snowballs.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
11.3.2025
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