PLAYPOWER

PLAYPOWER

We support affordable, effective, fun learning games. We're starting with an existing $10 TV-computer as a platform for learning games in the developing world.

Learn More
« Playpower kicks off the day at ETech 09
Learning Game Lists »

Wired Article! + Visicalc on the $12 computer

Remember Visicalc?

Remember Visicalc?

Priya Ganapati of Wired Magazine just posted an awesome article on Playpower. Check it out!  She really nailed the finer points of our mission, but also presented the project as a *lot* of fun.

ETech has been a fantastic experience so far.  There is such a variety of interesting people.  For example, here’s a picture of Jeremy and I talking to Bob Frankston, who developed Visicalc.  If you weren’t around in 1979, that’s the world’s first spreadsheet program, developed on the 6502 based Apple II. It turned the home computer into a useful business tool.

He said he’ll try to find the source code for us.  That’s so awesome.

Read the Wired Article

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 1:13 AM and is filed under Community, Events, Press, Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • I think you'll find that VisiCalc's source is 6502 assembler code.

    The best way to run it would be to emulate the Apple II--which would also open up a huge body of high-quality educational software.

    Since the Apple II was the platform hosting the largest suite of educational software, it makes sense to base a low-cost educational system on it.
  • Have you considered the PAL vs NTSC issues yet?

    I would love to buy one now and get involved but the only ones I have found for sale in the USA are NTSC, but we use PAL here in Australia.

    Also the 110VAC vs 240VAC for power as well.

    With the compact flash adapter project, you should use SD cards instead. These are much cheaper to buy. CF is far too expensive.

    But generally the project is fantastic! Well done.

    Can't wait for the C compiler!.

    ~Sj of the RCC~
    .-.-.
  • This thing was popular in China back in 1980s. Now they just disappeared here.
    I think this kind of sub-computer helps little with learning, but easily turned into a video game console, and then banned by school teachers or angry parents. That's what has happened in China.
  • MADE IN CHINA
    很雷人！什么年代了？还准备在中国推销小霸王学习机！
  • That may be true in Mozambique, but check out this recent research on the prevalence of TVs and electricity among $1/day households in India and other developing countries. TVs are amazingly prevalent in low-income communities around the world!
    http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/3107

    Secondly, we aren't targeting our games at "the poor" per se (people without enough to eat or those without homes) but rather, "the emerging middle class." There are hundreds of millions of households around the world who make very little money, don't have access to quality education, and yet they do have a TV and mobile phone. A $200 computer may be out of reach, but a $20 computer will be far more affordable in this context.

    Finally, we see video games as a social tool. That's why we're designing mostly social games to reflect the highly social context of low-income communities. Since it's rare to see a TV with only one person watching, we are making games (like quiz games) that engage groups of people in a learning environment. Furthermore, even typical video games tend to be a social event, especially in these contexts. The picture on our front page is a picture of a video game arcade in Dharavi--far from being a social isolator, video games seem to be a mechanism for creating new connections with peers.

    Thanks for the comment! Hopefully this gives a better sense of what we are doing.
  • Greg Smith
    Nice ... but my experience teaching in Mozambique shows that TV's and even electricity might be outta reach for the poorest this targets... get them those ... chickens before the egg and don't forget... poor people in 3rd world countries network to survive... anti- or a-social habits developed solo infront of a screen are harmful to normal survival routines based on enhanced social skills
blog comments powered by Disqus

-->