Math Blaster in the 90s: A Guide to the Different Versions

Math Blaster started well before the 90s, but Davidson & Associates kept releasing new versions and spin-offs throughout the decade, which is why the naming can get confusing.

Release timeline

• New Math Blaster Plus! (1990)
• Math Blaster Episode I: In Search of Spot (September 1993), a remake of the 1990 release
• Math Blaster Mystery: The Great Brain Robbery (October 1994)
• Math Blaster Episode II: Secret of the Lost City (October 1994)
• Math Blaster Jr. (1996) and Math Blaster Mega (September 1996)

Characters and environments

The "Episode" games introduced a space-adventure framing, with a robot character named Spot and alien or space-station settings, a shift from the more abstract arcade-style presentation of the earlier Math Blaster Plus! games.

Math activities

Across versions, the core loop stayed consistent: solve arithmetic problems under light time pressure to progress through an arcade-style minigame layered on top of the drills.

Identifying your edition

If you remember a robot named Spot and a space adventure story, you likely played one of the mid-90s "Episode" games. If you remember a more abstract, arcade-style presentation without much story, you may have played the earlier New Math Blaster Plus! or its direct successors.