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In the first game, the main characters were Blasternaut, a cheesy sci-fi astronaut spoof, and Spot, his robot companion. In the second game, Galactic Commander, a female superior officer from base joined their trio. She later became known as G.C. These three characters were the main characters in many of the games. Their images changed rapidly, for example, Spot eventually became a robotic dog. In the Math Blaster Mystery game {1994}, the main character is Rave, a green being with a horn, whose enemy is a mad scientist named Doctor Dabble. These characters were also present in the Reading Blaster Mystery 1996's Mega Math Blaster is by many accounts a "redo" of Math Blaster Episode 1, as the storyline also features Blasternaut trying to recover his kidnapped robot pal. 1997's Math Blaster Ages 9-12 seems to be a "redo" of the Episode 2 sequel, as it moves away from the basic math in a similar direction. Math Blaster Ages 6-9 is a repackage of Mega Math Blaster. Math Blaster Titles: 1994
1996
1997
1998
At one point in the mid 1990's, the company pushed all the products as the Blaster Learning System . In 1999, coinciding with the CBS Saturday morning cartoon, "Blaster's Universe" produced by Nelvana, the characters once again changed, probably to be more identifiable as people, with Blasternaut becoming Max Blaster, a 12-year old boy obsessed with science and space in the 21st century, and his Galactic Commander becoming G.C., a cool 12-year-old girl who looks like an earthling but is really an alien. Together they must secretly work to save G.C.'s universe, using logic and creativity to outsmart the intergalactic outlaws. Spot, the robot companion was dropped, with a robot dog named "Mel" replacing him. During the late 1990's and early 2000's, for the most part after Davidson began its series of being bought and merged into other companies, these titles were renamed and repackaged with no change in content. One example is the 1999 release of "Math Blaster for 3rd Grade" in which the box art shows the brand's all new CBS cartoon characters, while the screen grabs of the game show a very different Blaster character and style; "Powerful Praise" quoted on the box shows 4 1/2 stars for the game while admitting it was "previously published as "Math Blaster Ages 6-9," but ironically that was itself previously published as "Mega Math Blaster." In October, 2005, Knowledge Adventure released a new version of Math Blaster, subtitled, "Master the Basics." This new version differs in that it claims "state-standard" math content, and has a Math Blaster character with no space suit. The basics cover a limited range of math including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, but only deals with whole numbers, no fractions or decimals. The style of game is similar to many video games, like the Blaster series always has been. The story concerns saving humans from a robot controlled society. The main villain is a big eyeball named Cyclotron and Galactic Commander and Spot seem to be absent, replaced by a computer program named Amy. |
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