So why bother preserving them?

[shukla7789]

Niche educational games like these were far less popular than mainstream action and adventure games. The hobbyists and amateur archivists who preserved software of that time often skipped this genre entirely. And today, these sorts of games may not hold much interest for the general public.


The prolific Apple II preservationist “4am” gave a great answer in Paleotronic magazine:

“This was how we taught math and photo restoration service and grammar and history to an entire generation of children. That seems like something worth saving.”

That’s certainly true of Kirschen’s work. In the Apple II games he made with Gesher, we see Jewish educators’ early steps learning to use a new medium to reach kids. And Kirschen’s later work with “artificial personalities” and “artificial creativity” foreshadows the promise and pitfalls of today’s AI craze.

I’m glad to have played a part in bringing this software back to life so others can have the opportunity to play it and study it.

About the author
Josh Renaud is a journalist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He publishes computer history research on his website, Break Into Chat. He is interested in recovering lost or obscure software, and telling the stories of the people who made and used it. In 2024 he received a Geffen and Lewyn Family Southern Jewish Research Fellowship  from Emory University to study papers related to Gesher’s educational computer games.