In Focus: Treasure Mountain (DOS)

Have you got a young child that you want to introduce to gaming with a fun and friendly experience designed by a learning company to help with basic math and logic? Then look no further!


Treasure Mountain is a highly rated educational game from 1990 that was a much loved classic for (now) gamers of my vintage. Even though computers were hardly commonplace within the school facilities where I come from, come lunch time and recess, the school library PC's were always hotly contended for to try and get a few minutes of game time in on this simple yet elegant adventure.

You play as a Super Seeker (Solver?...), attempting to reclaim the treasures of the kingdom after the bad guy (Master of Mischief) has hidden them up and down the mountain side. To do this you use your ever-handy butterfly net to go and trap innocent elves, who in turn ask you riddles and supply you with clues to the whereabouts of the hidden treasure if you answer the riddle correctly.

When you believe you've got enough clues to try and find the treasure and/or key, you simply find the right area to search and drop a coin (which for some reason searches the area after disappearing into a puff of smoke). Rinse and repeat this classic formula, trying to find treasure with as few hints as possible, all the way up the mountain.

This game is designed for kids that are 5-9 years old, and if you're a father (or mother) of a such-aged spawn, then Treasure Mountain is a great way to get their minds ticking and their gaming passion kick-started or adequately fueled.

Being so old, this fantastic game has now fallen into the world of AbandonWare, and can be downloaded freely and legally from any reputable AbandonWare distributor. As a retro junkie and father myself, I encourage anyone reading this to not let these amazing old games be forgotten about, but to fire up DOSBox, grab a small child, and live or re-live the glory that was Treasure Mountain.