Gertrude's Secrets
Gertrude's Secrets is a 1984 children's educational video game by The Learning Company. The goal is to solve puzzles and find secrets along with Gertrude the goose. The variety of puzzles involve basic recognition of shapes, colors, and patterns.
Gertrude's Secrets
- Date
- 1984
- Genre
- educational entertainment
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Documentary summary
Gertrude's Secrets is a 1984 children's educational video game by The Learning Company. The goal is to solve puzzles and find secrets along with Gertrude the goose. The variety of puzzles involve basic recognition of shapes, colors, and patterns.
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wikidata · Q5553272 · wikipedia · Gertrude's Secrets
In this article
The object
The object
The puzzles are designed to develop basic skills of logic and reasoning. A companion game, Gertrude's Puzzles was released at the same time. Released for MS-DOS, Commodore 64, and Apple II.
Key facts
Key facts
• Developer — The Learning Company • Publisher — The Learning Company • Released — 1984 • Genre — Edutainment • Modes — Single-player • Platforms — Apple II, Commodore 64, MS-DOS
Gameplay
Gameplay
Gertrude's Secrets features rooms filled with puzzles to be solved by arranging objects by shape and color. It is played by dragging Gertrude the Puzzle Bird into one of the various rooms. Gertrude then brings various shapes into the rooms which have to be arranged appropriately. Upon completion of the puzzle, Gertrude awards the player with a prize called a "treasure" which is stored in the player's treasure room. Puzzle types include "loop" and train puzzles.
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- United States
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Gertrude's Secrets is associated with United States.
Country
Reception
A review in the Journal of Learning Disabilities called the puzzles "challenging and highly entertaining" for children. The game was also cited as an example of a learning tool that can help children learn basic classification skills. Commodore Microcomputers stated that Gertrude's Secrets "is intuitive and easy for kids of all ages to understand". The magazine approved of its lack of "nerve-wracking time limits or invading aliens" and encouragement of "exploratory learning... built on rock-solid educational principles". Leslie Eiser of Compute! commented that the game required involvement from a parent, being designed to challenge children in addition to teaching them.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Gertrude's Secrets”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q5553272: Gertrude's Secrets
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1."Courseware Review: Gertrude's Secrets". Journal of Learning Disabilities. March 1984. pp. 188-198.
- 2.Charles and Lind, p. 490.
- 3.Charles and Lind, p. 159.
- 4.(1983). "High-tech 'textbooks' for children". Christian Science Monitor.
- 5.Beekman, George. Gertrude's Secrets, Gertrude's Puzzles and Rocky's Boots. Commodore Microcomputers. 18, 20. September–October 1985.
- 6.Eiser, Leslie. Compute! - Issue 113. Compute!. 113. 96. October 1989.
References
Citations
References
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General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 19 August 2026.
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