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| Lemonade Stand | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Bob Jamison Charlie Kellner (Apple II) |
| Publisher(s) | Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium |
| Platform(s) | Mainframe, Apple II |
| Release | 1973: Mainframe 1979: Apple II |
| Genre(s) | Business simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Lemonade Stand is a business simulation game created in 1973 by Bob Jamison of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC). In it, the player moves through several rounds of running a lemonade stand, beginning each round by making choices dependent on their current amount of money about their stock, prices, and advertising. In each round, the results are randomized based on the player's inputs, as well as affected by random events such as thunderstorms and street closures. Each round ends with a summary of the player's current status, and the game ends after 12 rounds.
In 1979, the game was ported by Charlie Kellner to the Apple II; Apple subsequently included the game with their computers throughout the 1980s. MECC also offered the game for sale as a part of bundles of children's software for Apple computers and Atari 8-bit computers. Kellner's source code was released, and has since been ported to modern computers as a free, open-source game. Reviewers of the game, both contemporary and retroactive, viewed the game as a good primer for children with regard to business and decision-making processes.