Dr. Ruth's Computer Game of Good Sex

When someone in 1986 downloaded Dr. Ruth's Computer Game of Good Sex instead of Leisure Suit Larry and his erotic escapades, they knew what they were after. This wasn't any hardcore sandbox — it was an educational game from Activision about sex that's healthy, safe, and (according to Dr. Ruth Westheimer's view) a social matter. Sure, by the nineties this would've been total cringe. In the eighties, it was simply bold.

It was basically an interactive manual disguised as a computer game. Players navigated various scenarios — dating, sex education, relationship situations — and answered questions or made choices. Dr. Ruth (a real psychotherapist) delivered advice through text and basic graphics in her characteristic down-to-earth tone. The goal wasn't entertainment, but enlightenment — debunk myths, teach safety and communication. It was educational gaming in its purest form.

The game wasn't a scourge on controllers or keyboards. You were expected to read and think. The controls were primitive, the graphics rudimentary. Today it seems like it tried to be serious while everyone felt a little awkward about it — especially since it was essentially a read-and-click adventure without a twist, a turn, or a betrayal. It was like a digital brochure wrapped up in code.

More interesting than playing it is its role in history. In the eighties, it took guts — educational software on sexuality in a home where games were meant for kids. The concept itself went against the grain. Today nobody would click on it because the internet offers thousands of times more resources. And the text has shamelessly aged — not in content, but in format, dominated by a text adventure without any experience.

If you play it today in a browser through emulators, do it out of curiosity, not fun. It's an artifact of a time when the computer seemed like a fitting tool for serious conversations. And that's where its peculiar charm lies.