Lemonade Stand

Also known as: N/A

Developer: MECC

Lemonade Stand is one of the MECC games that I never played (that I can recall, anyway) prior to reviewing it for this website. I have fond memories of Number Munchers, Oregon Trail, and Odell Lake, but if I had played Lemonade Stand in school, I definitely don't remember it. Basically, the concept of Lemonade Stand is that you're running a lemonade stand. Your goal is to make a profit. Sugar costs a certain amount. Making signs costs a certain amount. So, you've got to figure out how many you want to make of both. Then you need to figure out how much to charge for each cup of lemonade. Charge too little and you'll be losing money due to the costs of sugar and signs…charge too much, and adults will balk at your prices and purposely drive their cars into a nearby puddle to splash that street water on you for having the gall to try to price gouge them…Okay, that puddle stuff I made up, but you won't get many (if any sales) with prices too high. Another thing to consider is the weather. Every day you get a weather report…this shows if your lemonade may or may not be in demand. Rainy day? Maybe make less lemonade and lower the price a tad. Hot, dry day? Make more lemonade and raise the price a bit. You can play Lemonade Stand solo, but it's best when playing against friends so you can compete to see who the better lemonade salesman/saleswoman is. MECC was good at creating fun, educational games. Lemonade Stand was their first game, but thankfully it wasn't their last.

Review added: 12/08/2025

Little Brick Out

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Apple

Little Brick Out was Apple's take on Breakout…and it's kind of awkward and sloppy, in my opinion. Instead of having a paddle at the bottom of the screen and bouncing the ball up towards the top of the screen to break the bricks above, you've got a paddle on the left side of the screen and you're breaking bricks towards the right side of the screen. As a result, the controls can feel a bit odd at times, which can mess with your mind a bit once the ball starts bouncing around at a faster pace. I also found myself CONSTANTLY missing the ball by a single pixel - when you miss the ball, it stays on screen for a second, and I'd say 8 times out of 10, it is right next to my paddle with no gap. It becomes annoying after a while because you feel like you've lined the paddle up just right for it to hit the corner, and then it's suddenly just a hair off. Another annoying aspect is that once you start breaking away the bricks, and you manage to get the ball inside, it does not bounce backwards at all…so if you try the Breakout strategy of making a hole so that the ball can bounce all over and rack up points, it doesn't work here. Instead, once the ball bounces once and start coming back at you, it simply wipes out any bricks on its way towards you. Part of the fun of Breakout was getting those moments, and Little Brick Out robs you of them. In an attempt to make up for its shortcomings, I assume, Little Brick Out does have customization options allowing you to adjust the colors of everything and the size of the paddle…but that doesn't really make up for the fact that this is a sub-par clone of a very good game. If you want a different take on Breakout, you may find mild fun here…but you'll also likely be wishing that you were playing the game that inspired this one instead.

Review added: 12/13/2025