Lemonade Stand
- This article is about the 1970s-1980s video game. For the business model, see Lemonade Stand (business)
Lemonade Stand is a basic economics game created originally by Bob Jamison of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium in 1973 and ported by Charlie Kellner in February of 1979 for use on the Apple II line of computers. Throughout the 1980s Apple Computer included Lemonade Stand (along with other software) with the purchase of their systems, and many of those who grew up in this decade are likely to remember playing this game either in school or at home.
A 2006 BusinessWeek article incorrectly stated that Microsoft's J Allard invented the game in 1981.[1]
Gameplay
Like most games created for microcomputers in the 1970s, the gameplay is simple. It simulates a child's lemonade stand, where choices made by the player regarding prices, advertising, etc. will determine the success or failure of the enterprise. The game owed its success to offering just enough variables to make a complex challenge for users, but still providing a simply-grasped addictive introduction to the offsetting priorities facing a business. The choice of the right prices and quantities on the day of a heat-wave could instill the intense satisfaction unique to a greatly profitable private enterprise.
The player is first given a weather report for the day (sunny, cloudy or hot and dry, each accompanied by a color drawing) and is prompted for three values: The number of glasses of lemonade to make, the number of advertising signs, and the cost of lemonade per glass. The program then gives a report of the earnings for that day. A thunderstorm, sometimes occurring on cloudy days and accompanied by a color animation, will void any profits and cause the player to lose any investment for the day. The game can be played either single-player or with up to 30 players (each player is independent and the sales of one do not affect another). The Apple II version included music, with bars from "Singin' in the Rain" and "Summertime" played at appropriate moments.