I know it’s been a while since I’ve made any Midnight Mansion related announcements, but today I’d like to make a big one: I am making Midnight Mansion HD available, for free, to schools and orphanages, not only in America, but the entire world.

Thanks to its family-friendly nature, Midnight Mansion has already been purchased for use at several schools across America, as well as donated to an orphanage in the Philippines that I had the opportunity to personally visit several years ago (http://www.cscshelter.org/). Just today I heard from one of the schools that Midnight Mansion is the students’ favorite game, and a number of months ago I heard from a teacher friend at the orphanage that the children there still play and love the game.

So today it occurred to me: why not make Midnight Mansion HD available to ANY school or orphanage, completely free of charge? Perhaps some will enjoy the game enough they will want to purchase it to play at home, or will have fond memories of the game years later as an adult and wish to purchase it then. And even if not, I will still be able to bring joy to hundreds or thousands of children who might not be able to afford the game otherwise.

There aren’t many games these days that are family-friendly and still fun, as well as offering learning opportunities. (Kids are highly motivated to learn reading when understanding the in-game signs helps them play the game better! And the puzzles in the game help develop problem-solving skills. Plus, I think developing hand-eye corrdination and fast reflexes helps with driving years later. But if nothing else, it can be a fun reward that teachers can offer to students for good behavior.)

But for this to work I need your help! I don’t know how to ‘get the word out’ to schools or orphanages, so I am hoping to spread the word by word-of-mouth. If you have a child or grandchild enrolled in a public or private school, or know of an orphanage, would you consider contacting a teacher personally (or by email) to let them know about this offer?

To qualify, the school must have 20+ children enrolled (i.e. home schooled children are not eligible), and a teacher or other employee of the school must email me from their work email requesting a free registration code for their school computers. They should send an email entitled “Free Midnight Mansion for school” to:

support@actionsoft.com

Simply include the following information:
1) Name of school
2) Kind of school (i.e. elementary, high school, private school, etc.)
2) Location of school (state/country)
3) An estimate for the number of computers the game will be installed on
4) An estimate of the number of students at the school or orphanage

There are no strings attached, no expiration date for the free version of the game, no renewals required, and no built-in advertising, nor will I be selling an ‘email list’ to anyone or sending unsolicited email to anyone. Just free gaming for kids.

Secondly: if any of you have ideas / suggestions for how I can spread the word further (i.e. school journals or websites that might carry such news), please let me know!

To those of you who help spread the word — thank you! And, thank you for your support of me and Midnight Mansion over the years. I appreciate it!

Midnight Mansion HD is an action/exploration platformer with high-definition graphics, spine-tingling sound effects, and professional quality music. As Jack Malone, you will explore eleven huge mansions, each filled with traps, puzzles, and secrets, as you search for legendary treasure. Ride on conveyor belts, avoid zapper beams, and dodge monsters as you collect keys that give you access to new areas of each mansion. Non-violent gameplay allows the whole family to enjoy the game. Features include multiple user accounts, online high scores, suspend game, a level editor, and much more.

System Requirements: 
- Any Intel or PPC based Mac (Universal Binary)
- MacOS X 10.4 or higher. (Works fine on OS X 10.9 Mavericks)
- Windows XP or 7 (might also work on similar versions of Windows, such as Vista or 2000)

-Vern

This is really great Vern, and very generous of you! Will let my friends with kids know  :)