Play Number Munchers online — the original 1990 DOS game Works — the full original game runs via DOSBox in your browser
Guide updated October 2026 · Runs via DOSBox + WebAssembly
Number Munchers — MECC's 1990 maths game, the one on every school computer lab's DOS machine. You steer a green Muncher round a grid of numbers, eating the ones that fit the rule at the top (multiples of 4, factors of 36, primes) while the Troggles roam the board trying to eat you. Click Play and it starts in your browser.
1–5: menu choices · Y / N: answer · ENTER: confirm · SPACE: continue
⌨ Keyboard — for menus & name entry
Controls — what does what
| Action | Keyboard |
|---|---|
| Move the Muncher | Arrow keys |
| Munch the number you're on | Space |
| Menu choices | Number keys and Enter |
| Pause / quit | Esc |
Runs in your browser tab with DOSBox + WebAssembly — nothing is uploaded. Click the screen to capture input; press Ctrl+F10 to release mouse.
Number Munchers is no longer sold anywhere, and its publisher is gone or has left it unsold for decades. It is hosted here on the same footing as the Internet Archive's software collections. That is a practical position, not a legal claim. This page carries no advertising. Provenance: /apps/number-munchers/NOTICE.md. Rights holders: it comes down within 48 hours on request.
About Number Munchers
MECC, the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, made Number Munchers for the Apple II in 1986 and brought this VGA DOS version out in 1990. Its five game types are Multiples, Factors, Primes, Equality and Inequality, and the difficulty climbs from third-grade arithmetic to work that still takes some thought. Every few levels a short cartoon plays as a reward. Eat a wrong number and you lose a life.
Tips for getting started
Pick the game type and grade level from the Muncher Menu. Watch the edges of the grid: Troggles enter from the sides, and the warning "Troggle!" flashes just before one comes in.
How it runs here
This is the original DOS release of Number Munchers, unmodified, running in DOSBox compiled to WebAssembly. The whole game is about 1 MB, so it starts within seconds on a normal connection. Sound and music play once you click into the game.
Frequently asked questions
Can I play Number Munchers online for free?
Yes. Click Play and the original 1990 DOS version starts in your browser, running in a WebAssembly build of DOSBox. Nothing to install and no account.
Why is Number Munchers hosted here?
Number Munchers is not sold anywhere today; we checked the stores listed in its provenance note. It is preserved here the way the Internet Archive preserves old software. That is a practical position, not a legal claim. If the rights holder (the successors to MECC and The Learning Company (HarperCollins)) asks, it comes down within 48 hours.
Does my progress save?
Saved games persist in this browser between visits, best-effort. Clearing site data removes them.
Can I play on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Touch buttons for the keys Number Munchers uses appear under the game on touch devices.
More you can play in your browser
Related guides
Want a game like this on your own site?
Number Munchers isn't ours to give away — we host it, we didn't write it. But eleven of the games here we did write from scratch, and those are free for anyone to put on their own page: one line of HTML, no account, no permission, no attribution beyond a credit line.