Time Machine Malfunction: The Digital Dawn | 1990s Classroom Mystery Game
Send your students on a mission through time!
A time-machine malfunction has transported the class to an unknown decade, and the timeline is unstable. To return home, students must investigate 12 mysterious artifacts, determine what each one was used for, collect evidence, and identify the decade where they landed.
Time Machine Malfunction: The Digital Dawn turns 1990s technology, trends, school supplies, collectibles, and entertainment into a colorful classroom mystery game. Students will encounter unfamiliar objects, make educated guesses, discuss their reasoning, and discover what everyday life looked like before smartphones, streaming, and cloud storage.
How the game works
Students play individually, in pairs, or in teams. Each artifact includes a multiple-choice question followed by an answer reveal and a short historical explanation. Students record their answers and evidence on the printable Mission Log as they work through four rounds.
Each correct artifact answer earns one point. Students can earn three additional bonus points by correctly identifying the mystery decade, for a total possible score of 15 points.
What’s included
- 34-slide Google Slides classroom game
- Four themed rounds
- 12 mystery artifact questions
- Answer reveals with brief explanations
- Final mystery-decade mission
- Three debrief and reflection questions
- One-page printable Mission Log and score sheet
- Two-page Start Here and Print & Play guide
- Direct Google Slides “Make Your Copy” access
The four rounds
- Round 1: First Contact
- Round 2: Digital Detectives
- Round 3: Culture Files
- Round 4: Entertainment Archives
Great for
- Back-to-school activities
- Middle and high school icebreakers
- Advisory or homeroom
- Team-building activities
- Brain breaks and Fun Friday
- Early finishers
- Technology and recent-history discussions
- Sub plans or low-prep activity days
Please note
This is a digital resource. No physical product will be mailed. Google Slides and access to Google Drive are required.
For best results, open the resource in Google Chrome on a computer. If the access button opens in Safari or a mobile app and the graphics do not load, copy and paste the provided link into Chrome.
Purchase includes a single-user license for use in all classes personally taught by the purchaser. Please do not share the files or access link with other teachers, departments, schools, or districts. Additional users must purchase their own license.
Want both Back-to-School games?
Save with the Back-to-School Classroom Game Bundle, which includes this game plus Who’s Teaching This Class?