In August 1986, Japanese appliance company, Royal, released the veritable knitting powerhouse: "I am a Teacher: Mario's Sweater" - for the Famicom Disk System. The Mario Sweater game, which taught you how to knit a sweater, with a picture of Mario, was sold exclusively in art supply stores for 2900yen or roughly $30. (Estimated value today: $500-$750).

And the runner up?

In a tactical move to fully obliterate potential rival knitting game developers, Royal followed up Mario Knitting with the "I am a Teacher: The Basics of Hand Knitting" in September of 1986. We spotted this copy on sale during a recent trip to Japan (Value: $400). With a leg up on their rivals in the teaching game genre, it's rumored that Royal executives decided to abandon the lesser genres like RPG, fighting and sports and focus on the up and coming world of how-to teaching games. Clearly, Royal did not succeed in establishing the 'how-to' genre. Those other genres? Well, they've done OK.... 20 years later, thanks to the DS, the how-to teaching game genre is back with a vengeance!

Know of any other teaching games out there? Let us know.