Think Fast! About the Past

Test your knowledge of history as you race against the clock! Featuring characters from the online role-playing adventure game Mission US, Think Fast! About the Past is a fast-paced trivia game that introduces hundreds of fascinating facts about different eras of American history.

Players can choose from two different Think Fast “missions,” each connected to one of the Mission US adventure games. In Mission 1, the sharp-tongued Patriot Royce Dillingham challenges players to navigate 1770 Boston by answering questions about colonial history. In Mission 2, Lucy King, challenges players to deliver a message to her brother, who is enslaved on a plantation in 1850 Kentucky, by answering questions about the slavery and resistance during the pre-Civil War era.

Each correct answer advances players to another location on the map. Players have five minutes to move through all ten locations to complete the challenge, but answering correctly more quickly will earn a higher ranking. The clock pauses whenever explanations appear to allow players time to read them. Each “mission” includes 100+ questions randomly served up during the course of the game.

The Think Fast! About the Past app, developed by Thirteen/WNET, the producers of Mission US, and Very Memorable, was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Verizon Foundation through EDSITEment, the NEH site for high quality teaching resources. Mission US, a series of free interactive US history games for tweens and teens, was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with additional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more Mission US content, visit mission-us.org. (Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this app do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.)