Putt-Putt (series)
| Putt-Putt | |
|---|---|
 Putt-Putt and Pep | |
| Genres | Adventure, Edutainment |
| Developer(s) | Humongous Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) |
Humongous Entertainment Night Dive Studios |
| Creator(s) | Shelley Day |
| Platforms | DOS, Microsoft Windows, 3DO, Macintosh, iOS |
| Platform of origin | DOS |
| First release |
Putt-Putt Joins the Parade October 30, 1992 |
| Latest release |
Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise 2003 |
The Putt-Putt series is a collection of children's adventure and puzzle computer games created by Humongous Entertainment. This franchise was Humongous Entertainment's first game series to be developed.[1] They primarily involve clicking to get to a destination, although some sub-quests and mini-games involve the keyboard. The main character, Putt-Putt, an anthropomorphic purple convertible, and his pet dog, Pep, travel to various locations.
History
Putt-Putt was originally thought up by Shelley Day as a series of bedtime stories for her son, Travis; the first story involved Putt-Putt saving a cat caught in a tree.[2][3] Child actor Jason Ellefson did Putt-Putt's voice for the first eight of the games. In the games released between 1998 and 2000, Nancy Cartwright (of The Simpsons fame) voiced Putt-Putt. Michelle Thorson voiced Putt-Putt in Pep's Birthday Surprise.
The games are supported by ScummVM and thus can be played on other platforms such as handhelds. Humongous has brought several Putt-Putt and other titles to iOS[4] and Android.
In 1997, Humongous made an agreement with Lancit Media Entertainment to create an animated TV series of Putt-Putt,[5] along with movies and home video releases.[6] However the plan was never put into action.
Several games from the original series were later re-released by Humongous on Steam in April 2014,[7] alongside games from the Pajama Sam, Freddi Fish, and Spy Fox series.[8][9][10]
Games
Adventure games
Humongous Entertainment classified these games as Junior Adventures (for kids 3-8)
- Putt-Putt Joins the Parade (1992)
- Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon (1993)
- Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo (1995)
- Putt Putt Travels Through Time (1997)
- Putt-Putt Enters the Race (1998)
- Putt-Putt Joins the Circus (2000)
- Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise (2003)
Other games
| Game | Releases | Developer/Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Putt-Putt and Pep's Dog on a Stick | October 15, 1996 (Win/Mac) January 6, 2014 (iOS) |
Humongous Entertainment |
| Putt-Putt and Pep's Balloon-o-Rama | October 15, 1996 (Win/Mac) 1999 (LCD)[11] April 17, 2014 (Steam) |
Humongous Entertainment, Toymax (LCD) |
| Game | Releases | Developer/Publisher |
| Putt-Putt's Fun Pack | March 26, 1993 (DOS/Mac/3DO) | Humongous Entertainment |
| Putt-Putt & Fatty Bear's Activity Pack | March 25, 1994 (Win) | Humongous Entertainment |
| Putt-Putt's One-Stop Fun Shop | April 5, 2000 (Win/Mac) | Humongous Entertainment |
| Putt-Putt's Fun House | May 22, 2013 (iOS) | Humongous Entertainment, Nimbus Games |
Customization
Players can change Putt-Putt's color to original purple, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or rainbow. All colors can be painted on again. This also changes the color of the dashboard in Putt-Putt Enters the Race, Putt-Putt Joins the Circus, Putt-Putt and Pep's Balloon-O-Rama, Putt-Putt Travels Through Time and Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo. However, in Putt-Putt Joins the Parade and Putt-Putt Enters the Race, the player needs to put 3 coins in a coin slot before changing his color. But in Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon and Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise, the color can only be changed temporarily as it just turns back to purple immediately.
Availability
- For Steam the games were released as single games,[12] or bundled together in the "Putt-Putt Complete Pack"[13] or came packaged with all Humongous Entertainment games in "Humongous Entertainment Complete Pack".[14]
- Humongous Entertainment released a CD titled "Humongous Entertainment Triple Treat", which included Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo, Pajama Sam's Sock Works and Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds.[15]
- Humongous Entertainment released a CD titled "Humongous Entertainment Triple Treat 2", which included Putt Putt Travels Through Time, Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside and Freddi Fish and Luther's Maze Madness.[16]
- Humongous Entertainment released a "Putt-Putt Fun & Learning Kindergarten Edition"[17] package with a Putt-Putt notebook and a CD that included Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo and Big Thinkers Kindergarten.[18]
- Putt-Putt and Pep's Balloon-O-Rama was released for Windows and Macintosh on a compilation CD titled "Super Duper Arcade 1",[19] along with Spy Fox in: Cheese Chase, Pajama Sam's Sock Works and Freddi Fish and Luther's Water Worries and .[20]
- Putt-Putt and Pep's Dog on a Stick was released for Windows and Macintosh on a compilation CD titled "Super Duper Arcade 2",[21] along with Spy Fox in: Hold the Mustard, Pajama Sam's Lost & Found and Freddi Fish and Luther's Maze Madness.[22]
Characters
The series takes place in a fictional Earth that is civilized by anthropomorphic ground vehicles, devoid of humanity. However, unlike the world of Disney Pixar's Cars animated film series, the vehicles also co-exist with flesh-and-blood animals, some who are also anthropomorphic.
Main characters
- Putt-Putt - A purple convertible car, full fun and excitement and happy to help those he meets.
- Pep - An abandoned puppy, whom Putt-Putt adopted in the first game of the series, and has been his pet and best friend ever since.
Baby Animals (Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo)
- Baby Jambo the Elephant - An elephant calf who has the fear of mice. He later returns in "Putt-Putt Joins the Circus," traveling with B.J. Sweeney's circus with his mother, Mama Mombasa and spends his time outside the menagerie tent, painting pictures.
- Masai the Giraffe - A giraffe calf who gets stuck at a drawbridge
- Kenya the Lion Cub - A little lion cub resemebling Nala from The Lion King, voiced by Kathleen Young
- Samantha "Sammy" Seal - A seal pup who does tricks and stunts
- Little Skeeter the Snake - A young snake who is frozen in Articland
- Zanizbar the Hippo - A hippo calf who lives in Jungleland
Recurring characters
- Mr. Baldini - The Italian proprietor lorry of the Cartown Grocery Store. Putt-Putt frequently makes grocery deliveries for him in exchange for coins.
- Ms. Bundlebugget - The Cartown librarian trolley, who keeps interesting keeps, which Putt-Putt reads when he gets a chance.
- Mr. Firebird - The Cartown scientist whose inventions often backfire and become dangerous to others.
- Mrs. Goodbake - Cartown's jolly and gold-hearted cake baker van, who makes delicious confectioneries.
- Outback Al - The zookeeper and owner of the Cartown Zoo. He speaks with an Australian accent, like Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee.
- Rover - A friendly moon buggy who was deserted on the moon, until Putt-Putt gave him a ride back to Earth.
- Smokey - The Cartown Fire Engine Chief, who is a red fire truck that gives safety tips to those he meets.
- Mrs. Widget - The cheerful toy shop bumper car, who often has a product on the house.
Pep's Birthday Surprise-only characters
- Caristas - Two caravans that make and serve hot cocoa.
- Hank - A police car, who makes a record of the world's biggest twine as a hobby. He returns in "Putt-Putt Joins the Circus" as the circus' security guard.
- Mr. Kibble - The Cartown Pet Store Truck, who sells pet food and supplies.
- Marvin - An auto-mobile Magician who entertains people at parties.
- Mildred - A three-wheeled mail truck, who has a knack at keeping secrets.
- Reginald Windbag, III - A mobile inflator also called 'Reggie', who comes from a long line of inflators.
- Sunshine - A happy, carefree van who sells odd sorts of items.
- Torvil - A farm tractor, who tends to the barnyard.[23]
Putt-Putt Joins the Circus
- Roll-Along Cassidy - The circus train's locomotive who gives Putt-Putt a ride to the circus grounds after a goat eats his circus ticket.
- B.J. Sweeney - The owner and ringmaster of his circus. His name is a play on P.T. Barnum.
- Honko the Clown - A clown car who performs in B.J. Sweeney's circus. His name is a play on Harpo Marx because they communicate by honking.
- The Flying Porkowskis - A family of pigs who perform as the acrobats in B.J. Sweeney's circus.
- Phillipe the Flea - A French flea whose flea circus is a red-and-white-striped umbrella for a tent. He and the other fleas traveled from Belobrodnik Bear to Pep until Putt-Putt got a new umbrella for a new tent for his flea circus.
- Reginald Cornelious Andronocles III - Also called "Reginald the Lion" for short. He speaks with a British accent and is assisted by two tigers named Terri and Marie in his wild cat act for the circus.
- Katie Cannonball - The circus' human cannonball. She speaks with a Southern accent.
- Bette Bandwagon - A calliope who is the circus accompaniment, conductor, and orchestra rolled into one. After Putt-Putt fixes her pipes and she blows out a Honk-ish translation book which Putt-Putt uses to talk to Honko the Clown, she'll sing a song for him.
- Belobrodnik Bear - A Russian dancing bear.
- Marvin the Marvelous - A green car who is the circus magician who talks like Peter Lorre.
Books
Various Children's books about Putt-Putt have been published by Lyrick Publishing and Random House. A cassette tape audio adaptation was created for "Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas".
| Title | Date | Writer | Publisher | Illustrator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas[24] | January 1, 1995 | Laurie Bauman Arnold | Humongous Entertainment, Inc. | Derek McCaughan, Edward Pun |
| Putt-Putt and Pep[25] | May 7, 1996 | Del Thompson | Random House Books For Young Readers | |
| Putt-Putt: The Great Pet Chase[26] | July, 2000 | Laurie Bauman Arnold, Tricia Legault | Lyrick Publishing | |
| Go, Go, Putt-Putt Go![27] | 2000 | Laurie Bauman Arnold, N.S. Greenfield | Lyrick Publishing | Darren McKee |
| Putt-Putt: Lost In Time[28] | January, 2001 | Nancy Parent | Lyrick Publishing | Josie Yee |
| Putt-Putt: Race Against the Clock[29] | July, 2001 | Gayla Amaral | Lyrick Publishing | Sue DiCiccio |
| On the Road With Putt-Putt[30] | July, 2001 | Lyrick Publishing |
Reception
The Putt-Putt series received various awards including "All-Star Software Award" from Children's Software Revue, "Reader's Choice Award" from Mac Home Journal and "2000 Best Picks Award" from Choosing Children's Software.[31]
References
- ↑ Jacquie Kubin (October 1, 2000). ""There's Humongous Rewards in Entertaining Little Kids"". Retrieved July 22, 2016.
Putt-Putt is the flagship title of the company
- ↑ "Shelley Day profile in TIME magazine archive". Web.archive.org. 2009-05-12. Archived from the original on May 12, 2009. Retrieved 2013-12-05.
- ↑ "H.E. Corp. Profile". web-beta.archive.org. Archived from the original on 1998-02-10. Retrieved 2017-01-18.
- ↑ Larry McMahon (2011-11-16). "Atari Resurrects Putt-Putt on the iPad". GamerPops. Archived from the original on 2015-11-05. Retrieved 2016-04-15.
- ↑ "PC Magazine, Volume 16" (10). PC Magazine. May 27, 1997: 10. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
- ↑ Jennifer Oldham (March 26, 1997). "Putt-Putt to Shift Gears Into Television, Movies". Los Angeles Times.
- ↑ Vincent, Brittany (17 April 2014). "Childhood edutainment favorites Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear on Steam is Humongous". Destructoid. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
- ↑ "Humongous Entertainment gets the Steam Treatment!". Humongous Entertainment. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
- ↑ Good, Owen (19 April 2014). "Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam and Humongous Entertainment return to PC on Steam". Polygon. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
- ↑ Maiberg, Emanuel (19 April 2014). "Putt-Putt and Pajama Sam just as hardcore as Dark Souls according to Steam.com tags". GameSpot. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
- ↑ http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/putt-putt-balloon-rama-1999-humongous-421220593
- ↑ "Putt-Putt on Steam". Steam. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
- ↑ "Putt-Putt Complete Pack on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
- ↑ "Humongous Entertainment Complete Pack on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
- ↑ http://www.cdaccess.com/html/quick/tripletrdr.htm
- ↑ "Humongous Entertainment triple treat 2". Retrieved December 19, 2016.
- ↑ "UPC 742725165212 - World of Fun & Learning: Kindergarten Edition -". www.upccodesearch.com. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
- ↑ "Putt-Putt Fun & Learning Kindergarten Edition". Retrieved 20 December 2016.
- ↑ "UPC 742725178342 - True Enterprise X8 PCI Express to 4Gbps Quad Port". www.upccodesearch.com. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
- ↑ "Super Duper Arcade 1". Retrieved December 19, 2016.
- ↑ "UPC 742725178373 - SuperDuper Arcade 2 (4 Humongous Titles)". www.upccodesearch.com. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
- ↑ "Super Duper Arcade 2". Retrieved December 19, 2016.
- ↑ "Putt=Putt 7 - Meet the Characters" (PDF). August 21, 2003: 8–12. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
- ↑ "ISBN 1570649448". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
- ↑ "ISBN 0679879587". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
- ↑ "ISBN 1570649448". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
- ↑ "ISBN 1570649456". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
- ↑ "ISBN 1586680609". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
- ↑ "ISBN 1586680676". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
- ↑ "ISBN 1586681494". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
- ↑ Ito, Mizuko (January 27, 2007). "Education V. Entertainment" (PDF): 12. Retrieved 21 April 2015.