Zoombinis
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| The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis | |
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| Developer(s) | Brøderbund Software |
| Publisher(s) | Brøderbund Software |
| Engine | Proprietary/Custom |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Macintosh |
| Release date(s) | March 1996 (European/v1.0), December 1996 (US/v1.1), 2001 (Remake/v2.0) |
| Genre(s) | Educational game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media | CD-ROM |
| Input methods | Keyboard, Mouse |
Zoombinis are the main characters in a line of educational software created by Chris Hancock and Scot Osterweil of TERC. There are three titles in the series: The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, Zoombinis: Mountain Rescue, and Zoombinis: Island Odyssey.
Contents
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[edit] The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis
The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis (also published under the title "Zoombinis: Logical Journey") was the first title to be released in the series. The game is based around the "Zoombinis", a race of small blue creatures which are depicted with varying eyes, noses, hair, and feet. They are peaceful and successful, living on a small island called Zoombini Isle. Their lives are interrupted by a race called the Bloats, who offer to expand trade routes and improve the Zoombinis' quality of life; instead they take advantage of the situation and enslave the Zoombinis. The Zoombinis therefore decide to flee and search for a new home, and on their journey they encounter a variety of logic puzzles which the player must solve.
[edit] Features of the Zoombinis
Quite frequently, the puzzles involve the physical features of the Zoombinis as part of the solution. For example, in the puzzle 'Allergic Cliffs', the player is given a choice of 2 bridges, each of which will allow Zoombinis to pass only if they have certain combinations of features (such as 'red eyes'). The list of available features is as follows:
Hair: Flat-topped hair, a small tuft, shaggy hair, bobbed hair with a cap, and a ponytail.
Eyes: Glasses, sunglasses, wide open eyes, one eye, and sleepy (half-closed) eyes.
Noses: Purple, blue, green, red and orange.
Feet: Propellers, roller skates, springs, pink shoes and two wheels. body: blue In total, the number of unique combinations is 625, and the player has to save 625 Zoombinis in total. The player can opt to have up to two identical Zoombinis in play if they prefer, meaning that in a single game, not all Zoombini combinations have to be used.
[edit] The Puzzles
The Zoombinis travel in groups of 16 across a series of puzzles. There are 12 puzzles in total, split into four legs, and the Zoombinis must complete three legs (9 puzzles) in order to reach their new home. The first and last legs are compulsory and are completed by all Zoombinis; for the second leg the player is given a choice to take either the north or the south path.
In between each leg, there is a campsite where the Zoombinis can be stored for later retrieval.
If the player successfully brings an entire party of 16 Zoombinis through a leg, the leg will increase in difficulty and a building will be constructed at Zoombiniton to celebrate. The four difficulty levels are Not So Easy, Oh So Hard, Very Hard, and Very Very Hard, and each difficulty level is color-coded. Once a leg has increased in difficulty, there is no way to revert the change. If a group of 16 Zoombinis complete a leg while the difficulty is Very Very Hard, the difficulty does not increase since there is no higher level to progress to. In the same way, completing a leg under the Very Very Hard difficulty level will only reward the player with a new building once, since there is only one building per leg at each difficulty level.
[edit] Leg 1: The Big, The Bad and The Hungry
This leg starts at Zoombini Isle and finishes at the first campsite, Shelter Rock.
[edit] Allergic Cliffs
There are two bridges hanging over a cliff supported by six wooden pegs. The Zoombinis can only cross one of the bridges, and the bridge they are allowed to cross is determined by their characteristics. If the wrong bridge is selected, the face embedded in the cliff will have an allergic reaction and the Zoombini will be sent tumbling or flying back to the other side. As a result, a peg will spring loose and drop down the cliff. If all six pegs come loose, the bridges will collapse onto the faces and the Zoombinis who did not make it to the other side will be stranded, unable to cross between the cliffs. Assuming the player actually moves the same Zoombini to each of the two bridges (where the first bridge was wrong and the second bridge is the correct one), the player is guaranteed five Zoombinis to the other side.
[edit] Stone Cold Caves
The Zoombinis arrive at a stone face divided into four caves, which can be accessed by one path each. Each path is guarded by two stone guardians, who will only let Zoombinis pass if they have the right characteristics, similar to Allergic Cliffs. If the wrong cave is selected, a guardian will release a rock slide, sending the Zoombini tumbling down the path to the bottom. The player has many chances to find the right cave for each Zoombini before a rock slide tumbles down from above and seals the cave paths, leaving behind those who have not entered a cave.
[edit] Pizza Pass
The Zoombinis arrive on a dirt road guarded by three tree trolls: Arno, Willa and Shyler. There is a pizza machine to the left which has options for different toppings for a pizza and ice cream. The player must create a pizza with unique toppings for each troll. If none of the trolls are happy with the toppings on the pizza, it will be thrown into a pit. But if one of the trolls likes all of the toppings present on the pizza, it will be thrown onto the rock behind that troll instead. Once a troll receives a pizza with all of the wanted toppings on it, the troll will move to stand on their respective rock and wait for the remaining trolls to be satisfied. If the player is unsuccessful in delivering the correct pizza after 6 tries, the Zoombini delivering the pizza will be whacked by the first troll that is present onto the rock. If there are more incorrect delivers, the zoombini will be wacked away by a troll back to Zoombini Isle. The more incorrect deliveries, the more Zoombinis will be whacked away. Once all trolls are satisfied, they will consume their pizzas and the remaining Zoombinis will then be allowed to continue their journey.
There are significant changes to the puzzle as the level of difficulty increases:
- Not So Easy: Only Arno is present, and there are five pizza toppings.
- Oh, So Hard: Willa is added, giving a total of two trolls. There are now four pizza toppings, and ice cream is added with a total of 2 toppings.
- Very Hard: All three trolls are now present. Ice cream toppings remain the same as the preceding level, but all five pizza toppings can now be used.
- Very, Very Hard: Same as Very Hard, but now with three ice cream toppings.
[edit] Shelter Rock
Once this leg is complete, the remaining Zoombinis will arrive at Shelter Rock, the first campsite. The player is then given the opportunity to take either the north or the south path through to the next leg if they have 16 Zoombinis present. If the player does not have enough Zoombinis, or if they decide to return to a different campsite, the player can place any remaining Zoombinis into a storage compartment.
[edit] Leg 2A: The Marshy Trail / Who's Bayou
This leg starts at Shelter Rock and finishes at the second camp site, Shade Tree. If the Zoombinis choose to travel north from Shelter Rock, this is the leg that they will take.
[edit] Captain Cajun's Ferryboat
Captain Cajun will take the Zoombinis across a wide river on his ferry boat, but only if they have a characteristic in common with the person they sit next to. As the puzzle difficulty increases, the seats become closer together, so each Zoombini must have something in common with multiple Zoombinis. On the first level, the Zoombinis are placed in a line where fourteen of them must have something in common with two other Zoombinis and the other two just only needs something common with one other Zoombini. On the second level, the Zoombinis are placed on a 2 by 8 grid. On the third level, the Zoombinis are placed on a 4 by 4 grid. The final level is a 4 by 4 grid with the rows shifted slightly where some spaces require one Zoombini to share something in common with six other Zoombinis, as opposed to four.
[edit] Titanic Tattooed Toads
The player must find a path on different shaped, patterned and colored lily pads for huge toads to ferry them across the river on their backs. Each toad has a shape on its back which corresponds to a particular feature (hence 'tattooed toads'). The same toad cannot be used more than twice nor will there be any toads that hop diagonally. If the player chooses a path which doesn’t have a continuing sequence of the shape, color or pattern on the toad's back, the toad will get stuck and the Zoombini will be left in limbo on the lily pads and cannot continue. When the puzzle difficulty increases, there are few or no paths to be found, but half-formed ones. A fairy is shown at the beginning of the puzzle changing the lily pads with a wand. The wand (called the "Swapping Stick") is left with the toads and the player must swap the lily pads with the wand to make a path. Eventually, the wand's power will run out. In the third and fourth levels, crabs emerge from the river at the top of the lily pad field. The crabs have the shape of a particular lily pad on their back and, like the toads, will work their way down the field to obstruct the toads pathway, possibly taking them in a different direction.
[edit] Stone Rise
Similar to Captain Cajun's Ferryboat, the Zoombinis must be arranged on stones so that one Zoombini has something in common with their neighbor on the next stone, according to small etching on the stone between them. Doing so will create a power surge between the stones. When all the Zoombinis share a connection between their neighbors and all are connected to the power source (indicated by the stones turning red or blue), the stones rise up out of the riverbed and the Zoombinis can continue. In 'Very Very Hard' Mode (Red, Level 4) of this activity, in the centre of the field usually will be a line of four stones,(starting with the main stone on the very right and the other three directly left of it horizontally. Linking zoombinis on these four stones, and these four stones only a banner stating that the player has entered the 'Psychedelic ZB Zone' where the zoombinis will start flash, this has visual effect only.
[edit] Leg 2B: Deep, Dark Forest
This leg starts at Shelter Rock and finishes at the second camp site, Shade Tree. If the Zoombinis choose to travel south from Shelter Rock, this is the leg that they will take.
[edit] Fleens!
The Zoombinis meet their supposed cousins, the Fleens, in a clearing. There are three Fleens on a tree branch, which must be lured off by a Zoombini who has characteristics that correspond to the Fleen's characteristics. The object of this puzzle is to work out which Zoombini characteristics correspond to the Fleen characteristics. When a Fleen is lured off the branch by a Zoombini, they chase the Zoombini until the Zoombini escapes onto a separate tree branch. The player has six attempts to match the Zoombini with the Fleen before the Zoombinis run out of room on the tree branch and fall off, only to be chased away by their Fleen counterpart. If all three Fleens on the tree branch are lured off, the beehive on the branch gets disrupted and the remaining Fleens are chased away by the bees, forming a shape of either a pair of scissors, an arrow, or a storm cloud.
Assuming the 16th and last Zoombini lures the last Fleen off the branch, the player is guaranteed to have six Zoombinis progressing to the next challenge.
[edit] Didimension Hotel / Hotel Dimensia
Ulla Instantaneous is a musical squirrel who owns Didimension Hotel, Zoombini sized compartments hollowed out of a row of trees. She is preparing to close the hotel for the night so that she can begin the nightly rehearsals of her jazz band or go home. The player must place the Zoombinis in the compartments by characteristics (row by row, column by column, etc.), but if they are placed in the wrong compartment, the ledge holding the Zoombini will retract and the Zoombini will fall. Every time this happens, the clock on left side of the screen will cause 5 minutes to pass and the setting will get darker. The more mistakes made, the quicker the time passes and the darker it will become. If the clock reaches midnight, all the ledges will retract, announcing the hotel officially closed and the Zoombinis who don't have a room must return to the previous base camp.
[edit] Mudball Wall
A large stone wall inconveniently blocks the path of the Zoombinis. A nearby machine creates mud balls that can be colored and stamped with a shape. If the mud balls hit a certain target on the wall, either one, two or three Zoombinis get catapulted over the wall to safety. Eventually, the mud in the machine will run out, stranding those who did not make it over the wall.
[edit] Shade Tree
Once Zoombinis complete either of these two legs, they will arrive at Shade Tree, the second campsite. Shade Tree works in exactly the same way as Shelter Rock.
The only difference with Shade Tree (in terms of gameplay) is that there is now only one path that the Zoombinis can take - the path leading to the Mountains of Despair, which is the final leg.
[edit] Leg 3: The Mountains of Despair
This is the final leg of the journey.
[edit] The Lion's Lair
The Zoombinis encounter a dimly lit cavern where a large, stone lion guards the only way onward. Below the lion is a path consisting of 16 stones. The Zoombinis must be placed on the path, in order, according to certain characteristics, which are shown on the wall. If a Zoombini is placed on the wrong stone, a peg holding up a large gate pops free. When all the pegs are gone, the gate falls and the Zoombinis behind the gate cannot continue. The Zoombinis which are placed correctly on the path can continue their journey. The stone lion lifts its paw, and they can continue to the next puzzle. As the difficulty increases, characteristics disappear from the wall until no characteristics are shown.
[edit] Mirror Machine
The player has to find the doppelganger to each Zoombini on a glass slide, to match a mirrored reflection. Think of it as balancing an equation. If this is done correctly, the large, crystal pendulum is lifted and the Zoombini, riding a mine cart, will jump across a shaft and can move on. If it is done incorrectly, the pendulum is lowered and the Zoombini will crash into it and fall down the shaft. As the puzzle difficulty gets harder, the Zoombinis reflection has to be matched by adding in extra glass slides. Later on, the player will be forced to use a particular Zoombini (based on the order from last challenge) on the left side and compare it to the right side.
[edit] Bubblewonder Abyss
The Zoombinis have to navigate a maze while encased inside a bubble. They have to be sent through the maze according to certain characteristics. A wrong move can result in Zoombinis getting sucked into a whirlpool which pops their protective bubble and will vanish. If they are placed correctly, they are able to pass to the other side of the abyss.
As the puzzle difficulty gets harder, the Zoombinis can only navigate the maze by one 'bubble button' and the player must alternate so as to not lose Zoombinis, by changing arrow sequences to direct the Zoombinis in the maze, as well as triggers that can alternate a path entirely. The player should also be aware that if two bubbles collide with each other, both bubbles will pop and those Zoombinis will be lost. All Zoombinis that were lost will return to the Shade Tree base camp.
Those who survive this leg will reach their goal: Zoombiniton. The more Zoombinis complete the journey, the more buildings, houses, etc. get built and the bigger the town will grow.
[edit] Zoombiniton / Zoombiniville
Zoombiniton is the new home of the Zoombinis. The first time the player gets an entire group of 16 Zoombinis through a certain leg at a certain level, a special building gets constructed.
The buildings that can be earned are (in order): a band shell, a windmill, a general store, a swimming pool, a clock tower, a bowling alley, a fire station, an opera house, a paper clip museum, a courthouse, a monument, a school, a city hall, a library, an observatory and a playground.
[edit] Naming controversy
The original release of the game by Broderbund Europe in March 1996 came in three languages: British (v1.0BR), French (v1.0FR), and German (v1.0DE). The US division of Broderbund made some minor changes and released a US version (v1.1) in December 1996. As part of the US release they chose to change the names of several areas of the game as follows:
- Zoombiniton was renamed to Zoombiniville.
- The Marshy Trail was renamed to Who's Bayou.
- Didimension Hotel was renamed to Hotel Dimensia.
In addition the following changes were made to v1.1:
- A 32-bit version of the game was added, providing performance improvements for 32-bit operating systems. The 16-bit version remained available for compatibility with Windows 3.x.
- A new help feature was added, providing assistance to players who are stuck.
- Minor changes were made to some areas. For example, color-changing mushrooms were added to Shelter Rock.
- A link to 'Practice Mode' was added to the map screen (previously the player was required to press the keyboard shortcut CTRL+P in order to use Practice Mode)
- The rate of advancement through difficulty levels was slowed, meaning that players advance in levels after three successful passes through a leg of puzzles instead of one pass.
- The save game format was changed slightly. Saves from v1.0 are compatible with v1.1, but not the other way around.
[edit] Remake (v2.0)
The US version of the game (v1.1) was expanded and republished as "Zoombinis: Logical Journey v2.0" by The Learning Company in 2001. The following changes were made since v1.1:
- A brand new executable was written for the game, using DirectX rather than QuickTime.
- This version is only available as a 32-bit executable.
- A number of new mouse sense features were added.
[edit] System requirements of v2.0
[edit] PC
- 32-Bit Operating system: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows Vista**, Windows 7
- Vista is not always supported.
- 64-bit is never supported.
- Processor: Intel Pentium 166 MHz and faster
- RAM: 32 MB or more
- Hard disk space: 40 MB or more (not including 7 MB for Adobe Acrobat Reader)
- Video card: 16-bit video card
- Sound card: Windows-compatible sound card
- Speakers
[edit] Macintosh
- Operating system: Mac OS 8.6 and later, Mac OS X through 10.4 (Tiger) [1], but not 10.5 (Leopard) which does not support the Classic runtime environment
- Processor: PowerPC 180 MHz and faster
- RAM: 32 MB or more
- Hard disk space: 40 MB or more (not including 7 MB for Adobe Acrobat Reader)
- Video card: 16-bit video card
- Speakers
[edit] Zoombinis: Mountain Rescue
After re-releasing the original game, The Learning Company developed two sequels. The sequels follow the later US naming conventions, rather than the names used in the original Broderbund version. The first sequel was Zoombinis: Mountain Rescue.
[edit] Summary
After the foundation of Zoombiniville, the Zoombinis find peace once more, until a small group of them get trapped inside a cave seeking shelter from a storm. They meet up with strange creatures called Boolies who occupy a city known as Booliewood. As a result of the storm, the Boolies have been scattered across the land, and their leader, the Grand Boolie Boolie, has disappeared. The goal of the game is to recruit a total of 400 Boolies to Booliewood to resurrect the Grand Boolie Boolie.
In the final puzzle, the game uses the Boolie characters to teach how binary values are stored in computers, replicating up to four bits (a nibble) at a time. Only addition is shown, never any other operation.
Players have to try to change a series of boolean "Boolies" from random mood states (happy is 1 and sad is 0) into a pattern of all happy (1111) by adding integer values to the series. When they are all happy, they make their way to a ship that carries them to their promised land: Booliewood. After they've all made their way home, the grand Boolie Boolie returns and the game has been won.
Other puzzles in the game include multi-dimensional movement, rotation puzzles, and several deduction problems, as well as new versions of puzzles from its prequel, Zoombinis: Logical Journey.
The graphics have been upgraded in this game and the Zoombinis have a new appearance. There are three difficulty levels for each puzzle instead of four.
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[edit] Zoombinis: Island Odyssey
This game was the second sequel to be released by The Learning Company.
[edit] Summary
In this game, the Zoombinis discover that they left the moths to die in their native land of Zoombini Isle. So they take a boat and travel to Zoombini Isle, which is now completely empty of the Bloats (who made the land barren and then moved on). They must complete different puzzles, such as growing berries and breeding butterflies, to eventually set off a chain reaction that will restore the entire ecosystem of the island to its original glory.
This is the first game to incorporate science in the puzzles, which include intersection of rates, decoding, astronomical time, Venn diagrams, and Punnett squares, as well as some reincarnations of puzzles from Logical Journey. The graphics have again changed, and the Zoombinis' features are no longer important to gameplay. Here, they are fully 3-D.
To win the game, the Zoombinis must take care of the Zerbles, feed them, and then release them into the wild. Once the Zoombinis get all of the 224 Zerbles into the wild, the Zoombinis head back to Zoombiniville, and the game is won.
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[edit] Creatures
The most important creatures in the series are, of course, the Zoombinis, but there are several other characters outlined below.
[edit] Bloats
The Bloats are the evil race featured at the start of the original Zoombini game and are the creatures that drive the Zoombinis from their homeland. Very little other information about them is known. All that is seen of them is a big, black, pirate-like body and two glowing green eyes.
[edit] Boolies
The Boolies are creatures from the Zoombinis: Mountain Rescue game who can either be happy or sad. Their name is derived from Boolean logic, a kind of logic that has two states that is used extensively inside computers.
[edit] Captain Cajun
This character can be found in the original game. He paddles in his wooden raft around the Marshy Trail/Who's Bayou. He'll give Zoombinis a ride only if they have something in common with their neighbor when they sit down on his raft. If they sit down and have nothing in common, he'll stomp on buttons and pull levers that eject Zoombinis into the water or back onto the dock. He also gives occasional taunts and compliments to certain Zoombinis.
[edit] Fleens
The Fleens are, in many ways, similar to the Zoombinis, as they too also feature different noses, hair, eyes, and feet. However, they are portrayed as the "evil" parallel race of the Zoombinis. The Fleens are also rumored to be the Zoombinis' distant cousins, until their genetic code was messed up by a bad batch of hair mousse. They were kicked off the Zoombini Isle for being "lazy" and "shiftless". A Silkystone is one curious Fleen that caused the wipe out of an entire flower species by simply refusing to take the garbage out.
[edit] Moths
Moths appear in Zoombinis: Island Odyssey. They needed help from the Zoombinis to transform from caterpillars to moths. They have to be fed the leaves of the Tum-Tum trees and then they form their cocoons and have to come out to become moths to pollinate the Snozzleberries and the strawberries.
[edit] Norfs
The Norfs are creatures from the Zoombinis: Mountain Rescue game. Norfs either live or play under the snow, surfacing to get in the way of Zoombinis while they attempt to carefully snowboard a specific route on the mountain. They also pester the Zoombinis to give them exactly what they want for lunch out of a selection of fish, sandwiches, salads, milk, orange juice, tea, ice cream, watermelon, and pie.
[edit] Pizza Trolls
Arno, Willa and Shyler are the three pizza trolls that appear to resemble tree stumps. They will let the Zoombinis pass if they can correctly make a different pizza for each of the trolls. Once a Zoombini makes a pizza, a troll will either reject it or accept it, commanding the Zoombini to add more toppings until they make the precise pizza. When the level of difficulty rises, more pizza toppings and trolls are introduced. Arno is the stumpy, ill-tempered one, Willa, the tall, thin, gaudy type and Shyler is the portly one who seems very patient at first, but Shyler can quickly turn zany if his pizza isn't made correctly in four or five tries. "Fleens? You're not Fleens!" --Arno "HUMTH! Whatever you are, MAKE ME A PIZZA!" --Arno "WOW! Pizza makers!" --Shyler "My heros!" --Shyler "I'm starving!" -- Willa
[edit] Ulla Instantaneous
Ulla Instantaneous is a squirrel-like raccoon that runs a hotel in the "Deep Dark Forest". From time to time she often practices with her absent music companion "Charlie".
[edit] Zerbles
Zerbles are orange lizard-like creatures that appear in Zoombinis: Island Odyssey. Like the Zoombinis, their bodies have different features. For feet, they can either have legs, wheels, or skis. For a tail, they can either have a curly tail, an umbrella, or a propeller. In Zoombinis: Island Odyssey, more than 220 Zerbles have to be released into the wild. Their favourite foods are grapes. Each Zerble likes at least two different kinds of Strawberry.
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