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Putt-Putt (series)

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For the game known as putt-putt, see Miniature golf.
Putt-Putt
Putt-Putt and Pep
Genre(s)Adventure, Edutainment
Developer(s)Humongous Entertainment
Publisher(s)Humongous Entertainment
Night Dive Studios
Creator(s)Shelley Day
Platform(s)DOS, Microsoft Windows, 3DO, Macintosh, iOS
First releasePutt-Putt Joins the Parade
October 30, 1992
Latest releasePutt-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)

  1. Putt-Putt Joins the Parade (1992)
  2. Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon (1993)
  3. Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo (1995)
  4. Putt Putt Travels Through Time (1997)
  5. Putt-Putt Enters the Race (1998)
  6. Putt-Putt Joins the Circus (2000)
  7. Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise (2003)

Other games

"Junior Arcades"
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)
"Activity Packs"
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

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

  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ "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. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "H.E. Corp. Profile". web-beta.archive.org. Archived from the original on 1998-02-10. Retrieved 2017-01-18. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ 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. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "PC Magazine, Volume 16" (10). PC Magazine. May 27, 1997: 10. Retrieved 6 September 2016. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ Jennifer Oldham (March 26, 1997). "Putt-Putt to Shift Gears Into Television, Movies". Los Angeles Times.
  7. ^ Vincent, Brittany (17 April 2014). "Childhood edutainment favorites Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear on Steam is Humongous". Destructoid. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  8. ^ "Humongous Entertainment gets the Steam Treatment!". Humongous Entertainment. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Good, Owen (19 April 2014). "Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam and Humongous Entertainment return to PC on Steam". Polygon. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/putt-putt-balloon-rama-1999-humongous-421220593
  12. ^ "Putt-Putt on Steam". Steam. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  13. ^ "Putt-Putt Complete Pack on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  14. ^ "Humongous Entertainment Complete Pack on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  15. ^ http://www.cdaccess.com/html/quick/tripletrdr.htm
  16. ^ "Humongous Entertainment triple treat 2". Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  17. ^ "UPC 742725165212 - World of Fun & Learning: Kindergarten Edition -". www.upccodesearch.com. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  18. ^ "Putt-Putt Fun & Learning Kindergarten Edition". Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  19. ^ "UPC 742725178342 - True Enterprise X8 PCI Express to 4Gbps Quad Port". www.upccodesearch.com. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  20. ^ "Super Duper Arcade 1". Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  21. ^ "UPC 742725178373 - SuperDuper Arcade 2 (4 Humongous Titles)". www.upccodesearch.com. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  22. ^ "Super Duper Arcade 2". Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  23. ^ "Putt=Putt 7 - Meet the Characters" (PDF). August 21, 2003: 8–12. Retrieved March 17, 2016. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  24. ^ "ISBN 1570649448". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  25. ^ "ISBN 0679879587". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  26. ^ "ISBN 1570649448". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  27. ^ "ISBN 1570649456". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  28. ^ "ISBN 1586680609". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  29. ^ "ISBN 1586680676". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  30. ^ "ISBN 1586681494". Barcode Lookup. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  31. ^ Ito, Mizuko (January 27, 2007). "Education V. Entertainment" (PDF): 12. Retrieved 21 April 2015. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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