JumpStart was an educational media franchise created for children, primarily consisting of educational games. The franchise was developed by JumpStart Games and expanded beyond games to include workbooks, direct-to-video films, mobile apps, and other media. It was officially launched on March 10, 2009, offering a blend of educational content and entertainment experiences.
The Blaster Learning System is an educational video game series originally created and published by Davidson & Associates, but is now owned and published by JumpStart, after the two companies were acquired and merged by CUC Software. Titles in the series have been produced for several computer systems, video game consoles, and as standalone handheld units. Originally, the series simply learned mathematics, but eventually expanded to other subjects, such as language arts (reading) and science. Because the first Math Blaster series was so popular, Davidson made Reading Blaster in 1994, which also went on to be a hit.
Adobe Shockwave is a discontinued multimedia platform for building interactive multimedia applications and video games. Developers originate content using Adobe Director and publish it on the Internet. Such content could be viewed in a web browser on any computer with the Shockwave Player plug-in installed. MacroMind originated the technology; Macromedia acquired MacroMind and developed it further, releasing Shockwave Player in 1995. Adobe then acquired Shockwave with Macromedia in 2005. Shockwave supports raster graphics, basic vector graphics, 3D graphics, audio, and an embedded scripting language called Lingo.
Star Wars: X-Wing is a space simulation video game, the first of the X-Wing combat flight simulation games series. The player's character flies starfighters, including the X-wing, for the Rebel Alliance. The narrative precedes and parallels the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
Living Books is a series of interactive read-along adventures aimed at children aged 3–9. Created by Mark Schlichting, the series was mostly developed by Living Books for CD-ROM and published by Broderbund for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. Two decades after the original release, the series was re-released by Wanderful Interactive Storybook for iOS and Android.
Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time is a collection of minigames, screensavers, desktop wallpaper and icons for Mac OS System 7 and Windows released in 1994 by 7th Level, Inc. It was brought on board the Mir Space Station by astronaut Andy Thomas.
Math Blaster Episode I: In Search of Spot is an edutainment game in the Blaster Learning System line of educational products created by Davidson & Associates. It is a remake of their earlier New Math Blaster Plus! from 1991. Versions of the game were released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis, simply titled Math Blaster: Episode 1. The program was translated to Spanish and was published as Mates Blaster: En Busca de Positrón. A remake titled Mega Math Blaster was released in 1996. When Knowledge Adventure merged with Davidson & Associates in 1997, the game was rereleased in the following year under the title Math Blaster: Ages 6-9. It was later repackaged as Math Blaster: 3rd Grade in 1999.
JumpStart Adventures 3rd Grade: Mystery Mountain is a personal computer game in Knowledge Adventure's JumpStart series of educational software. As the title suggests, the game is intended to teach a third grade curriculum. This is the only version of this game created and, unusually for Knowledge Adventure, was still being sold over fifteen years after its initial release on December 2, 1996. On June 6, 2003, it was included as the "Fundamentals" disc of JumpStart Advanced 3rd Grade.
JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Haunted Island is a personal computer game in Knowledge Adventure's JumpStart series of educational software intended to teach a fourth grade curriculum. The game was released on December 2, 1996.
JumpStart Adventures 5th Grade: Jo Hammet, Kid Detective is an educational/adventure computer game in the JumpStart series, created by Knowledge Adventure in 1997 and intended for fifth grade students.
JumpStart Advanced 2nd Grade is a personal computer game created by Knowledge Adventure. It replaced the previous JumpStart 2nd Grade released in 1996. As its name suggests, it was made to teach second grade students. From 2003–2008, it was distributed as the "Fundamentals" disc in a 3- or 4-disc package of the same name, though recently a factory error in some packages caused the Fundamentals disc to be replaced by JumpStart 3D Virtual World: The Quest for the Color Meister going by the same name.
There have been a variety of Sesame Street video games released for video game platforms. Most of the Sesame Street video games were published and developed by NewKidCo.
MicrosoftEncarta is a discontinued digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft from 1993 to 2009. Originally sold on CD-ROM or DVD, it was also available online via annual subscription, although later articles could also be viewed for free online with advertisements. By 2008, the complete English version, Encarta Premium, consisted of more than 62,000 articles, numerous photos and illustrations, music clips, videos, interactive content, timelines, maps, atlases and homework tools.
JumpStart 3D Virtual World is a sub-series of the larger JumpStart series of educational games. It was originally titled JumpStart World.
JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade is a personal computer game created by Knowledge Adventure. It replaced the previous JumpStart 1st Grade released in 1995 and updated in 2000. As its name suggests, it was made to teach first grade students. From 2003–2008, it was distributed as the "Fundamentals" disc in a 3- or 4-disc package of the same name, though recently a factory error caused many JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade packages to instead contain JumpStart 3D Virtual World: Trouble in Town going by the same name.
JumpStart Kindergarten is an educational video game developed by Fanfare Software and released by Knowledge Adventure on the MS-DOS platform in 1994 (v1.0). It was the first product released in the JumpStart series and, as its name suggests, it is intended to teach kindergarten students. According to the Knowledge Adventure founder Bill Gross, it is the first educational software program that covers the entire kindergarten curriculum. It was ported to the Windows and Macintosh systems in 1995 (v1.2). It was updated with a new version on 24 November 1997 (v2.0). It was updated with additional content in a 2-CD Deluxe version in 2000 (v2.6), that included JumpStart Around the World. Eventually it was replaced in 2002 by JumpStart Advanced Kindergarten.
You Don't Know Jack is a video game released in 1995 by Jackbox Games, and the first release in the You Don't Know Jack video game series.
Disney's Animated Storybook is a point-and-click adventure interactive storybook video game series based on Walt Disney feature animations and Pixar films that were released throughout the 1990s. They were published by Disney Interactive for personal computers for children ages four to eight years old. Starting from 1994, most of the entries in the series were developed by Media Station. They have the same plots as their respective films, though abridged due to the limited medium.
Madeline is a series of educational point-and-click adventure video games which were developed during the mid-1990s for Windows and Mac systems. The games are an extension of the Madeline series of children's books by Ludwig Bemelmans, which describe the adventures of a young French girl. The video-game series was produced concurrently with a TV series of the same name, with characters and voice actors from the show.
JumpStart Preschool is a 1995 educational video game and third installment of the JumpStart franchise by Knowledge Adventure, after JumpStart Kindergarten (1994) and JumpStart 1st Grade (1995). It would later be re-released as JumpStart Preschool on August 26, 1998 and superseded by a new title JumpStart Advanced Preschool in 2002. It is also known as Jump Ahead Preschool in Europe.
