Putt-Putt (series)

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Putt-Putt
Putt-Putt & Pep.png
Putt-Putt and Pep
Genre(s) Adventure, Edutainment
Developer(s) Humongous Entertainment
Publisher(s) Humongous Entertainment
Atari
Infogrames
Night Dive Studios
Creator(s) Shelley Day
Platform(s) DOS, Microsoft Windows, 3DO, Macintosh, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4
First release Putt-Putt Joins the Parade
September 9, 1992
Latest releasePutt-Putt's Fun House
2013

Putt-Putt is a series 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 dog, Pep, travel to various locations.

Contents

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 next three games, 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 titled "Putt-Putt 'n Pals", along with movies and home video releases. [5] [6] Ultimately, the deal fell through.

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] The first two games used pixel art graphics; starting with the third game, the series uses hand-drawn animation.

Games

Adventure games

Humongous Entertainment classified these games as Junior Adventures (for kids 3–8):

  1. Putt-Putt Joins the Parade (November 6, 1992)
  2. Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon (October 1, 1993)
  3. Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo (August 10, 1995)
  4. Putt-Putt Travels Through Time (June 1, 1997)
  5. Putt-Putt Enters the Race (January 1, 1999) [11]
  6. Putt-Putt Joins the Circus (July 11, 2000) [12]
  7. Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise (September 16, 2003)

Other games

"Junior Arcades"
GameReleasesDeveloper/Publisher
Putt-Putt and Pep's Dog on a StickOctober 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) [13]
April 17, 2014 (Steam)		 Humongous Entertainment, Toymax (LCD)
"Activity Packs"
GameReleasesDeveloper/Publisher
Putt-Putt's Fun PackMarch 26, 1993 (DOS/Mac/3DO) Humongous Entertainment
Putt-Putt & Fatty Bear's Activity PackMarch 25, 1994 (Win) Humongous Entertainment
Putt-Putt's One-Stop Fun ShopMay 23, 2000 (Win/Mac) Humongous Entertainment
Putt-Putt's Fun HouseMay 22, 2013 (iOS) Humongous Entertainment, Nimbus Games

Customization

Players can change Putt-Putt's color to original purple, red, orange, yellow, green or blue. All colors can be painted on again. This also changes the color of the dashboard in Putt-Putt Enters the Race and Putt-Putt Joins the Circus. However, in Putt-Putt Joins the Parade and Putt-Putt Enters the Race, each color change costs three coins that can be collected in the game world. In Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise, Putt-Putt's color can only be changed temporarily before reverting to purple after some traveling. His color can also be changed in certain levels of Putt-Putt and Pep's Balloon-o-Rama by using Pep to pop certain balloons tied to paint buckets, then catching the bucket containing the desired color as it falls to change Putt-Putt to.

Availability

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".

TitleDateWriterPublisherIllustrator
Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas [25] December 1995Laurie Bauman ArnoldHumongous Entertainment, Inc.Derek McCaughan, Edward Pun
Putt-Putt and Pep [26] May 7, 1996Del ThompsonRandom House Books For Young Readers
Putt-Putt: The Great Pet Chase [27] July 2000Laurie Bauman Arnold, Tricia LegaultLyrick Publishing
Go, Go, Putt-Putt Go! [28] 2000Laurie Bauman Arnold, N.S. GreenfieldLyrick PublishingDarren McKee
Putt-Putt: Lost In Time [29] January 2001Nancy ParentLyrick PublishingJosie Yee
Putt-Putt: Race Against the Clock [30] July 2001Gayla AmaralLyrick PublishingSue DiCiccio
On the Road With Putt-Putt [31] July 2001Lyrick 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. [32]

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Putt-Putt Travels Through Time is a 1997 video game and the fourth of seven adventure games in the Putt-Putt series of games developed and published by Humongous Entertainment. In 2014 Night Dive Studios re-released the iOS, Linux and Steam versions. In 2022, a port was released on the Nintendo Switch in January, as one of the first Humongous Entertainment games to be released on the system alongside Freddi Fish 3: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell, followed by a PlayStation 4 version in November. This is the last game to feature Jason Ellefson as the voice of Putt-Putt.

References

  1. ↑ Jacquie Kubin (October 1, 2000). "There's Humongous Rewards in Entertaining Little Kids". Archived from the original on October 12, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016. Putt-Putt is the flagship title of the company
  2. ↑ "Shelley Day profile in TIME magazine archive". 2009-05-12. Archived from the original on May 12, 2009. Retrieved 2013-12-05.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. ↑ "H.E. Corp. Profile". Archived from the original on 1998-02-10. Retrieved 2017-01-18.
  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.
  5. ↑ "LANCIT MEDIA AND HUMONGOUS ENTERTAINMENT TO CREATE TV, MOVIE, AND HOME VIDEO PROGRAMMING BASED ON CD-ROM SUPERSTARS "PUTT-PUTT," "FREDDI FISH," AND PAJAMA SAM"" . Retrieved 2023-06-27.
  6. ↑ "Lancit and JuniorNet merge in an early-bird convergence effort". Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
  7. ↑ Vincent, Brittany (17 April 2014). "Childhood edutainment favorites Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear on Steam is Humongous". Destructoid . Archived from the original on 20 April 2014. 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.
  9. ↑ Good, Owen (19 April 2014). "Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam and Humongous Entertainment return to PC on Steam". Polygon . Archived from the original on 13 September 2016. 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 . Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  11. ↑ "Humongous Entertainment Brings a New Perspective to Children's Software; Putt-Putt's Newest Junior Adventure™ Puts Kids in the Driver's Seat Putt-Putt Enters the Race™ Hits Retail Stores This Week; Humongous.com Kicks off Online Launch Party for Putt-Putt on January 14" (Press release). Humongous Entertainment. January 5, 1999. Archived from the original on October 2, 1999.
  12. ↑ "Putt-Putt® Joins the Circus™ from Humongous Entertainment® Offers Big Top Fun for Children of All Ages" (Press release). Humongous Entertainment. July 11, 2000. Archived from the original on November 20, 2000.
  13. ↑ "Putt-Putt Balloon-O-Rama - 1999 Humongous - Electronic Hand Held | #421220593". Archived from the original on 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  14. ↑ "Putt-Putt on Steam". Steam. Archived from the original on May 19, 2015. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Putt-Putt Complete Pack on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Archived from the original on December 26, 2016. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Humongous Entertainment Complete Pack on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Archived from the original on December 23, 2016. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Humongous Entertainment Triple Treat (Win95/Win98/Win3.1/Mac) - from CD-ROM Access". www.cdaccess.com. Archived from the original on 2000-05-10.
  18. ↑ Humongous Entertainment triple treat 2. OCLC   42255135.
  19. ↑ "UPC 742725165212 – World of Fun & Learning: Kindergarten Edition -". www.upccodesearch.com. Archived from the original on 2017-04-22. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  20. ↑ "Putt-Putt Fun & Learning Kindergarten Edition". Archived from the original on 8 July 2008. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  21. ↑ "UPC 742725178342 – True Enterprise X8 PCI Express to 4Gbps Quad Port". www.upccodesearch.com. Archived from the original on 2017-04-22. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  22. ↑ "Super Duper Arcade 1". Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  23. ↑ "UPC 742725178373 – SuperDuper Arcade 2 (4 Humongous Titles)". www.upccodesearch.com. Archived from the original on 2017-04-22. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  24. ↑ "Super Duper Arcade 2". Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 19, 2016.
  25. ↑ "ISBN 1570649448". Barcode Lookup. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  26. ↑ "ISBN 0679879587". Barcode Lookup. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  27. ↑ "ISBN 1570649448". Barcode Lookup. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  28. ↑ "ISBN 1570649456". Barcode Lookup. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  29. ↑ "ISBN 1586680609". Barcode Lookup. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  30. ↑ "ISBN 1586680676". Barcode Lookup. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  31. ↑ "ISBN 1586681494". Barcode Lookup. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved August 27, 2016.
  32. ↑ Ito, Mizuko (January 27, 2007). "Education V. Entertainment" (PDF): 12. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2015.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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