| Putt-Putt Joins the Parade | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Humongous Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Humongous Entertainment Marubeni (3DO)[1] Night Dive Studios (Steam) |
| Release Date(s) | October 30, 1992 (DOS) June 22, 1993 (3DO) July 26, 1995 (Mac, Win) April 17, 2014 (Steam) July 30, 2014 (iOS/Android) |
| Genre(s) | Point-and-Click, Adventure |
| Platform(s) | 3DO DOS Windows 3.1 - Windows XP System 7 - Mac OS 9.2.2 iOS/Android |
| Engine | SCUMM |
| Input device(s) | Controller (3DO) Keyboard and Mouse (computer systems) |
Putt-Putt Joins the Parade is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Humongous Entertainment for DOS in 1992, on five floppy disks and on CD-ROM. In 1994, a 3DO version was released in both the United States and Japan. A Windows and Macintosh version was released in 1995. It is the first game developed by Humongous Entertainment.
Putt-Putt Joins the Parade is the first game in the Putt-Putt series and introduces Putt-Putt as the main character. Cartown is having its annual Pet Parade and Putt-Putt wants to join. Before he can enter the parade, he must first get a pet, find a balloon, and get cleaned at the carwash.
Probably most notable for being produced by Ron Gilbert, creator of the Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island series, allowing this and most subsequent Humongous releases to run on the powerful SPUTM engine (popularly known as SCUMM) used in those games.
Plot[]
When Putt-Putt hears on his radio that a pet parade is coming to Cartown, he really wants to be in it. Before he can enter the parade, he must find a pet and a balloon, and get cleaned at the carwash. After that, Putt-Putt goes to talk to Smokey the Fire Engine to borrow his lawn mower, so he could make some money to use the carwash, and even though the lawnmower is not Smokey's anymore, it must belong to Putt-Putt, who needs it to find a bone. He goes to Green Street, Red Street, and Blue Street to help people by mowing lawns and delivering groceries for Mr. Baldini to earn money for the carwash. Putt-Putt then helps a car, Mrs. Airbag, who lost her baby in the movies. After finding Baby Beep, Mrs. Airbag allows Putt-Putt to take her last balloon as a reward for helping her. Finally, he goes in a cave and finds a puppy that he names Pep. After that, he is the leader of the parade, and everyone has a happy day!
Gameplay[]
Putt-Putt Joins the Parade, like other later Humongous Entertainment games, is a point-and-click adventure game. The player takes control of Putt-Putt with the goal of finding a pet and a balloon, getting cleaned at the carwash, getting a new paint job, or doing both of those things, and having fun along the way. The game is played by using the mouse to interact with the environment. By clicking on various areas called click points, the player can collect items, talk with other characters, and watch entertaining animations. Items are collected to help the player solve puzzles. The game contains five different areas to explore: the three streets, the cave, and the movie theater. These areas are joined in the middle by Cartown.
Of course, Putt-Putt can join the parade either with or without getting a carwash if he has a new paint job assigned.
Characters[]
Cartown[]
- Smokey
- Mr. Baldini
- Mrs. Pinto
- Mrs. Airbag
- Baby Beeps (33 of them)
- Chuck
Red Street[]
Green Street[]
Blue Street[]
Others[]
Items[]
- Balloon (from Mrs. Airbag; key item)
- Birdseed (from Mr. Baldini, sometimes used, but not by honking your horn)
- Bone (found in the first selected yard)
- Coins (one found in Putt-Putt's house and some collected by finishing the lawn mowing job, but only by one)
- Groceries (from Mr. Baldini)
- Magnet (from the toy store)
- Pep (from the cave)
- Lawnmower (from Smokey)
Locations[]
- Baldini's Grocery Store
- Blue Street
- Cartown Bridge
- Cartown Carwash
- Cartown Color
- Cartown Fire Station
- Cartown Gas and Tires
- Cartown Intersection
- Cartown Movie Theater
- Cartown Pet Parade
- Cartown Toy Store
- Green Street
- Putt-Putt's House
- Red Street
Mini-Games[]
- Puzzle Blocks
- Pinball Maker
- Riddles and Jokes
- Word Book
Voices[]
- Jason Ellefson - Putt-Putt
- Scott Burns - Smokey, Mr. Baldini, Cartown Color Voice, Chuck, Bronco, Phineas Fender, Clarence, Buster T. Buggy, Mr. Parts and Service, Jacques, Mr. Fenderbender, Dog, Duck, Radio
- Laura Kenny - Mrs. Airbag, Mrs. Pinto
- Kath Soucie - Baby Beeps
Credits[]
Words in the Word Book[]
- B - Bag; Bed; Bee; Bib; Big; Bike; Bite; Blab; Black; Blip; Bug
- C - Cane; Cape; Cat; Clap; Claw; Clip; Cob; Cube; Cup; Cute
- D - Dig; Dog; Drag; Dress; Drip; Drop; Drum
- F - Fed; Feet; Five; Flag; Flip; Flop; Fun
- G - Gas; Glass; Glob; Glow; Grab; Grin; Grit
- H - Heel; Hen; Hog; Hop; Hug
- J - Jam
- K - Kid; Kite
- L - Lake; Lame; Leg; Lid; Lip; Log
- M - Mat; Mop; Mug
- N - Net; Nut
- P - Pan; Pen; Pig; Pin; Plug; Plus; Pot
- R - Rag; Rat; Red; Rod; Run
- S - Slam; Sled; Slid; Stag; Star; Stop; Sun; Swan; Swat; Swim
- T - Tag; Take; Tame; Tape; Ten; Top; Trap; Trim; Trip; Tub; Tube; Tune
- W - Web; Week
Revisional Differences[]
In the floppy disk version, one of the toys in the Toy Store is a "Box O' Blocks" that cycles through a few animations when clicked. In most CD-based releases, it's replaced with a joke-telling minigame to take advantage of the extra space (though the Japanese 3DO release omits this, probably to avoid localization headaches). Versions with the joke tellers still contain the Box's graphics and scripting, but disable them by swapping out the clickpoint that triggers them.
Putt-Putt Joins the Parade- Box 'o' Blocks clickpoint
The Box seems to have been a fairly late addition—its animations are stored separately from everything else at the very end of the game's data.
A placeholder or error handler for the save/load screen when no preview image is available for a room. Variations on this appear in practically every Humongous game.
Trivia/Errors[]
- This is the first Putt-Putt game to have an ending with three different outcomes. One of them happens automatically if Putt-Putt has gone to the Cartown Color and changed his color, Smokey will say Putt-Putt looks "as handsome as a new hubcab'' and doesn't need a carwash after all (that is, if he doesn't get the carwash).
- When the frog is clicked on to eat a fly for the first time, Putt-Putt will say: "Hmmm. Flying breakfast.".
- These tracks and their names come from the 3DO version, but equivalent data exists in all releases. go to https://tcrf.net/Putt-Putt_Joins_the_Parade to hear them CARWASH Presumably meant for the carwash, which just uses the same background music as the rest of the game. MONKEYS Probably intended for the monkey band in the Toy Store window, but they just play generic sound effects instead. POPWEASL In the DOS version, a MIDI rendition of this plays when the Toy Store's jack-in-the-box is clicked if the game is set up to play music. Recorded versions are present in the Windows and 3DO releases, but were discarded in favor of the sound effects used in the DOS version when music is disabled.PUPPY The name suggests this had something to do with Pep. A fanfare for solving the bone "puzzle"?
- Debugging Features A simple SCUMM script seemingly used to check that the game's rooms load correctly remains in the finished product. Running script 35 (most easily accomplished with ScummVM's debugger) causes all the rooms in the game to display sequentially in internal room order for five seconds each, starting from room 1 (Putt-Putt's front lawn) and continuing up to the last room (room 28, the parade sequence). Rooms wider than the screen scroll from left to right to show their full area. If debug output is enabled, each room transition is accompanied by a console message of the form "this room is # x".
- In some versions, the sun does not set before the credits, while in others, it does, and it becomes night.
- Almost all SCUMM-based Humongous games contain debug console output for various game bits and bobs (starting and stopping music, values of important variables, etc.). These aren't normally displayed; the simplest way to view them is to run the game in ScummVM and set its debug level to 0 or higher.This error is displayed as a subtitle when the engine can't initiate a conversation for some reason, such as the requested actor not being in the current room. Forcing script 10 to run will trigger this message during most parts of the game.
- In the word book, there are no words beginning with A, E, I, O, Q, U, V, X, Y, or Z.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Awards[]
| Publication | Award [2] |
|---|---|
| Choosing Children’s Software | 1999 Best Picks for the Holidays Award |
| Anders CD-ROM Guide | 1997 Medallion Award |
| Sesame Street Parents | 1997 Reviewer’s Choice Award |
| CES | 1994 Innovations Showcase Award Winner |
| CNET | Top 100 CD-ROMs Award Buy It! Award |
| MacUser | Five Mouse Award Best New Children’s Program |
| Kidsoft | Member’s Choice - Early Learning |
| PC Entertainment | Best PC Educational Game |
| Compute! | Best Educational Program |
| CD-ROM World | The CD-ROM 100 Best |
| Family Fun Magazine | Software of the Year |
| Parents' Choice | Parent's Choice Award |
| Home PC | Top 100 Products |
| Family PC | Family Tested-Recommended |
References[]
- ↑ Putt-Putt Joins the Parade Release Information for 3DO. GameFAQs. 2011-02-03.
- ↑ "Humongous Entertainment® Hall of Fame 1993-2000": 9–10.