''Putt-Putt Joins the Parade'' is a 1992 video game and the first of seven

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

s in the Putt-Putt series of games developed and published by

Humongous Entertainment Humongous Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company is best known for developing multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently ''Putt-Putt (series), Putt-Putt'', ''Fred ...

. Upon release, the game sold over 300,000 copies. The combined sales of ''Putt-Putt Joins the Parade'', ''

Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon ''Putt-Putt Goes To The Moon'' is a 1993 video game and the second of seven adventure games in the Putt-Putt series developed and published by Humongous Entertainment. It is also the last game in the series to use pixel art graphics. Plot Put ...

'' and ''

Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo ''Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo'' is a 1995 video game and the third of seven adventure games in the Putt-Putt series of games developed and published by Humongous Entertainment. The animation style also changed with this game to hand-drawn animation, ...

'' surpassed one million units by June 1997. This is also first game by Humongous Entertainment.

Plot

Putt-Putt (voiced by Jason Ellefson) wakes up one morning and turns on his radio, which announces that today is the day of the Cartown pet parade. Putt-Putt becomes interested in participating but acknowledges that he doesn't have a pet. He decides to visit Smokey the Fire Engine, who is in charge of the parade, to talk to him about it. Smokey tells Putt-Putt that he will need to bring a pet and a balloon, as well as get a car wash. He suggests to Putt-Putt that he try mowing lawns for money to pay for the car wash (even letting Putt-Putt borrow his lawn mower), as well as helping Mr. Baldini, the owner of the local

grocery store A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...

, deliver groceries to friends. While completing his goals, Putt-Putt has to clear obstacles on street paths (which includes nails, birds and a marching band of mice). Putt-Putt soon makes enough money to get a car wash, helps Mrs. Airbag by finding her lost son, Baby Beep, in the movie theater, getting a balloon as a reward, and meets a stray puppy in a cave, whom he befriends by giving him a bone (which he found while mowing a lawn) and names him "Pep". After Putt-Putt does all the tasks he needed to do, Smokey signs him up for the parade and even lets him lead in it. The cars in the parade all drive off as the sun sets and the

credits Credit refers to any form of deferred payment, the granting of a loan and the creation of debt. Credit may also refer to: Places * Credit, Arkansas, a ghost town * Credit River, a river in Ontario, Canada * Credit River (Minnesota), a river in ...

roll.

Gameplay

The game plays like a typical point-and-click adventure game with the player moving Putt-Putt from one location to the next, picking up items and using them with mouse clicks. In the 3DO version, the on-screen pointing cursor is moved with the

D-pad A D-pad (short for directional pad or digital pad; officially referred to by Nintendo as a +Control Pad) is a flat, usually thumb-operated, often digital, four-way directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern vid ...

and a button is used to click on what the cursor is pointing at. Fully voiced characters can be talked to and every scene is filled with colorful and animated interactions. Putt-Putt places collected items in his

glove box A glovebox (or glove box) is a sealed container that is designed to allow one to manipulate objects where a separate atmosphere is desired. Built into the sides of the glovebox are gloves arranged in such a way that the user can place their hand ...

, which serves as a simple

heads-up display A head-up display, or heads-up display, also known as a HUD (), is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints. The origin of the name stems from a pilot being able to view informa ...

Release

After the game's creation,

had intended to get

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

to distribute the product, invoking a lawsuit from

Lucasarts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as ...

over the ownership of the SCUMM game engine and disruption from press release. When a demo of the game was completed, it was uploaded to

CompuServe CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its initialism CIS) was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the world – described in 1994 as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the oth ...

. It took time before a single user downloaded the game, then gave a lengthy review which gave a steady increase in audience.

Reception

In 1997, a study conducted by the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

compared children's reception of educational games with their professionally assigned developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) ratings. Of the thirteen programs selected, ''Putt-Putt Joins the Parade'' ranked as the most frequently played game.

References

External links

*
''Putt-Putt Joins the Parade'' at Humongous Entertainment
{{DEFAULTSORT:Putt-Putt I

Putt-Putt Joins the Parade ''Putt-Putt Joins the Parade'' is a 1992 video game and the first of seven adventure games in the Putt-Putt series of games developed and published by Humongous Entertainment. Upon release, the game sold over 300,000 copies. The combined sales ...

Humongous Entertainment games 3DO Interactive Multiplayer games Adventure games DOS games Linux games Classic Mac OS games ScummVM-supported games Windows games Point-and-click adventure games Video games developed in the United States Single-player video games Children's educational video games Tommo games