''Richard Scarry's Busytown'' is a 1993 educational

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

that was developed by

Novotrade Appaloosa Interactive (formerly Novotrade International) was a corporation, founded in 1982 in Hungary, that produced video games, computer programs and television commercials during the 1980s and 1990s. History Novotrade International was founded ...

for preschool gamers. It was released for

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

, and

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

. This game was based on the series of ''Best...Ever!'' series of VHSes distributed by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Ger ...

's home video division preceding the TV series' ''

The Busy World of Richard Scarry ''The Busy World of Richard Scarry'' is an animated children's television series, produced by CINAR Animation and France Animation in association with Paramount Television, which aired from 1994 to 1997, first on Showtime, later on Nickelodeon, ...

'' that was produced by

CINAR Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. (also known as Cookie Jar Group and originally known as CINAR; renamed as DHX Cookie Jar Inc. from 2012 until 2014, or simply just Cookie Jar) was a Canadian media production and distribution company owned by DHX ...

and

Paramount Television The original incarnation of Paramount Television was the name of the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, that was responsible for the production of Viacom television programs, until it changed its name ...

. It was remade in 1999 by Pearson Software for Microsoft Windows ( 95 and later) and

Mac OS Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded " ...

(System 7.5.1 and later), with the visuals and animation updated to resemble that of ''The Busy World of Richard Scarry'', and the dialogue re-recorded with

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

actors.

Gameplay

The game consists of an interactive storybook that was written by

Richard Scarry Richard McClure Scarry (June 5, 1919 – April 30, 1994) was an American children's author and illustrator who published over 300 books with total sales of over 100 million worldwide. He is best known for his ''Best Ever'' book series that take ...

. Most of the game is spent discovering

Busytown Busytown is a fictional town depicted in several books by American children's author Richard Scarry. Busytown is inhabited by an assortment of anthropomorphic animals, including Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, Mr. Frumble, police Sergeant Murphy, Mr. ...

looking for things to interact with using either the game pad or a special mouse that could be purchased separately from the game and the console system. Young gamers will do everything from building a house using construction tools to delivering something to repair a

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguishe ...

. Games are relatively short and can be finished in about an hour. Familiar faces from Richard Scarry's works of literature include Huckle Cat and

Lowly Worm Lowly Worm is a fictional character created by Richard Scarry; he frequently appears in children's books by Scarry, and is a main character in the animated series '' The Busy World of Richard Scarry'' and '' Busytown Mysteries''. In ''The Busy Wo ...

. Another game allows players to control the

wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few ...

in order to cause controlled havoc at the Busytown park and beach. Other games located throughout Busytown include helping finish Mr. Fix-it's latest invention, helping a patient at Dr. Diane's hospital, delivering goods throughout Busytown, helping Smokey the Firefighter prepare a fire engine for extinguishing a house fire, work at a gas station, fill orders at an automated deli, learn basic addition/subtraction on a see-saw, and help Bananas Gorilla get his box of bananas out of a park full of tourists. All games offer basic

vocabulary A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...

practice as simple puzzles help improve basic

problem solving Problem solving is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business an ...

and

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to t ...

skills. The voice quality of this game is realistic when compared to the cartoons of that era. All of the characters act and talk like their counterparts in the books and the animated series. If the player puts too much lemonade or soda in the glass and spills some out of the glass, then one of the characters may ask the player "Are you

blind Blind may refer to: * The state of blindness, being unable to see * A window blind, a covering for a window Blind may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Blind'' (2007 film), a Dutch drama by Tamar van den Dop * ''Blind' ...

?" in a gentle voice. Delivering stuff allows the town to slowly come to life. The Sega version omits the Mr. Fix-it, Dr. Diane,

gas station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasol ...

, see saw and Bananas Gorilla portions of the game.

Sequel and remake

There was a sequel for this game titled ''Richard Scarry's How Things Work in Busytown'' which received a 1994 North American exclusive release from

and

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pub ...

. Like the original game, it is intended for a pre-kindergarten through

second grade Second grade (also called grade two, corresponding to Year 3 in the United Kingdom) is a year of primary education in Canada and the United States. Second grade is the second year of primary school. Children are usually aged 7–8 at this grade ...

audience and was released for

in addition to the

. Children that play this game learn to assemble

machinery A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecul ...

, bake bread, and complete other processes that are necessary to live life. This game makes kids think where

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ...

comes from, how bread is baked, and so on. Different outcomes can be observed through the several different learning methods. Young players can also learn

, word recognition, and sequencing.Tech Learning
The original ''Busytown'' video game was remade in 1999 by Simon & Schuster Software, Pearson Software and Boston Animation. It was released for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems, and featured improved

voice acting Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talen ...

, graphics and animation resembling ''The Busy World of Richard Scarry'' animated series, with an instrumental cover of the show's theme song playing over the game's credits. The gameplay is still the same and the original songs from the 1993 release are included. However, the original game's Bananas Gorilla activity and song and Junior Seesaw activity was removed (the latter due to being redundant in comparison to the main Seesaw activity). Everything else from the DOS version was carried over to the remake.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through t ...

'' in January 1994 liked the graphics "in spite of some choppiness in the animation. Richard Scarry's characters are faithfully reproduced". The magazine concluded that "''Busytown'' is a must-have if there's a young child in the house". In April 1994 the magazine said that "''Busytown'' is playful learning at its best".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richard Scarry's Busytown 1993 video games 1999 video games DOS games Children's educational video games North America-exclusive video games Sega Genesis games Sega video games Single-player video games Video games developed in Hungary Video games developed in the United States Video games based on television series Video games based on adaptations