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Jul 29, 2023

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Many children of the 90s remember their first video games and they have a lot in common. Here is a retrospective on three of the most beloved. PC gaming in the 90s and early 00s was a very different

Many children of the 90s remember their first video games and they have a lot in common. Here is a retrospective on three of the most beloved.

PC gaming in the 90s and early 00s was a very different experience than what it is today. It feels like ages ago when video games came in large, colorful boxes with big manuals and sparkling jewel cases hoping to entice the buyer (and most likely their children). The joy of going to toy stores at that time wasn't just about the toys, but also the new video games lining the shelves. Gaming was relegated to a very niche crowd and, often, younger gamers were playing at their parent's or older sibling's knee to learn more about this relatively new media format.

Humongous Games was the company behind many gamers first forays into the format. They were safe, entertaining games with a bend toward education and bolstering the skills of preschool to third grade children that parents could feel good about purchasing. But they were so much more than that to so many people who are now parents today. With the recent release of the Humongous Classic Collection, it's time for a walk down memory lane to talk about the games that introduced many young people to a hobby they would love for decades to come.

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Formed in 1992, Humongous Entertainment was the brain child of Shelley Day and Ron Gilbert, both veterans of the adventure game genre with impressive credits, including the Monkey Island series. The company quickly became known for its point-and-click adventure games, but they were specifically targeted at younger kids. While their titles did require some creative thinking in places, the extreme levels of adventure game logic were not implemented as difficulty wasn't the point of these games. There was a stronger focus on color and shape recognition, reading skills, and the use of context clues in order to complete the stories contained in each series.

The "Junior Adventures" series, as it came to be known, started with Putt-Putt Joins The Parade in 1992. It had a particularly interesting start as a game due to issues surrounding the rights to the game engine and a legal battle between LucasArts and Electronic Arts. What gave the game traction enough to sell over 300,000 copies at release was the demo released on CompuServe and a lengthy review written in the ancient days of the internet. 300,000 copies may not seem like much in today's gaming market, but gaming was a niche hobby at the time in question, and this was actually quite impressive. As a comparison, Baldur's Gate II sold only 225,763 copies in its first year of release despite being lauded as one of the greatest games of all time. For a simple little children's game to sell that well was virtually unheard of.

While Humongous Games did make more adult themed titles like Total Annihilation in their subdivisions, they would never carry the same cultural clout that the "Junior Adventures" titles did. Putt-Putt as a franchise put the company on the map and paved the way for more of their storied franchises like Pajama Sam and Freddi Fish to take the stage. These games would also go on to indirectly inspire the rise of "edutainment" video games for younger audiences (which were often targeted based on grade level and focused on reinforcing lessons learned in school), but they would never reach the same level of pop culture recognition that the Humongous Games catalog held well into the very early 00s. Sadly, the company would be dissolved in 2006 after changing hands multiple times in the wake of the dot-com collapse, but their games would still create an entire generation of gamers for a number of reasons.

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Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam, and Spy Fox are just a few examples of the many franchises that Humongous Games created. Each one introduced an incredibly interesting and intricate world that children could explore and interact with. Many objects in the environment had special animations when clicked on, and the characters were usually voiced by young voice actors. These games were made with children in mind but with enough humor and edge that older siblings and adults could also enjoy the experience. They were also wildly clever with how they used sight gags, pulling from the animation styles of cartoons that emphasized bend-and-stretch physics and quick motion to convey characterizations that were easier for children to understand.

While the majority of these games were made in the 90s, even now they have a timelessness to them shared by cartoons of the time period. The imaginations of children are boundless, and these games communicated those similar ideas in their characters. The titular Pajama Sam himself is an excellent example, turning his home at night into a wonderland for other children to explore. Freddi's detective acumen wasn't on the level of Sherlock Holmes, but her mysteries were ones that kids could follow along with and solve. The Freddi Fish games were particularly interesting because of the aspect of randomization that they had, making each playthrough fresh.

Humongous Games had a fascinating three decades from its founding to its dissolution to its revival. With the new collection's release, there has been a wave of nostalgia going around the internet, with YouTubers like the GameGrumps playing through Putt-Putt Goes To The Zoo twenty-eight years after its initial release. One of the core aspects of these games was that they never talked down to their audience, but brought them along on the adventure without treating them like kids. The impact this company had on many millennials is hard to fully grasp, but it is amazing to see that these games are available for a new generation of children to enjoy the same way their parents did.

Alyx is a long time gamer who has spent way too much time perfecting her use of the Souls Series Character Creator and replays Baldur's Gate 2 at least once per year.