1. History
     Formation (1992–1996)    Acquisitions, decline, dissolution (1996–2006)    Asset sale, brand revival (2013–2015)  

2. Games developed
     Putt-Putt    Freddi Fish    Pajama Sam    Spy Fox    Fatty Bear    Blue's Clues    Big Thinkers    Junior Field Trips    Backyard Sports    Other  

3. References

4. External links

Humongous Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in March 1992, the company is best known for developing multiple edutainment franchises, of which most prominently, Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam and Spy Fox, which, combined, sold over 15 million copies and earned more than 400 awards of excellence.^[1] Humongous Entertainment was acquired by GT Interactive (later renamed Infogrames, Inc., then Atari, Inc.) in July 1996. By October 2000, sales of Humongous games had surpassed 16 million copies.^[2] GT sold Humongous to its parent company, Infogrames (later renamed Atari, SA), in August 2005, as a result of which the company was shut down a few months after. Infogrames transitioned the label to a new company, Humongous, Inc., which continued publishing games under the Humongous label until 2009, when it faced bankruptcy. As part of the bankruptcy agreement of the Atari, SA subsidiary Atari, Inc., Humongous, Inc. and Atari Interactive, Tommo acquired the Humongous brand and all of its assets, and went on to re-release some of its games into digital distribution channels in conjunction with Night Dive Studios.

History

Formation (1992–1996)

Humongous Entertainment was formed on March 2, 1992, by Shelley Day and Ron Gilbert.^[3] The name Humongous Entertainment was suggested by Gilbert's ex-LucasArts colleague, Tim Schafer.^[4] It became known for creating four point-and-click adventure game series intended for young children, branded collectively as "Junior Adventures", with the four series being the Putt-Putt series, the Freddi Fish series, the Pajama Sam series and the Spy Fox series. Despite all four series being developed and released in parallel, characters from one series do not formally cross over with ones in another and instead appear as cameos or Easter eggs in any of the three other series. The company got the reputation as the "third largest children's educational-software company".^[5]

In 1995, Gilbert and Day established a company division, Cavedog Entertainment, in Seattle, set to develop games of alternative genres, and released Total Annihilation, a real-time strategy (RTS) game, in 1997. This was followed by two expansion packs in 1998, as well as variation called Kingdoms plus expansion pack in 1999.^[6]

Acquisitions, decline, dissolution (1996–2006)

On July 11, 1996, Humongous Entertainment was purchased by GT Interactive for {{US$|76 million|link=yes}}.^[7] In November 1999, GT Interactive was acquired by Infogrames and renamed Infogrames, Inc. In 2000, Humongous Entertainment released a One-Stop Fun Shop activity center game for each Junior Adventure series, with the exception of Spy Fox.^[8]

In 2000, the co-founders tried to buy Humongous Entertainment back from Infogrames, Inc., using external funding, but the day of the planned purchase was the day of the dot-com collapse, wherefore the funding was pulled. The founders soon left Humongous, alongside many other key employees, and formed a new studio, Hulabee Entertainment, in 2001. In June 2001, Infogrames, Inc. laid off 82 personnel, over 40% of staff from Humongous Entertainment.^[9] In May 2003, after Infogrames, Inc. purchased Hasbro Interactive—which owned the rights to the Atari brand—the company was renamed Atari, Inc. In August 2005, facing financial struggles, Atari, Inc. sold Humongous Entertainment to majority stock holder Infogrames for {{US$|10.3 million}}, under the condition that all titles developed by Humongous Entertainment through March 31, 2006.^[10] No further game was completed by Humongous Entertainment in the given time, and the company was dissolved the day after. Infogrames then transitioned all assets and brands to a newly established company, Humongous, Inc., not bound to any agreement from Atari, Inc., which would go on to publish several titles under the Humongous name until 2009, mainly with Majesco Entertainment. By that time, Majesco had released ports of the first installments of each Junior Adventure series, except Putt-Putt, to the Wii, taking advantage of the Wii Remote's point-and-click functionality,^[1] but their availability was greatly limited by a legal conflict concerning their development.^[11]

Asset sale, brand revival (2013–2015)

Finding itself in a difficult financial situation, Infogrames (then renamed Atari, SA), filed bankruptcy for three of its American subsidiaries, Atari, Inc., Atari Interactive and Humongous, Inc. in 2009. As part of the resolution proceedings, the Humongous brand and most game assets were transferred to Tommo on July 19, 2013. Furthermore, the Backyard Sports series was acquired by The Evergreen Group,^[12] and MoonBase Commander by Rebellion Developments.^[13] Using the trademark, Tommo re-launched the Humongous.com website in January 2014, and, together with Night Dive Studios, went on to re-release several Humongous Entertainment titles under the Humongous Entertainment label into digital distribution channels Steam and GOG.com, between April 2014 and August 2015.

Games developed

Putt-Putt

• Putt-Putt Joins the Parade (1992)
• Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon (1993)
• Putt-Putt's Fun Pack (1993)
• Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear's Activity Pack (1994)
• Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo (1995)
• Putt-Putt and Pep's Balloon-o-Rama (1996)
• Putt-Putt and Pep's Dog on a Stick (1996)
• Putt Putt Travels Through Time (1997)
• Putt-Putt Enters the Race (1998)
• Putt-Putt's One-Stop Fun Shop (2000)
• Putt-Putt Joins the Circus (2000)
• Pep's Birthday Surprise (2003)

Freddi Fish

• Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds (1994)
• The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse (1996)
• Freddi Fish and Luther's Maze Madness (1996)
• Freddi Fish and Luther's Water Worries (1996)
• The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell (1998)
• The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch (1999)
• Freddi Fish's One-Stop Fun Shop (2000)
• The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove (2001)

Pajama Sam

• No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside (1996)
• Pajama Sam's Sock Works (1997)
• Thunder and Lightning Aren't so Frightening (1998)
• Pajama Sam's Lost & Found (1998)
• You Are What You Eat from Your Head to Your Feet (2000)
• Pajama Sam's One-Stop Fun Shop (2000)
• Pajama Sam: Games to Play On Any Day (2001)
• Life Is Rough When You Lose Your Stuff! (2003)

Spy Fox

• Spy Fox in "Dry Cereal" (1997)
• Spy Fox in “Cheese Chase” (1998)
• "Some Assembly Required" (1999)
• Spy Fox in “Hold the Mustard” (1999)
• "Operation Ozone" (2001)

Fatty Bear

• Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise (1993)
• Fatty Bear's Fun Pack (1993)
• Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear's Activity Pack (1994)

Blue's Clues

• Blue's Birthday Adventure (1998)
• Blue's ABC Time Activities (1999)
• Blue's 123 Time Activities (1999)
• Blue's Treasure Hunt (1999)
• Blue's Reading Time Activities (2000)
• Blue's Art Time Activities (2000)

Big Thinkers

• Big Thinkers Kindergarten (1997)
• Big Thinkers 1st Grade (1997)

Junior Field Trips

• Let's Explore the Airport (1995)
• Let's Explore the Farm (1995)
• Let's Explore the Jungle (1995)

Backyard Sports

• Backyard Baseball (1997)
• Backyard Soccer (1998)
• Backyard Football (1999)
• Backyard Basketball (2001)
• Backyard Hockey (2002)
• Backyard Skateboarding (2004)

Other

• MoonBase Commander (2002)

References

External links

• {{Official website|http://humongous.com/}}

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