Putt-Putt (series)
Putt-Putt is a series of children's adventure and puzzle computer games created by Humongous Entertainment. This franchise was Humongous Entertainment's first game series to be developed. They primarily involve clicking to get to a destination, although some sub-quests and mini-games involve the keyboard. The main character, Putt-Putt, an anthropomorphic purple convertible, and his dog, Pep, travel to various locations. History. Putt-Putt was originally thought up by Shelley Day as a series of bedtime stories for her son, Travis; the first story involved Putt-Putt saving a cat caught in a  tree. Child actor Jason Ellefson did Putt-Putt's voice for the first eight of the games. In the games released between 1998 and 2000, Nancy Cartwright (of "The Simpsons" fame) voiced Putt-Putt. Michelle Thorson voiced Putt-Putt in "Pep's Birthday Surprise". The games are supported by ScummVM and thus can be played on other platforms such as handhelds. Humongous has brought several Putt-Putt and other titles to iOS and Android. In 1997, Humongous made an agreement with Lancit Media Entertainment to create an animated TV series of Putt-Putt, along with movies and home video releases . However the plan was never put into action. Several games from the original series were later re-released by Humongous on Steam in April 2014, alongside games from the "Pajama Sam", "Freddi Fish", and "Spy Fox" series. The first two games used pixel art graphics, starting with the third game, the series uses hand-drawn animation. Games. Adventure games. Humongous Entertainment classified these games as Junior Adventures (for kids 3–8) Customization. Players can change Putt-Putt's color to original purple, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, black, brown, pink, gray, or rainbow. All colors can be painted on again. This  also changes the color of the dashboard in "Putt-Putt Enters the Race", "Putt-Putt Joins the Circus", "Putt-Putt Travels Through Time", and "Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo". However, in "Putt-Putt Joins the Parade" and "Putt-Putt Enters the Race", each color change costs three coins that can be collected in the game world. In "Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise," Putt-Putt's color can only be changed temporarily before reverting to purple after some traveling. His color can also be changed in certain levels of "Putt-Putt and Pep's Balloon-o-Rama" by using Pep  to pop certain balloons tied to paint buckets, then catching the bucket containing the desired color as it falls to change Putt-Putt to. Characters. The series takes place in a fictional Earth that is civilized by anthropomorphic vehicles, devoid of humanity, although Rover claims to have witnessed humans in the events of "Putt-Putt Goes To The Moon" when he recounted to Putt-Putt about how some human astronauts previously used him for a mission. However, unlike the world of Disney/Pixar's "Cars" animated film series, the vehicles also consume food typically eaten by humans and co-exist  with flesh-and-blood animals, some who are also anthropomorphic. Most car characters can use their whip antenna as a makeshift arm to grab objects. Books. Various Children's books about Putt-Putt have been published by Lyrick Publishing and Random House. A cassette tape audio adaptation was created for "Putt-Putt's Night Before Christmas". Reception. The Putt-Putt series received various awards including "All-Star Software Award" from Children's Software Revue, "Reader's Choice Award" from Mac Home Journal and "2000 Best Picks Award" from Choosing Children's Software.