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** Almost their entire library (except for the ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'' games, plus the One-Stop Fun Shops) is available on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.

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** Almost their entire library (except for the ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'' games, plus the One-Stop Fun Shops) is available on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.Platform/{{Steam}}.



* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: Ports of several Humongous games for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch were teased on the official Twitter account in 2019. While there were a few years of radio silence, most of the games were either ported to, or are currently in the process of being ported to the Switch as of 2022.

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* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: Ports of several Humongous games for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch Platform/NintendoSwitch were teased on the official Twitter account in 2019. While there were a few years of radio silence, most of the games were either ported to, or are currently in the process of being ported to the Switch as of 2022.
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'''Humongous Entertainment''' was a development studio that focused on children's computer games. Their five biggest franchises were ''VideoGame/PuttPutt'', ''VideoGame/FreddiFish'', ''VideoGame/PajamaSam'', ''VideoGame/SPYFox'', and ''VideoGame/BackyardSports'', although they had plenty of other small franchises such as ''VideoGame/BigThinkers'', ''VideoGame/BuzzyTheKnowledgeBug'', and ''VideoGame/FattyBear''.

Humongous was founded by Creator/RonGilbert of Creator/LucasArts fame and Shelley Day in 1992. The studio's first game was what would start off the ''VideoGame/PuttPutt'' series: ''VideoGame/PuttPutt Joins the Parade''. Soon after a while, the company continued what became the "Junior Adventure" series with ''VideoGame/FreddiFish'', and ''VideoGame/PajamaSam'' joining the lineup, alongside the one-off ''VideoGame/FattyBear'', and the ''VideoGame/BuzzyTheKnowledgeBug'' series. By 1995, Humongous expanded to mainstream titles with the formation of the Cavedog Entertainment brand, and released ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation''.

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'''Humongous Entertainment''' was a an American development studio that focused on children's computer games. Their five biggest franchises were ''VideoGame/PuttPutt'', ''VideoGame/FreddiFish'', ''VideoGame/PajamaSam'', ''VideoGame/SPYFox'', and ''VideoGame/BackyardSports'', although they had plenty of other small franchises such as ''VideoGame/BigThinkers'', ''VideoGame/BuzzyTheKnowledgeBug'', and ''VideoGame/FattyBear''.

Humongous was founded in Woodinville, Washington, by Creator/RonGilbert of Creator/LucasArts fame and Shelley Day in March 1992. The studio's first game was what would start off the ''VideoGame/PuttPutt'' series: ''VideoGame/PuttPutt Joins the Parade''. Soon after a while, the company continued what became the "Junior Adventure" series with ''VideoGame/FreddiFish'', and ''VideoGame/PajamaSam'' joining the lineup, alongside the one-off ''VideoGame/FattyBear'', and the ''VideoGame/BuzzyTheKnowledgeBug'' series. By 1995, Humongous expanded to mainstream titles with the formation of the Cavedog Entertainment brand, and released ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation''.

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Adding notes.


%%
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%% Per Administrivia/CreatorPageGuidelines, only tropes associated to a creator's works are allowed on this wiki's pages.
%% Tropes that only apply to the creator's personal life as if the creator is a fictional character are not allowed.
%% Please do not apply tropes about the creator's personal life as if they are a fictional character.
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In 2013, Atari, Inc., Atari Interactive, Inc. and Humongous, Inc. all filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to split away from the profit-lossing Atari SA (the former Infogrames Entertainment). During the company's bankruptcy sale in 2013, several companies purchased several assets: ''Moonbase Commander'' was bought by Creator/{{Rebellion}}, ''Backyard Sports'' was bought by Epic Gear LLC, ''Total Annihilation'' was bought by Wargaming, while Humongous, Inc. itself, alongside the Junior Adventure series and the trademark, was purchased by Tommo, Inc.[[note]]The creator of the Platform/NeoGeo X, which got some backlash and even got Creator/{{SNK}} Playmore so incensed that they wanted to retract the license, which Tommo defied and resulted in an ongoing lawsuit. This didn't go on well with fans[[/note]], alongside several other titles that Atari owned.

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In 2013, Atari, Inc., Atari Interactive, Inc. and Humongous, Inc. all filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to split away from the profit-lossing Atari SA (the former Infogrames Entertainment). During the company's bankruptcy sale in 2013, that year, several companies purchased several assets: ''Moonbase Commander'' was bought by Creator/{{Rebellion}}, ''Backyard Sports'' was bought by Epic Gear LLC, ''Total Annihilation'' was bought by Wargaming, while Humongous, Inc. itself, alongside the Junior Adventure series and the trademark, was purchased by Tommo, Inc.[[note]]The creator of the Platform/NeoGeo X, which got some backlash and even got Creator/{{SNK}} Playmore so incensed that they wanted to retract the license, which Tommo defied and resulted in an ongoing lawsuit. This didn't go on well with fans[[/note]], alongside several other titles that Atari owned.


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%% As with all Creator/ pages, trivia tropes about the creator specifically are to be posted here,
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* AdoredByTheNetwork: Infogrames Europe had a strange fondness for four of the games (''Putt-Putt Enters the Race'', ''Spy Fox 2'', ''Freddi Fish 4'', and ''Pajama Sam 3''). Whenever they were ready to lead foreign dubs of Humongous games, these four were usually the first in line to get dubbed, like in Italy and the UK.



* DevelopmentHell: In 2019, Humongous fan "Curator" attempted [[http://web.archive.org/web/20190807193715/https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/curator/the-music-of-humongous-entertainment a Kickstarter project for remastered soundtracks]] of ''Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo'', ''Spy Fox 2: Some Assembly Required'', ''Pajama Sam 3: You Are What You Eat, From Your Head To your Feet'', and ''Freddi Fish in the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds'', complete with support of the original composers. Despite being a success, reaching $15k in its first-and-only week, the project's completion is currently in limbo due to a cease-and-desist from Tommo for using Humongous's modern promo art without consent. Curator is presently fighting this, as the company had helped with his prior Kickstarter project, remastered CD soundtracks of ''Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo'', (which was cancelled due to lack of funds, but [[SavedFromDevelopmentHell eventually got a digital release]] in 2020) without question.
* DuelingDubs: Russia had at least 6 different companies translating the games into Russian, three being bootleggers (Fargus Multimedia, 7Wolf, and Vector) and three being official (Akella, Russobit, and Boolat). Fargus Multimedia actually managed to dub more games than the three official dubbers did ''combined''.



* ExecutiveMeddling: This was averted during their independent and GT Interactive eras, but after they went under Infogrames' ownership, this happened in spades. According to some of the former workers, they were very resistant to any new intellectual properties, including one case mentioned below. They also were responsible for a lot of the reasons ''VideoGame/MoonBaseCommander'' failed, showing a complete lack of interest in it and going so far as not giving it an E3 press release. Ron Gilbert held such a disdain for them that he attempted buying his company back from Infogrames, but the Internet bubble popped the day the purchase was supposed to happen; understandably, he and many other key members, including Dave Grossman and Shelley Day, left after realizing things weren't going to get any better. He was right.
** Atari, Inc. transferred over ownership in the studio to Infogrames itself in 2005, on the verge that the studio would develop a video game before March 2006 or face closure. This occurred in the end, and led to Infogrames founding Humongous, Inc. in order to control the company's [=IPs=].



* HeyItsThatSound: Humongous recycled a lot of sound effects in their games, many of which originated from sound effect libraries.



* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Humongous generally tried to avoid this, since they kept repackaging and re-releasing a lot of the games and putting them back on the store shelves. ''VideoGame/PuttPutt Saves the Zoo'' alone was repackaged so many times that it's become remarkably easy to find.
** Almost their entire library (except for the ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'' games, plus the One-Stop Fun Shops) is available on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.
* KidsMealToy: In 2001, Dairy Queen ran a Junior Adventures toy lineup that encompassed all four of the major adventure franchises, including a Freddi Fish doodle pad and a Spy Fox propeller toy.



* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: Ports of several Humongous games for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch were teased on the official Twitter account in 2019. While there were a few years of radio silence, most of the games were either ported to, or are currently in the process of being ported to the Switch as of 2022.



* TechnologyMarchesOn: Quite a few examples.
** On the old section for demo downloads on the site, it once said "Warning: These files are '''HUGE!''' (5 to 24 MB)". Nowadays, these sizes are rather small.
** When the games were first released, 640 x 480 was considered high resolution and the games fell under SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming. In hindsight, that doesn't say much due to how far they pushed the SCUMM engine to its limits.




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* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** There exists conceptual designs for 3D models of the Junior Adventure characters as well as a 3D background for a Freddi Fish game that never saw the light of day, meaning the games were about to head into the 3D direction before the Creator/{{Atari}} buyout.
** A character named "Miss Hap" was planned to have a game, entitled ''Aliens Ate My Cookies'', but [[ExecutiveMeddling the executives]] did not have faith in [[GirlShowGhetto a female protagonist]] and chose to shelve the project. Given that the VideoGame/FreddiFish series Humongous made previously had a female protagonist, this was an odd decision.
** Another name for the company's subdivision Cavedog Entertainment was Frozen Yak Entertainment. They flipped a coin.
** The company originally didn't expect to make children's adventure games long term. ''Putt-Putt Joins the Parade'' was merely an attempt to get their foot in the door, and their expectation was that they wanted to make games for all different kinds of age groups. The game ended up being enough of a SleeperHit that they chose to continue along that path after all, although they did end up making more adult-oriented games later on in the cases of ''Total Annihilation'' (via their subdivision Cavedog) and ''Moonbase Commander''.
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* ReplayValue: Most of the Junior Adventure games have incentive to play them multiple times, such changing what items the player needs to collect between playthroughs, or placing them in different locations, leading to different scenrios.

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* ReplayValue: Most of the Junior Adventure games have incentive to play them multiple times, such changing what items the player needs to collect between playthroughs, or placing them in different locations, leading to different scenrios.scenarios.

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The Shout Out example is more appropriate under Company Cross References, which has an example.


* BreakingTheFourthWall: Most of the demos do this.
* CompanyCrossReferences: They were ''extremely'' fond of these. Every game featured at least half a dozen cameos or references to their other works.

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* BreakingTheFourthWall: Most Many of their game demos will have the characters directly address the player to either explain the objective of the demos do this.
demo, or inform them that this is just a small sample of the adventure, and they can purchase the full game to see the rest of it.
* CompanyCrossReferences: They were ''extremely'' fond of these. Every game featured at least half a dozen cameos or references to their other works.works, often in the form of click points that would cause a character from one of their other series to appear briefly. ''Putt Putt Saves the Zoo'' has a humorous acknowledgement of such, with a billboard that reads "Shameless Humongous Entertainment self-promotion to be placed HERE."



%%* PopUpVideoGames: One of the company's signatures.
* ReplayValue: A well done example. With the adventure games, every playthrough changes the puzzle solutions and even the characters involved in some cases.

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%%* * PopUpVideoGames: One of the company's signatures.
signatures. The games always include a variety of "click points" on every screen that cause small animations to play. The majority of these are superfluous to the game's progression, but they do give younger players something to do and see.
* ReplayValue: A well done example. With Most of the adventure games, every playthrough changes Junior Adventure games have incentive to play them multiple times, such changing what items the puzzle solutions and even the characters involved player needs to collect between playthroughs, or placing them in some cases.different locations, leading to different scenrios.



* ShoutOut: Hoo boy. Humongous did a LOT of self ProductPlacement. They would advertise another one of their games wherever they could, such as on bill boards and click points.
** One of the billboards on ''[[VideoGame/PuttPutt Putt-Putt]] Saves the Zoo'' says "Shameless Humongous Entertainment self-promotion to be placed HERE."
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* ConspicuouslyLightPatch: Would very often give away item locations.

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* ConspicuouslyLightPatch: Would very often give away item locations.Often in the games, items to be picked up would stand out from the rest of the scenery.
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Immediately after the closure, Infogrames formed '''Humongous, Inc.''' as an IP/holding company for Humongous' properties. The ''Backyard Sports'' series continued for several more years, while three of the Junior Adventure games were ported to the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} with Majesco as publisher (under license from Infogrames/Atari), but they were soon pulled after the porters used [=ScummVM=] (a virtual machine made to run old Scumm-based games) without giving any credit to the developers whatsoever, so this had ended. In 2011, Atari began to release several Humongous titles on IOS, ported by Nimbus Games.

In 2013, Atari, Inc., Atari Interactive, Inc. and Humongous, Inc. all filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to split away from the profit-lossing Atari SA (the former Infogrames Entertainment). During the company's bankruptcy sale in 2013, several companies purchased several assets: ''Moonbase Commander'' was bought by Creator/{{Rebellion}}, ''Backyard Sports'' was bought by Epic Gear LLC, ''Total Annihilation'' was bought by Wargaming, while Humongous, Inc. itself, alongside the Junior Adventure series and the trademark, was purchased by Tommo, Inc.[[note]]The creator of the UsefulNotes/NeoGeo X, which got some backlash and even got Creator/{{SNK}} Playmore so incensed that they wanted to retract the license, which Tommo defied and resulted in an ongoing lawsuit. This didn't go on well with fans[[/note]], alongside several other titles that Atari owned.

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Immediately after the closure, Infogrames formed '''Humongous, Inc.''' as an IP/holding company for Humongous' properties. The ''Backyard Sports'' series continued for several more years, while three of the Junior Adventure games were ported to the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} Platform/{{Wii}} with Majesco as publisher (under license from Infogrames/Atari), but they were soon pulled after the porters used [=ScummVM=] (a virtual machine made to run old Scumm-based games) without giving any credit to the developers whatsoever, so this had ended. In 2011, Atari began to release several Humongous titles on IOS, ported by Nimbus Games.

In 2013, Atari, Inc., Atari Interactive, Inc. and Humongous, Inc. all filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to split away from the profit-lossing Atari SA (the former Infogrames Entertainment). During the company's bankruptcy sale in 2013, several companies purchased several assets: ''Moonbase Commander'' was bought by Creator/{{Rebellion}}, ''Backyard Sports'' was bought by Epic Gear LLC, ''Total Annihilation'' was bought by Wargaming, while Humongous, Inc. itself, alongside the Junior Adventure series and the trademark, was purchased by Tommo, Inc.[[note]]The creator of the UsefulNotes/NeoGeo Platform/NeoGeo X, which got some backlash and even got Creator/{{SNK}} Playmore so incensed that they wanted to retract the license, which Tommo defied and resulted in an ongoing lawsuit. This didn't go on well with fans[[/note]], alongside several other titles that Atari owned.
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Namespace migration


In January 2014, Tommo relaunched the Humongous brand, and as of April 17, 2014, Tommo started rolling their old point-and-click games out onto UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} with the help of Creator/NightdiveStudios, most famous for re-introducing PC games like ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' and ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream''. A list of the games currently available can be found [[http://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Humongous%20Entertainment here.]] Many of their IOS ports were re-released, and were also released on Android as well.

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In January 2014, Tommo relaunched the Humongous brand, and as of April 17, 2014, Tommo started rolling their old point-and-click games out onto UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} Platform/{{Steam}} with the help of Creator/NightdiveStudios, most famous for re-introducing PC games like ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' and ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream''. A list of the games currently available can be found [[http://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Humongous%20Entertainment here.]] Many of their IOS ports were re-released, and were also released on Android as well.
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* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The earliest games had DOS graphics and MIDI music, and animated using sprites instead of hand drawn cartoon animation. Then there's minor details, like the 3D cursors in ''VideoGame/FreddiFish 1'' being longer and thinner than the later ones (changed in the 1998 re-release), and being unable to skip movement phases. The early HE games also had a Windows 3.1 pause menu, a quit button instead of a menu button, and no lip-sync.

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* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The earliest games had DOS graphics and MIDI music, and animated using sprites instead of hand drawn cartoon animation.artwork. Then there's minor details, like the 3D cursors in ''VideoGame/FreddiFish 1'' being longer and thinner than the later ones (changed in the 1998 re-release), and being unable to skip movement phases. The early HE games also had a Windows 3.1 pause menu, a quit button instead of a menu button, and no lip-sync.
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* StockSoundEffects: The games make extensive use of Hanna-Barbera's sound library.

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* StockSoundEffects: The games make extensive use of Hanna-Barbera's Creator/HannaBarbera's sound library.library, along with the Hollywood Edge's [[https://www.sound-ideas.com/Product/63/Cartoon-Trax-Sound-Effects "Cartoon Trax" library]] (known for containing numerous classic Creator/{{Disney}} cartoon sounds).
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* OffModel: The early hand-drawn games dipped into this fairly often. While the faraway shots looked fine for the most part, the close up shots tended to look awkward and jagged, and were even out of proportion at times. ''SPY Fox in Dry Cereal'' seems to be the point where they finally got the hang of it.
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Zero Context Example. Also a broken link


* SpiritualSuccessor: Hulabee Entertainment.
** Humongous's sub-division [[http://www.spektakle.com/portfolio/he_gaspocket/he_gaspocket.html Gaspocket Adventures]], as a whole.
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** ''VideoGame/PajamaSamLifeIsRoughWhenYouLoseYourStuff''
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** ''VideoGame/FreddiFish4TheCaseOfTheHogfishRustlersOfBrinyGulch''
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** ''VideoGame/FreddiFish3TheCaseOfTheStolenConchShell''
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** ''VideoGame/FreddiFish2TheCaseOfTheHauntedSchoolhouse''
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** ''VideoGame/FreddiFishAndTheCaseOfTheMissingKelpSeeds''

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