Humongous Entertainment

Background

Humongous Entertainment was formed in 1992 by CEO Shelley Day and Creative Director Ron Gilbert, both former employees of LucasArts. The studio's name was suggested by Gilbert's colleague Tim Schafer (who is best known for founding Double Fine). It became well-known for their point-and-click adventure games intended for young children, such as the Putt-Putt, Pajama Sam, Freddi Fish and Spy Fox games and franchises. In July 1996, it was acquired by GT Interactive, which was later known as Infogrames, which was renamed again to Atari SA in 2003.

In 2005, the now-named Atari, Inc. sold Humongous Entertainment to its parent company Infogrames. Within this deal, the remaining employees of the company were laid off as Infogrames transferred the assets over to a newly-formed holding business - Humongous, Inc.

1st Logo (1992-1993, 2015)

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  The first logo screen with "PRESENTS"

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  The second, and original, Junior Adventures screen

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  The first logo screen without "PRESENTS"

Visuals: On a dark purple background, in a yellow outlined rectangle is the then-current Humongous logo (a circle with a capital "H" above a lowercase "e" formed as an exclamation mark with "HUMONGOUS ENTERTAINMENT" written around the circle, all purple with yellow outlines), with "P R E S E N T S" at the bottom. After a few seconds, it dissolves to a second screen with a purple "HUMONGOUS ENTERTAINMENT" circle in a pink outlined rectangle. Inside the circle is a cartoon drawing of a rocket launching. The words "Junior Adventures" in a colorful kid-like font get "drawn" onto the screen in the middle of the whole logo.

Variants:

• Sometimes the dissolve is not seen; instead it simply cuts to the second screen. This was seen on Windows versions of the games this logo was used on.
• Russian localizations of the first two Putt-Putt games has the "PRESENTS" text absent.

Technique: 2D animation.

Audio: A cartoon voice chattering at high speed as "Junior Adventure" appears on the second screen or on the Akella screen for Russian localizations.

Availability:

• Seen on the first three HE Junior Adventure games, including Putt-Putt Joins the Parade, Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise and Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon.
• The dissolve variant was seen on the original 1993 versions (for MS-DOS, the Macintosh operating system, and the 3DO platform).
• The logo is preserved on the post-1995 reissues, but without the dissolve (later box artwork for Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon features the print version of the 3rd logo, but still features this logo).
• It was also seen on the 2015 iOS versions of Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon and Putt-Putt Joins the Parade, possibly due to an editing mistake on Humongous, Inc.'s part.
• The version without the "PRESENTS" text can be seen in Russian localizations of the first two Putt-Putt Junior Adventures, for example Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon (Автомобильчик Бип-Бип летит на Луну).

2nd Logo (1994-1996, 2015)

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  Logo without "presents" text seen on the demos for Junior Field Trips games. Also used as an in-house logo

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  Logo with "presents", seen on original releases of Humongous games at the time

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  An example of one of the in-house logos. Here, it depicts the logo being something that resembles a neon sign

Visuals: Similar to before, but it now takes place on a black background and the logo is completely purple and in 3D.

Variants:

• On some games, "PRESENTS" is below the logo.
• On Let's Explore the Airport!, an airplane flies through the logo from the left.
• On Let's Explore the Farm!, a cow appears walking in from the left. Then it moos at us as it stops.
• A number of in-house logos are made in 1995 which depict the logo being formed by various objects. These, so far, include:
  • The logo being a traditional breakfast consisting of 3 pieces of bacon forming the letter "H", an egg and a piece of buttered toast. The "HUMONGOUS ENTERTAINMENT" text is absent.
  • The logo being entirely in snow.
  • The logo stylized like a neon sign. The "H" , "e" and the text are neon green, while the circle is neon red.

Technique: A still, sprite-based graphic.

Audio: None, except for the sound effects in the Junior Field Trip variants.

Availability:

• Seen on the original versions of the HE games of the time such as Freddi Fish: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds and Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo.
• It also appeared on the 2015 iOS versions of Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo and Freddi Fish: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds, possibly due to an editing mistake on Humongous, Inc.'s part.
• The Junior Field Trips variants only appear on the demos for their respective games, as the actual games have a title screen saying "Humongous Entertainment and Random House Present" instead of the actual HE logo, with the animations still intact.
• It's unknown where the in-house versions originally came from and none of them were used in any games from the company.

3rd Logo (October 18, 1996-2002, 2015)

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  Original version

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  Version with URL address

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  Hebrew version

Visuals: Similar to the previous logo, but the logo is now redesigned with a more cartoony look and bulky letters. Plus, "HUMONGOUS ENTERTAINMENT" is solid and in a different font this time, and some outlines are gone.

Variants:

• Starting in 1998, the website URL "www.humongous.com" is seen below the logo. This variant was first seen on Pajama Sam: Thunder and Lightning Aren't So Frightening.
• On Pajama Sam: You Are What You Eat From Your Head To Your Feet (the PS port of Pajama Sam 3), the background is white. Plus, there is a black outline around it.
• On Spy Fox in Cheese Chase, an animated version exists in which the text in the logo is black. The company name and the "H" and "E" move into place from different sides of the screen then "lock" into their respective places on the logo.
• There is also a Hebrew version.
• The original German release of Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo has the logo share the screen with the Ravensburger Interactive logo. No sounds play here.

Technique:

• Original version: A still, sprite-based graphic.
• Spy Fox in Cheese Chase variant: Appears to be computer animation.

Audio: A drum roll, then the same weird voice chattering at high speed from the first logo.

Audio Variants:

• On the Spy Fox in Cheese Chase variant, a drum roll played on bongos is heard followed by the weird voice chattering at high speed.
• On the Big Thinkers titles, cartoon music is heard segueing into the soundbite of a child laughing.
• On Blue's Clues: Blue's Reading Time Activities and Blue's Clues: Blue's 123 Time Activities, only the drum roll is heard.
• On Blue's Clues: Blue's Reading Time Activities, the drum roll carries over to the still Infogrames logo.

Availability:

• It debuted on Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When it's Dark Outside and appeared on all HE games afterwards.
• It also plastered the second logo on the late 1990s re-releases of Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds and Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo. Additionally, the URL version also replaced the original version of this logo on the 1999 re-release of Freddi Fish 2: The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse.
• This also appeared on the 2015 iOS versions of several HE titles. This was possibly due to an editing mistake on Humongous, Inc.'s part.
• The Hebrew version was probably seen on original copies of Israeli HE games and was most likely plastered on the country's Steam and iOS releases.

4th Logo (October 2002-2006; 2015)

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  The nearly-finished logo

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  The finished logo

Visuals: Against a wooden table is a small notepad with Pajama Sam's hand on it. He opens the notepad and every page starts flipping very fast as the screen zooms into it, becoming a white background with a page-flipping effect. Then a black outline circle bounces up to the screen on a white background and into the front of the screen, later turning into a crayon-drawn version of the last HE logo as the page-flipping stops. Then it "pops" before it transforms into a CGI style as the background becomes black. The logo shines.

Technique: A mix of 2D animation and CGI.

Audio: Some pages flipping, followed by a brief snare hit and some boing sounds. When the HE logo becomes CGI, a "POP!" is heard, followed by a slightly slowed-down and echoing version of the 1st logo's chatter, cut to the end. On the 2015 iOS version of Pajama Sam: No Need To Hide When It's Dark Outside, the sound is high-pitched.

Availability:

• Can be seen on Humongous games through the era including Pajama Sam 4: Life is Rough When You Lose Your Stuff and the Backyard Sports series, as well as the new prints of old post-1994 Humongous classics (e.g. the 2002 re-releases of Putt-Putt Travels Through Time, Spy Fox in: Dry Cereal, Freddi Fish 2: The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse and Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside).
• Also seen on Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise.
• This logo also makes a surprise appearance (alongside the 6th logo) on the iOS version of Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside, along with the 2000-2009 Infogrames logo, possibly due to a editing mistake on Tommo's part.