Humongous Entertainment

Background

Humongous Entertainment was formed in 1992 by CEO Shelley Day and Creative Director Ron Gilbert. 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 S.A. in 2003.

1st Logo (1992-1993, 2015)

• 
  The first logo screen with "PRESENTS".
• 
  The second, and original, Junior Adventures screen.
• 
  The first logo screen without "PRESENTS".

Logo: On a dark purple background, in a yellow outlined rectangle, we see 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 "PRESENTS" 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.

Trivia: The "He" logo resembles an exclamation mark "!" symbol.

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: The "dissolve," and the wipe of the "Junior Adventures" text.

Music/Sounds: No music. Just a weird 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 strangely seen on the 2015 iOS versions of Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon and Putt-Putt Joins the Parade, presumably due to an editing mistake on Humongous' 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)

• 
  Logo without "presents" text seen on the demos for Junior Field Trips games. Also used as an in-house logo.
• 
  Logo with "presents", seen on original releases of Humongous games at the time.
• 
  An example of one of the in-house logos. Here, it depicts the logo being something that resembles a neon sign.

Logo: Similar to before, but it now takes place in a black background and the logo being 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 is stylized like a neon sign. The "H" , "e" and the text are neon green, while the circle is neon red.

Technique: It's a still logo, although there are animations in the Junior Field Trip games variants.

Music/Sounds: 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 made a surprise appearance on the 2015 iOS versions of Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo and Freddi Fish: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds due to an editing mistake on Humongous' 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. The in-house variants are quite rare. It's unknown where they originally came from and wasn't used in any game from the company.

3rd Logo (1996-2002, 2015)

• 
  Original version.
• 
  Version with URL address.
• 
  Hebrew translated version.

Logo: 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-translated variant.
• The original German release of Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo shares a position with the Ravensburger Interactive logo. No sounds play here.

Technique:

• Original Version: None.
• Spy Fox in: Cheese Chase Variant: The text moving into place.

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

Music/Sounds 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: Seen on all HE games released between 1996 and 2002, including the Pajama Sam series, the Putt-Putt series, the Spy Fox series, the Freddi Fish series, and the Backyard Sports series starting with Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When it's Dark Outside and any Blue's Clues games made by Humongous Entertainment. It also plastered the second logo on later reissues of Freddi Fish 1 and Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo. The version with only the drum roll can be seen on Blue's Clues: Blue's Reading Time Activities and Blue's Clues: 123 Time Activities. The animated variant appears on the Junior Arcade title, Spy Fox in Cheese Chase. This also made a surprise appearance on the 2015 iOS versions of Spy Fox 2: Some Assembly Required, Freddi Fish 4: The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch, Pajama Sam: Thunder and Lightning aren't so Frightening, Putt-Putt Travels Through Time, Putt-Putt Joins the Circus, Putt-Putt Enters the Race, Pajama Sam 3: You Are What You Eat From Your Head To Your Feet, Freddi Fish 3: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell, Spy Fox 3: Operation Ozone, Freddi Fish 5: The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove, Spy Fox in: Dry Cereal, and Steam versions of Putt-Putt and Pep's Dog on a Stick, possibly due to an editing mistake on Humongous' part. The Hebrew variant is extremely rare, as it 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 (2002-2006; 2015)

• 
  The Nearly-Finished Logo.
• 
  The Finished Logo.

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

Technique: Transitioning from 2D animation to CGI.

Music/Sounds: 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: Common in the early to mid 2000's. 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, possibly an editing mistake on Humongous' part, the 2015 iOS version, featured the logo along with the 2000-2009 Infogrames logo.

Final Note: In 2005, Atari, Inc. transitioned Humongous Entertainment to Infogrames (now Atari S.A.) itself, who threatened to close the studio down if they didn't produce a title within March 2006. This wasn't fulfilled, and the studio was folded by Infogrames as said. Humongous' assets were then used by Infogrames to create a new subsidiary titled Humongous, Inc., as an IP holder for the titles.