Contact:
John Uppendahl, Communications Director, (425) 951-2127, johnu@humongous.com
Mike Salvadore, Communications Manager, (425) 951-2149, mikes@humongous.com
Humongous Entertainment Fast Facts (Updated Aug 26, 1997)
Humongous Entertainment creates high-quality, hand-drawn, interactive Junior Adventures, Junior Field Trips and Junior Arcade games that encourage kids to explore, discover and have fun. Endearing original characters include Putt-Putt®, Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam, Fatty Bear and Buzzy the Knowledge Bug.
Founded: March 1992 by Shelley Day and Ron Gilbert
Ownership: GT Interactive Software Corporation (NASDAQ: GTIS)
Employees: 180
Management:
Shelley Day, President and CEO
Ron Gilbert, Co-Founder and Creative Director
Ralph Giuffre, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Licensing
Alex Brown, Vice President of Sales
Joe Arciniega, Vice President of Operations
Joyce McNeil, Controller
Scott Wallin, Director of Development
For Information:
(800) 499-8386, Direct Sales and Customer Service
(425) 485-1212, Technical Support
(425) 486-9258, Business
support@humongous.com, E-mail
www.humongous.com, World Wide Web
Company History Highlights
Putt-Putt, Humongous Entertainment's first and its most popular character, was born in 1990 when Shelley Day created the lovable, little purple car as an character for evening bedtime stories for her then 3-year-old son. Day and Ron Gilbert launched Humongous Entertainment in 1992 to create world-class interactive adventures for children, Putt-Putt was a natural choice to be their first star.
Children of all ages - kids and parents - connect with Humongous Entertainment's family of adorable original characters. Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, Buzzy the Knowledge Bug, Fatty Bear and Pajama Sam are friends that live in interactive worlds where children explore, discover and have fun as they direct the adventures.
Humongous Entertainment's latest CD-ROMs use thousands of frames of hand-drawn animation and exclusive technology to create true interactive animation. Players seamlessly affect how the game unfolds with the click of a mouse. The film-like quality of interactive animation brings the colorful characters and their worlds to life.
Creatively and technically, Humongous Entertainment continually breaks new ground. Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds is a good example. This hand-animated adventure was the world's first Windows® 95 CD-ROM not only in English, but also in Japanese and Dutch. Microsoft used Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds as a benchmark to test and demonstrate Windows 95 worldwide.
Humongous Entertainment pushes the edge in interactive storytelling, an emerging art form that did not exist 10 years ago. Telling stories in an interactive setting is vastly different than in traditional linear media such as movies or TV. Truly interactive entertainment enables people to explore the things that interest them most and enjoy a unique adventure each time they play. Defining this new art form is a driving goal for Gilbert and the company.
In July of 1995 Fortune magazine featured Humongous Entertainment as one of "25 Cool Companies." In January 1996, Home PC announced Putt-Putt's "undisputed title as the most popular character ever to roll into the HomePC Kids' Lab." USA Today also profiled Humongous Entertainment as one of "Six Firms Worth Watching In '96."
In December 1996, Newsweek proclaimed, "Humongous Entertainment has become the Disney of children's software, developing charming new characters and building great stories around them."
The company's award-winning games have become an international success, with localized translations in Japanese, Dutch, German and French. Additional translations are in development.
Television & Beyond
In March of 1997, Humongous Entertainment announced a production alliance with Lancit Media Entertainment to create original television, motion picture and home video programming based on its family of original characters.
PC Magazine said, "Putt-Putt and pals are about as lovable a bunch as we've seen in children's software. With a presence on TV, in toy stores, and on the big screen, the animated gang could very well move into the leading ranks of children's characters, alongside such heavyweights as Rugrats, Barney, and the Disney characters."
Strategic Partners
GT Interactive Software Corp.: Humongous Entertainment is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GT Interactive Software Corp. It was acquired for $76 million on July 9, 1996. Headquartered in NY, GT Interactive Software Corp. is a leading global publisher of entertainment and edutainment software under the GT Interactive, Humongous Entertainment and Cavedog Entertainment brands for personal computers as well as video game systems from Sony, Nintendo and Sega; and Macintosh software under the MacSoft brand. Among GT Interactive's best-sellers are Duke Nukem 3D and QUAKE. The company is also a leader in value-priced software. Located at http://www.gtinteractive.com on the World Wide Web, GT Interactive is publicly traded on the NASDAQ National Market System under the symbol GTIS.
Strategy Licensing: In June of 1996, Humongous Entertainment partnered with The Strategy Licensing Company, a subsidiary of Lancit Media Entertainment (NASDAQ: LNCT), to develop a merchandise program based on its family of original characters.
Lancit Media Entertainment: Humongous Entertainment created a production alliance with Lancit in March of 1997 to create television, motion picture and home video programming based on its family of original characters.
Humongous Entertainment's Co-Founders
Shelley Day
Shelley Day is president and CEO of Humongous Entertainment. She is responsible for the day-to-day management of the company and forges the strategic relationships that contribute to the company's ongoing growth.
Shelley has an extensive background in the management and design of entertainment software. After beginning her career with Aurora Systems, Inc. in 1983, Shelley joined Electronic Arts, where she was involved in producing numerous entertainment software titles across such varied platforms as the Atari 800, Apple® II, Apple IIGS®, Amiga, PC, Macintosh® and Commodore® 64.
From 1987 and 1990, Shelley worked at Accolade Inc. and Taito Inc., both entertainment software companies. While at Accolade, she produced numerous award-winning titles such as The Duel: Test Drive II, Grand Prix Circuit and Hardball II. In 1988, she was named "Producer of the Year" at the annual Computer Game Developers Conference. Shelley joined LucasArts Entertainment in 1990 as a producer of entertainment software, where she produced several titles, including Monkey Island II, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
Shelley earned degrees in radio and television production and psychology from San Francisco State University. She is on the board of the Washington Software Association.
Ron Gilbert
Ron Gilbert, co-founder and creative director of Humongous Entertainment, has been designing and writing games and interactive stories for more than 10 years. An internationally renowned game designer, Ron provides the creative direction for all of Humongous' products.
Prior to co-founding Humongous Entertainment with Shelley Day, Ron spent eight years at LucasArts Entertainment where he designed such classic games as Maniac Mansion and the Monkey Island series. Both games have won numerous awards and appeared in PC Game's "Top most influential games of all time" list.
Ron's creative focus ensures that Humongous will stay on the cutting edge of interactive entertainment. One of Ron's goals in starting Humongous Entertainment was to bring the interactive experience to a larger market by designing and exploring new ways to entertain people.
Product Lines and Games
Humongous Entertainment's games are available on hybrid CD-ROMs for Windows 95, Windows 3.1 and Macintosh.
Junior Adventures
Junior Adventures challenge and inspire kids to think for themselves in creative and flexible ways. Children play with faithful, lovable friends as they discover captivating
worlds where they direct the journey and overcome challenges at their own pace. Humongous Entertainment's heart-warming characters and engaging adventures come to life through feature-film quality animation, original music and the power of a child's imagination.
Putt-Putt Travels Through Time, June 1997, $39.95 ESP
Pajama Sam in No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside, October 1996, $39.95 ESP
Freddi Fish 2: The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse, September 1996, $39.95 ESP
Putt-Putt® Saves the Zoo, August 1995, $19.95 ESP
Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds, November 1994, $19.95 ESP
Humongous Classics Collection (Three award-winning games for $19.95)
Putt-Putt® Goes to The Moon, November 1993
Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise, June 1993
Putt-Putt® Joins the Parade, November 1992
Junior Arcade
Junior Arcade games are packed with fast-and-furious gameplay that satisfies kids' hunger for action and surprises. These games star everyone's favorite characters from Humongous Entertainment's award-winning titles and feature the same high-quality hand-drawn animation.
Pajama Sam's SockWorks, July 1997, $14.95 ESP
Putt-Putt® and Pep's Balloon-O-Rama, October 1996, $14.95 ESP
Putt-Putt® and Pep's Dog on a Stick, October 1996, $14.95 ESP
Freddi Fish and Luther's Water Worries, February 1997, $14.95 ESP
Freddi Fish and Luther's Maze Madness, February 1997, $14.95 ESP
Junior Field Trips
Junior Field Trips allow kids to explore behind the scenes of fun places and exciting parts of the world. They can learn about the things that interest them most and play games related to each location.
Junior Field Trips Collection (Three award-winning games for $19.95)
Let's Explore the Airport, July 1995
Let's Explore the Farm, July 1995
Let's Explore the Jungle, November, 1995
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Junior Adventures, Freddi Fish, The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds, The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse, Pajama Sam, No Need to Hide When it's Dark Outside, Putt-Putt Travels Through Time, Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo, Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon, Putt-Putt Joins the Parade, Fatty Bear, Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise, Junior Field Trips, Buzzy the Knowledge Bug, Let's Explore the Farm, Let's Explore the Airport, Let's Explore the Jungle, Junior Arcade, Balloon-O-Rama, Dog On A Stick, Water Worries, and Maze Madness are trademarks of Humongous Entertainment, Inc. Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island and are trademarks of LucasArts Entertainment Co. Windows is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Apple, Apple IIGS and Macintosh are a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc. Commodore is a registered trademark of Commodore Business Machines Inc. Other brand names and products may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. These products and Humongous Entertainment Inc. are not in any manner affiliated with Putt-Putt Golf Courses of America Inc.