Just Grandma & Me was the very first Living Books PC CD-Rom Game from 1992 based on the 1983 book of the same name by Mercer Mayer and this CD-Rom was released in 1992.
Just Grandma and Me
Living Books from (1997)
Released
1992
Characters
Little Critter, Grandma, Grasshopper (Version 2 Only)
Little Critter and his grandmother go to the beach and try to set up their umbrella, but suddenly the wind was too strong and it pulled Little Critter into the clouds and he landed down onto the ground. Pretty sooner, he flies his kite and crashed onto the mother cow's head. After his kite was a disaster, Little Critter bought hot dogs for him and Grandma, and they all fell down into the sand, so he washed them off with the water, then he was hungry. Little Critter finds a beautiful sea-shell for Grandma on the sand, and it was full of a crab. After escaping from the crab, Little Critter was trying to blow up his seahorse, but it has no air, so Grandma helped a little. Then, Grandma carried Little Critter out in the water, but not too far enough. After that, Little Critter puts on his mask and snorkel, and a snorkel and shows Grandma how he can swim. Later, Little Critter digs a hole for Grandma, and he covered and tickled her toes. That evening, Little Critter builds a sand castle for Grandma, and a big wave came and messed up Grandma's sand castle, and she said, "That's what happened to sand castles, and we must build a new one next time." Later that night, Grandma took Little Critter to the bus, and Little Critter was very tired, so he fell fast asleep and told her he would watch for their stop. Then, they realized they had a good time at the beach together and Grandma held Little Critter in her arms and they went into the house and got already for bed and went to sleep.
It is one of the few Living Books to be told by the protagonist, instead of having a narrator.
Version 2 added a running gag, which is a grasshopper.
While both versions do include Spanish as a language choice, V1 has Latino and V2 has Castellano, effectively making English the only language available in both versions.
In Version 3 of the Living Books Sampler, the book's UI language option is still intact; therefore making Just Grandma and Me V2 the only book to have a language other than English.
The original VIS release, which has now become extinct and very rare to find.
The very first edition of this game originally released by VIS (Video Information System) is very rare. It has a smaller 320x200 resolution like many other older MS-DOS games and also had a few different graphics. In this version, the Options page didn't have any previews at all and also removed the "And then click OK!" part, and in the credits, the dragon's mouth doesn't move when he clears his throat while tapping the wizard's sleeve, and the music animation also plays in the same length as if it were in the Macintosh format of the game (this is where you can now hear the entire trombone song that played like the music in the Programmer animation) and the Cello player's tongue was visible while he says, "All right!"
This is also the only Living Books game to be in a 320x200 resolution.
The very first edition and demo of the game (the one with Broderbund's on the top right corner of the intro logo) had a preview for Arthur's Teacher Trouble.
The very first edition of this game for the Macintosh also had demos of three Broderbund games, including "The Playroom", "Kid-Pix", and "Spelunx and the Caves of Mr. Seudo".
Version 1 has 3 languages: English, Spanish and Japanese. Version 2 has 4 languages: English, Spanish, French and German.
For some reason, Version 2 dropped Japanese as a language option, and replaced it by French and German.
In the credits of this game, The wizard animation and the musicians animation were the very first Living Books Credits animations produced. In this Living Book, the musicians animation had trombone music whose music sequence was similar to the credits animation with the guy who types on his computer, but this was only used in the very first edition and demo of this game. In further Living Books games and also in the newer edition of Just Grandma and Me, the musicians animation now used the main sequence of the Living Books credits song.
The wizard animation didn't make it into The Cat in the Hat, which was the last Living Books game to use all the Living Books credits animations.
In this game, in the wizard animation in the credits, the piano music in the background was too quiet, and barely able to be heard. This was corrected back in the credits for the game The Tortoise and the Hare (and even for the UK release of Just Grandma and Me), and now you can hear the piano music better. The original version of the wizard animation is still on Version 2 of Just Grandma and Me.
In Version 2, the dude on computer was added into the credits, causing the same order of credits animations like Arthur's Birthday.
The credits animation with the men playing instruments is the only credits animation appearing in the credits in almost every Living Books game, except Arthur's Teacher Trouble and The Tortoise and the Hare, as well as the four games that had custom credits sequences.
Version 2 was in Mono and Stereo. In Stereo, he said "Nous nous sommes drôlement bien amusés à la plage, Grand-Mère et moi."
In Version 2, the byline "A Random House/Brøderbund Company" was shortened to "A Brøderbund Company".
The demo version of V1.0 bizarrely included the preview and credits. The V1.1 demo removed this.
Even more bizarre was the fact that the demo version got an engine upgrade, but the full game didn't. This means absolutely nothing on the Macintosh side (it lacked fading altogether), but the PC demo now included faster fading between screens and the running man cursor.
V1.0 predates the hybrid format, so the Macintosh and PC versions were shipped on separate discs. V1.1 put them on the same disc.
Re-releases
1994: VIS release (First release). This has become extinct because it ran out of all the copies of this version. A Living Books fan posted this rare edition as a download so that other fans can play it: http://www46.zippyshare.com/v/6oNJCN5o/file.html
1993: MPC-Windows Original release. A challenge to find.
1994: Random House release. This one's exceptionally easy to find. It also includes demo versions of the other first three games in the series.
1997: Version 2 is released with Version 1. Page 1-11 in MONO, and Page 12 in French was in STEREO.
1998: UK dub. Hard to find due to the Soft Key re-release.
2000: Soft Key release: Easiest one to find. Uses Version 2.
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