Richard Scarry's How Things Work in Busytown
Description
Richard Scarry's How Things Work in Busytown is based on Richard Scarry's Busytown book and animated cartoon series and it is the sequel to the DOS and Sega Genesis game Richard Scarry's Busytown. Similar to the original game, you begin in a hub world where all the places in Busytown can be found. There is the Studio, where are songs played throughout the came can be listened to. The CD version of the game doubles as a CD with the same music.
In the bakery, you play as a chef pig in which you bake breads by using the correct ingredients and putting it in the oven. In the assembly line, you can build many vehicles by learning about the parts and then placing them in the correct spots. In the Garbage Truck, you control a garbage truck and you must pick up trash littered on the ground while dumping garbage cans into the truck. On the Farm, you can tend the fields using the tractor while learning about the farm. There are many different options and different outcomes throughout the many places. Some of the things that this game helps kids learn are vocabulary, word definitions, and sequencing objects and numbers.
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Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 2 ratings with 1 reviews)
The earliest Richard Scarry game I know for the Macintosh.
The Good
Ah yes, Richard Scarry! The one that defined my early 2000s childhood! My brother and I watched the Busy World of Richard Scarry TV series on VHS, and we've read his books too! I also had fun with the Richard Scarry CD-ROMs, but this is the one I forgot about, but I gave it a shot on my Performa 580CD running Mac OS 8.1 just for memories sake.
How Things Work in Busytown is the second entry to the Richard Scarry games created by Paramount Interactive and Novotrade in 1994. The first from that series (titled "Busytown") was remade in 1999 by Simon and Schuster and Boston Animation. I'm pretty sure the second didn't earn a remake though... oh well!
The activities are easy to follow. One example is that I recycled paper, plastic and metal to make toys from the recycling plant activity, then I moved on to the toy factory activity just for that. The activities have some visual guidance with a colour-changing star icon to show what to do next in an activity. As a bonus, you can listen to all the music in either the Studio or through a regular Audio CD player! But when you start and activity, it plays a snippet of that tune.
The Bad
It appears that the mouse control is a bit slow for some, mainly because it takes a little longer to move from one location in an activity to another on a single screen. Also, the developers forgot about the keyboard or joystick control being implemented in the game, so your only option is to use a mouse.
The Bottom Line
Although the slow moving mouse control really is cumbersome for younger children, this is still a good title to have! Richard Scarry was part of my childhood, and my brother and I have already read his books, watched the animated TV series on VHS, and played the CD-ROM games. I was a former PC user, but now I have like nineteen vintage Apple equipment, and I played the How Things Work in Busytown game on my Performa 580CD running Mac OS 8.1! It was a great trip down memory lane for me! And I think this still is a great piece of history in the educational computer game market of the mid-90s! I recommend it!
Macintosh · by Katie Cadet (10036) · 2017
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Game added by Kinopio King.
Game added July 30, 2017. Last modified February 22, 2023.