Tuneland

Tuneland is a musical children's video game, produced in 1993 by a division of 7th Level, Kids' World Entertainment. The cartoon video game follows the character Little Howie, who is voiced by the television personality Howie Mandel on an adventure around Old McDonald's Farm.

Tuneland
US cover
Developer(s)7th Level
Producer(s)George Grayson (Executive)
Bob Ezrin (Executive)
Richard Merrick
Scott Page
Designer(s)Scott Page
Platform(s)DOS
Release1993
Genre(s)Children's, Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Tuneland was followed by the Lil' Howie series: Lil' Howie's Great Word Adventure, Lil' Howie's Great Math Adventure, and Lil' Howie's Great Reading Adventure. The series has won 36 awards.

Gameplay

The game using a simple point and click interface to move around the locations. There are also hotspots to trigger animations.[1] The eight locations in the game are the barnyard, the farmhouse, the barn, the pond, grandma's house, the train station, the mountain, and the valley.[2]

Audio

The game contains around 40 songs, which are primarily nursery rhymes. These include "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", "Turkey in the Straw, "Three Blind Mice", "I'm a Little Teapot", "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Bingo". The CD can also be used as an audio disk or with the built in Jukebox to listen to the songs featured in the game.[3]

Tuneland's cast includes a large number of musicians including the Doobie Brothers' Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour on guitars. Jon Anderson from Yes provides some vocals and Scott Page of Supertramp performs on the soundtrack for the game.

Characters

Tuneland has never been completely localized in German. Only the follow-ups, such as Howie's Great Math Adventure, have been fully localized with German voice talents.

Name English Voice German Voice
Lil' Howie Howie Mandel Kai Taschner
Lil' Howie, is a yellow bear who can make adventures.
Stinky Maurice LaMarche Thomas Wersche
Stinky, is a skunk and Howie's best friend.
Digibot/Alphabot Maurice LaMarche Tonio von der Meden
Digibot, a robot who can travel adventure.
Sarah Wendee Lee Joyce Bakels
Sarah, is a yellow bear and Howie's older sister. In the follow-ups the player can click her for help.

Reception

In April 1994 Computer Gaming World said that Tuneland was "a wholly captivating experience for both children and their parents"[4] The magazine in May 1994 said that the game "uses traditional animation techniques and a lot of creative humor" to teach songs and rhymes "children would normally have to learn from Barney".[5]

Tuneland received various awards including World Class Award for Children's CD-ROM Game from PC World, and an Award in Excellence from the Film Advisory Board.[6] In 1994 it was also featured in the Top 10 Best Kids Products of the Year from Entertainment Weekly and the Top 100 CD-ROMs from PC Magazine.[7][8]

A screenshot of the opening location of the game, also showing Little Howie.

References
  1. "A Trip through Tuneland". CD-ROM Today. May 1994. pp. 46–48.
  2. "Tuneland". University of Alabama in Huntsville. Archived from the original on April 18, 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  3. "Tuneland". Atari Magazines. July 1994. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  4. "Invasion Of The Data Stashers". Computer Gaming World. April 1994. p. 33.
  5. "Taking A Peek". Computer Gaming World. May 1994. p. 174.
  6. "Tuneland". Film Advisory Board. Archived from the original on 2007-11-14. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  7. "Tuneland". CD Access. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  8. "TuneLand Triumphs". 7thlevel.com. November 14, 1994. Archived from the original on February 20, 1998. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
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