JumpStart Adventures 3rd Grade: Mystery Mountain

JumpStart Adventures 3rd Grade: Mystery Mountain is a personal computer game in Knowledge Adventure's JumpStart series of educational software. As the title suggests, the game is intended to teach a third grade curriculum. This is the only version of this game created and, unusually for Knowledge Adventure, was still being sold over fifteen years after its initial release in 1996. In 2003, it was included as the "Fundamentals" disc of JumpStart Advanced 3rd Grade.

JumpStart Adventures 3rd Grade: Mystery Mountain
The current (2007) cover of JumpStart Advanced 3rd Grade
Developer(s)Knowledge Adventure
Publisher(s)Knowledge Adventure
Producer(s)David Fratto
Designer(s)David Fratto
Bernadette Gonzalez
Barton Listick
Rob Wrubel
Programmer(s)Miguel Canales
Artist(s)Bonnie Williams
Writer(s)Doria Briddle
Robert Nashak
David Fratto
Composer(s)HaleSong Music Productions
Randy Hale
SeriesJumpStart
Platform(s)Windows, Macintosh
ReleaseDecember 2, 1996
Genre(s)Educational/adventure
Mode(s)Single player

Plot

Set in a retro-futuristic universe, the game concerns Polly Spark, the bratty daughter of an apparently very wealthy inventor, and her attempt to alter history so that her inane answers to a history quiz she failed will be correct. To do this, she sends twenty-five reprogrammed robots back in time and, with her father conveniently away on a business trip, she takes over Mystery Mountain, the literal "mountain mansion" where she and her father live. The goal of the game is to help Botley, the robot assigned to keep Polly under control, save the world by retrieving each of the twenty-five robots and bringing them back to the present.

Gameplay

Each of the game's twenty-five missions (one for each robot that must be rescued) begin with the user selecting one of Polly's questions from the TransQuizzer. On the TransQuizzer, Polly's teacher Ms. Winkle poses a historical question, and Polly gives a surreally humorous answer. Polly then appears on a monitor to state which robot she has sent back in time for the question and to list the four Mission Clues that need to be found for the mission.

Botley, using his powerful sensory device, then determines which games need to be played in order to retrieve the needed Mission Clues. Once all the Mission Clues have been collected, the user will still need to collect an increasing amount of Invention Points in order to be allowed to enter the Time Machine Mission Control. The amount of Invention Points required to enter the Time Machine gradually increases over time.

Once inside the Time Machine Mission Control, the user has to get past the Wheel of Invention in order to acquire a Time Key and enter the Time Machine itself, though Polly has apparently reprogrammed the Wheel so it's not just a quiz, but rather a quiz show called "Pollywood Squares." Here, Monty Monitor quizzes the user with questions that provide the point in time where Polly has sent the missing robot and which eventually reveal the correct answer to Polly's original test question.

After this activity is completed, the user enters the Time Machine and travels back in time to retrieve the robot and bring it back to the present, where the rescued robots are deposited in an area called the "robot roost." After the robot has been rescued, the user begins a new mission by selecting another question from the TransQuizzer. The game continues in this manner until all twenty-five robots are returned to the present.

Cast and characters
  • Jeannie Elias as Botley the Robot, Polly Spark, and Ms. Winkle
  • Tony Pope as Professor Spark, Mort, Bothoven, Maestro Trombot, Egbert, Monty Monitor, Biosphere Probe, and Observatory Narrator #1
  • Patricia Lentz as Mrs. Beasley and Observatory Narrator #2
  • Lathan Crowe as Frankie
  • Buster

Activities
  • The Front Door

The First Floor
  • The Kitchen
  • The Art Gallery
    • The Professor's Virtual Collection
    • The Painting Gallery
  • The Music Hall (A.K.A. Concert Hall)
  • The Jumbo Electro Generator Room

The Second Floor
  • The Biosphere
  • The Shrinking Machine Room (A.K.A. Shrink-O-Matic)

The Third Floor
  • The Observatory
  • The Robot Maze (A.K.A. Robot Obstacle Course)

The Time Machine Room
  • The Wheel of Invention (A.K.A. Pollywood Squares)
  • Professor Sparks's Time Machine
  • The Robot Roost

References
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