Blue's Birthday Adventure Readme Window CD-ROM Windows 95/98 Pentium only (P90+ recommended) 80 MB hard disc space available 16 MB of RAM (8 MB free) SVGA video card (640x480, 256 colors) Sound card Quad-speed CD-ROM drive Installing the Game Windows 95/98 To start, insert the game CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive. When the Autoplay window pops up, click the Play button to play the game, or the Quit button to quit without doing anything. When you run the red disc you will see an additional icon; click on the Blue’s Clues button to see the Blue’s ABC Time Activities Demo. To run the game again, double click on the My Computer window and double-click on the game icon. The Autoplay window will appear again. If Autoplay has been disabled, you can run the game by double-clicking My Computer, then double-clicking the game icon, and finally double-clicking D:\AutoBirthday-Yellow.exe or D:\AutoBirthday-Red.exe. Or, create a shortcut to AutoBirthday-Yellow.exe or D:\AutoBirthday-Red.exe for a more permanent solution. Installation When you click the Play button you will see the installation dialog box. We must install support files in order for the game to run and this requires 11.9 MB of space on your hard drive. The install screen indicates how much free space is available on your hard drive. If you have enough space and want to accept the default destination directory click the OK button (the files will be installed and the game will begin. If the program doesn't detect enough space on the destination drive, you will see a warning message. You have the option of attempting the installation anyway, but the game won't run if all of the required files are not on the hard drive. You can exit the installation, try to free up some space (for example by emptying your Recycle bin and/or deleting any temporary files from your TEMP directory) and run the installation again. If the specified directory does not already exist on your system you will see a message. Click OK and the directory will be created for you. Advanced Options You can accept the default destination or may specify the drive and directory where you want the game files installed. To change the destination, type the path (drive and directory) directly in the field where you see the c:\hegames path (click to place your cursor there first) or click on the Browse button, find the directory you want and then click OK. If you choose a directory name that does not exist you will see a message. Click OK and the directory will be created for you. After clicking OK you'll see the copy progress bar. When the files have all been installed the game will begin. If you want to cancel the install click on the Cancel button and the files will not be installed. However, the game will not run without the files installed on your system. Making Changes to the Game The Options Screen Game-specific settings may be customized through the options dialog box, which is accessible at any time by pressing the Spacebar, then clicking the Options button. AutoPlay Disabled? If you do not see the AutoPlay window your CD-ROM may not be set up to take advantage of this feature or you may need to upgrade the CD-ROM driver. To check this: Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel and double click on the System icon. In System Properties click on the Device Manager tab. At the top of the list you should see CD-ROM - click the plus sign to the left of this line and double click on the CD-ROM manufacturer name which appears underneath CD-ROM. Click on the Settings tab and look for Auto Insert Notification: -make sure there is a check mark in the box to the left of this line - if there is no check mark, click in the box and one will appear, then click OK at the bottom -if there is a check mark already there click OK at the bottom of the screen Now click on the Performance tab - on this screen check to make sure you see the line "...system is configured for optimal performance" - if this line does not appear or says "Drive X is using MSDOS compatibility mode" you may need to upgrade your CD-ROM driver. Contact the manufacturer of the CD-ROM drive or of the computer system. Shortcut in 95/98 You can set up a shortcut icon in Windows 95/98 so all you need to do is insert the game CD-ROM and double click on the shortcut icon. To do this: Right click your mouse on a blank area of the desktop Click on New and then Shortcut Type in the path for the game, e.g. D:\AutoBirthday-Yellow.exe or D:\AutoBirthday-Red.exe (Be sure to replace D: with the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive) Click on Next and name the shortcut (e.g. Blue's Birthday) Click Finish and the icon will be on the desktop The Controls Moving Around To guide Blue and Steve through this original adventure move your cursor across the screen. As you move the cursor around, the pointer changes to reflect the type of action it will perform when clicked. For instance, when the cursor is over an exit it will change into a large white arrow, and clicking will cause Steve and Blue to head for the area you indicated. A clear arrow is the standard pointer in the game. When you see the empty outline, it means the arrow is pointing at an object or character that can not be activated. Pay attention when you see the pointer turn solid. It means that the object or character you are pointing at can be picked up, manipulated, or activated. A large arrow indicates the entrance to or exit from a room or activity. NOTE: It may be difficult for young children to use a standard size mouse. We suggest using a child-sized mouse or some other device, like an EasyBall. Parent's Section Special Access and Difficulty Settings You can increase or decrease the challenge of some or all the activities to meet your child's skill level. You can also play any of the activities without having to play an entire pathway. From the Pathway Selection Screen (shown here at the left) press the "A" key on your keyboard to see the Activity Selection Screen or the "S" key to see the Skill Setting Screen. Activity Selection Screen You'll see icons for each of the activities on the disc you're playing, including the creativity activities you'll only see when you complete each pathway. To play any activity, click its picture on this screen. When you're done, click the arrow in the upper left corner of the game to return to the Activity Selection Screen. Exit the Activity Selection Screen by clicking the arrow in the upper left corner. You will return to the Pathway Selection Screen. Important Note: It is suggested that activities only be accessed from this screen AFTER your child has enjoyed playing the entire pathway from beginning to end at least once. Playing activities from the Activity Selection Screen may give away clue set answers! Skill Setting Screen The difficulty level for each activity adjusts automatically but can be set to a specific level. Auto-Adjustment Blue's Birthday Adventure automatically adjusts the difficulty level for each player unless the levels are set manually. The program default is the intermediate level. This setting changes when you master a level. For instance, if you're playing an activity at the beginning level, and complete it easily, the game will adjust to the intermediate setting. However, if you have trouble at the next level the game will re-adjust to a lower level. Manual Adjustments There are two types of manual adjustments you can make. To change the difficulty setting for any of the nine directed activities separately use your cursor to modify the setting under that activity. You can choose between Beginning (yellow), Intermediate (green), or Advanced (blue). To move all activities to one level, set the Master switch to the level you want. This will set all the activities to that level. To move them all to their previous settings click the Reset button. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you use the Master or Clues switch to change the difficulty levels all the saved information for the current player name will be lost. You can click the Reset button before leaving the screen to cancel this action. The nine directed activities are: Find My Friend, Tickety's Puzzles, Pizza Making, Flower Picking, Party Toys, Hide and Seek, Find Turquoise, Treasure Hunt and Mixed-up Music. In addition to the nine directed activities in the program, there are four non-directed, creative expression activities. They are: Coloring Book, Blue's Birthday Card, Puppet Show and Choose a Present. These activities do not have difficulty levels so they do not appear on this screen. The Clues icon indicates the difficulty setting for finding the objects needed to locate clues and entering clues in the Handy Dandy Notebook. At the beginning level, objects are found in the location where they are needed. On intermediate and advanced levels, objects will be found in locations away from where they are needed. Entering clues in the Handy Dandy Notebook is easier on the beginning level and becomes more difficult on the intermediate and advanced levels. For example, at the beginning setting you must click on the picture of the item you've found. On the intermediate and advanced levels you must construct the clue from puzzle pieces and sometimes there will be more pieces available than are necessary. Progress Reports The Thinking Chart gives you an indication of how your child is progressing. You can see from the colored lines which activities your child has played and at what levels. You can print the chart by clicking on the printer icon. You gain access to this by clicking the chart icon on the Sign In screen. How to Play Blue's Birthday Adventure Blue is an inquisitive puppy who lives with her friend Steve. In Blue's Birthday Adventure she's helping Steve plan her birthday party by leaving him clues -marked by a blue paw print- which Steve deciphers with your help. There are two discs for Blue's Birthday Adventure and each disc has two "pathways". Each pathway includes one full Blue's Clues game with three clues, an interactive Handy Dandy Notebook, multi-level learning activities and more. The activities include matching and sorting items, creating a personalized birthday card, putting puzzles together, baking a cake and much more! By successfully solving each pathway you'll help make Blue's birthday the best ever! The pathways can be played in any order and represent different preparations for Blue's birthday. Together, the pathways contribute to the overall story of the game: the preparation of and attendance at Blue's birthday party. Solving each clue set results in a reward, Blue's birthday party! After you sign in, you'll see the Pathway Selection Screen. Click one of the icons and Steve will greet you just as he does on television! He'll explain what you're going to do and then you'll be free to explore and look for clues! Some clues may be easy to find but others may require you to find an object and assist a character before you can uncover them. Pathways Important Note: The discs can be played in any order and it is never necessary to switch discs in the middle of a pathway. You must sign in each time you play Blue's Birthday Adventure. After signing in, you'll see the Pathway Selection Screen with two icons. Each icon depicts the part of the story that pathway is about. Click one of the icons and Steve will greet you just as he does on television. Blue will stamp her paw print on the screen to tell you and Steve that she wants to play Blue's Clues. After you help Steve wipe off the paw print you can begin to look for clues, activities, noisemakers and more! Some clues will be easy to find while others may require that you assist a character before you can uncover them. For instance, in one of the pathways the question to solve is What Does Blue Want to Give Her Party Guests? In the game you'll find some magnets that can be used to hold Paprika's pictures on the refrigerator in the kitchen. Once the pictures are up you'll discover they are a clue to the answer! You can exit a pathway at any time by clicking on the Traffic Light in the inventory bar, by pressing the Alt+F4 keys on the keyboard or by pressing the spacebar and clicking on Quit. When you click the Traffic Light you will return to the Pathway Selection Screen. You can choose another pathway or exit the game completely by clicking on Quit. Important Note: When you exit the game using the Traffic Light your game play information is saved automatically with your name. If you exit the game by pressing the spacebar and clicking on Quit or by using the Alt+F4 keys your game play information will not be saved. When you return to the Pathway Selection Screen and click on a pathway you've already played you will be prompted to choose Continue or Start over. If you choose to start over all your previous game play information for that pathway will be erased. The Party Each pathway ends with Blue and her friends gathered around a picnic table outdoors. The clue solution always leads to a bonus activity that only appears in the game when you've completed the pathway. For example, in one of the pathways Steve must figure out what Blue wants to do at her party. She wants to put on a puppet show! In the party scene a puppet stage appears in the background. When you click on the stage little puppets act out stories you set up. The objects collected during game play appear on the table in the Party Bag. The noisemakers are clickable surprises. Other objects gathered through activity play also appear here --like both gifts for Blue. When you click on these you'll see Blue opening her presents. Click on mailbox so he'll deliver the card you made to Blue. Steve will sing the Birthday Song and everyone can join in! When you've solved all four pathways you can help Blue blow out the candles on the cake you helped make and you'll get a surprise for all your help! Click the Traffic Light to return to the Pathway Selection Screen where you can continue to play or quit the game. Keyboard Commands Pauses the game and opens the pause dialog box. To continue, just click the Play button. Quits the game without any prompts. You can also stop playing by pressing the Spacebar, then clicking the Quit button. Fast-forward through the current cutscene. Displays on-line documentation. Toggles the game between running full-screen or in a window. Increases the size of the game display if your screen resolution is 1280x1024 or higher. If the game display has already been expanded, will toggle the display size back to normal. NOTE: This may cause slow video performance. Increases the size of the game display if your screen resolution is 800x600 or 1024x768. If the game display has already been expanded, will toggle the display size back to normal. NOTE: This may move the position of your desktop icons. TROUBLESHOOTING INFORMATION Windows 95/98 If you're having trouble with your CD-ROM, sound or video card make sure you've got the most updated drivers for these devices. If you're still having problems read on: CD-ROM To make sure your CD-ROM drive is set up optimally: Click on Start, Settings and Control Panel. Double click on the System icon; in the System Properties click on the Performance tab. Now click on the File System button and then the CD-ROM tab. Check the Optimize Access Pattern setting and make sure it accurately reflects the speed of your CD-ROM drive. For instance, if you have a 4x make sure it's set up "Quad-speed or higher." Also, make sure the Supplemental Cache Size is set to "large" for any speed CD-ROM drive. Now open the HEGAMES.INI file, delete the entire [My Computer] section, save the changes, close the file and run the game. This will force all the tests to rerun. NOTE: This refers to Windows 95/98 only. Contact your computer manufacturer for help with this. Printers You want to make sure you have printer drivers that support 32-bit printing. If not, you'll need to upgrade to the 32-bit printer drivers in order to print from our game. Contact HP at 208-323-2349 for more information. Video When we say SVGA, we mean that we need a display capable of supporting a resolution of 640x480 at 256 colors (this wasn't a requirement of the original VGA spec, so we say SVGA). Almost every video adapter sold in the last six+ years is capable of this resolution and color depth. Even if you don't know it, you probably have an SVGA card. NOTE: To find your system device information on Windows 95/98 or higher click on Start, Settings and Control Panel. Double click on the System icon; in the System Properties click on the Device Manager tab and then find Display Adapters and Sound, video and game controllers in the list. Click the plus sign to the left of each line and note the manufacturer name as it appears below. Contacting Humongous Entertainment Order Department Phone (800) 499-8386 (425) 867-2596 Fax (425) 489-3446 Internet Mail custserv@humongous.com U.S. Mail Humongous Entertainment PO Box 3383 Woodinville, WA 98073 Technical Support Phone (425) 485-1212 Fax (425) 806-0480 U.S. Mail Technical Support Humongous Entertainment 13110 NE 177th Place Suite B101 #180 Woodinville, WA 98072-9965 On-line Web Site WWW http://www.humongous.com Blue's Birthday Adventure Copyright 1998 Viacom International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Blue's Clues and all related characters, titles and logos are trademarks of Viacom International. Software Copyright 1998 Humongous Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Based on characters created by Traci Paige Johnson, Todd Kessler and Angela Santomero. Archived by OldGamesDownload.com on 12th October, 2019