JumpStart Kindergarten (1997)

JumpStart Kindergarten is a game in the JumpStart series released in 1997 with the intention to serve as an updated version of the original JumpStart Kindergarten released in 1994.

Unused Graphics#

Staff Photos#

Two photos depicting Knowledge Adventure employees are present in the main game assets folder. The first image has the filename DV001.GIF, and the second image has the filename QA001.GIF. These may possibly stand for "development" and "quality assurance" respectively.

The file SB001.RSC, which contains assets for the Scrapbook section of the game, contains another photo of staff, subtitled "Jump*Start Kindergarten Team".

School Screen Variation#

KG001.RSC contains an unused variation of the school exterior background. The tree furthest to the right received some tweaks to its shading/texture. The bell and one of the yellow flowers were also removed since these were changed to sprites that could be animated over top of the background in the final release.

Unused	Final

Unused Audio#

The file LH001.BAL contains several voice clips that were used for CJ and Edison in JumpStart 2nd Grade. This file was not present in the original release, but is present in updated releases from around 2000.

Regional Differences#

French Release#

Auto Play Screen#

The French auto play screen uses completely different artwork for the characters and logo from the US version.

US	French

Title Screen#

The French release has a completely different title screen from the US release.

US	French

Radio#

The French release made numerous changes to the Radio activity, which allows the player to listen to various songs.

US	France

• The number of songs that can be listened to was reduced from 8 to 6.
• Four of the songs in the French release are completely different from any songs in the US release: "La chanson des nombres", "Hé mouche", "Promenons-nous dans les bois", and "La cucaracha".
• The two songs in the French release that are based on songs from the US release have different melodies and instruments, and are also shorter as well.
• The buttons on the radio have different appearances in the French release. There are six buttons instead of eight, and the buttons for the four new songs added to the French release use different graphics.
• Animations from the song sequences were changed.

Clock#

US	France

The Clock activity uses some different graphics for the decorations on the clock.

• Instead of two sun or moon designs (depending on the time of day) near the top of the clock, there is a single sun/moon design in the bottom right corner, and these designs are completely different from the original release.
• Rather than two green leaf designs near the bottom of the clock, there are three wood-colored designs in the top right and left corners and bottom left corner of the clock.

The time display is also changed to use a 24 hour clock rather than a 12 hour clock.

Bulletin Board#

The Bulletin Board had nearly all of its images and music changed for the French release, mainly for the purpose of omitting holidays not celebrated in France, and in some cases replacing them with French holidays.

Missing Picnic Area#

The picnic area seems to be completely absent from the French release. In the US release, clicking on the picnic basket in the backyard would take the player to a picnic area, but clicking on it in the French release does nothing. The manual for the French release also makes no mention of a picnic area whatsoever, which seems to further indicate that it was removed.

Background Music Pauses#

The French release has an oddity in that, the majority of the time, when a sound effect plays or a character speaks, the background music will stop, and then restart once the sound/voice clip has finished playing. In the US release, the sound effects and character dialogue always play over top of the background music, like you'd expect.

Revisional Differences#

Circa 2000, this game was re-released as JumpStart Kindergarten Deluxe. This release added a "SmartTools Toolbar" to the game, an additional feature which, by default, will always be present in the top right corner of the screen. It displays messages to the player (mostly words of encouragement) and could be used to quickly access the JumpStart website, among other things.