Formation (1992–1996) Humongous Entertainment was formed by
Shelley Day and
Ron Gilbert in March 1992, then based in
Woodinville, Washington. The name Humongous Entertainment was suggested by Gilbert's ex-
LucasArts colleague,
Tim Schafer. It became known for creating four
point-and-click adventure game series intended for young children, branded collectively as "Junior Adventures", with the four series being the
Putt-Putt, the
Freddi Fish, the
Pajama Sam and the
Spy Fox series. Characters from one series do not
cross over with ones in another (with the exception of ''Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear's Activity Pack'') and instead appear as
cameos or
Easter eggs in any of the three other series. All of Humongous's games until 2003 were built on the
SCUMM game engine, which Gilbert had developed for LucasArts years prior; following his departure from the company, LucasArts agreed to grant Humongous a license to use SCUMM for its games, on the condition that Gilbert continue to develop updates to the engine for both companies' use. By 1995, the company had become the third largest children's educational-software company. In 1995, Gilbert and Day established a company division,
Cavedog Entertainment, in
Seattle, set to develop games of alternative genres, and released
Total Annihilation, a real-time strategy (RTS) game, in 1997. This was followed by two expansion packs in 1998, as well as a variation called
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms plus an expansion pack in 1999.
Acquisitions, decline, dissolution (1996–2006) In July 1996, Humongous Entertainment was purchased by
GT Interactive for . In November 1997, Humongous Entertainment signed a five-year worldwide deal with
Nickelodeon to develop games based on the Nick Jr. series, ''
Blue's Clues, making it the first and only time that Humongous has developed games based on a licensed character as opposed to its original characters. The same year, Humongous released its first Backyard Sports title, Backyard Baseball. Backyard Sports'' would go on to become the company's longest-running series. In November 1999, GT Interactive was acquired by
Infogrames and renamed to Infogrames, Inc. In 2000, Humongous Entertainment released a
One-Stop Fun Shop activity center game for each Junior Adventure series, with the exception of
Spy Fox. The co-founders tried to buy Humongous Entertainment back from Infogrames, Inc., using external funding, but the day of the planned purchase was the day of the
dot-com collapse, wherefore the funding was pulled. The founders soon left Humongous, alongside many other key employees, and formed a new studio, Hulabee Entertainment, in 2001. In June 2001, Infogrames, Inc. laid off 82 personnel, over 40% of staff from Humongous Entertainment. In May 2003, after Infogrames, Inc. purchased
Hasbro Interactive, which owned the rights to the
Atari brand, the company was renamed Atari, Inc.
Humongous, Inc. (2005–2013) In Atari, Inc.'s fourth quarter results in June 2005, the company announced that it would divest and dispose of various "non-core" assets that it no longer saw as part of its upcoming strategic visions or creative directions, with Humongous Entertainment being the only named division to fulfill this purpose. Shortly afterward, Atari laid off much of the development portion of the company and renamed them from Humongous Entertainment, Inc. to solely Humongous, Inc. around the same time. During this time, Atari, Inc. was in the midst of heavy financial struggles and was cutting costs as much as it could. On August 22, 2005, Atari, Inc. announced that it would transfer Humongous, Inc. over to its majority parent,
Infogrames Entertainment SA, for shares worth . The deal would include all licensing rights, trademarks, intellectual property, and existing inventory. The deal would also allow for Atari, Inc. to use a fifth of the payment as a down payment, alongside continuing to exclusively distribute Humongous titles in North America and Mexico up until March 31, 2006. In October 2005, Infogrames announced they would relaunch the Humongous brand, and hired Alyssa Padia and Lauren Schechtman as the new CEOs. Infogrames stated that Humongous would focus mainly on new entries in the
Backyard Sports franchise and will follow up with a business strategy to relaunch the
Junior Adventure series. In March 2006, Atari, Inc.'s distribution deal with Humongous, Inc. was extended another year through to March 2007. Following the expiration of the Atari deal aside from
Backyard Sports, Humongous began to publish games on its own and in October 2007, it had signed a retail exclusivity deal with
Target to release remastered versions of select Junior Adventure titles. In March 2008, Interactive Game Group LLC (I2G) and Humongous, Inc. signed a North American publishing deal with
Majesco Entertainment to allow the latter to publish a selection of Junior Adventure titles for the
Wii. These titles were the first installments of each title in the series, except
Putt-Putt.
Atari Europe would handle publication and distribution in European territories. The ports were developed by Mistic Software, but their availability was greatly limited by
a legal conflict concerning their development. In April 2008, Infogrames announced that they would purchase out the remaining shares of Atari, Inc. that they didn't own previously and would merge with them. Following this merger, Infogrames Entertainment's company name was changed to Atari SA, who would go on to publish numerous more
Backyard Sports titles. Beginning in November 2011, in collaboration with Nimbus Games, Atari began releasing
Android and
iOS ports of several Humongous Entertainment
Junior Adventure titles. These releases continued into 2012.
Purchase of assets by Tommo (2013–present) In January 2013, following continued financial struggles from their parent company Atari SA, Humongous, Inc., and the rest of Atari's US operations all filed for
Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in an attempt to secure independence from its profit-losing parent. During Atari's bankruptcy sale on July 19, Humongous' assets were separated as they all went to different owners.
Backyard Sports was sold to private equity firm
The Evergreen Group, while
Moonbase Commander went to
Rebellion Developments. The Humongous brand and assets concerning the
Junior Adventure and
Junior Arcade series were sold to
Tommo alongside a selection of other Atari-owned properties. Beginning in 2022, Tommo and Hong Kong-based business Billionsoft began releasing ports of
Junior Adventure titles for the
Nintendo Switch and
PlayStation 4 consoles. A digital compilation of the first six releases, titled
Humongous Classic Collection was released in December 2022 for both systems, while a Nintendo Switch exclusive physical compilation was released in 2023. In May 2024, a digital compilation of all five of the
Freddi Fish Junior Adventure games titled
Freddi Fish Collection was released. == Games developed ==