Arthur's Birthday Download (1994 Educational Game)

In Arthur's Birthday, you can let the program read the story to you, or explore on your own through the main program, or by playing "The Great Gift Mystery" game where players collect clues about the gifts Arthur's friends have brought to the party. There are three levels of difficulty: easy, medium and hard. And a "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" game has you trying to place the tail on a donkey that moves around and dances to music. Players can set the speed from slow to fast and turn the lights off for added difficulty. The most annoying thing about this program is the number of times you hear the story while playing the games.

Graphics: Cartoony, but well done, with no blockiness or pixelation.

Sound: The story narrator also does Francine's voice, which can be jarring.

Enjoyment: The story is enjoyable, but hearing it constantly repeated becomes torture.

Replay Value: Replaying the game once or twice, every so often, might be palatable.

Arthur's Birthday is an interactive storybook adaptation of Marc Brown's original picture book. Arthur is very excited about his upcoming birthday party, but as he invites all of friends to it, he makes the unfortunate discovery that Muffy is having her birthday party the same day, which puts all of the kids into a dilemma. However, on the way home from school the next day, Arthur and Francine devise a plan to fix the situation.

As with other Living Books, the game offers the option of simply reading the story, or reading each page and then letting the user interact with the pictures. Clicking on the various objects reveals all sorts of surprises. In 1997, the game was updated and given a second version that upped the screen resolution and added a Pin the Tail on the Donkey minigame and a scavenger hunt game called The Great Gift Mystery.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

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