Well, I cannot say I ever expected to run across this game. It’s a pretty forgotten one and most people are unaware it ever even existed, and the few who have seen pictures of it have probably never given it a second look.
And, to be honest, there’s good reason for that — it’s exactly the same thing as I Spy School Days, just minus the craft projects theme (so, if you ever wondered why the ladybug never appeared there or why it was never visited in Balloon Popper, now you know). No, seriously, that’s it. Okay, well, a more detailed rundown of the differences…
* The opening logos are slightly different. There’s a Media Circus logo and the Black Hammer logo is not animated.
* The “Welcome new players…” line is excluded (which, in School Days, was exclusively used if there were no names on the list).
* The main menu has different voices — first off, the opening line is different due to having eight activities instead of nine, and the “help” dialogue is voiced by a different kid (probably to avoid having clashing voices when reaching the “craft projects” line).
* Speaking of which, the main menu also has a slightly different look due to the absence of craft projects. This also means the main menu button was redesigned.
* In the chalkboard theme, when doing the matching puzzles, the chalk actually “draws” instead of just appearing.
* There are fewer treasures in “Make Your Own” due to the absence of craft projects.
* A handful of “found object” jingles were added to School Days; this one has only 20, whereas School Days has 30.
* This version can run on Windows 3.1, where as School Days cannot. To be honest though, I’ve played this on Windows 3.1 and…yeah, it really should have never run on it to begin with. And I’ve done it in both DOSBox and on an actual 3.1 machine (which has higher specs than most other PCs that ran it), and the results were less than satisfying on both accounts.
To be honest doing this walkthrough at all was pretty redundant, but not at the same time. My walkthrough of School Days was mostly okay…except it had that really obnoxious popping noise problem (which I later discovered a fix for, which bugs the heck out of me). This one thankfully does not have that issue, and as a slight bonus, it’s also in 60FPS, though that’s not a really major thing.
So, on the whole of whether adding craft projects really improved the game or not…to be honest, it only marginally improved the game. If I want to be perfectly straight, craft projects always felt so forgettable. It was sort of just there. The other three riddle-solving themes had at least something to distinguish themselves and make them stand out. Anything craft projects did, nature already did, and nature at least had the magnifying glass stages which, reviled as they may be, gave it something to stand out for. Craft projects was just another “static screen” type thing, and the pictures weren’t even that memorable either aside from them all having one theme, but again, nature already did that. I mean, compare it to wood block city (which had a three-viewpoint gimmick and the same city with something different going on in each picture) and chalkboard (which takes us through the months of the year and has the scrolling picture gimmick) and you start to see just how little craft projects stands out. Though, I think it’s interesting to note that had this game been released in the modern day, craft projects would probably have been DLC. Pretty crazy to think about!
As for the walkthrough itself, bleh. I kind of went into this without practicing at all, which led to a ton of places where I completely forgot where things were, ESPECIALLY in nature (hey, YOU try memorizing the places when there’s nine pictures that occasionally have THREE riddles instead of two!). In fact if you have an eye for editing, you’re probably gonna notice a bunch of jumpcuts. Trust me when I say I the original unedited walkthrough was close to unwatchable. I mean, I always remember where everything in Wood Block City is because that was always my favorite theme as a kid, but otherwise…meh. In fact, watching this again…I really have a ton of trouble watching it, it’s paced so badly and I really have little excuse for not doing a practice run beforehand so I could get all the object locations on my mind. It’s a trap I try not to fall in (I’ve seen so many terrible walkthroughs of kids’ PC games that miss things because they just figured it was easy enough to cover them thoroughly on your first run through. It’s not), and yet I managed to fall into it. Oh well.
This was recorded off the IBM ThinkPad 600e running Windows 95. Recorded with the AverMedia Game Broadcaster HD.
Enjoy the walkthrough!
This game is (C) 1997 Scholastic. Please support these companies by buying their products!
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my childhood
FINALLY FOUND THIS GAME! SO MUCH NOSTALGIA! AHHHHHH!
AGH THE NOSTALGIA!!! I loved the balloon pop game, and i was dumb enough to think that i had to click on the ladybug 12 times in the same game XD
I remember playing this on my grandmother's windows 95
MY CHILDHOOD!!! Thank you so much for sharing this! I LOVED the chalkboard and woodblock city ones.
Holy SHIT the memories!!! I remember playing this when I was 7 back in 2006 and now I'm almost 21. I would give so much just to relive my childhood!
The nostalgia that hit me when I saw the first second was ridiculous
For some reason my game as a kid wouldn't let me finish the one nature riddle. It asks for "corn to be popped" I'd click on it and nothing would happen! I see you clicked on it and it worked lol
Came for a hit of "you found me" nostalgia, stayed for the fact that I'm still as dumb as kid me who couldn't find everything.
I spent so much time playing this as a kid! Glad I found it again.
The original Hidden Object
1:57:36 that noise plays very rarely in the game
MY FAVORITE GAME WHEN I WAS A KID
1:23:59 I always loved clicking on that gate as a kid. Seeing that gate close and hearing the bells ring was my favorite part!
I remember playing this computer game when I owned it on CD-ROM.
No craft box 🙁
So I have actually seen this CD online before. I played and loved I SPY School Days as a lad so I was of course interested in this. But finding information on it was SO HARD!!!
So thank you very much for this video and keep up the amazing work!
My favorite thing is when you get it wrong in the Oops Hoops game.
A rain cloud!
A rain cloud!
A rain cloud!
A rain cloud!
A rain cloud!
SIX rainclouds!
The sounds in this game are just 👌🏻
An acorn!
An acorn!
An acorn!
FOUR acorns!
The nostalgiaaaaa oh my gooooddd
This version has 8 games in the main menu. This seems to be a prototype version of I Spy School Days in which the final version (like the one I have and a different disc that you have) has 9 games which has the Craft section in which the prototype I Spy lacks.
It's weird how the obstacles in Balloon Popper always stay in place even after each riddle has been read. Good thing it was fixed in I Spy School Days.
WHO ELSE USED TO PLAY THIS?!?
nostalgia
played this on both PC and Macintosh
OMG I REMEMBER THIS!!!!!
I used to have a copy of this game for Mac and PC until I donated it to charity.
Have you ever tried finding all three stop signs in the second riddle of the first picture of the Wood Block City without changing the angle? I did when I was younger.
Download link?
I had this version at home and School Days at school. I've actually seen a few copies of this game at thrift stores and Half Price Books and stuff (my copies of this and School Days came from HPB).
Thanks for playing this game! I played it lots of times when I was a kid!
You did it! You played through the first version of I Spy School Days! In other words, the very first I Spy CD-ROM game. I never had this game, and I don't think I will since I already have most of the features in I Spy School Days. Great job, and congrats!
By the way, what is the fix that you found for the popping noise problem?
Thanks for the walkthrough! I've been stuck on this game for years