Mixed-Up Mother Goose

Sierra On-Line

Industry	Video games
Founded	January 1, 1980 (1980-01-01)
Founder	Ken and Roberta Williams
Headquarters	Oakhurst, California , United States
Products	Mixed-Up Mother Goose, Phantasmagoria, King's Quest VII

Roberta Williams' Mixed-Up Mother Goose is an educational adventure game initially launched by Sierra On-Line in 1987. Notably, it became the first multimedia title available on CD-ROM in 1991. This was followed by a sequel, Mixed-Up Fairy Tales, released in 1991.

The narrative centers on a child avatar who ventures into the whimsical realm of Mother Goose, where traditional nursery rhymes have been jumbled and essential objects are missing. The player assists characters such as Humpty Dumpty in locating a ladder, returns the little lamb to Mary, and searches for a pail for Jack and Jill, among other tasks.

Gameplay

Movement is controlled via four directional keys. Objects of interest are prominently displayed to support younger players. Approaching an item automatically collects it, with only a single inventory slot available at any time. Non-living objects are found both indoors and outdoors, while animated characters trail the player to their destinations to restore the nursery rhymes. Certain figures, like Old King Cole, require several items, which are mostly scattered randomly across different screens.

The game features 18 nursery rhymes and 20 items to retrieve. Players gain points for each rhyme successfully restored. If unsure of what to do next, players can interact with characters who show needed items through "thought bubbles." At the beginning, one can select from eight different characters. The game allows progress to be saved (bookmarked) at any moment—a feature later incorporated into other Sierra titles such as Phantasmagoria and King's Quest VII.

Ports

Sierra produced three remakes of Mixed-Up Mother Goose:

• The 1990 version (Mixed-Up Mother Goose Enhanced) upgraded graphics using the SCI0 engine.
• The 1991 edition (Mixed-Up Mother Goose VGA/Multimedia CD) introduced major improvements: VGA visuals, fully voiced and separately sung nursery rhymes with animations, a faster and modernized interface, plus a map for navigating the nursery rhyme world. This release appeared on CD-ROM with complete digital speech and on floppy disk featuring only digitally recorded rhymes. The CD version utilized Sierra's early SCI1 engine, while the floppy version ran on SCI1.1, differing slightly in startup sequences and menu design. Gameplay was tweaked slightly by reducing Old King Cole’s required items from three to one and adding a talking statue at Banbury Cross who offers hints.
• In 1995, Mixed-Up Mother Goose Deluxe delivered enhanced SVGA graphics alongside a bonus audio CD featuring diverse musical arrangements.

A "Classic's Reillustrated" (SCI EGA) variant was planned for the Atari ST, but it was exclusively available as a mail-order upgrade through Sierra News Magazine; no retail boxed copies were sold.

Both the original 1987 release and the 1991 multimedia CD remake of Mixed-Up Mother Goose are included in The Roberta Williams Anthology, a compilation of games designed by Roberta Williams.

Reception

The game received acclaim from Compute!, which highlighted its effectiveness as a tool for teaching traditional nursery rhymes. It earned the 1991 Software Publishers Association Excellence in Software Award for Best Early Education Program.

By 1995, Sierra On-Line announced that Mixed-Up Mother Goose had surpassed sales of 500,000 copies.

See also

• Nursery rhyme
• Mother Goose
• List of graphic adventure games

External links

• Access Mixed-Up Mother Goose (1987) via the Internet Archive at iarchive:msdos Mixed-Up Mother Goose 1987
• Access Mixed-Up Mother Goose (1991) through the Internet Archive at iarchive:msdos Mixed-Up Mother Goose 1991