Arthur's Birthday

Arthur's Birthday
Living Books CD Rom 1994 (Version 1) and 1997 (Version 2)
Released	August 1994
Characters	Arthur, Muffy, D.W., Buster, Binky, The Brain, Francine, Prunella, Fern, Mr. Read, Mrs. Read, Baby Kate, Grandma Thora
Language	English Spanish
Pages	13
Previous	Ruff's Bone
Next	Harry and the Haunted House

Arthur's Birthday is the seventh Living Books PC CD-Rom Game based on the 1989 storybook written by Marc Brown, and was originally released in 1994 and then V2 released in 1997.

Plot

The story opened with Arthur finishing up his invitations and going to school to hand them out to the boys and girls, who were sure to come. Then, he proceeded to hand one out to Muffy, who replied that she's having a birthday party. They both get surprised, because they were born on the same day, and couldn't reschedule as a lot has been planned already. The classmates then discussed about whose party they could go to, and struggle to figure it out. After getting some gifts and more decorations, Arthur met up with Francine a few days later to tell her all about a solution to the problem. Then, they write invitations and deliver them to everyone's mail-box, and a special one goes to Muffy, telling her about a present too big to fit in a box, so she must be at Arthur's house to get it. Everyone makes it there, and they all surprised Muffy by having both parties at the same house. They promised to do it next year at her house. The story ended with Francine giving Arthur a bottle labelled "Spin the Bottle", which she had been pestering him about earlier on.

Games on Version 2

• Mystery Present
• Pin the Tail on the Donkey

Characters

• Arthur Read
• D.W. Read
• Jane Read (Mom)
• David Read (Dad)
• Thora Read (Grandma)
• Bonnie (Aunt)
• George (Cousin)
• Buster Baxter
• Binky Barnes
• The Brain
• Francine
• Muffy
• Sue Ellen
• Fern Walters
• Prunella
• The Twins
• Baby Kate Read
• Store Manager
• Francis Haney (Principal)
• Donkey

Pages

• 1. Arthur is excited for his birthday party and writes invitations for his friends.
• 2. Arthur invites his friends in class to his party while Muffy invites her friend to a party.
• 3. Arthur and Muffy have conflicting schedules with their birthday party being on the same day on Saturday.
• 4. At the playground Arthur meets with the boys while Muffy meets with the girls discussing the party.
• 5. Arthur goes shopping with his mom at the party store for birthday supplies.
• 6. Arthur gets mail including birthday cards and a package.
• 7. Arthur meets with Francine on the way home.
• 8. Arthur and Francine goes to Arthur's tree house to write invitations.
• 9. Arthur and Francine walks around the neighborhood early morning delivering letters.
• 10. Arthur's family works on the decorations for Arthur's birthday party.
• 11. Arthur's friends comes over to his house for his party.
• 12. Arthur and his friends wait for Muffy to come.
• 13. Arthur shares the birthday party with Muffy and his friends and family celebrate both of their birthdays.

Locations in Elwood City

• Lakewood Elementary School
• Arthur's House
• Arthur's Tree House
• Fairwood Party Supplies

Songs

• Yeah We're Dishes

Quotes

Binky Barnes: This will be Great!

The Brain: Hmm, chocolate cake.

Binky Barnes: Girls are weird anyway.

Arthur Read: Three whole dollars.

---

Store Manager: Can I help you? (Arthur's Mom wears the Groucho Marx mask.)

Jane Read (mom): I need all the help I can get.

Store Manager: Hmmph!

---

Binky Barnes: Oh no, my underwear's on backwards!

Buster Baxter: Just turn around. (Binky Barnes spins around.)

Binky Barnes: That's better.

Quit

• "Are you sure you want to quit?
• [clicking no] "Oh Okay.
• [clicking yes] "Okay. Bye.

Trivia

• This Living Book is based on a guest star reading that Matthew suggested to be read by Malcolm-Jamal Warner.
• This is one of only two Living Books games (the other being Just Grandma and Me) to be updated in 640x480 resolution with activity games in 1997.
• The running gag in this Living Books are party blowers and confetti.
• In V2, D.W.'s extra dialogue is done by her voice actress from the latter three games.
• For some reason, Spanish was omitted from V2 as a language option. This was likely done to conserve space to make room for the activities.
• In the first four games for V1.1 as well as the third and fourth games for V1.0, the preview for this game also exists in the files, but can only be accessed when you edit the outline file.
• V1 was in low audio quality in 1994. When V2 came in 1997, all of the audio from the original 1994 version was re-rendered in high quality.
  • The audio in the newly-added activity games in V2 is in high quality as well.
  • Like with The Cat in the Hat, the audio in the Options and Quit pages for V2 was left in low quality.

• You leave the book when Arthur says, "Okay, bye!" (if "Yes" is chosen), the same game as Harry and the Haunted House, but you might want to keep playing when he says "Oh, okay." (if "No" is chosen). However the "No" character is a boy while the "Yes" character is a girl.

• This is the third Living Books game to feature the Wizard animation in the credits.
• Strangely enough, in the credits, at one point when the guy keeps typing on his computer, the following graphic/color errors occurred (the only other game to have this was Little Monster at School):
  • The computer's wires turned dark blue instead of red.
  • After the computer explodes, the guy's white shirt turns blue-green (fixed in V2 of Arthur's Birthday).
  • The computer's wires and monitor were also blue green (the ceiling-crash sound effect from the credits in later games was used for the first time without being cut off).
  • When the computer's monitor was blinking in front of the guy's face after he lies down on his desk, the shining from the computer's blinking red monitor in front of the guy's face was blue instead of red.
• In Version 2, the byline "A Random House/Brøderbund Company" was replaced with "Brøderbund Software, Inc.".
• The 1997 Version has a demo for "Orly's Draw-A-Story".
• While V1 was re-released by Wanderful, V2 wasn't.
• The Jetsons 1962 Theme song can be heard as the player clicks on the lamp in Arthur's house.