One sunny day, Little Critter and his grandmother went to the beach. A bus came to pick them up, and they were on their way.
When they arrived, Little Critter tried to set up the beach umbrella, but was lifted up into the air by the strong winds, and his visor fell off. The lifeguard blew his whistle and motioned him to come back down, and Little Critter and the umbrella landed down onto the ground.
He decided to fly his kite instead, but it accidentally landed onto the mother cow's head.
After his kite was a disaster, Little Critter bought hot dogs for himself and Grandma to have for lunch, alongside soft drinks, but he unexpectedly tripped over a ball, and dropped the hot dogs into the sand. So he washed them off with the water (but seawater), before he and Grandma ate them.
After lunch, Little Critter found a nice seashell for Grandma on the sand, but there was a crab inside.
After escaping from the crab, Little Critter tried to blow up his seahorse floatie, but didn't have enough air. At each attempt, his swimming shorts fell down exposing his frontal furry bottom and his face turned red. When he pulled them up, the air fizzled out of his seahorse. He then landed on the ground with a big thud. Since he did not have enough air, Grandma helped a little.
Little Critter told his grandma to take him way out in the deep water but not too far.
Little Critter put on his fins and mask, and showed Grandma how he can snorkel.
Later, Little Critter digs a hole for Grandma, and he covered her up and tickled her toes.
That evening, Little Critter built a sand castle for Grandma, but a big wave came and washed away the castle. Little Critter became disappointed about his sand castle being ruined and there was nothing he could do about it. He thought about building it again, but it would have been too late to make another one on that day. So therefore, he was forced to give it up. Grandma felt bad for her grandson and noted about Little Critter's sandcastle sympathy. However, she managed to comfort him and said, "That's what happens to sandcastles". (That is, as spoken on page 10 read by Little Critter. Little Critter --through narration of page-- said, "Grandma said, 'That's what happens to sandcastles. And we can build a new one next time'".) She then suggested they build a new one next time. (That is, by Grandma's suggestion of a new sand castle.) This put a smile on Little Critter's face to which he accepts about making a new one next time (maybe next year's summer or on their next visit to the beach).
Later that night, Grandma and Little Critter went back to the bus. On their way home, Little Critter was very tired, so he fell asleep and told Grandma he would watch for their stop.
The bus dropped them off at home, and they realized they had a good time at the beach together and Grandma held Little Critter in her arms and they went to bed. (That is, to which Little Critter reads --on the last page-- "We had a good time at the beach. Just Grandma and me".)
2. Little Critter and Grandma arrive at the beach, and Little Critter tries to set up the beach umbrella.
3. Little Critter flies his kite, with disastrous results.
4. Little Critter accidentally drops his hot dogs in the sand, and washes them off in the water.
5. Little Critter finds a seashell that has a crab inside.
6. Little Critter tried to blow up his sea horse floatie. But he did not have enough air. So he ends up having Grandma help him instead.
7. Grandma takes Little Critter out into the water.
8. Little Critter shows Grandma how he can snorkel.
9. Little Critter buries Grandma in the sand and tickles her toes.
10. A big wave destroys Little Critter's sand castle. (Grandma said, "That is what happens to sandcastles. And we can build a new one next time".)
11. Little Critter and Grandma take the bus home.
12. Little Critter and Grandma arrive home and go to bed. (Little Critter --on narration-- says, "We had a good time at the beach. Just grandma and me".)
United States: Barbara L. Webster, Tracy Tandy, Joey Edelman, Rod Nelson, Donna Bonifield, Don Albrecht, Michael Dashow
United Kingdom: Oliver Cockroft, Simon Vance
Trivia[]
This story is a launch title.
Although chronologically the 1st game completed and released of the Living Books series, Just Grandma and Me was actually the 2nd game developed after a beta version of Little Monster at School.
It is the first Living Book to be narrated by the protagonist. In this case, Little Critter.
This is one of only two Living Books games (the other being Arthur's Birthday) to be updated in 640x480 resolution with activity games in 1997.
This is one of the only two Living Books to not have a running gag, along with The New Kid on the Block.
Version 2 added a running gag, which is a grasshopper (despite her appearance in the title's cover along with the spider; same as the book version).
While both versions do include Spanish as a language choice, V1 has Latino and V2 has Castellano, effectively making English the only language available in both versions.
In Version 3 of the Living Books Sampler, the book's UI language option is still intact; therefore making Just Grandma and Me V2 the only book in the samplers to have a language other than English.
On the final page, the text is offscreen while Grandma and Little Critter walk inside the house and the text goes back onscreen.
The original VIS release, which has now become extinct and very rare to find.
Despite being initially released on Macintosh computers, the very first edition of this game was also released on the Memorex Tandy Video Information System (V.I.S.) around the same time, and is one of the only two games in the entire series (the other being Little Monster at School, which also was originally released on a Philips CD-i console) to receive a console port. The Memorex Tandy V.I.S. version has differences in the sound and graphics as follows:
It has a smaller 320x200 resolution.
The Living Books intro has immediately cuts to "PRESENTS" after the Living Book's face winks its eye (this version was later carried into the Philips CD-i version of Little Monster at School but with different quality to the music).
The Options page lacks the Previews button (the preview for Arthur's Teacher Trouble is only found in the files in this case) and Critter's "And then click OK!" line was absent.
In the credits, the dragon's mouth doesn't move when he clears his throat while tapping the wizard's sleeve, and the music animation also plays in the same length as if it were in the Macintosh format of the game (this is where you can now hear the entire trombone song that played like the music in the Programmer animation) and the cellist's tongue was visible while he says, "Alright!"
You leave the book when Little Critter says, "Okay!" and waves goodbye. He is also the only main protagonist who asks you "Do you want to quit?" instead of "Are you sure you want to quit?". But it's not necessary to do so, because you may want to keep playing the game by clicking "No". If you click on "No", Little Critter says, "Okay".
First Living Book to feature 2 humans on the Quit section.
The very first edition/demo of the game (the one with Broderbund's on the top right corner of the intro logo) had a preview for the next Living Book Arthur's Teacher Trouble.
The Macintosh platform for v1.0 also had demos of three (non-Living Books) Broderbund games, including "The Playroom", "Kid-Pix", and "Spelunx and the Caves of Mr. Seudo".
Version 1 has 3 languages: English, Latin Spanish and Japanese. Version 2 has 4 languages: English, Castilian Spanish, French and German.
Only Living Book to have the Japanese language button.
For some reason, Version 2 dropped Japanese as a language option and replaced it with French and German, possibly to conserve disc space and due to the fact all the other American Living Books PC games never had Japanese as a language option.
This is the first Living Books game to have jazz animations in its credits, starting with Wizard and Music. As this is the first Living Books game in the series, the two credits sequences have several animation and sound differences.
In the Wizard animation in the credits, the music was composed at a different session, so the main piano track was lower in volume amplification, faded into the background and barely able to be heard. In later games starting with The Tortoise and the Hare (and even in the UK release of Just Grandma and Me), the CD soundtrack version of the song (where the piano is at a proper amplification) is now used.
The original version of the wizard animation is still on Just Grandma and Me V2 and the Hebrew dub of the game.
The Music animation had trombone music composed with similar sheet music to the credits animation with the guy who types on his computer, but this was only used in the very first edition and demo of this game. In further Living Books games and also in Just Grandma and Me V2, the Music animation uses the main tune of the Living Books credits song.
On the PC version of V1 of the game, some portions of the Music animation were oddly cut during the middle of any music piece (cutting off the music before you could hear it finish), causing some of the scrolling/fading credits text to jerk in abruptly. This could be intentionally due to obvious technical problems with rendering the files at the time.
In Version 2, in the French language, Little Critter's line "Nous nous sommes drôlement bien amusés à la plage, Grand-Mère et moi" was heard in high quality.
V1 was in low audio quality in 1992. When V2 came in 1997, all of the audio from the original 1992 version was re-rendered in high quality.
In Version 2, the byline "A Random House/Brøderbund Company" was shortened to "A Brøderbund Company".
The demo version of V1.0 bizarrely included the preview and credits. The V1.1 demo removed this.
Originally, v1.0 for the full game and demo had slower fading screens, and sounds would get cut off if they ran longer than the animation.
ScummVM allows the sounds to play through without being cut off, therefore getting them overlapped with other sound effects barging in.
As the V1.1 PC demo got an engine upgrade to enable faster fading between screens, the running man cursor and waiting for sounds to finish before continuing animation, the full programs for this game and Arthur's Teacher Trouble oddly didn't for their re-releases (despite the former getting an upgrade for V2). This is possibly due to budget constraints, or Living Books has never bothered to give both titles an engine upgrade.
The Macintosh platform has faster fading and the running man cursor like all the other games, but still has sounds being cutoff if they ran longer than the animation.
For the PC version of the full game, it's possible you could take the game data files + outline file from the V1.0 version of the full game and inject them into the V1.1 demo (though in the files, you would have to switch filenames with the Options and Quit IBM files) to try to give the full game an engine upgrade, but still you cannot make it to where the game will wait for sounds to finish before continuing animation.
V1.0 predates the hybrid format, so the Macintosh and PC versions were shipped on separate discs. V1.1 put them on the same disc.
This game was not planned to be re-released by Wanderful, as Oceanhouse Media already made their own version of the book for the iOS and Android, with an exclusive license. Copies of the CD-Rom for the Living Books version (both V1 and V2) can still be found on some auction sites including eBay.
Additionally, many fans have criticized Oceanhouse Media's iOS/Android version for not having good enough animation that the Living Books version had.
However, Just Grandma and Me is now released on Wanderful at last.
Along with The New Kid on the Block, The Tortoise and the Hare, and Harry and the Haunted House, it was featured in a Czech magazine advertisement for Living Books, but none of the Living Books games have been released in the Czech Republic. It is possible that these Living Books games may have been planned to be internationally released in the Czech Republic at one point.
1 of 2 Living Books games that have the longest intros along with Arthur's Teacher Trouble.
Quotes[]
Page 1[]
(V1 and V2 --Both USA and UK)
Grandma: Are you excited?
Little Critter: Yes, Grandma, I am!
Little Critter:(looks around, about what time does the bus come) When is the bus coming, Grandma?
Grandma: It will be here soon.
Little Critter:(to Grandma) Can I sit by the window?
Grandma: You may, if there's room, dear.
Grandma:(a bumblebee flies from a flower and lands on Little Critter's visor) Oh, there's a bee on your head.
Little Critter:(jumps up and down; thinking that the bumblebee is going to sting him on the forehead) YEOW! Get it off! Get it off!
Grandma: Stop jumping and hold still. You'll scare the bee.
Little Critter: Is it gone? Is it gone? (the bee flies away)
Grandma: Yes, dear. It just flew off. (Little Critter breathes a sigh of relief)
Woman:(the phone rings, then she picks it up) Hello, this is Grandma's answering machine. Little Critter and I went to the beach. Talk to you later! Goodbye!
(the bus arrives and the doors open, then they both go on the bus, then the doors close and the bus goes to the beach)
Little Critter: Here we go!
(UK Version of V1 and V2 Exclusive)
Grandma:(a bumblebee flies from a flower and lands on Little Critter's visor) Oh, there's a bee on your head.
Little Critter:(jumps up and down; thinking that the bumblebee is going to sting him on the forehead)YEOW! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!
Grandma: Stop jumping about and hold still. You may scare the bee.
Little Critter: Is it going? Is it going? (the bee flies away)
Grandma: Yes, dear. It's just flown away. (Little Critter breathes a sigh of relief)
(USA Version of V1 and V2 Exclusive)
Grandma:(a bumblebee flies from a flower and lands on Little Critter's visor) Oh, there's a bee on your head.
Little Critter:(jumps up and down; thinking that the bumblebee is going to sting him on the forehead)YEOW! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!
Grandma: Stop jumping about and hold still. You may scare the bee.
Little Critter: Is it going? Is it going? (the bee flies away)
Grandma: Yes, dear. It has just flew off. (Little Critter breathes a sigh of relief)
Page 4[]
(The girl frog, a green North American green frog in a pink bow, a white T-shirt, and pink pants) sits on her beach towel. When clicked on, she sounds like a kid (seven years old) to teenage girl. That is, see in her quote.)
Girl Frog: (when clicked on, she waves her hand behind Little Critter) Yoo-hoo!
Page 10 (Animation)[]
(V1 and V2 --Both USA and UK)
Little Critter:(narrating) I built a sandcastle just for Grandma. But a big wave came.
(Grandma hears a wave. She taps Little Critter on the head. A wave comes. Little Critter tries to block the wave. But the giant wave washes away the sand castle. All what Little Critter's castle becomes (after it washes away by a wave) is a small pile of washed-up sand.)
Little Critter:(narrating) Grandma said, "That is what happens to sandcastles. And we can build a new one next time".
Releases[]
1992: Tandy VIS release (Original release). Extremely scarce to find.
1993: MPC-Windows release. This one (like the Tandy VIS release) is also a challenge to find.
1994: Random House release. This one's exceptionally easy to find.
It also includes demo versions of the other first three games in the series.
1997: Version 2 is released with Version 1.
Page 1-11 was in low audio quality, and Page 12 in French was in high audio quality.
1998: UK dub. Hard to find due to the Soft Key re-release.
