Living Books Samplers

The Living Books samplers were either standalone CD-ROMs given away for free in magazines and the like, or built-in catalogs with the games. They would allow you to sample a page of each product out at the same time.

These were always hosted by Simon the purple crow from The Tortoise and the Hare. The stand-alone CD samplers were sometimes included with the games themselves, but most of them had them built in. Unlike the standalone demos, English is the only language that can be tried on each of the titles (with the exception of Just Grandma and Me V2, since it allows you to swap it with a UI in-game), and the Read to Me function is omitted.

Every sampler opened with Simon telling the user, "Hi! I'm your host, Simon. Welcome to the Living Books Sampler. Click on the arrows to select a sample of one of our great stories, and then click OK. Okay? Okay!". After selecting a certain product and clicking OK, Simon would then say, "After the first part of the story is read to you, use the mouse to click all over the screen and find lots of hidden surprises. When you're done, click on the page number button to come back here. Good luck and have fun! See ya!"

Samplers[]

Sampler 1[]

The first sampler features the following products:

This sampler was made prior to the release of Dr. Seuss's ABC, although it has no differences from the real game besides having no music (which strangely carried into the other samplers with few exceptions) and having a man's voice instead of Ichabod's announcing the title of the book. It was also included on The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight, hence the absence of it in the game itself and only appearing in the files separately (Dr. Seuss's ABC on the other hand is the first game in the series to have the sampler integrated into the game itself). There's no fading on this sampler except when the engine forces it to fade, which means every transition is just a normal cut. When the game is quit, Simon gives out information on where to buy the games, and how to contact Living Books by their (old) phone number (which is now defunct).

An alternate version of the menu, which is included in the files, had The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight listed as one of the games instead of Dr. Seuss's ABC.

Sampler 2[]

This one is very similar to sampler 1, except this one includes every title that uses the 512 x 384 resolution. The products are:

This one is mostly identical, except for the opening and closing screens. It is also the only sampler where Simon doesn't give out contact information when the game is quit; he instead just leaves on a simple "Okay! Bye-bye!" This one still lacks the fading just like the previous sampler. For Sheila Rae, the Brave, the opening portion has a black background instead of white in the real game, and also plays as if it were in "Read to Me" mode (i.e. you can't click on the pictures to navigate).

Unlike any other sampler, this one was only shipped as an individual sampler CD and not on the discs of any game.

Sampler 3[]

This is the biggest collection of demos of all 16 Living Books games. The products are:

Due to an engine upgrade, the background noise is always heard even during a running click point. This leads to several problems, but of particular note is Sheila Rae, where the dog is heard growling through the entire demo even when he's supposed to be interrupted. The demo of Stellaluna had the prototype version again as in previous games before it was released. This demo also has the opposite fading method– rather than having no fading– fading happens between every screen, even when it shouldn't. This sampler was included on the CD-ROMs Arthur's Computer Adventure and the 1998 reprint of Arthur's Teacher Trouble, but it is separate from the program. Due to running in 640 x 480, all of the 512 x 384 titles now have a watermark at the bottom of the screen. Simon went back to giving contact information here, and it also includes a code to get money off an order.

Other Samplers[]

Prior to the individual sampler program with all the demos built inside, there was a much older sampler CD-ROM from 1993 that only featured the first four games' V1.0 demos– as individual programs– all packed onto one disc, with no extra interface. It also includes a special offer to save $5 off any Living Book.

Starting with Dr. Seuss's ABC, a sampler was integrated into each product. They all would feature demos of all the games that precede it. Some exceptions:

Sheila Rae, the Brave omits demos of Ruff's Bone, The New Kid on the Block and Arthur's Teacher Trouble due to the map game taking a lot of space up.
The Berenstain Bears in the Dark has a prototype version of Stellaluna and the Green Eggs and Ham demo, since it predates those two games.
The Berenstain Bears in the Dark also features a demo of Green Eggs and Ham, due to it not being released at the time. It also includes click points that didn't make it into the final game - colored boxes were inserted into the pictures on the text (the green eggs and Sam-I-Am) and the page number being a large Dr. Seuss-like red-and-white circle.
Green Eggs and Ham features a demo of Stellaluna, despite it not being released yet. It also includes a prototype element that doesn't make it in the final game -- the page number is a white circle instead of the usual one, and the page arrows are different in colors.
Although Arthur's Reading Race doesn't have any exceptions, Simon's intro is strangely cut off, going straight to "Click on the arrows..."
Just Grandma and Me V2 and The Cat in the Hat onward outright don't feature any samplers integrated, and Arthur's Birthday V2 instead has a demo of Orly’s Draw-A-Story. Arthur's Computer Adventure and the 1998 reprint of Arthur's Teacher Trouble do include Sampler 3, but it's just separate from the program.

Quit[]

"Are You Sure you want to Quit?"
(If the user clicks on the Red Bird) "Okay. Just going back and look at some more."
(If the user clicks on the Green Bird) "Okay! These Living Books are now available at book and software stores near you or contact Living Books at this phone number on 1-800-double 76-4724. Bye-bye!"

Trivia[]

The samplers, along with the LivingBooks.com website, confirm that The Tortoise and the Hare is the main Living Book in the series, given by Simon the Crow hosting the sampler.
This sampler can be featured in Dr. Seuss' ABC, The Berenstain Bears in the Dark, and many more.
In the iOS rerelease of the sampler, the QUIT button is omitted, and Simon's line "Welcome to the Living Books Sampler!" is rerecorded and changed to "Welcome to the Wanderful Sampler!" (albeit in a very obviously different voice) due to Living Books being rebranded as Wanderful Interactive Storybooks.