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Ruff's Bone
Living Books - Titles-Ruff's Bone.
Living Books CD Rom (1994)

Released

June 13, 1994

Characters

Ruff

Language

English, Spanish

Pages

12

Previous

The New Kid on the Block

Next

Little Monster at School

Ruff's Bone is the sixth Living Books game (or fifth if you were to go by the PC release dates) released in 1994. Written by Eli Noyes and co-produced by Colossal Pictures, it is exclusively Living Books' second original story not being an adaption from any preexisting titles.

The story is about a dog named Ruff, who fetches his bone that was thrown by his master.

Characters[]

Plot[]

When Ruff is ready to fetch his Sunday morning bone, his master accidentally throws it over the fence into their neighbor, Slim's yard. Ruff goes to search for it, but when he finally notices it, it falls into a tree, which leads him underground and into a cave. The cave is full of bones and he isn't sure which one is his. When he finally does, it's too late and a caveman tosses it out of the cave, which leads Ruff into the clouds in the sky digging for it. It falls into a jungle, and then into a sunken ship in the ocean. Ruff then sees a ladder that goes into space, and finally lands on a bone planet. He at last finds his bone, and an alien takes him back home in a UFO spaceship. Once he makes it back home, his master congratulates him, only to throw his bone yet again.

Pages[]

  • 1. Ruff is getting ready to fetch his Sunday bone.
  • 2. Ruff's bone lands in Slim's yard and he tries to find it.
  • 3. Ruff tries to find the bone in a dark hole.
  • 4. Ruff goes to a cave full of bones.
  • 5. When Ruff finds his bone, he and the bone fall into the clouds.
  • 6. Then, the bird catches the falling bone and the baby has Ruff's bone.
  • 7. Ruff tries to find the bone in the ocean.
  • 8. The fish takes Ruff's bone and swims into a sunken ship with it.
  • 9. Ruff climbs up the ladder to find the bone.
  • 10. Ruff sees a bone planet!
  • 11. After finally getting his bone, Ruff gets into a spaceship and headed for home.
  • 12. When Ruff gets home with the bone, he gives the bone to my master, who congratulated him, but then throws the bone again and Ruff faints.

Songs[]

Trivia[]

  • Like The Tortoise and the Hare and Harry and the Haunted House, this is the second game to be an original story and not being based on any existing books, and was the only original title that was both created and written at the same time when the Living Books version was produced, making this the only title officially created for Living Books rather than being a retroactive original title.
  • This is the first Living Books game for several things:
    • The first Living Books game to use a different running cursor icon– Ruff's spinning bone– instead of a running man. However, it was only used on the Macintosh platform and not the Windows platform for reasons unknown.
    • The first Living Books game to have the "A Random House/Broderbund Company Ltd." by-line, due to Living Books beginning its partnership with Random House.
      • However, the game was originally about to be released under the plain Broderbund's Living Books era, hinted by a then-untouched line being "Then get Broderbund's Living Book, 'Ruff's Bone'!" in the V1.0 editions of The Tortoise and the Hare and The New Kid on the Block (otherwise in 1994, the line was shortened to "Then get Living Books' 'Ruff's Bone'!" in the V1.1 editions of said two games for the above reason).
    • The first game onward not to feature the two generic kids as "No" and "Yes" buttons on the QUIT page. In this case, Ruff's Bone features 2 dogs as the No and Yes options. The bulldog is the No option and the red dog is the Yes option.
    • The first game to use a different variant of the original plain gray-background THE END screen (just the font for this one and the background is light green). The only other Living Book to do this with the original THE END screen was The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight and Sheila Rae, the Brave.
    • The first game to use an entirely custom credits sequence and not the usual jazz one. Other games in the series to do this include Green Eggs and Ham, Arthur's Computer Adventure, and D.W. the Picky Eater.
  • A preview for this game (see script below) is featured on V1.1 of Just Grandma and Me and Arthur's Teacher Trouble, and both versions of The Tortoise and the Hare and The New Kid on the Block.
  • This demo version can be featured in Dr. Seuss' ABC, The Berenstain Bears in the Dark, Green Eggs and Ham, Stellaluna, and Arthur's Reading Race.
  • The running gag in this game is Ruff's actual bone, though it's not hiding on every page and is entirely absent on the ninth page where Ruff is climbing up the ladder.
  • Ruff only speaks by barking, even in the home page; therefore, an offscreen narrator (Erik Bergmann) is heard talking as him, since Ruff can't physically speak any human language.
  • You leave the book when Ruff says, "OK, goodbye!" (if "Yes" is chosen), the same games as Arthur's Teacher Trouble and The Tortoise and the Hare. But you might want to keep playing when Ruff says "OK" (if "No" is chosen).
  • On the 9th page when Ruff climbs up the ladder, when you click on the smiling satellite, you can hear a sample of a hidden song that can be found in its entirety as a hidden track on the CD soundtrack.
  • On the Living Books Samplers, this game was placed before Little Monster at School, making it commonly mistaken to have been released before that game, despite Little Monster at School actually being initially released on a Philips CD-i console port earlier between the releases of The New Kid on the Block and Ruff's Bone.
    • This was likely because the producers sorted the game by its PC/Mac release date.
  • This game along with Harry and the Haunted House was reviewed in Brutal-moose's review of the Living Books series.

Video[]

Living_Books_-_Ruff's_Bone

Living Books - Ruff's Bone

This is the video for this game.

Quotes[]

Page 1[]

Bob: Doggone it, missed again! [Ruff barks] Hey there Ruff old boy!

Margret: Don't worry, Ruff. He'll be out in a minute.

Susie: Hey, Ruff! Look at me, look at me!

Bob: I guess I missed!

Margret: I think I hear him coming now!

Jeffrey: Now where'd I put that bone?

Jeffrey: I'm a coming! I hear ya!

Jeffrey: Okay, Ruff, here's your bone. Ready? [throws bone] Whoa, I didn't know my own strength! Go get it, Ruff!

Preview Script[]

Jeffrey: Okay, Ruff, here's your bone. Ready? [throws bone] Whoa, I didn't know my own strength! Go get it, Ruff! [Ruff barks three times and then runs away to find his bone]

Susie: Where is Ruff gonna find his bone?

Bob: In the jungle!

Jeffrey: Undersea!

Bob: On another planet!

Susie: Wow!

Bob: You want to find out whether Ruff ever gets his bone?

Jeffrey: Then get Broderbund's Living Book, Ruff's Bone. [alt: Then get Living Books' Ruff's Bone.]

All 3 (with Robert): See you there! [all 4 wave goodbye]


Quit[]

Ruff: (barking) Ruff! Ruff! Are you sure you want to quit?

[when the user clicks "No" which the bulldog is holding]: Okay!

[when the user clicks "Yes" which a red dog is holding]: Okay, goodbye!

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