JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Developer(s)	Knowledge Adventure
Publisher(s)	Knowledge Adventure
Series	JumpStart
Platform(s)	Windows, Macintosh
Release date(s)	2002
Genre(s)	Educational
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade is a computer game made by Knowledge Adventure. It came out in 2002 and was designed to help first grade students learn. This game replaced an older version of JumpStart 1st Grade from 1995. For several years, it was often sold as part of a bigger game package.

Game Overview

This game is all about a fun scooter racing tournament in JumpStartville, where all the characters live. The story begins when a mean character named Jimmy pushes a puppy named Squirt. Squirt falls and breaks his scooter right before the big race! The main characters decide they must win the tournament. The prize is a brand-new, super cool scooter. They want to win it for Squirt.

Jimmy is a really good scooter racer. So, to beat him, the other characters need to make their scooters better. They do this by adding special gadgets.

The main goal of the game is to win the JumpStartville scooter tournament. You need to win two races on each character's track. The first race is against two other computer-controlled characters. The second race is against one of those characters and Jimmy.

You earn "power-ups" by playing educational games. These power-ups can be turned into gadgets for your scooter or obstacles for the tracks. Hopsalot, a clever rabbit, invents machines to do this. When you place all the obstacles on a track, it unlocks that track. These obstacles are tricky to get past unless you use a gadget. It's best to add all the gadgets to every character's scooter. After you finish all the main characters' tracks, Jimmy's track unlocks. Winning his track means you've completed the whole game!

Just like other JumpStart games, you can choose how hard the problems are. There are three difficulty levels. Some games also let you choose the gameplay level. Higher levels usually mean more enemies and faster speeds.

Characters

All the characters in the game are animal characters who act like people.

Playable Characters

These characters can be chosen for scooter races. They each have their own game activity and give you a power-up when you finish it. They also have their own race track.

Frankie: A friendly brown dachshund dog. He wears a red sweatshirt and is the main character of the game. Frankie is kind and always tries to do the right thing. He loves dog biscuits and pizza. His power-up is the Power Bone.

Hopsalot: A smart, light brown rabbit. He is very good at inventing new things. Hopsalot wears a teal shirt. His friends often call him "Hops." His power-up is the Hyper Carrot Fuel.

Casey: An energetic yellow-orange cat. He has orange hair and wears a blue baseball cap and a green T-shirt. Casey loves sports. His power-up is the Game-Winning Soccer Ball.

Eleanor: A pink elephant who wears a purple dress. She loves reading books and eating peanuts. Her power-up is the Power Peanut. In the game, she runs a news channel called JumpStart Real News Network.

Pierre: A polar bear who wears a colorful hat and blue overalls. He loves music and snow. His power-up is the Magic Ice Crystal.

Kisha: A koala who loves making art. She wears purple sandals and a painting shirt. Her power-up is the Magic Paint Tube.

C.J.: A green frog who loves exploring and nature. He wears a tan hat and vest. His closest friend is Edison. His power-up is Swamp Gas.

Non-playable characters

These characters are also in the game, but you cannot play as them in the scooter races.

Edison: A firefly who looks a bit different from a real one. He is teal with a red nose and has wings. Edison has a store and gives comments at the winner's circle after races. He has his own game and power-up, the Lightbulb Powerup.

Squirt: A small, cream-colored puppy with big ears. He wears a red T-shirt. Squirt helps Frankie in his pizza parlor. At the start of the game, Jimmy breaks Squirt's scooter. The whole game is about winning a new scooter for him. Squirt is Frankie's cousin.

Jimmy Bumples: A skinny, grey-and-brown weasel. He is a sneaky bully and a great scooter racer. Jimmy is the one who breaks Squirt's scooter and refuses to fix it. He is your main opponent in the races. He has his own track, which you unlock by winning all the other tracks. Winning his track finishes the game.

Skid: A gray rat who is Jimmy's sidekick. He appears with Jimmy at the beginning of the game and sometimes in Casey's soccer game. He doesn't talk much.

Casey's friends & teammates: These are other cats who look like Casey but are different colors. They appear in Casey's soccer game as teammates or opponents. They do not have any speaking parts.

Locations and Games

The game takes place in JumpStartville, a city where the animal characters live. You can visit different places in JumpStartville. Most places have a game you can play to earn a power-up.

Frankie's Home

Frankie lives in an amber-colored house with a red door. It has a pointed roof with red tiles and a golden bone decoration.

Activity

This game is played in Frankie's backyard and teaches about fractions. You make pizzas for customers in Frankie's pizza parlor. Squirt tells you what the customers ordered, like how much of the pizza needs a certain topping. You toss dough to make a pizza shape. In easier levels, the pizza is already marked with sections. In harder levels, you mark the dough yourself. Then, you add toppings to the different sections. You need to work fast! If the pizza is correct, Squirt takes it away. If it's wrong, Frankie eats it! After making four successful pizzas, you earn a Power Bone.

Casey's Home

Casey's house is mostly white with a red door and a yellow roof. It has a huge baseball cap over the door.

Activity

This game is in Casey's backyard, which looks like a soccer field. It teaches phonics, which is about sounds letters make. Casey is practicing soccer on his scooter. Frankie tells Casey to pick a ball with a letter or sound. Then, Casey passes the ball to a teammate whose scooter has the second half of a word. Together, they form a complete word. That teammate then passes the ball to another teammate who has a word that rhymes with the new word. Finally, that teammate kicks the ball into a goal. You must avoid passing to Jimmy, Skid, or the wrong player. If you do, the ball bounces back. After playing four times, you win a Game-Winning Soccer Ball.

The Tree of Knowledge

The Tree of Knowledge is a big tree with doors and windows. Hopsalot's game takes place here.

Activity

This activity is outside the Tree of Knowledge. Hopsalot hid his Hyper Carrot Fuel on an island to keep it safe from Jimmy. To get to the carrots, he created mini blimps to make a bridge. Each blimp has a picture or word. You guide the blimps into sections that match different categories. For example, if the picture is an animal, you guide it to its animal group like mammals or reptiles. This teaches beginner zoology. It can also teach about shapes, parts of speech, or the number of syllables in a word. If a blimp doesn't fit, you guide it to Hopsalot, who pops it. Once each section has three blimps, Hopsalot crosses to the island, grabs a carrot, and comes back. Then, you use "pop blimps" to destroy the bridge. After that, you earn a Hyper Carrot Fuel.

C.J.'s Home

C.J. lives in a house called "Frog Manor" on an island in a swamp. The house is white and decorated with big fake toadstools.

Activity

This game is in C.J.'s swamp, where the Swamp Gas machine is. You guide C.J. to put green bubbles into the machine. These bubbles help complete math equations or words. Watch out for alligators! They can pop the bubbles. Every time you finish four words or equations, the machine makes a bit of Swamp Gas. You need to finish 16 to get a full bottle of Swamp Gas.

Eleanor's Home

Eleanor lives in a pink square house with a roof shaped like peanuts. A satellite dish is on her house for her news program.

Activity

This game takes place inside Eleanor's house. First, you read a short article from different types, like an encyclopedia or a news story. Then, Eleanor asks you questions about the article. You drag words and punctuation marks to create a full, correct sentence that answers her question. This activity helps you learn about grammatical sentence structure and how to understand what you read.

Pierre's Home

Pierre lives in a wooden house with a purple roof and a garage that looks like a drum. Even if it's warm elsewhere, Pierre's house is always surrounded by snow.

Activity

This game is in the snowy area around Pierre's house. Pierre is practicing scooting and building a "snow bear" (a bear-shaped snowman). You guide Pierre to collect snowballs marked with words or pictures in a certain order. For example, you might collect ordinal numbers from lowest to highest, or steps in a life cycle in the correct order. A seal blows a horn nearby. If Pierre is close when it blows, he scoots away fast! When you finish a sequence, you make a batch of snow. After four batches, the snow bear is done, and you earn a Magic Ice Crystal.

Kisha's Home

Kisha's house is colorful. One side looks like a paintbrush, and the other looks like a giant paint palette. Kisha has two games in her house.

Painting Room Activity

This activity is a simple drawing program. You can draw and add stickers. Your drawings can be "Cards" or "Billboards." Cards can be used in the Music Room. Billboards can appear on the side of race tracks if you buy them in Edison's shop. This activity does not give you a power-up.

Music Room Activity

In this activity, you create simple presentations. You use pictures, including the Cards you made, and short music clips. When you finish a Card Show, you earn a Magic Paint Tube. Your Card Show will also play at the Winner's Circle after a race.

Edison's Shop

Edison owns a shop that looks like a traffic cone surrounded by two cans of gasoline.

Activity

In this game, Edison tells you to buy a decoration for a track. You use coins from his piggy bank to pay for it. You can choose which track to decorate. Edison will compliment your choice. After you buy four items, you win a Lightbulb Powerup. This game teaches you about coins of the United States dollar and how to count money.

Scooter Design Shop

This shop looks like a purple helmet. It has a machine made by Hopsalot. This machine turns your power-ups into gadgets. You can then add these gadgets to the JumpStart characters' scooters.

Track Control Tower

The track control tower is a tall building. It has another machine by Hopsalot. This machine can turn power-ups into "tricks," which are obstacles. You can add these obstacles to the JumpStart characters' tracks.

Race Prep Arena

The Race Prep Arena is a large area where the JumpStart Scooter Tournament happens.

Activity

This is the main racing game in JumpStart Advanced 1st Grade. It helps improve your hand-eye coordination. You choose a racer and a track. Then, you guide your racer through the track. When you come to an obstacle, you can use a gadget if you have the right one. Besides the main character tracks, there's a practice track that doesn't count towards game progress. There's also Jimmy's track, which unlocks after you win first place on all other tracks twice. The game also has a multiplayer option, so you can race against a friend! After each race, you visit the Winner's Circle to see who placed where.