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The American Girls Premiere
The American Girls Premiere 2nd Ed Cover.jpg
Cover art for the 2nd Edition release
Developer(s) Mattel Media
Publisher(s) The Learning Company
Series American Girl
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Mac OS
Release date(s)
  • NA 1997
  • NA 1998 (2nd Edition)
Genre(s) Educational

The American Girls Premiere is an educational computer game developed and published by The Learning Company for American Girl. The game allows players to create theatrical productions featuring characters from American Girl's Historical collection, along with scenes and other elements unique to each of the girls' respective time periods.

It is the first installment of the American Girl series, and so far the only one to date to be released on Mac OS; subsequent personal computer titles in the series were released for Windows. The American Girls Premiere was later followed by The American Girls: Dress Designer, a paper doll-based software toy released by Mattel Interactive in 1999.

Gameplay

AG Premiere Felicity scene
Screenshot featuring a typical theatrical production from the game. In this scene, the girls greet their teacher Miss Manderly as they start their embroidery lesson.

Built upon the earlier MECC game Opening Night, The American Girls Premiere allows the creation and direction of unique stage plays starring the Historical Characters, from Felicity Merriman, representing the American Revolution, to Molly McIntire, daughter of an army doctor during World War II, alongside supporting characters from each of the girls' story arcs.

After selecting a character, players are presented with a stage to which plays are created or presented, utilizing a drag-and-drop interface to add actors, props, lighting and other elements to the scene. Digitized sprites taken from live actors and props from American Girl's historical collection are used throughout the game, à la-Mortal Kombat. Each of the characters have their own set of outfits based on the historical era their stories take place in, e.g. long gowns and petticoats for Felicity or argyle sweaters and blouses for Molly, along with scenarios from their respective time period. Players can also add dialogue in their productions, either through a voice recording, or using the built-in text-to-speech feature. The game develops skills in storytelling and writing, and is open-ended in nature, allowing the player to create theatrical productions as desired, though the limited selection of characters, props and settings may present creative constraints to some players.

In addition to the main game, bonus content such as a tutorial application and a sampler called the Director's Guide is included for players to get acquainted with the game's mechanics and user interface, along with a behind-the-scenes look on production as well as historical facts and commentary on American history and culture, and backstories for each of the characters.

Release

A "Special Edition Collector's Set" of the title was double the price, and in addition to the CD-ROM, it came with: "a keepsake tin, a one-year club membership, a club handbook, a membership card, a baseball cap and six bi-monthly issues of the club newspaper".

An update to the game subtitled 2nd Edition was released in 1998, adding Josefina Montoya to the roster in line with the aforementioned doll's debut. The 2nd Edition release is a stand-alone expansion containing characters and scenes from the first release, and does not require a copy of the original game to play. The aforementioned Collector's Set was later updated to include the Josefina-specific content from the 2nd Edition, though it is missing the American Girls Club membership kit.

List of The American Girls Premiere editions
Features Original release 2nd Edition Special Edition Collector's Set (1st Edition) Special Edition Collector's Set (2nd Edition)
The game Yes Yes Yes Yes
Exclusive packaging No No Yes (collector's case) Yes (collector's case)
In-game content
Josefina Montoya content pack No Yes No Yes
Physical content
Club membership No No Yes No
Handbook No No Yes No
Membership card No No Yes No
Newsletter No No Yes No
Baseball cap No No Yes Yes
Trading cards No No No Yes

Sales

In December 1997, the game "achieved the highest monthly dollar and unit sales of any single product" in the history of The Learning Company up to that point. In March 1998, The Boston Globe said the girls' category of the video game market was "exploding" with titles such as Barbie Fashion Designer (by Mattel), The American Girls Premiere, Let's Talk About Me, (by Simon & Schuster Interactive) and Rockett's New School (by Purple Moon). In July 1998, The Buffalo News reported that The Learning Company had captured 20.3% of the girl video game market with this video game.

Accolades

The game was nominated at the 1998 Interactive Achievement Award for Computer Innovation, and won a Gold Award from the Parents' Choice Foundation. The game also won a Mom's Choice Software award for Fall 1997, and a 1998 selection in American Library Association's Great Interactive Software for Kids List.

Legacy

In a similar vein to Moonbase Alpha, The American Girls Premiere has gained a cult following due to its use of a text-to-speech system by Lernout & Hauspie, which most players find to be ironically appealing. Adding to the unintentional humor is the lack of collision detection and other quirks within the game engine allowing characters to perform unusual movements, which led to a number of parody machinima clips on YouTube and other video sharing platforms.

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