The ClueFinders Search and Solve Adventures

The ClueFinders Search and Solve Adventures
Developer(s) The Learning Company
Publisher(s) The Learning Company
Platform(s) PC (Windows, Macintosh)
Release date(s) 2000
Genre(s) Educational/Mystery
Mode(s) Single player

The ClueFinders Search and Solve Adventures is an educational computer game in The Learning Company's ClueFinders series that focuses on critical thinking skills. In the game, the ClueFinders must rescue the curator of the local art museum, who has been mysteriously trapped at the top of a drop tower in an abandoned amusement park inhabited by humanoid robots.

This game makes use of limited animation with a great deal of the animation of the ClueFinders being taken from other games, mainly The ClueFinders Reading Adventures. The animation also features several very obvious continuity errors. Most notably, LapTrap, after he is damaged, is shown to be immobilized and being carried around by Owen in cut scenes, but LapTrap continues to appear floating in the game screens.

Voice cast

Synopsis

One night, when the ClueFinders are observing a lunar eclipse from their clubhouse, they see an SOS signal coming from an abandoned amusement park on the edge of town. The kids travel to the park to investigate and find Jacques Ramone, the curator of the local art museum, is trapped at the top of the drop-tower ride. He tells them that he was kidnapped and placed there, but says he doesn't know why. Joni decides that she, Owen and LapTrap will try to rescue Jacques Ramone while Santiago and Leslie search for clues.

When Joni and Owen manage to get the curator down by repairing the park's power supply, he immediately rushes off without thanking them. Meanwhile, Santiago and Leslie overhear a woman shouting and follow her into the park's haunted house, where she catches them and locks them up in a tiny cell. Joni and Owen discover more suspicious evidence, including disappearing crates of art supplies and robots lying around the park with missing parts. It soon becomes apparent that the mysterious woman, found to be named Mimi Ramone, is using the park's sentient robots for slave labor, but the subject of what they are laboring still remains a mystery.

After Santiago and Leslie are rescued inside the haunted house, Mimi Ramone encounters them, only to be locked inside the tiny cell by the Cluefinders. But before they can interrogate her, Jacques shows up and reveals that he and Mimi are siblings and that they have been stealing paintings. However, they disagree over what should be done with the paintings after they are stolen, this constant bickering reveals that it was Mimi who trapped Jacques on the ride in the first place. With Mimi locked up thanks to the ClueFinders, Jacques escapes through a secret passageway

However, LapTrap pursues him and is hit by the closing door. LapTrap is severely damaged and rendered incapable of floating, but he succeeds in preventing the door from closing all the way. The ClueFinders trail Jacques and discover an underground network of tunnels. There, they find a giant contraption, apparently built from the stolen parts of the robots in the park, painting pictures. The ClueFinders soon realize that the siblings have been stealing paintings from the museum where Jacques is curator and replacing them with forgeries created by the forgery device.

Furthermore, it becomes apparent that the point of contention between the two of them is that Jacques believes they should keep the stolen paintings while Mimi thinks they should sell them and has therefore has been using the robots to ship the paintings out of the park. With the help of Santiago's ingenuity, the painting machine is reprogrammed to capture Jacques and Mimi, leading to their arrests. A final shot of the ClueFinders reading the news in their clubhouse shows that LapTrap has been repaired.

Characters

The characters listed are characters that only appear in The ClueFinders Search and Solve Adventures. For information on the ClueFinders themselves, see the main ClueFinders page.

Jacques Ramone

Jack "Jacques" Ramone is the curator of the art museum in the ClueFinders' hometown. Unbeknownst to those around him, he and his sister, Mimi Ramone, began stealing priceless artwork from the museum and replacing them with forgeries created by robots they rescued from an abandoned amusement park.

For most of the game he speaks with a French accent, but, towards the end of the game, his accent is revealed to be fake. Once this occurs, he speaks for the remainder of the game in an American accent, indicating that he is an American posing as a Frenchman. Mimi calls him "Jack," suggesting that he took on the name "Jacques" to make himself seem more French.

Mimi Ramone

Mimi Ramone is Jacques' sister. Supposedly their mother liked her better than Jacques. She helped him steal artwork from the art museum and hide them underground. She is the elder of the Ramone siblings.

External links

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