JumpStart Adventures 5th Grade: Jo Hammet, Kid Detective

JumpStart Adventures 5th Grade: Jo Hammet, Kid Detective is a JumpStart game that was made by Knowledge Adventure in 1997. As the title suggests, the game is intended to teach a fifth grade curriculum.

Throughout the course of the game, which is set in the fictional city of Hooverville, the user must (while playing the role of a female, fifth grade detective by the name of Jo Hammet) thwart the schemes of the evil Dr. X, who is planning to destroy factories and power plants to get revenge on them for cutting his research funding.

Opening
After Jo woke up from a horrible nightmare, she found out that the television's not working. She later learned on the radio that Dr. X blew up the television station, though no one was hurt. She takes the school bus with her skateboard held in her hand at all times. She & her class are on a field trip at the museum. At the museum, the janitor's nephew Martin bumps into Jo Hammet, drops his glasses & gets taken away by thugs.

Ending
The game concludes at Boulder Canyon Dam. Dr. X has blown up the pumping station, raising the water pressure substantially so that when he blows up the dam, the water will destroy the entire city. Jo Hammet then travels to the bomb where the user is supposed to click a small switch near Jo that will move a gate, which will divert the water away from the city. Dr. X, who is only shown in silhouette until that point, is finally seen. Though Jo Hammet saves the city, Dr. X disappears, never to be heard from again.

Characters

 * Jo Hammet
 * Dr. X
 * Janitor - The uncle of Martin. As the janitor, he cleans up the museum. He's an absent minded person,but very friendly. He also holds a lot of information
 * Martin - The nephew of the museum janitor. He's seen in the intro of game, when Dr. X's thugs take him away by lifting & grabbing him at the same time.
 * B.F. Skinny - A talking rat who is the messenger of the whole operation. He delivers Martin's coded messages directly to Jo Hammet at the museum. He calls Jo "lady" other than her real name. He also calls the janitor a "guy with a broom". He's a play on American scientist B.F. Skinner.
 * Henchmen - Gray-skinned thugs who've been brainwashed & controlled by Dr. X. Their purple wigs are actually Dr. X's octopi. They use telepathy to communicate with each other. They carry away Martin in the game's intro. They can also be seen attempting to catch Jo while on her way to a destination.
 * Bernie - An old friend of Jo who is an undercover reporter for the Hooverville Daily newspaper. He's working as a bartender at the juice bar in Hooverville.
 * Jimmy "The Shadow" - Owner of the junkyard in Hooverville. His stories are fictional more than what is stored in a library.
 * Maggie Mead - Ranger & operator of the mine shaft. She claims that rocks are her best friends. Her name may be based on Lake Mead or possibly Margaret Mead

Course of a Mission
JumpStart 5th Grade is set up as a series of missions (similar to JumpStart Adventures 3rd Grade: Mystery Mountain & JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Haunted Island); however, unlike the aforementioned games, it has a relatively small amount of missions (only 6). Also, unlike most main characters in JumpStart games, Jo Hammet rarely mentions the player's existence, making it seem as if, unlike most other games, in which the player seems to be guided through the game by a virtual host, the player is actually playing Jo Hammet rather than merely "working" with her. In each mission, the games are played in a certain order. Each mission starts with the Hooverville Museum of Art & Geography.


 * 1) The Hooverville Museum of Art & Geography: When Jo Hammet was on a field trip with her class, she literally bumped into someone here & he was carried away by a bunch of thugs. However, he left a mysterious pair of glasses behind. Later a talking rat named B. F. Skinny (after B. F. Skinner) shows up with a crossword. The user helps Jo Hammet crack the secret code in this puzzle.
 * 2) First Visit to the Sabotaged Site: It turns out the crossword reveals the address of a place that has been sabotaged. Naturally, the door is locked. The user must solve a math puzzle in order to open it. On the first mission, Martin (the person kidnapped by thugs in the art museum) is chained here. He explains that the glasses can be used to read the minds of the thugs. The user then plays a grammar game where they find the correct word to go into the thugs' dialog. Their thoughts reveal the way to get to the bomb.
 * 3) Searching for Clues: It turns out that Jo Hammet needs three items in order to get the bomb. She must visit three different places in town to get them.
 * 4) The Squishy Juice Bar
 * 5) The Junkyard
 * 6) Boulder Canyon Mine Shaft
 * 7) The Dungeon
 * 8) Second Visit to the Sabotaged Site: Upon the second visit to sabotaged site, Jo Hammet uses the items to get to the bomb without getting hurt. To disable the bomb, the user must play a decimal game where they attempt to make the number in one box equal to the number in the target box using a little android. Naturally, there are some defense androids that try to stop the user. If the user's android runs into one of the defense androids, the bomb is shown to go off, but Jo then appears on the screen &, breaking the fourth wall, informs the user that this can't happen in an educational product & the game resets. Once the bomb has been successfully disarmed, Jo Hammet returns to the museum & gets a new crossword from B.F. Skinny, & the next mission begins.

Trivia

 * It is likely that Hooverville was inspired by Boulder City, Nevada & Hoover Dam. When the names are switched, "Boulder City" becomes "Hooverville" & "Hoover Dam" becomes "Boulder Canyon Dam."
 * Also, note that Maggie Mead is seemingly named after Lake Mead or possibly Margaret Mead.