JumpStart Adventures 3rd Grade: Mystery Mountain

JumpStart Adventures 3rd Grade: Mystery Mountain is a JumpStart game that was made in 1996 for third graders.

Opening
thumb|300px thumb|300px

Ending
thumb|300px|right Once all the robots are rescued, Polly reveals her ultimate plan to use Botley for the extra credit question, which more than makes up for the entire quiz. For the extra credit question, Polly said that the universe began with Botley (she calls this the "Big Bot") and she therefore wants to send him all the way back in time to the Big Bang, which would cause him to be destroyed. Unfortunately for Polly, it's at this point that her father arrives home from the Inventors' Convention. Professor Spark and Ms. Winkle, via a video monitor, agree to let Polly take the quiz again, though Ms. Winkle states that she can't give Polly a test with the same questions twice. Therefore, Ms. Winkle decides to give her a quiz on Latin, which does not please Polly.

The storyline ends at this point, but the user can continue playing the Mountain's games for study purposes or for fun. The user can also enter the Time Machine Mission Control and view the "robot roost" without acquiring the Invention Points that would otherwise be required, but the Wheel of Invention cannot be played nor can the Time Machine be entered.

Characters

 * AndroidXL2 AKA Botley - An amiable robot possessing levels of artificial intelligence and self-awareness not feasible with current technology. Botley was built by Professor Spark as a "prototype companion device" for his daughter Polly since the Professor had difficulty finding sitters for her since she kept scaring them away. Curiously, Botley seems to be able to override his own programming if he sees fit since he stated that it was against his programming to reveal the existence of the Time Machine and that he decided to reveal it to the user anyway given the global emergency Polly had created.
 * Polly Spark - Professor Spark's third-grade daughter and Botley's main purpose is the unenviable task of keeping her under control.
 * Professor Spark - He seems to be a world-famous inventor living inside Mystery Mountain, which he fills with countless strange inventions. He is also father to Polly and the creator of Botley. Polly's mother is never mentioned (and possibly deceased), though Professor Spark's mother (Polly's paternal grandmother) is. Professor Spark's mother is described, by Polly, as cooking "odoriferous" sausages, but, since Polly speaks of her in the past tense, it suggests that she is also no longer living.
 * Ms. Winkle - Polly's schoolteacher, who speaks in a rather high-pitched voice and seems to get a bit over enthused about what she's teaching. She teaches in a Googie version of a traditional schoolhouse, which is located on a hill near Mystery Mountain. There, she uses a device called the TransQuizzer to record her tests. Ms. Winkle is apparently not married since Polly sometimes refers to her as "Miss Winkle," although "Ms. Winkle" is more commonly used.

Activity Presenters

 * Mort - Mort appears in the kitchen activity, where the object is to feed him. Within the game's universe, all robots have voracious appetites, but Mort in particular has been nicknamed "The Bottomless Pit" by the other robots. Mort does not have an obvious "purpose" like the other robots, although he says he knows a lot about math, although this could only be scripted to help the player on levels 2 and 3 of the door lock leading into the kitchen where Mort always is.
 * Mrs. Beasley - Mrs. Beasley is the archivist of the Art Gallery. She apparently loves organizing the digital art in the Virtual Collection and she therefore has little patience with Polly, who frequently leaves the art unorganized.
 * Bothoveen - Bothoven is a robot built in the form of a door knocker on the door to the Music Hall. Like his namesake, he appears to be going deaf.
 * Maestro Trombot - Egbert is the "resident egghead," who resides in the Shrinking Machine Room with his specimens. Egbert has a deep emotional attachment to his specimens, calling them his "lovelies" and his "babies," and he is deeply insulted when Polly insults them or his care of them. Egbert was made out of recycled tin cans, has a hovering device on the tip of his abdomen, and is proud of it. He briefly mentions that his role model is the NORAD computer.
 * Monty Monitor - Monty Monitor is built into the Wheel of Invention exercise that guards the Time Machine. Botley says the Wheel of Invention was built to prevent robots from traveling back in time to taunt the early computers.