The Muppet CD-ROM: Muppets Inside is a 1996 video game based on The Muppets franchise produced by Starwave for Windows. The title is a play on Intel's advertising slogan, "Intel Inside". The game's plot consists of several Muppets characters getting trapped inside a computer, and Bunsen sending Kermit and Fozzie Bear into the computer to rescue them.
Muppets Inside's gameplay contains over an hour of new audio and video footage, as well as five new songs and classics from The Muppet Show. The game also contains a bonus "Muppetizer'" feature that provides custom cursors, sounds and wallpapers. The game's CD-ROM also came packaged with a 6x6 inch, 30-page booklet with Henson history, character profiles, game instructions, and credits.[citation needed]
Gameplay
As players rescue the Muppets, they encounter seven "Muppetized" minigames:[1]
Kitchens of Doom: A parody of Doom, with the Swedish Chef fighting giant vegetables in a crypt-like kitchen.
Beaker's Brain: The player helps Bunsen unscramble Beaker's memories of Muppet Show clips.
Two Thumbs Down: The player rotates boxes to unscramble Statler and Waldorf's video clip.
A Wocka on the Wild Side: In a parody of Missile Command, the player shoots down flying tomatoes that the audience throws at Fozzie Bear as he crosses the Muppet Theater stage.
Death Defying Acts of Culture: The player positions Gonzo's cannon so he flies through a target.
Trivial but True: A Hollywood Squares game hosted by Kermit, with Fozzie Bear as the center square.
Development and release
Starwave was the lead developer of Muppets Inside, while other developers produced most of its minigames: Trivial but True and Death Defying Acts of Culture by Socha Computing; Kitchens of Doom by Gravity;[2]A Wocka on the Wild Side and Two Thumbs Down by Randy Pratt; and Beaker's Brain and Scope That Song by Riedel Software Productions.[3] The game was developed in a year, with a headcount of over 150 people between all involved studios.[4]
Muppets Inside was received positively by critics upon release. CNET praised the game's graphics and design, describing it as a "day-brightener".[10]
In a retrospective review, PC Gamer praised the humor of the videos and game concepts, while criticizing the tedium of the small number of games.[11]
Awards
Muppets Inside received a CODiE award in 1997 for Best Overall Multimedia Production.[12] The editors of Computer Games Strategy Plus nominated the game as their pick for 1996's best "traditional" game, but the award ultimately went to Power Chess.[13]
^"Games". Gravity. Archived from the original on January 28, 1998. Retrieved September 11, 2024.
^Auerbach, Jon G.; Stecklow, Steve (October 16, 1997). "RSP Provokes Controversy Over Its Gory Software Game". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 11, 2024. In the Muppets CD-ROM game, released last year, RSP created a segment in which Miss Piggy plays a game-show host and child contestants must name such tunes as, "I've Been Working on the Railroad". In another, called "Beaker's Brain", players must reconstruct animated images to put the flask-headed character's brain back together.
