Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Playthrough of Buster's First Thunderstorm, Imagination Pilots’ educational interactive storybook published by Media Vision in 1993 for Windows 3.x and Macintosh. Part of the Professor Gooseberry’s I Can Read Club series, it is based on the children's picture book by Hisako Madokoro with illustrations by Ken Kuroi, and was designed primarily to help young children develop reading and listening skills.
Rating: 7/10
Buster's First Thunderstorm follows a young puppy experiencing a thunderstorm for the first time. While the animals around him recognize the signs of approaching bad weather and seek shelter, Buster initially carries on without understanding what is coming. The resulting rain, thunder and lightning provide both a simple childhood adventure and an approachable story about encountering something unfamiliar and frightening. The original book was first published in English in 1991, two years before this computer adaptation.
Rather than attempting to turn the story into a conventional game, Buster's First Thunderstorm is structured around four increasingly independent ways of experiencing the book.
Look and Listen is essentially an automated story presentation. The illustrations appear while the narrator reads the story, with pages advancing automatically. Read with Me adds the written text so children can follow the words while listening. Think About the Story introduces the program's main interactive element, asking the player to select words and answer simple questions about what has just happened. Finally, You Read removes the narration and encourages children to read the story themselves, although individual words can still be clicked to hear their pronunciation.
It's a sensible educational progression. A child can begin by simply listening, move on to associating spoken and written language, demonstrate comprehension and eventually attempt independent reading. The activities are extremely easy and there is almost no challenge in the traditional gaming sense, but that is clearly intentional. The program was aimed at roughly five-to-seven-year-old children rather than experienced computer users.
Visually, the highlight is the original book artwork. The soft, colorful illustrations translate nicely to the low-resolution Windows environment and give the program considerably more personality than a generic collection of educational exercises would have had. Presentation is fairly static compared with Broderbund's Living Books series, where clicking scenery often triggered elaborate animations and jokes, but that restraint also keeps the player's attention focused on reading.
The audio is equally important. Narration is clear and expressive, and the storm provides an obvious opportunity for atmospheric sound effects without turning the experience into something genuinely frightening. Mouse-only controls keep everything accessible, aside from entering the player's name at the beginning.
There isn't much replay value once all four modes have been completed. Players looking for exploration, puzzles or numerous clickable animations will find Buster's First Thunderstorm very limited. Even Think About the Story is closer to a simple reading-comprehension exercise than a collection of mini-games.
Judged as educational software rather than as a traditional game, however, it works quite well. The charming illustrations, clear narration and logical transition from listening to independent reading give it an obvious purpose, and its uncomplicated interface makes sense for the intended age group.
Buster's First Thunderstorm is therefore a modest but effective example of early CD-ROM edutainment. It lacks the elaborate interactivity of the best-known interactive storybooks of the 1990s, but as a friendly reading aid built around an appealing children's story, it accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do.
Playthrough of Buster's First Thunderstorm, Imagination Pilots’ educational interactive storybook published by Media Vision in 1993 for Windows 3.x and Macintosh. Part of the Professor Gooseberry’s I Can Read Club series, it is based on the children's picture book by Hisako Madokoro with illustrations by Ken Kuroi, and was designed primarily to help young children develop reading and listening skills.
Rating: 7/10
Buster's First Thunderstorm follows a young puppy experiencing a thunderstorm for the first time. While the animals around him recognize the signs of approaching bad weather and seek shelter, Buster initially carries on without understanding what is coming. The resulting rain, thunder and lightning provide both a simple childhood adventure and an approachable story about encountering something unfamiliar and frightening. The original book was first published in English in 1991, two years before this computer adaptation.
Rather than attempting to turn the story into a conventional game, Buster's First Thunderstorm is structured around four increasingly independent ways of experiencing the book.
Look and Listen is essentially an automated story presentation. The illustrations appear while the narrator reads the story, with pages advancing automatically. Read with Me adds the written text so children can follow the words while listening. Think About the Story introduces the program's main interactive element, asking the player to select words and answer simple questions about what has just happened. Finally, You Read removes the narration and encourages children to read the story themselves, although individual words can still be clicked to hear their pronunciation.
It's a sensible educational progression. A child can begin by simply listening, move on to associating spoken and written language, demonstrate comprehension and eventually attempt independent reading. The activities are extremely easy and there is almost no challenge in the traditional gaming sense, but that is clearly intentional. The program was aimed at roughly five-to-seven-year-old children rather than experienced computer users.
Visually, the highlight is the original book artwork. The soft, colorful illustrations translate nicely to the low-resolution Windows environment and give the program considerably more personality than a generic collection of educational exercises would have had. Presentation is fairly static compared with Broderbund's Living Books series, where clicking scenery often triggered elaborate animations and jokes, but that restraint also keeps the player's attention focused on reading.
The audio is equally important. Narration is clear and expressive, and the storm provides an obvious opportunity for atmospheric sound effects without turning the experience into something genuinely frightening. Mouse-only controls keep everything accessible, aside from entering the player's name at the beginning.
There isn't much replay value once all four modes have been completed. Players looking for exploration, puzzles or numerous clickable animations will find Buster's First Thunderstorm very limited. Even Think About the Story is closer to a simple reading-comprehension exercise than a collection of mini-games.
Judged as educational software rather than as a traditional game, however, it works quite well. The charming illustrations, clear narration and logical transition from listening to independent reading give it an obvious purpose, and its uncomplicated interface makes sense for the intended age group.
Buster's First Thunderstorm is therefore a modest but effective example of early CD-ROM edutainment. It lacks the elaborate interactivity of the best-known interactive storybooks of the 1990s, but as a friendly reading aid built around an appealing children's story, it accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do.
