The Leapster Learning Game System, formerly known as the Leapster Multimedia Learning System, is an educational game handheld game console manufactured and sold by LeapFrog Enterprises, aimed at children ages 4 to 10/11 (preschool to fourth grade or fifth grade). Its games teach the alphabet, phonics, basic math (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), and art and animal facts to players. Along with a directional pad, the system features a touchscreen with a stylus pen that enables young users to interact directly with the screen.
The Leapster was released in October 2003.
History
Originally released on October 7, 2003,
the Leapster was revised and remade several times. The Leapster L-MAX, a version that has one extra feature (an A/V TV output, which allows the user to view and hear gameplay on their television) was released in 2004. The L-MAX console's size has decreased and the pen is now a wire instead of a thread. The Leapster TV, a screenless version with the same basic control layout in a console form, was released in 2005 and retired in 2007.
The Leapster was the best-selling educational handheld game console in America, selling about 4 million units and 12 million software cartridges since its inception as of May 2007. It was sold in nine countries directly and in another 7 for teaching English as a second language in schools.
Software
There are approximately 40 games available for the Leapster, with over 50 created.
All games for the Leapster feature a "Hint" function along with a dedicated "Hint" button that will bring up audio or animated information on instructions given in the game.
LeapFrog has not opened the Leapster platform to significant amounts of third-party or homebrew development; software is typically developed in-house or as work-for-hire.
Reception
Dave Bauer stated that there is a "depressingly small library of software available for the Leapster ... but some more varied software would make it much more interesting for (my son) ... no platform that has ever been successful without third-party software. ... Besides that, a strong hobbyist platform would be amazing".
Ian Bogost stated "the potential for improved educational game design is simply not going to come from inside the LeapFrog corporation".
Licensed games
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1st Grade
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2nd Grade: Musical Menace
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Adibou: À la Recherche de Robilloc
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Animal Genius
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The Backyardigans
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The Batman: Multiply, Divide and Conquer
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The Batman: Strength in Numbers
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Bratz World: The Jet Set
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Cars
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Cars 2
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Cars Supercharged
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Cosmic Math
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Crayola: Art Adventure
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Creature Create
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Digging for Dinosaurs
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Pixar
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Disney Fairies
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Disney Princess: Worlds of Enchantment
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Dora the Explorer: Piñata Party
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Dora the Explorer: Wildlife Rescue
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Finding Nemo
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Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
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Get Puzzled!
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Go, Diego, Go!: Animal Rescuer
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I Spy: Treasure Hunt
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The Incredibles
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Kindergarten
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Learning with Leap (cartridge-only game, built in on some Leapsters)
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Letter Factory
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Letters on the Loose
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Letterpillar
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Madagascar
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Math Baseball
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Math Missions
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Mr. Pencil's Learn to Draw and Write
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My Amusement Park
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NASCAR
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(UK only)
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Number Raiders
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Numbers on the Run: Counting on Zero
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Outwit!
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Pet Pals
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Phonics: Lesson One
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The Princess and the Frog
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Ratatouille
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Reading with Phonics: Mole's Huge Nose
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Rock the World: A Reading Adventure
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Schoolhouse Rock!: Grammar Rock
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Scooby-Doo!: Spooky Snacks
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Sonic X
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SpongeBob SquarePants: Through the Wormhole
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Tangled
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The Talking Words Factory
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Toy Story 3
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Up
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WALL-E
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Wolverine and the X-Men
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Word Chasers
Technical specifications
Hardware
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CPU: Custom ASIC containing an ARCTangent-A5 CPU, running at 96 MHz.
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Memory: Original Leapster: 2 MB onboard RAM, 256 bytes non-volatile. Leapster2: 16 MB RAM, 128 KB non-volatile storage
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Media type: Cartridges of 4-16 MB with between 2 and 512 KB non-volatile storage.
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Audio: Proprietary hardware audio acceleration, which includes sequenced audio playback and CELP voice compression sampled at 8000 Hz.
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It retains the same sound source from the original LeapPad from 1999.
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Screen: 160x160 CSTN with touchscreen.
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Leapster2 only: USB 1.1 (client only) and full-sized SD slot.
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Some Leapster2s have no SD slot and use onboard memory in place of it.
Most of the software content for the original Leapster was created with Macromedia Flash MX 2004; the device runs a version of Adobe Flash Player that was licensed to LeapFrog and ported to the Leapster. Tom Prichard, Sr. Vice President of Marketing for Leapfrog, said that he believed using Flash allowed them to "bring the Leapster system to life more rapidly than we could have with any other development method".
External links
