LEGO Island
LEGO Island is a 1997 video game developed and published by Mindscape. It was released for Microsoft Windows worldwide on September 26, 1997 and in Japan on December 18, 1997 published by JustSystems[1]. It is the primary subject of this wiki.
History
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, traditional toy manufacturers like LEGO began to feel threatened by the increasing popularity of video games amongst children.[2] To avoid becoming irrelevant from the emerging video game industry, LEGO reportedly invested nearly $2 million to produce LEGO branded video games. For most regions of the world, the first game to result from this was LEGO Island in 1997. While a game titled "LEGO Fun to Build" was released in 1995, it was released only in Japan on the Sega Pico, an educational video game console targeted at young children. Due to LEGO Fun to Build's relative obscurity, LEGO Island is usually considered the first true LEGO video game.
LEGO Island was developed by Mindscape from 1995 to 1997. At this time, Mindscape was based in Novato, California. Infamously, Mindscape fired the developers of LEGO Island the day before release to avoid paying bonuses and continued salaries.[3]
Versions
Main article: LEGO Island Versions
There are only two retail builds of LEGO Island known to exist: a build dated August 1997 (v1.0), and a build dated September 1997 (v1.1). Both builds predate LEGO Island's official release, making the August build somewhat of an oddity. It's assumed that Mindscape had already pressed discs with v1.0 before making "quality of life" improvements in v1.1 that were considered too minor to discard the already pressed discs. Or perhaps v1.0 was a beta run that was considered "stable enough" to be released retail.
The August build is fairly rare and appears to only have been released in English. All other versions and localizations, including repackages from as late as 2001, still appear to be the September 1997 build.
Download
This section aims to be as complete of a collection of LEGO Island releases as possible. Listed are all the languages LEGO Island is known to have been released in as well as all versions.
NOTE: LEGO Island is considered abandonware, but is still technically under copyright. Legally, you can only download if you have already purchased a copy.
| Language | Localized Name | Download (v1.0) | Download (v1.1) |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | LEGO Island | Download | Download |
| Danish | Panik på LEGO Øen (Panic on LEGO Island) | — | Download |
| French | Aventures sur L'île LEGO (Adventures on LEGO Island) | — | Download |
| German | Abenteuer auf der LEGO Insel (Adventure on the LEGO Island) | — | Download |
| Italian | LEGO Isola | — | Download |
| Japanese | レゴアイランドの大冒険 (LEGO Island Great Adventure) | Download | — |
| Korean | 레고 아일랜드 | — | Download |
| Portuguese | A Ilha LEGO | — | Download |
| Russian | Остров LEGO | — | Download |
| Spanish | La Isla LEGO | — | Download |
Key:
| — | This version is not known to exist. |