Here's a pop culture pop quiz: In what cartoons do Putt-Putt, Fatty Bear and Freddi Fish appear?
You won't find these characters on Saturday morning television - yet. They are the stars of a popular series of computer adventure games for young children from Humongous Entertainment. And they're being joined this fall by another fearless adventurer, Pajama Sam.
Putt-Putt is the biggest star of the group, appearing in Putt-Putt Joins the Parade, Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon and Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo. Freddi Fish is a yellow, finned detective; her first game was The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds, and her new case involves a haunted schoolhouse.
What sets these games apart is they look like Disney cartoons, with hand-drawn animation and catchy songs. They are also non-violent, thinking games: The kids must explore each cartoon panel to find objects to solve puzzles. Each game is a kind of scavenger hunt. No one gets hurt, and you never die and have to start all over again.
In Freddi Fish and the Case of The Haunted Schoolhouse, Freddi and her friend Luther suspect that the ''ghost'' is phony and build a Rube Goldberg-esque trap for it. The child guides Freddi through several undersea ''environments'' to collect five items to make the ghost trap. (The items change slightly each time the game is played.)
These games can be tricky and complex. Although the ''Junior Adventure'' series is rated for ages 3-8, parents of younger children might want to play the game in advance before letting little ones attempt it - and stay nearby to offer help.
Anyone playing these games needs the curious energy of squirrels to handle some situations: In The Haunted Schoolhouse, Luther must dive into a tunnel to retrieve a pair of glasses, but when he comes to a fork in the tunnel, the player must choose the right direction - difficult since it all flies by during an animation sequence.
Also, some of the puzzles are tough: To get the cork, Freddi and Luther must find a metal pipe, and to get the pipe, they must remove it from a turtle's head with a can of oil. The player must figure all this out himself, then find the oilcan (buried in a different area of the game).
Game-play secret: Click on every item in every scene since you never know what you'll need or when you'll need it.
John Uppendahl, a spokesman for Humongous, said the complexity makes the games more challenging for older kids and allows kids to play multiple times without getting bored.
''It appeals to kids in a number of ways,'' Mr. Uppendahl said. ''Younger children may enjoy just clicking'' on the numerous ''hot spots'' in each cartoon environment - clams that burst into song, flowers that fly across the screen.
The newest adventure game from Humongous is Pajama Sam in No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside. I've seen many children's games, and I can honestly say this is the best I've ever encountered.
First, the game is visually excellent, with more than 50 environments that are hand-drawn and have depth and detail of feature-film quality.
Second, while the game itself is simple - help Sam find his lunch box, flashlight and mask so he can capture Darkness and stuff him in his lunch box - the puzzles and environments are challenging.
Third, the game plays differently each time, with a new mix of puzzles and environments available in each game. After the first game, 10 new environments appear. Kids can literally play dozens of times, and the game will never be the same.
And then there's the main character, a 6ish boy who looks and acts like a nicer version of Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes. Any kid will love him.
Parents will love him, too, since he is all kid - his closet (where Darkness hides) is a tangle of clothes and toys (one of the recurring games is finding and matching socks).
Freddi Fish 2 and Pajama Sam are part of a marketing blitz planned by Humongous for Christmas 1996. There's a special promotion for Freddi Fish 2; purchasers get a free copy of Sing Along with Freddi Fish and Her Friends cassette tape and songbook.
Humongous also has released two new Junior Arcade games, Putt-Putt and Pep's Balloon-O-Rama and Dog on a Stick (that's a pogo stick), which are kid versions of the venerable Q-bert and Space Invaders arcade games. Two Freddi Fish arcade games will join them before Christmas.
All Humongous games are available on hybrid CD-ROMs which work on Mac, Windows and Win95. Freddi Fish and Pajama Sam retail for $39.95, while the Junior Arcade games retail for $14.95.