Sierra Games

Playtoons 5: The Stone of Wakan

Last updated: October 9, 2026

Overview

Playtoons 5: The Stone of Wakan (French: Playtoons n°5: La Pierre de Wakan; German: Der Stein von Wakan) is the fifth and last game in Coktel Vision’s Playtoons series of children’s cartoon storybooks.123 Coktel released it in France in late 1995 for Windows and Macintosh on a single hybrid CD-ROM.42 Sierra On-Line, which owned Coktel at the time, published it in Germany in 1996. The Sierra Chest also records an English-language European edition.256

As in the earlier Playtoons games, there are two parts. The first is an animated, clickable story. The second is a construction kit in which children build their own animated comic strips from the game’s characters, scenery and props.14 This time the story is a Wild West tale. MobyGames describes it as an adventure for “Native American protagonist Blue Bear”, who sets out with his friend Laughing Otter.1 The French magazine PC Novice called it “un conte fantastique au pays des Indiens Arapahos” (“a fantastical tale in the land of the Arapaho”).7

Story Summary

The young Blue Bear (Oso-Azul in Spanish, Blauer Bär in German) leaves home on a quest. MacFormat described a quest “to become a fully-fledged Indian brave”, in which Blue Bear must travel to the Mountain That Smokes and defeat the Thunder Spirits.11 The Spanish magazine PCMania says the village chief, Old Beaver (Viejo-Castor), sends him to find the Mountain That Smokes. Along the way he meets problems but also helpers who let him finish the chief’s task.3 MobyGames describes the goal as finding the Great Silver Bison, with his friend Laughing Otter at his side.1 A cowboy follows Blue Bear through the adventure.3

PC Joker counted twelve pictures in the story, each with objects that animate when clicked.12

Gameplay

Interface and Controls

The game is played with the mouse. In the story, the cursor changes shape over hidden animations, and a click plays them. Animated sequences link the interactive screens, and the player can skip them with a right-click.4 A narrator reads each speech bubble aloud. Children can click a single word to hear it read slowly, or select several words to have them highlighted and repeated.4 A flag on each bubble switches the text to a second language.4 PCMania noted that its Spanish edition let children pick up words in both English and Spanish.3

Five icons along the bottom of the screen turn the pages back and forward, show or hide the text bubbles, return to the contents page, and give help.4 The contents page lets the player read the story from the start, view it with or without text, or jump straight to any chapter.4

Structure and Progression

The game opens on a menu showing every Playtoons story. Titles the player owns appear in colour, and the rest appear in black and white as previews.4 PCMania compared the story’s structure to Broderbund’s Living Books: an animation tells part of the story, then stops on a still screen the child can explore by clicking objects.3 MacFormat noted that “it’s not all point and click”: frequent speech bubbles tell “the wonderful tale of Blue Bear at a steady pace”.11

Puzzles and Mechanics

The construction kit is the second half of the game. Players build a scene in three layers: sky, horizon and foreground. They then add fixed or animated objects and characters from a catalogue. When a character walks into an object or another character, an animation plays.43 A story can run to 20 pictures, which can be saved.412 PC Joker reported up to six characters per scene. They can be made to “talk” by typing text or by recording through a microphone, and there are five music tracks to choose from.12 Players can type text into comic-style speech bubbles.4 PCMania added that finished stories can be printed or played back like a film.3

The kit is shared across the series. The manual explains that it combines the elements of every Playtoons title the player owns. To get the most complete kit, players should start it from the highest-numbered disc in their collection.4 MobyGames notes that installing several Playtoons games makes all their assets available in the editor, “essentially combining themselves into one game”.1

Reception

Contemporary Reviews

MacFormat reviewed The Stone of Wakan together with Playtoons 4: The Mandarine Prince in its May 1996 issue (reviewer Mike Goldsmith). The magazine wrote: “If a trick works, why change it? The setting and style are different, but The Stone of Wakan is more of the same.” It said the text used sophisticated language, but always with enough context or explanation to suit the whole four-to-ten age range.11

The German magazine PC Joker reviewed Der Stein von Wakan in September 1996. It praised the easy controls and on-line help, and praised its “nahezu oscarverdächtigen Präsentation” (“almost Oscar-worthy presentation”).12

PCMania in Spain (issue 56, reviewed by Óscar Santos) praised the series’ good graphics and smooth animation. It wrote that Coktel had not neglected “ni un solo detalle” (“a single detail”). It also singled out the way owning several titles builds up a large shared library of images and characters.3

Modern Assessment

The game has received little attention since. MobyGames lists one critic score, 70%, and no player reviews.13 ScummVM lists it as an unsupported Gob-engine game, so there is currently no supported way to run it in ScummVM.9

Development

Production

The French manual credits Jean-Christophe Charter and Coktel with the scenario. Valérie Courtial, Arnaud Delrue and Roland Oskian (Coktel’s founder) are credited as producers.46 The graphics team was Jean-Christophe Charter, Jacques Dimier, Patrick Dumas, Pierre Gilhodes, Christian Laly, Pascal Pautrot and Jeff Rey, with the studio Millimages. Studio Big Wheels did the sound.48 Seven programmers are credited: Didier Chevrier, Pascal Couteau, Arnaud Delrue, Maurice Elallouf, Bertrand Hasnier, Daniel Lopes and Mathieu Marciacq.48

Coktel’s letter in the manual describes Playtoons as a range for children aged four to ten. It also states the company’s aim to release several titles a year, and says other heroes would soon join Spirou.4 PCMania nevertheless described The Stone of Wakan as “el quinto y último en aparecer” (“the fifth and last to appear”) in the collection.3 Sierra’s acquisition of Coktel had been finalised in 1993, and under that arrangement Sierra published Coktel’s French titles outside France.6

Voice Cast

The cast differed by language. The French manual credits Pierre-Alain de Garrigues and Annabelle Roux. The German release, whose credits MobyGames records, lists Katharina Witkowska and Peter Zemler.48 No credits for the English voice cast were found.

Technical Specifications

Hybrid CD-ROM:493

  • Platforms: Windows 3.1 or later; Macintosh
  • Resolution: 640×480, 256 colours
  • Engine: Coktel Gob engine (DEV6)
  • Memory (Spanish edition, per PCMania): 8 MB RAM (16 MB recommended), 10 MB hard disk space, Sound Blaster-compatible sound
  • Copy protection: None found on the French disc4

Version History

VersionDatePlatformNotes
French (La Pierre de Wakan)December 1995Windows / MacCoktel Vision. Disc mastering code dated 12 December 199542
German (Der Stein von Wakan)1996Windows / MacSierra On-Line, distributed by Sierra Coktel Deutschland2
English (The Stone of Wakan)c. 1996PC / MacEU English slipcover box recorded by the Sierra Chest; listed by a UK retailer at £16.50 in May 1996514
Spanish (La Piedra de Wakan)—WindowsReviewed by PCMania; English/Spanish text3

PC Novice listed the game as already available in France in its January 1996 issue.7 No North American release has been documented. MobyGames’ release list covers only France and Germany.2

Legacy

The Stone of Wakan was the last numbered Playtoons story.3 Wikipedia’s Playtoons and Coktel Vision articles both list it as the final entry in the series, released in 1995.156 UVList’s Mac OS Classic catalogue includes it under Coktel Vision, dated 1995.16

Collections

No compilation release has been documented. The French disc and its full manual are preserved on the Internet Archive.4

Downloads

Purchase / Digital Stores

  • Not available on any digital storefront

Download / Preservation

Manuals & Extras

  • French manual (PDF and text) included in the Internet Archive item above4

See Also

The Stone of Wakan closes Coktel Vision’s numbered Playtoons series, which began with Uncle Archibald in 1994 and featured Spirou in two of its five stories.117 Its construction kit can combine characters and scenery from every earlier volume.14

References

Footnotes

  1. MobyGames – Playtoons № 5: La Pierre de Wakan – series description, shared-asset editor, Blue Bear / Laughing Otter / Great Silver Bison synopsis, Windows 16-bit and Mac, CD-ROM, Western setting ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  2. MobyGames – Playtoons № 5: La Pierre de Wakan, releases – 1995 France (Coktel Vision) for Windows and Mac; 1996 Germany (Sierra On-Line, distributed by Sierra Coktel Deutschland); German title “Der Stein von Wakan” ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  3. PCMania #56 – Óscar Santos, “La piedra de Wakan”, pp. 248–249 – review: fifth and last in the collection, Oso-Azul and chief Viejo-Castor, Mountain That Smokes, Living Books comparison, English/Spanish text, printing and playback, bundled calculator, system requirements ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  4. Internet Archive – Playtoons n°5: La Pierre de Wakan (PC, France) – disc (mastering code “WAKANFR 12 DEC 95”, no copy protection found) and French manual: full credits, Coktel letter, story and construction-kit instructions, PC/Mac installation ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22 ↩23 ↩24 ↩25 ↩26 ↩27 ↩28 ↩29

  5. The Sierra Chest – Playtoons 5: Packaging & content – PC/Mac CD-ROM slipcover boxes for EU English and EU French releases; manual and Playtoons trailer ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Wikipedia – Coktel Vision – Roland Oskian as founder; Sierra acquisition (finalised 1993); Sierra publishing Coktel’s French titles worldwide; Playtoons 5 in the 1995 releases ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. PC Novice (France) #32, January 1996 – five Playtoons titles already available; La Pierre de Wakan “un conte fantastique au pays des Indiens Arapahos” ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. MobyGames – Playtoons № 5: La Pierre de Wakan, credits – German-release credits: graphics, Studio Big Wheels, voices (Witkowska, Zemler), programming, scenario, production ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  9. ScummVM Wiki – Playtoons 5 - The Stone of Wakan – Gob engine (DEV6), 640×480 256 colours, Windows, not supported by ScummVM ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. The Sierra Chest – Playtoons 5: The Stone of Wakan – Coktel Vision developer, Sierra On-Line publisher, Playtoons series, Gob engine, 1995 ↩

  11. MacFormat #37 (May 1996) – Mike Goldsmith, “Playtoons: Spirou – The Mandarine Prince and The Stone of Wakan”, pp. 103–104 – review: Blue Bear’s quest, Mountain That Smokes, Thunder Spirits, “more of the same”, language and age range ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  12. PC Joker, September 1996 – “Der Stein von Wakan”, p. 74 – review: twelve-picture story, 20-picture construction kit, six characters, text or microphone speech, five music tracks, presentation ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  13. MobyGames – Playtoons № 5: La Pierre de Wakan, reviews – critic average 70% from one rating; no player reviews ↩

  14. PC Zone #38 (May 1996) – UK mail-order listing: “Playtoons Stone of Wakan” at £16.50 ↩

  15. Wikipedia – Playtoons – series overview; Playtoons 5: The Stone of Wakan listed as the latest release (1995) ↩

  16. UVList – Mac OS Classic games list – Playtoons 5: The Stone of Wakan, Coktel Vision, 1995 ↩

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