''3-D Dinosaur Adventure'' is an educational video game by

Knowledge Adventure JumpStart Games, Inc., formerly Knowledge Adventure, Inc., is an American edutainment video game company based in Torrance, California. Founded in 1991, it owns the ''Neopets'' virtual pet website, and is itself owned by Chinese holding company ...

released on

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

compatible operating systems in 1993. Versions for

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

and

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were published in 1996. A 1997 re-release and an updated version for Macintosh and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

is titled ''3-D Dinosaur Adventure: Anniversary Edition''.

Gameplay

''3-D Dinosaur Adventure'' is presented as a theme park, with areas for the player to explore, including an encyclopedia, a quiz, and a virtual museum. They offer insight into how dinosaurs lived and evolved. Additionally, activities teach players how to use fossil photo records and illustrations for visual recognition of dinosaurs. The title comes packaged with 3D glasses and has special areas that make use of them. There is also a ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher * L ...

'' clone in which the player has to save the dinosaurs from the comet that is about to hit the Earth.

Development

As part of a co-publishing arrangement with

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

Inc. to develop multimedia titles on September 5, 1994, Random House also took over distribution-to-bookstores for current Knowledge Adventure titles such as ''3-D Dinosaur Adventure''. On July 5, 1995, Random House Children's Books entered into an agreement where they would handle distribution of all Knowledge Adventure software titles in the U.K. and Ireland, given the right to repackage, reprice, and readjust wherever necessary for each target market. The game was uploaded to the ZOOM-Platform.com website in 2014 alongside

3D Body Adventure ''3-D Body Adventure'' is a 1994 educational video game developed by Knowledge Adventure and published by Levande Böcker i Norden for MS-DOS, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows. In 2014, Jordan Freeman Group, a subsidiary of ZOOM, officially released t ...

, Space Adventure, and Undersea Adventure.

Reception

The game was the third best selling Macintosh product in the week ending Oct 11, 1997. ''3-D Dinosaur Adventure'' was reviewed in the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Guide Book where it was praised for its "text, beautiful graphics, and amazing sound effects". Characterizing the program as one of "the programs to load on n older child's computerfirst", the authors warned that the programs were resource intensive, "tak ngnearly 10 megabytes of disc space nd requiringa sound card to get the full effect". ''Multimedia and Hypertext: The Internet and Beyond'' argued that the small

was able to produce a better game than Microsoft's '' Microsoft Dinosaurs''. The Educational Technology Handbook praised the game's animation sequences for bringing the experience to life in a way that students would remember. PC Mag noted the high tech effects were limited, though thought the title was a good reference tool. Retrospective reviews from the modern era have been more mixed. RetroJunk's 2009 review found the game to be innovative for its time. Bustle's 2016 review, however, deemed the program little more than a glorified encyclopedia.

Awards

* 1994 –

Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award ''The Oppenheim Toy Portfolio'' is a nationally recognized independent consumer review of children's media. It was founded in 1989 by child development authors Joanne Oppenheim and her daughter Stephanie Oppenheim. The newsletter is published quart ...

Platinum Award * March 1994 – Electronic Entertainment Editors' Choice Awards: Best Edutainment Title (Honorable Mention) * 1994's Best Overall Education Program by the Software Publishers Association as part of its Excellence in Software Awards Program.
/ref> * Top 100 CD-ROMs from PC Magazine 1994

References

External links