''Microsoft Dinosaurs'' is an educational interactive CD-Rom developed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

, themed around

dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

Production

Microsoft invested in access to the entire library of writing and images of reference publishing house

Dorling Kindersley Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded as DK) is a British multinational publishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media co ...

. They used it to create content for the

Microsoft Home Microsoft Home was a line of software applications and personal hardware products published by Microsoft. Microsoft Home software titles first appeared in the middle of 1993. These applications were designed to bring multimedia to Microsoft Window ...

software line, including ''Microsoft Dinosaurs''.

Gameplay

The game contains 400MB of dinosaur-related information, including full-motion video, audio, and a gallery of scanned artwork. The main program features 1000 illustrations, 200 hypertext articles, and 800 pop-up windows. Players can explore the content in four different ways: Atlas, Timeline, Families, and Index. There is also a guided tour, hosted by "Dino" Don Lessem. The game contains sequences featuring dinosaurs feeding, fighting and breeding, which had previously been broadcast in an American television series put out by the

Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...

, and the

Phil Tippett Phil Tippett (born September 27, 1951) is an American movie director and Oscar and Emmy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and producer, who specializes in creature design, stop-motion and computerized character animation. Over his career, ...

short ''

Prehistoric Beast ''Prehistoric Beast'' is a ten-minute-long experimental animated film conceived, supervised and directed by Phil Tippett in 1984. This sequence is the first film produced by the Tippett Studio, founded by Tippett. Made with the go motion animati ...

''.

Critical reception

The Obscuriority felt the title "demonstrates how thoughtfully crafted reference material can bring value to information", adding that guided learning experiences such as this have value even in the age of Wikipedia.

Compute! ''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET c ...

magazine thought the title was "highly entertaining and educational".

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

deemed it instantly usable and a "visual delight". PCWorld.ol felt the title was aesthetically perfect and extremely rich in substance.

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...

thought its chief asset is its consistently challenging, informative content. An article at the Journal of Accountancy recalled a four-year-old child who, a few months after using the program, correctly identified the species of a dinosaur toy and pulled up the information in the game. The game's sound effects won a multimedia industry award.

References

{{Authority control Microsoft Dinosaurs in popular culture 1993 software