Microsoft Dinosaurs
An educational CD-ROM featuring dinosaur information and interactive exploration.
Microsoft Dinosaurs is an educational CD-ROM from Microsoft, focused on dinosaurs. It was built for the Microsoft Home series, drawing on the full library of text and images from the publisher Dorling Kindersley.
The disc holds a standard 650MB CD-ROM, packed with dinosaur content including full-motion video, audio, and a gallery of scanned artwork. The main program features 1,000 illustrations, 200 hypertext articles, and 800 pop-up windows. Users can explore the material in four ways: an Atlas, a Timeline, a Families section, and an Index. A guided tour is hosted by "Dino" Don Lessem. The program includes sequences of dinosaurs feeding, fighting, and breeding, drawn from its own animations and clips from the Phil Tippett short *Prehistoric Beast*.
The title covers a large number of species. Dinosaurs listed include Albertosaurus, Allosaurus, Anchisaurus, Ankylosaurus, Apatosaurus, Archaeopteryx, Bactrosaurus, Barosaurus, Baryonyx, Brachiosaurus, Camarasaurus, Centrosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Chasmosaurus, Coelophysis, Compsognathus, Corythosaurus, Deinonychus, Dilophosaurus, Diplodocus, Dromiceiomimus, Dryosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Euoplocephalus, Gallimimus, Herrerasaurus, Heterodontosaurus, Hypsilophodon, Iguanodon, Kentrosaurus, Leaellynasaura, Lesothosaurus, Maiasaura, Mamenchisaurus, Massospondylus, Megalosaurus, Minmi, Mussaurus, Muttaburrasaurus, Nodosaurus, Ornitholestes, Oviraptor, Pachycephalosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Piatnitzkysaurus, Pinacosaurus, Plateosaurus, Polacanthus, Protoceratops, Psittacosaurus, Rhoetosaurus, Saltasaurus, Saltopus, Saurolophus, Scelidosaurus, Shantungosaurus, Spinosaurus, Staurikosaurus, Stegosaurus, Struthiomimus, Styracosaurus, Tarbosaurus, Therizinosaurus, Triceratops, Troodon, Tsintaosaurus, Tuojiangosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, and Velociraptor. Many other dinosaurs appear only off-screen, such as Bagaceratops, Bambiraptor, Barapasaurus, Camptosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Carnotaurus, Cetiosaurus, Chindesaurus, Chirostenotes, Coelurus, Dacentrurus, Daspletosaurus, Deinocheirus, Dromaeosaurus, Dryptosaurus, Echinodon, Edmontonia, Einiosaurus, Elaphrosaurus, Eoraptor, Euhelopus, Euskelosaurus, Eustreptospondylus, Fabrosaurus, Garudimimus, Gasosaurus, Gastonia, Giganotosaurus, Gojirasaurus, Gorgosaurus, Gryposaurus, Hadrosaurus, Haplocanthosaurus, Homalocephale, Huayangosaurus, Hylaeosaurus, Hypacrosaurus, Kritosaurus, Lambeo
- developer
- Microsoft
- genre
- Educational interactive CD-ROM
- content_size
- 650MB CD-ROM
- illustrations
- 1000
- hypertext_articles
- 200
- pop_up_windows
- 800
- guided_tour_host
- "Dino" Don Lessem
Lore & Background
Microsoft invested in access to the entire library of writing and images of reference publishing house Dorling Kindersley, using it to create content for the Microsoft Home software line, including Microsoft Dinosaurs. The game contains a standard 650MB CD-ROM packed with 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, drawn from its own animations and clips from the Phil Tippett short Prehistoric Beast.
Reader's Guide
Microsoft Dinosaurs is significant as an early example of a multimedia educational CD-ROM that leveraged a comprehensive reference library to create an engaging learning experience. The Obscuritory 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! magazine thought the title was "highly entertaining and educational". PC Magazine deemed it instantly usable and a "visual delight", with "beautifully rendered illustrations and lots of text". PCWorld.pl felt the title was aesthetically perfect and extremely rich in substance. The Seattle Times 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.
Did You Know?
- The game contains 400MB of dinosaur-related information, including full-motion video, audio, and a gallery of scanned artwork.
- Players can explore content in four ways: Atlas, Timeline, Families, and Index.
- The guided tour is hosted by "Dino" Don Lessem.
- The game's sound effects won a multimedia industry award.
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