Encyclopaedia Britannica: Dinosaurs
What makes dinosaurs so interesting – is it their huge size, or their exotic mystique? Or is it just that we're still learning about these strange, lumbering creatures as scientists make new discoveries and revise old theories? Decide for yourself; with this fascinating, comprehensive and engaging PC CD-ROM. Watch a video clip of a tyrannosaurus running...see how you measure up to your favourite dinosaur (would you reach his knee, his back, or his neck?)...and click your way through the evolution of dinosaurs in an illustrated interactive timeline.
Explore interactive landscapes and see dinosaurs hunting, grazing and running in their natural habitats. Use your magnifying glass to discover details of dinosaur life. Collect plants, dinosaurs and animals from different landscapes and build a food chain. Search for missing bones and re-build dinosaur skeletons. Trace the evolution of dinosaurs. Get pre-historic on your PC with dinosaur sounds, wallpapers and screensavers. And re-visit your favourite clips from the television series in the Walking with Dinosaurs video browser. A ‘must have’ for anyone who loved the television series.
3D Dinosaur Hunter (2 Disc Set)
Sure to satisfy the curiosity of any would-be fossil
hunter, 3D Dinosaur Hunter is excellent for learning, exploring and
walking with those fascinating creatures of history. Using a dinosaur
museum as a metaphor, the explorer (you!) works through the fascinating
process of digging up a fossilised skeleton, preparing the bones for
transport, learning about the species and uncovering how the creature
died. But this museum goes far deeper than that--there are 50 different
species to learn about, each with their own story and habits.
The second of the set's two CD-ROMs includes six dinosaur habitats built
in a 3-D environment. Controlling the mouse moves you through the environment
like a ghost, watching the dinosaurs in a given habitat as they move
about. Everything here is both well rendered and animated, and while
this part is fun, it's almost too good--it will leave you hungry for
more when you reach a wall (i.e. the limit of the environment). An especially
nice touch: embedded throughout the program are video clips of scientists
at work, actually uncovering and preparing dinosaur bones in the desert.
It's a terrific glimpse into the process, a look at all the hard work
that comes long before the final stage of exhibition in a museum.