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Titanic "Adventure Out Of Time"

Europress

After the romantic slush and historical inaccuracies of the Hollywood film Titanic comes a CD ROM of what its makers describe as "intrigue and adventure ... on board the Titanic". They claim that the ship is "so perfectly reproduced" that historians used it as reference for a scientific expedition at the wreck site. What the blurb doesn't tell you is that the game Titanic, Adventure Out of Time is also something of an enigma.
With precious few instructions on how to actually begin the game, the only instant option is a tour of the ship. Touring the silent decks and vast, empty rooms can feel quite eerie. The opportunity to go on a really thorough tour--snoop into cabins or check out the gymnasium--seems to be out of bounds, so speeding up and down the grand staircase and on to the poop deck is the next best thing. Occasionally characters loom up out of the silence, looking more like museum mannequins than convincing passengers, to feed information and build up the plot.
To play the game itself, take a big tip and follow these instructions from the technical support man, who saves the day on the end of the phone: the scene is set in a London bed-sit during World War II, and there is only one way for an ageing ex-British secret agent to get back to the Titanic of 1912-and start having some fun. If you can solve a number of puzzles while on board, you are allowed off the ship to find yourself all the way back in London again... -- Susannah Steel
Chronicle Encyclopedia Of History

Dorling Kindersley
Create Your Own Family Tree Grand Suite (PC)

Focus Multimedia Ltd
Sophie's World

Focus Multimedia Ltd

Based on the best-selling book by Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World on CD-ROM explores the history of philosophy through a Socratian series of questions and answers. Like the book, the approach is question-based. What is time? Do we have free will? These are just a few of the questions posed by guide Alberto, the cheeky Socratian gadfly, and Sophie herself, and explored through rich graphical environments, interactive games and snippets of background material.
There are several ways to access the 3,000+ years of philosophy covered on this CD-ROM. Those new to philosophical concepts or looking for a refresher course may particularly enjoy the playful narrative which leads you through a history of philosophy peppered with images, games and questions to aid memory. Alternatively, a reference area can be easily accessed from most pages. This includes a timeline, keyword search and, interestingly, a key question chart, where information on philosophers and schools of thought concerned with a key question (like Who am I?) is grouped together. This is a supple, entertaining CD-ROM that encourages exploration and should prove particularly useful for students seeking a fun introduction to philosophy. --Kathleen Keefe
The Encyclopedia Of Great Artists

Focus Multimedia Ltd
Battles Of The World

Softkey
A Mind of Knowledge 2 (PC)

Focus Multimedia Ltd
Millennium 20th Century Day By Day

Dorling Kindersley

How much of the last century do you remember? As a dramatic chronicle of human life, the 20th century is difficult to beat. Two World Wars broke out, the communist political system in the Soviet Union suddenly collapsed, Nelson Mandela was set free, historic trips were made to the Moon, England actually won the World Cup and Charles and Diana were married before a global TV audience. Dorling Kindersley's 20th Century Day by Day brings the century alive again. You're invited to experience events as they happened. The conflicts and scandals that shocked society, the ideas that turned the world upside down and the people who made it happen. As you enter a 3-D virtual newsroom and click on photographs and typewriters you are led back into the decades of the 20th century. In the 1960s you can read about John Lennon, follow the events of the Vietnam War and hear Martin Luther King talking of his dream of a new kind of society. In the "Twentieth Century in Focus" section, you can re-live breakthroughs in space exploration. Watch videos of rockets taking off and see Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. Throughout the CD-ROM you can search for famous people and places; follow a story of events through from start to finish or simply browse the headlines and biographies.
This is a highly stimulating and exciting multi-media chronicle of the 20th century. More than 34,000 days of history are played back like breaking news stories. It will be difficult for dusty history textbooks to compete with this entertaining record of a rollercoaster century. Parents, grandparents and children will love it. --Justin Hunt
Titanic: Challenge Of Discovery

Mindscape
Titanic Interactive Journey

Europress
Rome, Caesar's Will Adventure Game

Montparnasse Multimedia
Titanic "An Interactive Journey"

Europress
Hutchinson Science Reference Suite

Focus Multimedia Ltd
Secrets of the Mind

Montparnasse Multimedia

Combining the talents of 11 of the world's top psychologists and neurobiologists, Secrets of the Mind is an authoritative and subtly interactive CD-ROM which aims to give the lowdown on perhaps the greatest of scientific mysteries: our very own brains.
Unlike the challenging subject matter, the format is simple and neat. Click on any of umpteen pictures on the central "mind map", with titles such as Emotional Intelligence, Consciousness & Perception, or The Learning Brain, and one of those 11 experts will then appear mid-screen, to give an illuminating lecture on his favoured field of neuroscience. And when the talking gets a bit wearisome, as it sometimes does, you can then shut the teacher up with pleasing ease, and access one of the funky interactive psychiatric games, or diverting audio-visual displays on particular cerebral functions, or even listen in as other boffins have a heated on-disk debate on, say, dreaming, or memory.
If there is a fault with this set-up it's that the teaching can be a little dry, even over-earnest. But given that most of the educational CD-ROMs out there err on the side of childishness and garishness, that's almost a welcome flaw. A good buy for serious students. --Sean Thomas
The Hermitage Museum

Montparnasse Multimedia
Eyewitness History Of The World 2.0

Dorling Kindersley
Home Massage

Arcmedia
DK Originals Chronicle Of The 20th Century

Dorling Kindersley Ltd
Vikings

Europress
Hutchinson History Reference Suite

Focus Multimedia Ltd