Europress Bookshelf
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| Europress Bookshelf | |
|---|---|
 Alice in Wonderland Cover | |
| Genre(s) | Literature, edutainment |
| Developer(s) | Europress Software |
| Publisher(s) | Q Range |
| Platform(s) | Windows 3.x, Windows, Macintosh |
| First release | Alice in Wonderland April 6, 1995[1] |
| Latest release | The Hunchback of Notre Dame |
Europress Bookshelf is a series of interactive storybooks for children, developed by Europress Software and published by Q Range on CD-ROM for Mac OS and Windows, using their own games creator Klik & Play to produce the products with minimal programming.[1] The games came under three series including "Read & Play" for younger readers, "Topsy and Tim" based on the Adamson books and "Living Classics".
Games
[edit]Gameplay
[edit]Each product opens in a map screen where the player can click the option to have the story read from beginning to end continuously, click any of the chapter points on the map, play one of several games included or read information about the book author and the book itself. On each page of the story, the player can stop the reading at any time, click interactive objects to trigger animations and click on any highlighted special words to get their definitions.
Products
[edit]Read & Play
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Author | Release date | Number of pages | Notes |
| The Gingerbread Man | St. Nicholas Magazine | 1996 | Narrated by Daphne Oxenford[2] | |
| Goldilocks and the Three Bears | Robert Southey | 1996 | Narrated by Daphne Oxenford[3] | |
Topsy and Tim
| ||||
| Title | Author | Release date | Number of pages | Notes |
| Topsy and Tim go to School | Jean Adamson and Gareth Adamson | 1995 | ||
| Topsy and Tim at the Supermarket | Jean Adamson and Gareth Adamson | 1996 | ||
| Topsy and Tim at Granny and Grandpa's | Jean Adamson and Gareth Adamson | 1996 | ||
Living Classics
| ||||
| Title | Author | Release date | Number of pages | Notes |
| Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll | April 6, 1995 | Includes 4 games and Sir John Tenniel's original illustrations. | |
| Treasure Island | Robert Louis Stevenson | 1995 | Includes 4 games | |
| Journey to the Center of the Earth | Jules Verne | 1995 | Includes 4 games | |
| Peter Pan | J. M. Barrie | 1996 | Includes 12 games | |
| Tom Sawyer | Mark Twain | 1996 | Includes 3 games | |
| The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Victor Hugo | 1996 | ||
Development
[edit]Europress hired professional animators from the film industry to illustrate the characters and interactive objects in the games. Daphne Oxenford was hired to narrate the "Read & Play" stories.[2][3] The "Living Classics" soundtrack was done with Dolby Surround Sound.[4] The series was released in many languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish.[5]
Release
[edit]The first three "Living Classics" were translated into Spanish.[6]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b An evaluation of a children's 'classic' on CD-ROM. Loughborough University. 1995. pp. 27, 152.
- ^ a b Richard Gale (April 15, 1996). "The Gingerbread Man - Richard Gale". Retrieved May 5, 2018.
- ^ a b Richard Gale (April 16, 1996). "Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Richard Gale". Retrieved May 5, 2018.
- ^ Dolby (February 1, 1998). "Dolby Laboratories Information" (PDF). Retrieved December 14, 2017.
- ^ Europress (1996). "New animation technique debuts with Journey to the Centre of the Earth". Archived from the original on 1996-11-04. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
- ^ "Living Classics - Spanish". PCMania. No. 37. November 1995. p. 15.