Eyewitness Dinosaur Hunter

Eyewitness Dinosaur Hunter is an educational video game made for the Eyewitness Virtual Reality Series, by DK Multimedia and released for Windows in 1996. Although it was based on the Eyewitness first season episode Dinosaur, the introduction to the game is actually the opening for the second season of the show.

## Setting

This game is set in a version of the Eyewitness Museum that, like the programmes, is shaped like the Eyewitness eye logo. Unlike the programmes however, the game’s museum is darkly lit with a sandy floor and rocky walls.

## Sections

On arriving in the game, a map of the Eyewitness Museum is shown for the game. The option is given here to either go on a guided tour, create your own tour or roam the museum freely. The main sections of the museum are:

* Bottom-left edge – Triassic
* Top-left edge – Jurassic
* Left sclera – Dinosaur Excavation Site
* Iris – Further exhibits
* Pupil – Arena
* Right sclera – World of Dinosaurs
* Top-right edge – Cretaceous
* Bottom-right edge – Store

### Triassic

This is a gallery of different Triassic dinosaurs, including Coelophysis, Herrarasaurus, Riojasaurus, Plateosaurus and Mussaurus.

### Jurassic

This is a gallery of different Jurassic dinosaurs, going from early Jurassic near the exit to the Triassic gallery to late Jurassic near to the entrance to the Cretaceous gallery. This includes Scelidosaurus, Lesothosaurus, Heterodontosaurus, Lufengosaurus, Anchisaurus, Dilophosaurus, Cetiosaurus, Megalosaurus, Mamenchisaurus, Camarasaurus, Archaeopteryx, Compsognathus, Ornitholestes, Allosaurus, Tuojiangosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, Barosaurus, Stegosaurus and Diplodocus.

### Dinosaur Excavation Site

In this game, the skeletons of six dinosaurs (Edmontonia, Triceratops, Heterodontosaurus, Herrarasaurus, Dilophosaurus and Tyrannosaurus) can be reassembled by looking at the incomplete skeletons and selecting the parts which need to be found, before looking at which time period they are from. The dig site can be chosen by descending to four different depths under the Earth. Once the missing bones are discovered, you return to the surface and reassemble the skeleton. Once complete, a machine brings the dinosaur back to life. The power briefly cuts out, and when the light comes on again the dinosaur is running away into the museum. After they have been brought back, the dinosaurs can be encountered running around in the museum corridors.

### Arena

This section contains large moving dinosaurs, which occupy the central part of the Arena. Around the edges are information boards that show what a dinosaur is and their anatomy, including discussing whether they were warm or cold-blooded, a cross-section of a Hypsilophodon showing its internal organs and skeleton, dinosaur postures and styles of movement, close-up views of the CGI dinosaurs and their body parts, dinosaur breeding habits, dinosaur footprints, dinosaur teeth and jaws, methods of attack and defence and dinosaur senses.

Also in here is a lift to different floors of the Museum, each linked to the different games – including Bird, Cat, The Earth (later becoming Earth Quest) and Shark (not produced). A total of twelve buttons are on the keypad in the lift, suggesting this may have been the number of games planned.

### Further Exhibits

Located in the ‘iris’ part of the museum surrounding the Arena, this section includes a game which allows players to identify dinosaurs to different groups by dragging and dropping different species pictures, an evolution spiral that shows how life on Earth has changed, a game that allows players to scale different dinosaur species against a human figure, the fossilisation process, dinosaur extinction theories, a game that showcases how dinosaurs survived in desert and swamp habitats, a trail showing the evolutionary progress of the different dinosaur groups and a Tyrannosaurus skeleton.

### World of Dinosaurs

This room includes the ‘Find Site Locator’ which shows a map of the world in which different Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous dig sites can be added. Each dig site can then be clicked on to show what dinosaurs have been recorded there.

Also included here is a section about continental drift, showing three films about how the continents changed in the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. The are three world maps of the different ages of the dinosaurs, with information about what the world was like at the time.

This has a narrated segment plus several small clickable fact sheets on different parts of the map. There is also the Dinosaur Dig Site, showing how dinosaur bones are excavated and rebuilt.

### Cretaceous

This is a gallery of different Jurassic dinosaurs, going from early Cretaceous near the exit to the Jurassic gallery to late Cretaceous near to the entrance to the final gallery. This section includes Iguanodon, Baryonyx, Hypsilophodon, Minmi, Psittacosaurus, Deinonychus, Spinosaurus, Sauropelta, Carnotaurus, Giganotosaurus, Segnosaurus, Protoceratops, Hadrosaurus, Velociraptor, Avimimus, Oviraptor, Maiasaura, Parasaurolophus, Corythosaurus, Edmontonia, Struthiomimus, Euoplocephalus, Saltasaurus, Troodon, Gallimimus, Styracosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus.

### Store

Located next to the museum’s exit, the Store contains several things that can be printed out for use at home, including masks (of a Troodon, Triceratops or Tyrannosaurus), postcards, stationary, envelopes, invitations, labels and writing paper. Many of these items in the Store are stock images of dinosaur models or skeletons used elsewhere in the game. Also in the store is a Dinosaur Jukebox, where the sounds of the game’s dinosaurs can be played back, an area where screensavers can be downloaded and a poster rack.

## Reception

The game was very well-received and considered very advanced for its time, with positive reviews given by the publications Childhood Education, The Culture of Design, New York Times and Edmonton Journal.

## Appearances in other Dorling Kindersley Vision media

The Triceratops that bursts through the Eyewitness logo after the introductory sequence appeared again in the Amazing Animals episode Prehistoric Animals.