Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Cat

Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Cat is an educational video game made for the Eyewitness Virtual Reality Series, by DK Multimedia and released for Windows in 1995. The game is based on the Eyewitness first season episode Cat, and opens with the entire opening sequence for Cat.

## Setting

This game is set in a version of the Eyewitness Museum that, like the programmes, is shaped like the Eyewitness eye logo and has a similar design with white walls and a floor of polished wood. Sometimes, a domestic cat, lion, tiger or cheetah, filmed as studio footage for the television episode, can be seen walking through some of the rooms and corridors in the museum.

## Sections

On arriving in the game, a map of the Eyewitness Museum is shown for the game. A navigation of the Museum is given, showing how to use the features and also the catalogue that contains a picture of every exhibit in the museum. The option is given here to either go on a guided tour, create your own tour or roam the museum freely. The sections of the museum are:

* Outer corridor – Cats in Culture
* Left sclera – Cat Behaviour
* Iris – Further Cultural Cats
* Pupil – Family Room
* Right sclera – Anatomy Room
* Bottom-right edge – Store

### Cats in Culture

Almost the entire outer corridor looks at the different roles cats have played in culture – in here are artworks, sculptures and artefacts all related to cats in some way. Included on the right-hand end of this corridor is a large CGI model of an Egyptian sphinx. At the top of the corridor (opposite the exit), there is also a display looking at the different camouflaged coats of cats and the habitats that different cat species inhabit.

The inner corridor (around the ‘iris’ of the eye shape) also contains cultural artefacts about cats.

### Family Room

Near the middle of the Family Room is a globe that allows the players to see what wild cats occur on each continent – a total of 36 species are included, divided up between these continents:

* North America – 5 species (jaguar, cougar, ocelot, bobcat and Canadian lynx)
* South America – 6 species (Andean mountain cat, Geoffroy’s cat, kodkod, margay, little spotted cat and pampas cat)
* Africa – 6 species (lion, caracal, African golden cat, black-footed cat, serval and cheetah)
* Middle East – 3 species (leopard, jungle cat and sand cat)
* Europe and Asia – 9 species (Spanish lynx, Eurasian lynx, wildcat, snow leopard, Pallas’s cat, Chinese desert cat, Asian golden cat, Iriomote cat and clouded leopard)
* India and Southeast Asia – 7 species (fishing cat, rusty-spotted cat, leopard cat, bay cat, marbled cat, flat-headed cat and tiger)

Most of the cats are accompanied by an image, with only the kodkod, Chinese desert cat, Iriomote cat and bay cat lacking photographs.

Around the outer wall of the Family Room are a range of large wall pictures depicting a species or small group of cats (the tiger, jaguar, lion, cheetah, leopard, lynxes, domestic cat and cougar) – clicking the picture teaches all about those particular species, while surrounding the picture are a series of artefacts and artworks that relate to that animal. Some of these animals have activities associated with them, such as the cheetah where it can be pitted against other animals and a sports car to see what would win in a race over different distances, and a breed directory for the domestic cat.

The Family Room also contains an elevator to go to different floors in Eyewitness Virtual Reality. While Bird and Cat were accessible, there were two inaccessible floors for Dinosaur (later becoming Dinosaur Hunter) and Shark (which never materialised) – Earth Quest is not mentioned here.

### Anatomy Room

The Anatomy Room contains a central exhibit that allows the player to look at all layers of a domestic cat, including the live animal, the muscles, organs, deep organs and the skeleton. This room has wall-based exhibits about the fur of cats, cat movement, skeletons and cat senses. There is a game to match the eyes of cats to the wild species or domestic breed (to add confusion, there are four eyes from a human, an owl, a bullfrog and a shark mixed in with the cat’s eyes).

### Cat Behaviour

The Cat Behaviour room has a central display where the player can listen to the sounds of different cat species when they are content, greeting, roaring, warning and angry.

Around the outer wall of this room is information about cat territoriality, body language, hunting and feeding behaviour, everyday parts of cat life such as grooming and sleeping and cat conservation.

### Store

Located next to the museum’s exit, the Store contains several things that can be printed out for use at home including stationery and posters, as well as a sound library and images to use as screensavers.