Dorling Kindersley Multimedia

Dorling Kindersley Multimedia, often stylised as DK Multimedia, was the software wing of Dorling Kindersley and during the 1990s produced a large number of edutainment computer games. Some of these were based upon series from Dorling Kindersley Vision, such as Eyewitness and Amazing Animals, while many others were original works. In 2000, Dorling Kindersley sold its CD-ROM backlist to Global Software Publishing.

## Games with a connection to DK Vision

Eyewitness Encyclopedia of Nature 1.0 (1995; re-released in 1997 and 2007)

Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Cat (1995)

Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Bird (1995)

Eyewitness Dinosaur Hunter (1996)

Amazing Animals Activity Center (1997)

Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Earth Quest (1997)

A further game, Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Shark, was planned and advertised but never released.

Eyewitness Virtual Reality: BirdEyewitness Virtual Reality: CatEyewitness Dinosaur HunterEncyclopedia of Nature 1.0Amazing Animals Activity CenterEyewitness Virtual Reality: Earth Quest
## Games without a connection to DK Vision (examples)

The Way Things Work (1994)

My First Amazing World Explorer (1996)

Castle Explorer (1996)

My Amazing Human Body (1997)

My First Amazing History Explorer (1998)

## Overlaps with Dorling Kindersley Vision shows

The four released Eyewitness Virtual Reality games are all based in some way on the original Eyewitness series – all four games include the introduction sequence from the programmes (Earth Quest, which does not share a title with an Eyewitness episode, uses the introduction from Volcano). The Cat and Bird editions most closely follow the original design from the programmes, set in an eye-shaped Eyewitness Museum with white walls, numerous picture frames and (in the case of Cat) live animals that periodically wander around. Dinosaur Hunter is also set in the Eyewitness Museum, but it is much darker and has rocky walls. Earth Quest consists of four small rooms around a central atrium, which again has rocky walls and a dark interior.

Amazing Animals Activity Center is strongly based on the original Amazing Animals television series – the game’s opening includes the same opening from the show, both Henry and the Narrator feature as prominent characters and the clips in the Animal Movies section are taken from five season one episodes, namely Animal Disguises, Animal Weapons, Armoured Animals, Animal Babies and Poisonous Animals. One clip in this section, about cuttlefish, was sourced from the See How They Grow episode Sea Animals.

The Eyewitness Encyclopedia of Nature has no links to the television programme or book series, but it contains a series of video clips that were originally sourced from See How They Grow episodes. Only a single clip came from one of the original five episodes, showing a small tortoiseshell butterfly hatching from its chrysalis and coming from Mini Beasts. Two clips came from Woodland Animals, one showing a tawny owl and the other leaf-cutting ants. Three clips from Desert Animals are used, showing leopard geckos, a California kingsnake and a Mexican redknee tarantula. Jungle Animals uses the most clips, with four coming from this episode – they show American alligators, an African giant millipede, a black-and-white ruffed lemur and tigers. A single clip from Sea Animals appears, which contains footage of swimming rays. Finally, while not fully confirmed, it appears that footage of Indian flying foxes in the game originated from the Tree Animals episode.