Amazing Animals Activity Center

Amazing Animals Activity Center, also called Amazing Animals CD-ROM Activity Pack, is a computer-based CD-ROM game based upon the Amazing Animals series and produced by DK Multimedia. It was first released on 10th July 1997.

The game contains both the main characters from the television series, Henry the Lizard (voiced by his original voice actor, Eric Myers) and the Narrator (voiced by his original voice actor, Tom Clarke-Hill). Another narrator, who voices the games and Animal Expert sections of the game, is voiced by Liza Ross.

## Opening

The opening sequence for the game contains a view of the toybox and safe being unlocked, with the animals emerging. However, the music and the animal sequence cut short, with it ending just after the crested porcupine runs past. The toybox then shuts again. The safe lock (with Henry’s body depicted) rolls back, and Henry introduces himself and the narrator to the player. Henry tells the player to either make a new save file or open an existing one before joining him in his toybox.

Henry then introduces the games and activities that can be found inside his toybox.

## Games and Activities

### Scrambler

Scrambler is depicted in the toybox by a completed set of tiles showing an emperor scorpion, in the top-left corner. The game involves first choosing a picture which is then scrambled up. The player drags each piece back to where it belongs. In harder modes, Henry will shuffle the pieces during the process of the game. If the player unscrambles the picture in fewer moves than Henry’s target score, they get a chance to win a sticker for the Animal Expert.

This game comes with three difficult settings – Easy, Hard and Hardest.

### Photo Safari

Photo Safari is depicted in the toybox by a camera in the top-left corner. This game is unique in being introduced by the narrator. He gives the player a time limit and the subject to be photographed (such as ‘animals that fly’ or ‘animals with feathers’). The player gets a bonus for photographing the cartoon animals, but loses points if they photograph the wrong animal. The camera moves with the mouse, with a photograph being taken of whatever the player clicks on. The game shows a wall of vegetation, which rustles and parts to show partial images of animals. The game ends when the clock at the bottom of the screen runs out.

This game comes with three difficult settings – Easy, Hard and Hardest.

### Match The Facts

Match the Facts is depicted in the toybox by a pack of playing cards in the top-left corner, with the top card showing a smew duckling. The game involves matching a single fact card to one of four animal pictures. Getting an answer right first time increases the score, but taking longer to answer the question reduces the score for each correct answer. If the player gets more than Henry’s target score, they get a chance to win a sticker for the Animal Expert.

This game comes with three difficult settings – Easy, Hard and Hardest.

### Copy Cat

Copy Cat is depicted in the toybox by a partial view of the Copy Cat machine, with pictures of Tiger and Lizard cartoon characters in the bottom-left corner. The game involves a string of sounds from the cartoon animals being played in order, with the player then pressing the correct buttons in order to copy the sounds. The more sounds are correctly remembered, the higher a score bar on the left of the screen fills up. Once the score bar fills up, the player gets a chance to win a sticker for the Animal Expert.

This game comes with three difficult settings – Easy, Hard and Hardest.

The cartoon animals who produce noises for this game are Parrot, Mole, Bat, Lizard, Toad, Dung Beetle, Woodpecker, Porcupine, Skunk, Rhinoceros and Tiger.

### Stationary Folder

Stationary Folder is depicted in the toybox by a green folder with door hangers and postcards poking out, in the bottom-left corner. This is not a game, so does not provide the opportunity to win a sticker. Here, the player can go through several different options to customise their own stationary. The options available are for making postcards, labels, cards and invitations, writing paper, envelopes and business cards.

### Pixelator

Pixelator is depicted in the toybox by a set of red glasses with swirling yellow lenses in the bottom-right corner. The Pixelator fuzzes up a picture on an animal and the player is given four options along the right-hand side of the screen. The longer the player waits, the less fuzzy the picture is but the score goes down with it. The game is also timed, shown by a clock at the bottom of the screen. If the player gets more than Henry’s target score, they get a chance to win a sticker for the Animal Expert.

This game comes with three difficult settings – Easy, Hard and Hardest.

### Matching Pairs

Matching Pairs is depicted in the toybox by a pair of toy penguins standing on a green base in the bottom-right corner. The game involves flipping over cards to show pictures of adult and baby animals underneath. If the parent and infant are matched, the two cards disappear. If the player matches all the paired cards in fewer moves than Henry’s target score, they get a chance to win a sticker for the Animal Expert.

This game comes with three difficult settings – Easy, Hard and Hardest.

### Animal Movies

Animal Movies is depicted in the toybox by a blank yellow and blue VHS cassette in the bottom-right corner. This is not a game, so does not provide the opportunity to win a sticker. Here, the player can watch any of thirty different short clips about animals. All of them are narrated by the Amazing Animals’ narrator. The videos can be watched in any order, by using up and down arrows to select which clip to watch.

Most of the clips are from episodes in the first season of Amazing Animals, including Animal Babies, Animal Disguises, Animal Weapons, Armoured Animals and Poisonous Animals. The narration over these clips is new to the game.

1.       Pack of Puppies – African painted dogs

2.       Spider Snack – *Amaurobius* spider

3.       Baby Baboons – Olive baboon

4.       Playful Bear Cubs – American black bear

5.       Crafty Cuckoo – Common cuckoo

6.       Light-Footed Jacana – Comb-crested jacana

7.       Baby Wallaby – Tammar wallaby

8.       Baby Fish Hideaway – Silver arowana

9.       Paddling Sea Otter Pups – Sea otter

10.     Dancing Sea Horses – Seahorses

11.     Bloated Toad – Cane toad and false water cobra

12.     Colorful Chameleon – Veiled chameleon

13.     Changing Cuttlefish – Common cuttlefish (clip from See How They Grow: Sea Animals)

14.     Creative Crab – Decorator crab

15.     Performing Snake – Eastern hognose snake and indigo snake

16.     Stripy Zebras – Plains zebra

17.     Hardheaded Cassowary – Southern cassowary

18.     Tanklike Elephant – African bush elephant

19.     Prickly Hedgehog – Southern African hedgehog and black-footed cat

20.     Hiding Hermit Crab – Common hermit crab

21.     Snake’s Skin – Honduran milk snake

22.     Crusty Lobster – Spiny lobster

23.     Spiny Sea Urchin – Purple sea urchin

24.     Fortress Tortoise – Geometric tortoise

25.     Spider’s Bite – Black widow spider

26.     Snake’s Bite – Aquatic coral snake

27.     Deadly Jelly – Lion’s mane jellyfish

28.     Hunting Lions – African lion

29.     Lethal Cobra – Black-necked spitting cobra

30.     Lazy Lion Cubs – African lion

As well as the single clip from See How They Grow: Sea Animals, and another 28 from the Partridge Films library, a single clip (Colorful Chameleon) was sourced from the BBC Natural History Unit.

### Amazing Masks

Amazing Masks is depicted in the toybox by a giraffe mask in the top-right corner. This is not a game, so does not provide the opportunity to win a sticker. Here, the player can print out the designs for paper masks that can be worn to a party. There are options to either print the mask already coloured in or as an outline for the player to colour in themselves. There are nine masks – the eight standard masks are of a duck, tree frog, giraffe, lion, chimpanzee, rhinoceros, shark and walrus. The final mask is one of Henry, which the player can only print out once they have collected all 120 animal stickers.

### Internet Link-Up

Internet Link-Up is depicted in the toybox by a small blue satellite dish in the top-right corner. This connected the player to the official Amazing Animals website.

### Animal Expert

The Animal Expert is a book in the middle of the toybox. Inside the book there are four tabs on the right-hand side, each referring to a different group of animals. Within these groups, there are a total of thirty different animal stickers that can be added. Stickers are won by giving correct answers after winning a game or activity elsewhere in the toybox. On collecting all 120 stickers, the player gets an Animal Expert certificate that they can print out.

On going into the Animal Expert, players can click on any animal image to open a page about the animal (the player does not need to collect the corresponding sticker to open the page). The game’s own narrator reads out the written information on the main page, which accompanies the sticker picture. On the left side of the screen are options to either print or copy and save the page, as well as the buttons ‘Where I Live’ that shows the species’ range on a map and ‘Fact File’ which shows the basic information about the animal, including its scientific name, size, habitat, reproduction and diet. These pages also contain a ‘Did You Know?’ button, with several facts narrated by Henry, and a glossary for some of the words in the animal description. Some animals contain a link to a video in the Animal Movies section, while others have a recording of the animal’s call which can be played back.

The animal pictures added to the Animal Expert are either stock photographs taken from Dorling Kindersley’s own library, or are artworks created by the late wildlife artist Kenneth Lilly.

#### Armored Animals

1.       African Elephant, *Loxodonta africana*

2.       Bactrian Camel, *Camelus bactrianus*

3.       Black Rhinoceros, *Diceros bicornis*

4.       Dugong, *Dugong dugon*

5.       Echidna, *Tachyglossus aculeatus*

6.       Elephant Seal, *Mirounga leonina*

7.       Giant African Snail, *Achatina fulica*

8.       Giant Armadillo, *Priodontes giganteus*

9.       Giant Clam, *Tridacna gigas*

10.     Golden Beetle, *Plusiotis batesi*

11.     Goliath Beetle, *Goliathus goliathus*

12.     Green Toad, *Bufo viridis*

13.     Hedgehog, *Erinaceus europaeus*

14.     Hermit Crab, *Dardanus megistos*

15.     Hippopotamus, *Hippopotamus amphibius*

16.     Lobster, *Homarus americanus*

17.     Musk Ox, *Ovibos moschatus*

18.     Narwhal, *Monodon monoceros*

19.     Plated Lizard, *Gerrhosaurus major*

20.     Porcupine, *Hystrix brachyura* (but see Errors and Corrections)

21.     Postman Caterpillar, *Heliconius melpomene*

22.     Sea Cucumber, *Paracumaria* species

23.     Sea Urchin, *Echinus esculentus*

24.     Spiny Boxfish, *Ostracion* species

25.     Spiny Starfish, *Marthasterias glacialis*

26.     Spiny-tailed Lizard, *Uromastyx aegyptiacus*

27.     Surgeonfish, *Zebrasoma* species

28.     Tortoise, *Testudo graeca*

29.     Tree Pangolin, *Manis tricuspis*

30.     Walrus, *Odobenus rosmarus*

#### Dangerous Animals

1.       Alligator, *Alligator mississippiensis*

2.       Anaconda, *Eunectes murinus*

3.       Anemone, *Anemonia sulcata*

4.       Black Panther, *Panthera pardus*

5.       Black Widow Spider, *Latrodectus mactans*

6.       Cane Toad, *Bufo marinus*

7.       Cone Shell, *Conus textile*

8.       Crocodile, *Crocodylus niloticus*

9.       Funnel-web Spider, *Atrax robustus*

10.     Gila Monster, *Heloderma suspectum*

11.     Great White Shark, *Carcharodon carcharias*

12.     Harpy Eagle, *Harpia harpyja*

13.     Killer Whale, *Orcinus orca*

14.     King Cobra, *Ophiophagus hannah*

15.     Komodo Dragon, *Varanus komodoensis*

16.     Lion, *Panthera leo*

17.     Lionfish, *Pterois volitans*

18.     Mantella, *Dendrobates leucomelas* (but see Errors and Corrections)

19.     Piranha, *Serrasalmus nattereri*

20.     Polar Bear, *Thalarctos maritimus*

21.     Puma, *Felis concolor*

22.     Python, *Python molurus* (but see Errors and Corrections)

23.     Rattlesnake, *Crotalus viridis*

24.     Scorpion, *Pandinus imperator*

25.     Snapping Turtle, *Macroclemys temminckii*

26.     Spitting Cobra, *Naja nigricollis* (but see Errors and Corrections)

27.     Stingray, *Dasyatis sayi*

28.     Tarantula, *Brachypelma smithii*

29.     Vampire Bat, *Desmodus rotundus*

30.     Weever Fish, *Trachinus vipera*

#### Animal Babies

1.       Barn Owl, *Tyto alba*

2.       Black Bear, *Ursus americanus*

3.       Black Swan, *Cygnus atratus*

4.       Blue Tit, *Parus caeruleus*

5.       Blue Whale, *Balaenoptera musculus*

6.       Caiman, *Caiman crocodilus*

7.       Cat, *Felis catus*

8.       Caterpillar, *Acherontia atropos*

9.       Chimpanzee, *Pan troglodytes*

10.     Cuckoo, *Cuculus canorus*

11.     Deer, *Capreolus capreolus* (but see Errors and Corrections)

12.     Dogfish, *Scyliorhinus caniculus*

13.     Emperor Angelfish, *Pomacanthus imperator*

14.     Emperor Penguin, *Aptenodytes forsteri* (but see Errors and Corrections)

15.     Frog, *Rana temporaria*

16.     Golden Lion Tamarin, *Leontopithecus rosalia*

17.     Gorilla, *Gorilla gorilla*

18.     Gray Squirrel, *Sciurus carolinensis*

19.     Harvest Mouse, *Micromys minutus*

20.     Horse, *Equus caballus*

21.     Koala, *Phascolarctos cinereus*

22.     Ostrich, *Struthio camelus*

23.     Partridge, *Alectoris rufa*

24.     Red Fox, *Vulpes vulpes*

25.     Reindeer, *Rangifer tarandus*

26.     Sand Gecko, *Chondrodactylus angulifer*

27.     Seal, *Halichoerus grypus*

28.     Smew, *Mergellus albellus*

29.     Wallaby, *Macropus rufogriseus*

30.     Weasel, *Mustela nivalis*

#### Animal Disguises

1.       Angel Shark, *Squatina californica*

2.       Asian Painted Frog, *Kaloula pulchra*

3.       Bobcat, *Felis rufus*

4.       Chameleon, *Chamaeleo parsonii* (but see Errors and Corrections)

5.       Crested Tinamou, *Eudromia elegans*

6.       Gaboon Viper, *Bitis gabonica*

7.       Giraffe, *Giraffa cameleopardis*

8.       Glass Frog, *Citronella fleischmanni*

9.       Horntail, *Urocerus gigas*

10.     Jaguar, *Panthera onca*

11.     Katydid, *Ommatoptera pictifolia*

12.     Leaf-tailed Gecko, *Phyllurus cornutus*

13.     Octopus, *Octopus vulgaris*

14.     Okapi, *Okapia johnstoni*

15.     Owl Butterfly, *Caligo idomeneus*

16.     Perch, *Perca fluviatilis*

17.     Pipe Fish, *Syngnathus acus*

18.     Plaice, *Pleuronectes platessa*

19.     Polka-dot Grouper, *Cromileptes altivelis*

20.     Ptarmigan, *Lagopus leucurus*

21.     Sandfish, *Scincus mitranus*

22.     Saturniid Moth, *Loxolomia serpentina*

23.     Sea Lemon, *Archidoris pseudoargus*

24.     Snowshoe Hare, *Lepus americanus*

25.     Snowy Owl, *Nyctea scandiaca*

26.     Stick Insect, *Vetilia* species

27.     Tiger, *Panthera tigris*

28.     Tree Frog, *Litoria infrafrenata*

29.     Vine Snake, *Oxybelis fulgidus* (but see Errors and Corrections)

30.     Zebra, *Equus grevyi* (but see Errors and Corrections)

### Options

Options is represented in the toybox by a compass in the top-left corner. It contains parents’ notes, technical help, the game credits, internet setup, the ability to delete user names, the ability to remove the stickers from the Animal Expert and control brightness.

## Errors and Corrections

A number of animals in the Animal Expert are identified to the wrong species:

-        The porcupine (Armored Animals) is identified as a Malayan porcupine but is actually an African crested porcupine, *Hystrix cristata*

-        The mantella (Dangerous Animals) has the scientific name of the yellow-banded poison-dart frog, rather than *Mantella aurantiaca*

-        The python (Dangerous Animals) is identified as an Indian python but is actually a royal python, *Python regius*

-        The spitting cobra (Dangerous Animals) is identified as a black-necked spitting cobra but is actually a red spitting cobra, *Naja pallida*

-        The deer (Animal Babies) is identified as a roe deer but is actually a Reeve’s muntjac, *Muntiacus reevesi*

-        The emperor penguin (Animal Babies) is actually a king penguin, *Aptenodytes patagonicus*

-        The chameleon (Animal Disguises) is identified as a Parson’s chameleon but is actually a Mediterranean chameleon, *Chamaeleo chamaeleon*

-        The vine snake (Animal Disguises) is identified as a Central and South American species but is actually an Asian vine snake, *Ahaetulla* species

-        The zebra (Animal Disguises) is identified as a Grevy’s zebra but is actually a mountain zebra, *Equus zebra*

Several animals also have incorrect or misspelled scientific names, although some of these are almost certainly because of taxonomic updates.

## Videos

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## Additional Features

The PC game also includes a special trailer for the season one of Amazing Animals, advertising its recent arrival onto VHS.