Europress Bookshelf

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".

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 releaseAlice in Wonderland
April 6, 1995[1]
Latest releaseThe Hunchback of Notre Dame

Games

Gameplay

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
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 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

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

The first three "Living Classics" were translated into Spanish.[6]

See also

References
  1. An evaluation of a children's 'classic' on CD-ROM. Loughborough University. 1995. pp. 27, 152.
  2. Richard Gale (April 15, 1996). "The Gingerbread Man - Richard Gale". Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  3. Richard Gale (April 16, 1996). "Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Richard Gale". Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  4. Dolby (February 1, 1998). "Dolby Laboratories Information" (PDF). Retrieved December 14, 2017.
  5. 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.
  6. "Living Classics - Spanish". PCMania. No. 37. November 1995. p. 15.
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