MECC Announces Amazon Trail II,
a CD-ROM Rainforest Adventure
MECC announces the upcoming release of Amazon Trail II, a rainforest adventure CD-ROM. The new product has been dramatically upgraded from MECC’s original Amazon Trail CD, which has sold more than one million units and received the coveted 1996 Newsweek Editors Choice Award.
Amazon Trail II features approximately 70 live actors whose voices and images have been recorded, digitized and placed in three-dimensional settings for a first-person “you are there” effect. The characters all are part of an integrated fictional story in which players must “prove they are worthy” to receive critical messages from the Ancient Ones. The story includes 16 suspenseful missions, which provide players with many opportunities to make choices, solve problems (finding and interviewing a tribe, negotiating a river maze, locating injured people) and direct mission outcomes.
Three levels of difficulty, four guides and thousands of challenges have been included to ensure a high level of replayability. It is appropriate for kids age nine and older, and for students beginning in grade three.
“If the overwhelming sales and the editorial reviews of The Amazon Trail are any indication, we believe kids and their parents are going to absolutely love Amazon Trail II,” said MECC Product Line Manager Grace Trombetta. “We know they will increase their knowledge of the science and history of the rainforest.
“MECC has done extensive new research and employed the latest computer technology to make the adventures come alive. Amazon Trail II is a rich, suspenseful learning experience kids will return to time and time again,” said Trombetta.
Upgraded from one habitat, the new CD features five specific rainforest habitats. The number of exotic birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians has been doubled to nearly 100, including a Crested Oropendolae, Sword-billed hummingbird, Black Spider monkey, fishing bat, crab-eating raccoon, a Poison Dart frog, and a Goliath bird-eating spider. Players photograph, identify and classify rainforest creatures with help from the accompanying guidebook that includes text, images and sounds to supplement the multimedia learning adventure.
Amazon Trail II will allow children to explore the history, geography, science and ecology of the Amazon River, as well as interact with historical figures, such as Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Ford, who spent time in the Amazon during their lifetimes.
Amazon Trail II is expected to be released in late September 1996. It will be available in Windows 95, Windows and Macintosh platforms on a single, hybrid CD-ROM.
