A DOS game was developed by Britannica Software and then released by Visual Concepts, Ltd. in 1990, the game was called Designasaurus II. Now you can relive the memories by playing it online here.
Quite a strange game, positioned as "educational masterpiece", but not gained the popularity and now almost forgotten. This is the second part of the novels, and it is noteworthy that it was released only for DOS.
The story here is this: in the year 2501 on the Ground actively studied dinosaurs for their revival. But the evil scientist Max von Fusion stole the valuable results of research and went back in time (in this world of dinosaurs to revive can't, but travel into the past – please) where I had hid these documents, and hid them in various epochs of the Mesozoic era, but left everywhere vague poetic clues. You also have to play a technically good scientist who wants to find and return the stolen, actually – at pseudo-reasonable dinosaur, which sends the scientist in a time machine to the past and to the life and action of which is controlled.
Before starting the actual game you will find a fairly lengthy and, as stated in the first review, "very exciting" process of creating and customizing your dinosaur. The possibilities really are quite a lot: you can select the already configured (and there are several options), you can create entirely his own – to choose and combine between the head, the tail, the trunk, hung his weapon. You can then configure different skills – for example, speed or endurance, however, there probably is not setup, and a preview of what happened when the combination of certain parts of the body. If you are satisfied, then you can start the game – teleport a dinosaur in the selected period and study by management area, not forgetting the purpose of his journey – finding the stolen materials.
All periods belong to the Mesozoic era (they are not identical geological-historical periods – the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous, it's just "certain moments", for example, "late Triassic"), therefore, each of them living dinosaurs. How you do this depends on location and climate (by the way, the climate can also be set up separately) and, of course, the period of time; apparently, this was supposed to be "educational element" of the game. It is worth noting that the accuracy in the observance of "historicity" in the resettlement plan and the time of life of certain species is very high.
Since each such "period" we have to spend a lot of time, the behavior of the neighborhood of the dinosaurs will be explored. All of them can be divided into three categories (of course, for each of our dinosaur character the same dinosaurs may belong to different categories): food (that is the ones we will have, assuming that our dinosaur is a predator), enemies (with them to fight) and "friends" - to them, I'm sorry too, are females one with us (or as close as possible) of the species that can mate to produce offspring. Yes, there is a element, if you will, of "dinosaur simulator": you have to help a friend to sit on the eggs, which later hatch baby dinosaurs, you need to feed and educate them... And then when we find the hidden materials - just leave... a Little sad.
In addition, you should spy on our dinosaur as such. He needs to eat regularly (depending on their species – to hunt or eat the grass), drink water (which is also necessary to find) and be sure to rest and sleep. After you visit all periods of the dinosaur era and will find all materials, the game ends – you win.
Graphically all of the above looks very dignified and beautiful: the visual realization of such original ideas the developers want to say a huge "thank you". We expect clear and very nice isometric graphics, a series of animated screens (like the lab in the beginning of the game), the beautiful and diverse landscapes, not very complex interface. And if to it to add more "educational element" - that is, that the children playing the game will be dinosaurs and will know who lived where when, then, it would seem, everything is just wonderful. But no.
The game has one very serious drawback – is so serious that it overrides all its undeniable merits and approaches to build into the category of "children". The fact that you are at any (any!) moment can bring his dinosaur back in the year 2501, in the same laboratory, and to treat him as if he is suddenly badly hurt and you forget/don't want to do that, then it will be moved there automatically. In practice, this means that in this game to lose (read: die) is simply IMPOSSIBLE. So it's just not Interesting to play when you realize this fact.
However fully the merits of the game (very different), especially for children of secondary school age, this still does not detract from. On the contrary, maybe it would be even easier. However, it makes the main recommendation, to give them and only them. And also for those who loves dinosaurs on the screen, or those who just want to play something unusual and not very attentive to details. The rest is strictly optional.
Play your all-time favorite Designasaurus II free on your browser here.
Source: Archive.org, Mobygames.com
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