Jurassic Park (Sega CD video game)

Set after the events of the film, a group of scientists are sent to collect dinosaur eggs at InGen's Jurassic Park. This theme park is populated with genetically engineered dinosaurs and is located on the fictional island of Isla Nublar. After the group's helicopter crashes on the island, a survivor – controlled by the player – receives a video message from Emily Shimura, a computer expert. Shimura states that the crash was the result of sabotage orchestrated by InGen's corporate rival, Biosyn Corporation, which paid to have a bomb attached to the helicopter. ==Gameplay==

Jurassic Park is a point-and-click adventure game, with a strong emphasis on action sequences which require split-second timing. The player must search Isla Nublar to retrieve eggs from seven different dinosaur species and place them in an incubator at the Jurassic Park visitor center. while night vision goggles allow the player to see in dark environments. Paleontologist Robert T. Bakker makes video appearances throughout the game to provide the player with hints and dinosaur information via special Dinosaur Field Kiosks that are located near dinosaur paddocks. Shimura also provides the player with information through video messages. ==Development and release==

In January 1992, Sega had the rights to use the Jurassic Park logo and some sounds from the film, but none of the characters. Elements from Michael Crichton's novel, Jurassic Park, were added into the game. Full motion video (FMV) sequences were created for the game using Cinepak. Bakker shot his video segments in a studio against a white background. Afterwards, the footage had to be compressed to be playable on the Sega CD. The dinosaurs were created using Silicon Graphics computers, which had also been used to create the creatures in the film. The development team originally intended to use rotoscoping before realizing how much quicker it would be to use Silicon Graphics computers. The dinosaur designs and other aspects of the game had to adhere to the Sega CD's limited 16-color palette. Birds were also studied to determine the dinosaur movements. For example, still frames of ostriches were referenced for the game's Tyrannosaurus. Spencer Nilsen composed the game's soundtrack. In January 1993, a demo of the game was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. As of July 1993, the game's U.S. release was scheduled for fall 1993. followed by a U.K. release in April 1994. ==Reception==

Joel Easley of Scripps Howard News Service considered it the best Jurassic Park game released up to that point and one of the best games available for the Sega CD. Easley praised the music and sound effects for their use of QSound and also praised the graphics, but he said that the game's save feature takes up too much space. Roy Bassave of Knight-Ridder News Service considered the SNES version of Jurassic Park to be superior, and criticized the Sega CD version for the slow loading times needed to generate each new area of the game that the player explores. GamePro praised the sound effects but criticized the graphics: "Although this is a CD game, which implies that it will showcase powerful graphics capabilities, you won't see any particularly fascinating images jumping off the screen at you." GamePro noted the game's excessive amount of searching required by the player, writing that while "this doesn't distract from the fun, it certainly slows down the action." GamePro wrote that the Sega CD version was "definitely the most educational and entertaining" video game adaptation of Jurassic Park, calling it "as much a classroom tool as an enjoyable game," although the magazine noted that younger players "may be bored by its detailed gameplay." Bob Strauss of Entertainment Weekly wrote that it "moves at too leisurely a pace to satisfy action fans, though it has some admirable features, such as scholarly dissertations on various breeds of dinosaur." Allie West of MegaTech praised the sound and controls. She generally found the graphics to be grainy, but praised the FMV sequences. She opined that the gameplay lacked depth and consisted of "mindless wandering". Game Players considered it a good game, but "kinda short". In November 1994, U.K. magazine Mega placed the game at number 9 in their Top Mega CD Games of All Time. At the time of the game's release, the character of Emily Shimura was noted as being one of the few female characters in video games to have a role that was favorably associated with computer technology. In a retrospective review, Shawn Sackenheim of AllGame wrote that the graphics suffer from the system's limited color palette, which made "everything dark and dithered, though it, somewhat, adds to the mood of the game." Sackenheim also praised the game for "A well rounded soundtrack and immersive sound effects." ==See also==