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- LA CRESCENTA, CA, May 4, 1992 -- Knowledge Adventure, Inc., today began
- shipping Science Adventure, authored by the late dean of science writers,
- Isaac Asimov. The product combines Mr. Asimov's text with stunning,
- photographic-quality images and digitized sound in a unique format that
- can be used on the average home or school PC.
-
- Science Adventure, which is designed for IBM and compatible personal
- computers, will carry a suggested retail price of $79.95. The product will
- be available to consumers through major computer software dealers, mass
- merchants and a variety of direct marketing and software catalog
- companies.
-
- "We were extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to join forces with
- Isaac Asimov last year to create Science Adventure," said Bill Gross,
- president and CEO of Knowledge Adventure, Inc. "By combining his words and
- our software technology, students will now have access to his thoughtful
- insights and visionary ideas in ways never before possible. We think
- Science Adventure is a fitting tribute to his lifelong efforts to further
- interest in and understanding of science."
-
- Science Adventure, like all of Knowledge Adventure's Interactive Books, are
- designed to bridge the gap between traditional reference products, with
- their dry presentation of facts; and games, with their minimal educational
- content. Designed for children ages 7 and older -- as well as adults --
- the product provides a powerful, interactive vehicle for customers to
- chart their own course of exploration through the history of science.
-
- Science Adventure combines a unique and highly sophisticated compression
- technology with its own, customized "hyperlink" system that provides the
- user of an average PC with quick, random access to a quantity of
- information that was previously not possible without very large hard
- drives or a CD-ROM. The product contains a database of hundreds of
- high-resolution, photographic-quality 256-color VGA images and associated
- text and sound files covering significant events in the history of the
- science. Access to the information is provided by the Science Adventure
- "engine," which allows the user to explore any aspect of a given slide --
- such as an element in a picture, or a word in the text -- simply by
- clicking on it. In addition, the geographic location of the image is
- indicated on a globe, and the time that the event took place is indicated
- on a time line. Both the globe and the time line provide additional ways
- to access information; the user can simply rotate the globe and zoom in on
- a particular spot of interest or drag the time line marker to any year,
- and Science Adventure will display information on the nearest event. Mr.
- Asimov covers mathematics, physics, chemistry, technology, ecology and
- life sciences in the product.
-
- "What educators particularly appreciate about our Interactive Books is
- their ability to let students chart their own course of discovery through
- material that might otherwise pass them by," said Steve Chadima, Vice
- President, Marketing. "We hear every day from teachers and parents about
- situations in which kids are engrossed for hours exploring new topics that
- they had previously ignored."
-
- "We are pleased with the broad acceptance of Knowledge Adventure's growing
- library of products among consumers and educators," said William Lohse,
- President of Software Venture Partners and lead investor in Knowledge
- Adventure, Inc. "We look forward to working with other companies and
- independent developers to expand the offerings available to students and
- parents."
-
- Science Adventure runs on IBM, Tandy and compatible PCs. A hard disk and a
- VGA color monitor are required. A mouse is recommended. Popular sound
- devices, such as SoundBlaster, Thunderboard, Covox Speech Thing, and the
- Disney Sound Source, are supported, though Science Adventure's sounds will
- play through the PC's speaker as well.
-
- Knowledge Adventure, Inc., headquartered in La Crescenta, California,
- develops and markets multimedia educational software products.
-
- Knowledge Adventure, 4502 Dyer St, La Crescenta, CA 91214
- 818-542-4200
-
- +---------------------------------------------------------------+
- | From the America Online New Product Information Services |
- +===============================================================+
- | This information was processed with OmniPage Professional OCR |
- | software (from Caere Corp) & a Canon IX-30 scanner from data |
- | provided by the above mentioned company. For additional info, |
- | contact the company at the address or phone# indicated above. |
- | All submissions for this service should be addressed to |
- | BAKER ENTERPRISES, 20 Ferro Drive, Sewell, NJ 08080 U.S.A. |
- +---------------------------------------------------------------+
-