THE LOUVRE INTERACTIVE

by

BMG INTERACTIVE

FORMAT: PC/CD-ROM
DATE: APRIL 1995
PRICE: N/A

The Louvre Interactive is a CD-ROM that gives you the opportunity to visit one of the most beautiful museums in the world. However, this multimedia title would not fit on one CD-ROM only if it included the whole Louvre's collection. Only a selected part of the paintings are reproduced and explained in the program accompanied by the story of The Louvre itself from the Middle-Ages up to today.

Eight hundred years ago, the Louvre was a fortress built by Philippe Auguste. You will discover how this fortress changed through the ages to become the biggest museum in the world, visited each year by millions of tourists. The narration comes with animations and authentic music from the periods. You will travel through the museum using maps and discover what the rooms look like with digitized pictures. Inside the museum, you will be able to view where paintings are located and be able to select one of them.

Paintings are grouped by schools (French, Italian, Flemish, Dutch, Spanish, English and German) and range from primitive (before the XV century) to the XIX century. The French's school and Italian's school are the largest in the Louvre and therefore feature more paintings than the others. However, the Louvre has one of the best representative European painting collection and contains major artwork from the different schools.

Each school is divided into different time periods which when selected, paintings appear in small windows. When you click on a painting, it will appear in nearly full screen and comes with several options. The first option will allow you to read the biography of its author with sometimes (when it is available) a portrait of the painter. For each painting, you will have a narrated commentary that offers information about the characters or the artistical background of the time for example. Sometimes, there is also a composition option that explains how the artist executed the composition to render special effects. The zoom feature is one of the most interesting in this program giving you the possibility to view small details on the painting. Usually, you will also hear a narrated explanation about specific objects or characters in the scene. The last option provides a comparison between the size of the painting to the actual size and several other famous paintings.

Conclusion:

The Louvre is a great multimedia title, very well done with over 2 and a half hours of narration and 20 minutes of original music. Paintings are faithfully reproduced and the different options concerning the paintings provide a new method for the user to appreciate these masterpieces.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

386 SX-25 MHz or better,
Min 4 MB memory (8Mb recommended),
MS-DOS 5.0 or later, Windows 3.1,
Hard drive required with 10Mb free disc space,
Double speed CD-ROM drive or faster,
SVGA 256 color graphic card and monitor,
Microsoft Mouse or 100% compatible,
8-bit sound card.

Ratings and Publisher

                                    BMG Interactive UK,
 GRAPHICS ------------------ 90%    Bedford House, 69-79 Fulham High Street,
 SOUND    ------------------ 85%    London, SW6 3JW, England.
 MUSIC    ------------------ 88%    Tel: +44-(0)171-384-7500
 GAMEPLAY ------------------ --%
 INTEREST ------------------ 91%

 OVERALL ------------------- 89%