Amazon.co.uk Review
Attenborough's Antarctic is a deliberately ingenuously titled CD-ROM, since of course the Antarctic is the world's last great unexplored territory. A continent in its own right--and, according to Graham Hancock, the home of a lost civilisation--vast swathes of the Antarctic remain largely unknown. Nevertheless, this package still goes a long way towards developing an understanding of the history and nature of this remarkable place.
The range is very diverse. There are detailed and well-illustrated field guides of some of the sturdy creatures who survive down here--top marks to the regal King Penguins--as well as a series of historical and natural historical quests to keep the user's interest, tours of 6 regions narrated by the mellifluous David Attenborough, and a retelling of the stories of some of the explorers--Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton--who became famous for their obsession with the uttermost part of the earth.
Attenborough's Antarctic has been very well put together. The graphics and video shots are beautiful, the topographical maps give an unexpected sense of perspective to the "white continent", and the CD-ROM will be of much use to people putting their own Antarctic presentations together, coming with software that allows you to compile your own presentation using its text and illustrations. It is both a useful and an interesting package, which seems destined to have a long shelf life. --Toby Green