The Collection Chamber: THE GREAT MYTHS AND LEGENDS: MONSTERS & MYTHICAL CREATURES

Myths hold the memory of civilizations, and legends hide a wealth of symbols.

Your journey begins here: on an expedition to the most distant corners of the earth to come face to face with terrible monsters and strange creatures. These mythical beings will burst from their watery lairs, tower before you, breath fire, roar their blood curdling cries, take flight or disappear into snowbound hiding places.

A fantastic world of wonders has been created for this dramatically innovative approach to deepening your knowledge of the great myths. You will be escorted on your adventure by a mysterious Narrator, played by a professional actor filmed especially for this product and integrated into the breathtaking 3-D virtual landscapes.

The Yeti. The Minotaur. The monster of Loch Ness. The Cyclopes. Leviathan. Pegasus. The Golem. The Unicorn. The Gorgons. The Phoenix.

As you venture through eerie valleys, snowdrifts and castles, turning around to explore every corner, you will encounter 3-D rendered beasts, haunting historical illustrations, and an exhaustive library of analysis and historical documentation.

All to let you learn, experience and decide for yourself.

What is myth? What is reality?
Virtual 3-D environments for each creature
3-D animation: 15 min.
Original video, encrusted: 30 min.
Original soundtrack with special effects: 60 min.
Narration: 30 min.
Full-color images: 700
Original and historical documents: 180 pages

~ from the back of the box

There's something special about a CD-ROM multi-media title that makes extra effort to be immersive. They aim to educate and entertain in equal measure by putting you inside a virtual museum of fantastical proportions. None go quite as far as The Great Myths & Legends: Volume 1 - Monsters & Mythical Creatures as it teaches you about unicorns, golems and the Loch Ness Monster among seven others. It makes for a handsome explorative package that took me back to that experimental era in the mid-90's where artists and developers pushed what they could do with the medium.

There were three volumes in the series, each of which are heavily promoted not just in the game's manual and promotional material, but in the game itself. While Volume II might make its way to this site in the near future, Volume III appears to be lost to time. In fact, I can see no evidence that it actually existed at all.

The lion door will take you to the main beasts, while the books on the table acts as a digital manual (left).
Other doors promote the sequels, some of which appear to be lost to time (right).

We begin in the gothic lobby of a creepy old mansion where French actor Patrick Floersheim (who has a long history of voice action in video games) hosts in fully-robed monk garb. He waxes lyrical about the subject of fantastical beasts in question and makes for an entertainingly eccentric host. From here, four doors lead off to other areas. Head through the door with an open book and you will find yourself in a study of sorts with multiple drawing desks leading off into the dark. Click on one of them, and you will find a glossary, a useful tool should you wish to understand the historic terms and phrases. You can also exit the game here by clicking into the darkness beyond.

The other three doors lead you into the each of the games proper. Had the Volume II CD be placed in the disc drive, the door with sword and shield lead you towards legendary lands and lost cities. Opposite this is a door with a scroll that would let you learn about legendary heroes and villains if the disc wasn't lost to time. For the purpose of this release, we want to go though the door with a lion head where knowledge on our monsters and mythical creatures reside.

The lush land of the Unicorn (left) and the underground labyrinth of the Minotaur (right).
Note the circular pole on the left of each; it will call upon the host to guide you.

What is revealed in front of you is not another room with stuffed creatures posed behind glass cabinets, but a wide open and desolate landscape. Patrick will give a brief description about all of the ten beasts found within and if you click on him during one of them, you will be transported to the separate world designed around that legend. For example, you will go to the Scottish highlands to learn about Loch Ness or a frozen arctic tundra for the yeti. You can also go to each of them by exploring the mountains beyond and find the bright lights shining from them.

Each locations uses a number of static screen to explore the area, and you will notice the odd book, stone bust or point of interest will take you to a decently comprehensive page of text. It details not just the legend, its likely inception or its importance in history, but also how it is represented in classical art. A separate narrator may voice these academic paragraphs in a dryer fashion to our robed host, but its a nice addition nonetheless.

Travelling the lands via the mountains. You will have to click on the light to know where it takes you (left).
The glossary is a quick way to know all of the people, places and things of each legend (right).

While I like the subjects on display, and how they are presented graphically, I do find the navigation rather confusing. Should you want to return to a piece of information, you must not only remember how to get to the correct world that has it, but also remember where exactly that piece of information was hidden. The glossary in the study is great, but I couldn't find an index that would take me directly to where I wanted to go. The manual isn't much help either, spending more words on installation and copyright than gameplay. It was trial and error that lead to discover what those totems found in every world meant (it repeats the Monk's intro) or where each of the glowing stars in the mountains take me.

The Great Myths and Legends: Monsters & Mythical Creatures portrays one of my favourite subjects in an absorbing way. It may have its problems as a digital encyclopedia, but as an educational CD-ROM it's one of the better presented ones out there. When it could've easily be presented as a bunch of text with the odd image, it adds an explorative element not too dissimilar to the Myst-style adventure games out there. A great choice should you wish to while away some time to learn about the Gorgon.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox running Microsoft Windows 3.1 to get the game working on modern systems. Manual included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 266 Mb. Install Size: 415 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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