The Collection Chamber: THE JUNGLE BOOK

Follow Your Instincts, But Beware...
Danger Lurks In The Jungle.

Deep within India's Black Jungle, a scandalous crime has taken place. Someone has stolen the jeweled crown of King Louie, the orangutan who rules Monkey City. Now he's hoppin' mad and there will be no peace until his crown's returned. Mowgli and his friends are counting on you to help recover this sacred treasure and restore calm to the jungle world.

A World Of Wonder Is Yours To Explore.
From the moment the search begins, you're immersed in a world of intrigue, magic and excitement. IBM's extraordinary interactive technology makes this classic adventure come alive. The result is an enchanting journey that is sure to fascinate and captivate all those who take it.

Easy-to-use interface will allow you to experience the true nature of the jungle.

Hurry
Mowgli and his friends need your help.

Follow Your Instincts, But Beware... Danger Lurks In The Jungle.

Solving this crime won't be easy. There are countless jungle paths to explore, each hidden mysteries and obstacles, such as enemy soldiers, tricky puzzles, secret levers, poisonous snakes and rickety bridges. But don't worry, Mowgli's magical spirit guide will help you make it through. He'll contact you when the time is right.

Like Magic, You'll Be Able To Talk With The Animals.
Talk into the enclosed microphone and learn to speak like La-Tee the Chimpanzee and Al-Tar the wolf. Listening to your animal friends, as well as Mowgli and Colonel Ilgwom, is key since they'll teach you the Language of the Jungle and help you make this magical journey. So stay alert, think carefully and above all else, be brave.

Special Live-Action Footage Brings The Adventure To Life.
Live footage taken from the hit film and special scenes shot just for the game let you step right into the action. The exceptional production values makes your jungle pursuit feel like a real-life adventure.

Listen Carefully And You'll Hear The Call Of The Wild.
Mowgli and his animal friends are calling you. They need you to enter their magical jungle world now because the crown's gone, the culprits are getting away and the adventure can't begin without you. So hurry!

~ from the back of the box

Back in the mid-1990s, Disney was already dabbling in the live-action remake game long before it became the studio's entire business model. It began with the 1994 adventure film The Jungle Book, a surprisingly swashbuckling reinterpretation of Rudyard Kipling's tale starring Jason Scott Lee as an adult Mowgli. Rather than singing bears and jazzy orangutans, the movie leaned into jungle adventure, sword fights and British colonial intrigue. Naturally, the CD-ROM boom demanded a tie-in, and that's where IBM stepped in with the 1996 PC interactive movie-game of the same name. You may think all the usual FMV shenanigans were going on in the stuffed two-CD package, but it promised one bold and original design choice - you can literally talk to the jungle.

Yes, talk to the jungle. The game's manual proudly explains how players can "use the microphone to talk back" and interact with the wildlife of the jungle and it shipped with its own microphone and a voice recognition system for this very use. In theory, it was supposed to let players communicate with animals. In practice, it meant vainly shouting animal noises in the hope that the game would recognize anything. You'll be forever sitting in front of your computer making increasingly deranged chimpanzee noises while the software stubbornly refused to cooperate. This was cutting-edge stuff in 1996, but the technology was crude even then. Ironically, recreating it today is just as awkward. Modern enthusiasts experimenting with custom DOSBox-X builds have tried to emulate the microphone hardware - something that was only implemented to any effect at the beginning of this year - yet the recognition system still behaves about as reliably as it did nearly thirty years ago.

Hold the "talk" button to respond to speak monkey (left)

or solve the monkey mini-game instead (right).

Most of this vocal nonsense revolves around La-Tee, a chimpanzee who is the friend and companion of Ilgwom, our Scottish host and jungle explorer. To get his attention you must mimic monkey calls into the bundled microphone, prompting him to respond or help move the story along. It's a neat idea on paper and utterly ridiculous in practice. Thankfully, the designers knew their tech might betray them, so they included an alternative: mini-games. Instead of hooting like a primate you can play simple memory puzzles and mini games such as classic Pairs or Whack-A-Mole. Whichever option you choose, upon success the result will be the same. Needless to say, that puzzle route was by far the only sensible choice unless you particularly enjoyed alarming your family members with screams of "Aw-Ow-Ow" or "Chee-Ka-Kee" coming from the computer room.

The story itself is a winsome little jungle caper. King Louie, ruler of Monkey City, has had his crown stolen by a gang of bandit soldiers. Your mission is to track it down and restore order to the jungle. You're aided by two companions: the eccentric Scottish explorer Colonel Ilgwom (whose name is amusingly "Mowgli" spelled backwards) and the aforementioned monkey troublemaker La-Tee. Ilgwom spends most of the adventure blustering heroically through the jungle while La-Tee chatters and reacts to events. The performances (including veteran voice actor Gary Schwartz aka Heavy from Team Fortress 2) are surprisingly lively, and the pair make entertaining guides through what is otherwise a fairly simple narrative aimed squarely at younger players.

This glowing orb is the self-proclaimed spirit of the jungle. It holds all of Mowgli's thoughts and memories (left).

Unlock those memories or "instincts" by quickly clicking on symbols on the video when they appear (right).

Gameplay unfolds as a sequence of FMV scenes where the player occasionally decides what happens next. At certain points you'll be asked to choose between multiple routes or actions, and picking the wrong option can land Ilgwom in immediate trouble. Don't worry, a failure will instantly take you back in time to make better choices. A good example occurs when the colonel attempts to take a shortcut by swinging on vines. There are three to choose from, but it's all guesswork. One will have you swing through the jungle safely, another and the vine will snap. There is a third choice, but that one's so obviously a snake you're bound to choose it first just to see what happens. Elsewhere you'll encounter forks in the jungle path or multiple doors or passageways, forcing you to decide which direction to explore. These branching moments are simple but effective, giving the illusion that you're directing your own jungle adventure film.

Another mechanic involves collecting what the game calls "instinct". During certain scenes small symbols briefly appear on the screen. Clicking them unlocks clips from the 1994 film and awards points that apparently help you survive the adventure. They're tied to Mowgli's memories but all in all, they're mainly there to reward attentive players with little snippets from the movie. They stuffed a lot in there, and not one relates to the adventure at hand. In practice the feature feels more like a random collectible than a meaningful narrative device. Still, it adds an extra layer of interactivity for younger players eager to click on anything that flashes, and it surely made me want to watch the movie again.

Voice recognition can be turned off or on from the in-game options menu (left).

You might have to configure the speech threshold first through the separate program (right).

For all its odd design quirks, the game's production values are genuinely impressive for the era. You can tell a lot of money went into it. The adventure spans two CD-ROMs, each packed with live-action footage. The video isn't full-screen - this was the mid-90s after all - but the compression is respectable and lets you appreciate the surprisingly elaborate sets. Outside of the "instincts", almost all of the footage appears to have been shot specifically for the game rather than lifted straight from the movie, complete with jungle props, costumes and actors performing new scenes. The result feels less like a typical PC game and more like an interactive spin-off episode filmed on the same jungle backlot.

Viewed today, The Jungle Book PC game is a wonderfully odd relic of the CD-ROM era. It's a simple adventure designed primarily for kids, with easy puzzles and short branching sequences. Yet the sheer effort poured into its live-action presentation gives it a winning charm. And then there's that voice recognition gimmick; ambitious, misguided, and unintentionally hilarious. Few gaming experiences are quite as memorable as sitting alone at your computer, enthusiastically screeching monkey noises into a plastic microphone while a digital chimpanzee decides whether you've earned its respect. Even if the feature is unworkable, it remains a curiously enticing piece of interactive entertainment.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses meldro364-glitch's experimental fork of the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox running Microsoft Windows 3.1 to get the game working on modern systems. Voice recognition tentatively supported. Manual, Map and two Promotional Documents included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 1.01 Mb. Install Size: 1.36 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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