The LEGO Group and Mindscape Release the First LEGO CD-ROM Game.

NOVATO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 26, 1997--The LEGO Group, makers of the world's best-selling construction toys, and Mindscape, a leading publisher of consumer software, today announced the release of LEGO(R) Island.

A high-action fantasy adventure and build game, LEGO Island introduces kids ages 6-12 to a LEGO world complete with dangerous missions, white-knuckle races, and more than 35 colorful characters, including a pizza-hungry villain.

Based on the LEGO(R) SYSTEM Town Play Theme, LEGO Island is the first CD-ROM game being developed by Mindscape and marketed under the LEGO(R) brand name. The game will be released worldwide in English, French, German, and Danish, Japanese, Korean, South American Spanish, and Portuguese for an estimated street price of $39.95.

Who's Who on LEGO Island

LEGO Island marks the first time in the company's 65-year history that kids will interact with walking and talking LEGO characters, each with different personality traits. As the game begins, players are introduced to seven main characters: The Infomaniac, the host and helper on LEGO Island; The Brickster, the Island's bad guy, who creates chaos wherever he goes; Pepper, the ultra-cool skateboarding pizza delivery dude; his adoptive parents, Mama and Papa Brickolini, the singing and dancing owners of the Island pizzeria; and Nick and Laura Brick, LEGO Island's always on-the-go constables.

Multiple Personalities

As they enter LEGO Island, kids are encouraged to click on and "become" one of five characters. Suddenly, they find out what it's like to be that LEGO character. Each of the LEGO characters has specific character traits, skills, and foibles -- even its own "talent" for customizing the physical appearance of the people, animals, plants, and buildings on the Island.

A Day in the Life of LEGO Island

On LEGO Island, there are no menus, buttons, or on-screen lists. Players use the mouse to navigate. Players explore LEGO Island by building vehicles, driving LEGO cars, racing water jets, riding bikes, and meeting other Island residents. From the gas station to the pizzeria to the racetrack, each location features interactive activities, hotspots, and gag animations.

As players explore the Island, LEGO characters encourage them to change their world. At any time, kids could find themselves racing an opponent in a race car they just built, delivering pizza on a skateboard, or zooming around on a water jet to avoid hungry LEGO sharks! The game has no predetermined order of events and encourages exploration, discovery, and re-playability.

A Challenge for All Ages

LEGO Island is self-leveling, so players' actions during the game determine the level of difficulty. Younger players may explore the Island and be entertained by the characters and activities. Older players are more likely to participate in LEGO races and participate in increasingly difficult missions.

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It ...

The game's ultimate challenge comes when a combination of actions enables the Brickster to escape from jail, disassemble the Island's only helicopter, and proceed to deconstruct the Island. To stop him, players must use imagination and clues to discover the helicopter's missing bricks, reconstruct it, locate the Brickster, and help the police catch him. The final showdown involves a madcap chase where kids use the Island's Turbo Pizza Chucker, complete with flying doughnuts and spinning anchovy pizzas, to put the Brickster back where he belongs.

An Educational Perspective

LEGO Island is a game based on sound educational principles, including character development, problem solving, and map reading. Mindscape modeled the personalities of LEGO characters on the seven areas of intelligence as defined by Harvard researchers. Exploration on LEGO Island reflects research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which stipulates that learning should involve exploration, detached from "right and wrong." This empowers children to explore their world with greater competency and confidence. Mindscape worked with education experts from the LEGO Group to ensure that the game reflects LEGO play values, imagination, and pedagogy.

It All Starts With Design

In creating LEGO Island, programmers, creative planners, illustrators, designers, scriptwriters, educational consultants, and kids worked hand-in-hand in the "LEGO Construction Zone" to create the twists and tricks of the Brickster, the Infomaniac, and friends. The development team generated many of its ideas from a full-scale model of LEGO Island, complete with buildings, tunnels, a racetrack, and a surrounding waterway. Mindscape traveled the world to recruit educational experts and kids who acted as consultants, and continuously challenged the game designers' ideas and creations.

Technology

Bringing LEGO bricks to multimedia required designers to use new technologies as they were being developed. These tools made it possible to produce advanced 3D graphics, smooth animations, detailed lip synching, and non-linear gameplay.

-- Animation: LEGO Island features hours of full-motion animation, rendered on the fly so players can view characters in true 3D, from unlimited points of view.

-- Lip Synching: Mindscape developed a proprietary technology that combines dialog and voice files on the computer. It uses a 100,000 word vocabulary and a myriad of facial expressions to describe the phonetic breakdown of the dialog. This phoneme technology provides cleaner lip-synching by characters and greatly decreases development time for foreign translations.

-- Non-linear 3D Environment: LEGO Island's full 3D environment enables players to walk forward, turn side-to-side, and maneuver around obstacles.

-- Scaleability: LEGO Island's gameplay is customized to the power of any Windows 95 Pentium processor and can take advantage of new technology and faster hardware as it becomes available.

-- MMX Technology: LEGO Island is compatible with the new Intel MMX technology. Intel's MMX implementation provides an addition to the main processor chip, which adds parallel processing and enhances overall computing speed and power. When LEGO Island runs on an MMX enabled system, gameplay is faster, graphics are smoother, and the quality and color of images is enhanced.

Celebrity Voices

Mindscape conducted a nationwide talent search to find voices for the characters. The cast includes well-known voices such as June Forray, the voices of "Rocky" and "Natasha" in the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, as Mama Brickolini; David Lander, "Squiggy" from TV's Laverne & Shirley as the Brickster; and 13-year-old John Morris, the voice of the devoted toy-owner "Andy," in Toy Story, as Pepper.

Mindscape Customer Service

Customers interested in inquiring about Mindscape's products may call the company at 800/234-3088 or 415/897-9900. They can also receive information and technical support through Mindscape Online at www.mindscape.com .

Corporate Background

The LEGO Group is 100% privately owned by the family of Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, and today the group employs almost 9,000 people in 50 companies throughout 29 countries. LEGO(R) products are sold in 60,000 shops in 133 countries around the world, and has established itself as one of the leading brands in the toy industry. Since 1947, over 191 billion LEGO elements have been molded and more than 300 million consumers all over the world have bought LEGO products, which are so durable that they are passed on from one generation to the next.

Over time they have achieved a reputation for being among the most creative toys in the world. "Only the best is good enough" was a motto introduced by founder Ole Kirk Christiansen in the thirties. Quality and attention to detail is still the main focus of the LEGO Group, both when producing the LEGO toys, and when entering into new business areas.

Mindscape, Inc., is a leading developer and publisher of consumer software for the home, entertainment, education, and reference markets. Mindscape is headquartered in Novato, CA, with offices in Canada, England, France, Germany, Japan, and Australia.

The company's subsidiaries include Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI), of Sunnyvale, CA, and Mindscape Direct of Emeryville, CA. Founded in 1980, Mindscape is part of Pearson, plc, the international media group based in London, which focuses on the information, education, and entertainment markets. -0-

Note to Editors: Mindscape is a registered trademark of Mindscape, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Mindscape, Inc.

Adrienne Hankin/Cynthia Leonard, 415/897-9900 ext. 864

[e-mail]

or

LEGO Systems, Inc.

Katherine Lee, 860/763-6732

or

LEGO Media (UK)

Petra Bedford, 0181-600-7200