Learning art may never be more clever. Or more fun.

Enter "Masterpiece Mansion," an interactive CD-ROM adventure released by Philips Media that introduces players to 150 famous works of art from five major periods. The game is marketed for families and users age 12 and older.The objective: escape an art-filled mansion by navigating through a series of rooms and solving more than 40 puzzles and games. This includes detecting forgeries, unscrambling images of classic works of art, arranging pieces of art in chronological order and hunting for the works of a particular artist or period.

Sounds easy, right? It is if you learn along the way, which, of course, is part of Philips' idea - art appreciation and education with interactive gaming elements.

Among the 45 featured artists and their works smartly packed into this CD-ROM are Botticelli, Georgia O'Keeffe, Michelangelo, Degas, Freida Khalo, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Calder, representing the Ancient Greek/Roman, Renaissance, Dutch Realist, Impressionist and 20th-century art periods.

Philips - a pioneer in compact disc technology and one of the leading companies in multimedia research and development - spares no expense in presentation and design, utilizing lavish 3D-rendered rooms throughout the mansion, creating a unique sense of its own realism and artistic energy.

Additional features include Art Explorer and Biographical Explorer, sections that players use to glean information and clues to solve puzzles.

Art Explorer features overviews, timelines and artwork of major periods in art history while Biographical Explorer recounts 45 artist biographies, including Henri Matisse, Georges Seurat and Raphael.

Developed by art educators, the games were inspired by the teaching technique used by the Getty Center for Education in the Arts. Throw in period classical music compositions, and you've got your own interactive session of Art History 101.

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Works were selected from the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery.

Price: $39.99

Minimum system requirements:

IBM-compatible 386SX/25Mhz or Macintosh 60830/25Mhz with double-speed CD-ROM drive, VGA 256 color monitor (640 x 480), Windows 3.1 or System 7 (Mac), 4 megabyes of RAM (8 MB recommended) and at least 8 megabytes of free hard disk space (12 recommended). To reach Philips Media, call (800) 883-3767 or visit their World Wide Web page at http://www.philipsmedia.com/media/home

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