This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "The Walt Disney World Explorer" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Walt Disney World Explorer
Box art of the 1998 releasedSecond Edition, with Windows CD-ROM label
Developers	Disney Interactive Mindsai Productions
Publisher	Disney Interactive
Platforms	Microsoft Windows Apple Macintosh
Release	Original version: US: September 24, 1996 [1] Second Edition: US: April 23, 1998 [2]

The Walt Disney World Explorer is apoint and clickWindows andMacintosh application developed by Mindsai Productions andDisney Interactive, and published by the latter. The application focuses on theWalt Disney World Resort nearOrlando,Florida. It consists of narrated virtual tours, trivia, and slideshows of the resort's parks, attractions, hotels, and other related topics. Variousminigames are also built into the application, such as aquiz that allows users to test their knowledge of the resort, and a game that involves findingHidden Mickeys.

Two editions of this program were released; the first edition was released on September 24, 1996,^[1] in time for the resort's 25th anniversary a week later. An updated release,The Walt Disney World Explorer – Second Edition, was released on April 23, 1998,^[2] with updated information on new attractions such asBuzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, new resorts such asDisney's Coronado Springs Resort, andDisney's Animal Kingdom, which first opened the day before theSecond Edition's release.

The application is mainly a slideshow viewer that features photographs and images related to the Walt Disney World Resort, accompanied by narration by Hettie Lynne Hurtes andCorey Burton.

Upon launching the application and going through or skipping the opening cutscene, the user is brought to a large, stylized map of the resort filled with clickablehotspots that are visually represented by colorful depictions of what their topics are about. The user hasTinker Bell fromPeter Pan (1953) as theirpointer. If Tinker Bell is on a clickable hotspot or element, herwand will sparkle with pixie dust. Additionally, on the map, atooltip appearing as a scroll will appear over the hotspot for (as indicated by a yellow scroll) topics or (as indicated by a blue scroll on the main resort map only) to dive into a separate map focused on a themed land, two themed lands, or an entire theme park.^[a] The user also has access to the "Walt Disney World Compass", acompass in the shape ofMickey Mouse's head on the bottom-left corner of the screen that allows users to ask for help, exit the program, go one step back (up to the resort map), or search for a specific area of interest within the application.

All topics have a slideshow with narrated descriptions of the topic in question. Many topics, usually attractions, have additional "Backstage" and "Trivia" options; "Backstage" features an additional slideshow or video giving a "behind-the-scenes" look at the topic, while "Trivia" features another slideshow with additionaltrivia about the topic. A few topics also feature either a "More Stuff" option, featuring another slideshow or video relevant to the topic, or an option to view a rectilinear360° panoramic photograph relating to the topic, also companied by narration. Furthermore, the application features a number of clickableHidden Mickeys icons hidden in the last photographs of several topics' main slideshow for the user to find, tracked by a counter on the bottom-right of a topic's screen (as well as by a found Hidden Mickey being highlighted); finding ten Hidden Mickeys will play a brief video clip featuringWalt Disney and the song "Congratulations, Mr. Mickey Mouse" before automatically resetting the counter and "re-hiding" the Hidden Mickeys.

There are also a number of "interactivities" found throughout the program:

• TheWalt Disney World Quiz Challenge: Aquiz game in which one or two players play a fictionalgame show hosted byCharles Fleischer and answer multiple-choice questions based on the Trivia slideshows in the application.
• The Walt Disney World Timeline: An interactivetimeline covering the growth of the resort through the years from its opening in 1971 up to the release years of the application.
• Tours of the World: Guided tours of various topics encompassing different themes with separate narration provided by actress Leslie Ryan, who appears infull-motion video within this interactivity's menu screen.
• Oceans of the World: An interactive aquarium found withinThe Living Seas covering the effects ofoverfishing andpollution on themarine ecosystem.
• Monster Sound: An interactive miniatureFoley studio found within The Monster Sound Show (original version) or theABC Sound Studio (Second Edition) where users can record sound effects to short clips of classic Disney films and play them back.

In a brief November 1996 review of the application, Steve Daly ofEntertainment Weekly gave the application a grade of C, saying at the time that the overworld map was slow to redraw, and it was too easy to click on the wrong option when using the Mickey Mouse head-shaped compass.^[3]

• The Walt Disney World Explorer atIMDb

• 1996 video games
• 1998 video games
• Classic Mac OS games
• Disney Interactive Studios games
• Disney Interactive
• The Haunted Mansion video games
• Video games based on Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions
• Video games developed in the United States
• Video games set in amusement parks
• Video games set in Orlando, Florida
• Windows games

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from March 2018
• All articles needing additional references
• Articles using Infobox video game using locally defined parameters
• Articles using Wikidata infoboxes with locally defined images