__________ ____ ____ __ ___ / ____/ __ \ / __ \/ __ \/ |/ / / / / / / /_____/ /_/ / / / / /|_/ / / /___/ /_/ /_____/ _, _/ /_/ / / / / \____/_____/ /_/ |_|\____/_/ /_/__On-line! /Your Multimedia PC Resource!\ * WELCOME TO CD-ROM On-line! * """""""In This Issue:""""""""" * From The Editor ........... We're back on track! * CD Discoveries ........... Freak Show * Reviews: Entertainment ........... Wings: Korea to Vietnam * Reviews: Reference ........... Compton's Encyclopedia, 1996 Hubble Telescope CD-ROM Guinness Multimedia Encyclopedia * Reviews: Education ........... Spanish Now! * Best Seller List ........... Top Twenty CD-ROM Titles. * Log Off ........... Let us hear from you! .................................................................... CD-ROM Online * A Nexus Multimedia Publication * Vol. 1, Issue 6 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Publisher.............................................Nexus Systems Senior Editor........................................Dennis Kelly Editor........................................Scott R. Garrigus Contributing Writer...............................Rose Atiyeh ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From The Editor >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Happy holidays! We have put together another great issue for you. In this issue we have a number of exciting reviews -- including the Discovery's Wings Series, Spanish Now and two new Encyclopedias. CD-ROM On-line is growing. We have many new readers and more are subscribing every day. If you know someone who might be interested in CD-ROM On-line, feel free to forward this issue in its entirety. Also take a peek at our Web page http://www.li.net/~nsi/cdrom and then drop us a note and let us know what you think! ___ _ _ ___ / _| __ ___| |_| |_ / __| \__ \/ _/ _ \ _| _| | (_ | |___/\__\___/\__|\__| \___| ___ ___ ___ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ________ / ___/ _ \ / /__/ // / Discoveries: Freak Show \___/____/ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ At first, this disc from Voyager may seem alien to you. Based on a circus act theme, Freak Show is exactly what its name implies. The show begins when you enter the tent and are greeted by the highly energetic ringmaster. He describes a bit about the sites within and then you are free to view and explore each sideshow act. You may get grossed out by some of the sites, but isn't that the point of a freak show? Some of the show attractions include Wanda the Worm Woman with her worm eating habit and Bouncing Benny the Bump with his huge chest growth (it's kind of hard to describe). What else does this disc have to offer besides pictures of deformed people? Actually, more than you might expect. Your trip to the Freak Show also includes a visit backstage. Once you go into the dressing rooms and start to explore their personal belongings, look at their books and family albums or home movies, even read their diaries; you begin to realize that inside, these people are just like you and me (even if they are fictional). That's the message of this disc. The Residents, an alternative rock band, have put this disc together in order to show the world that they are real people too even though their music may be a bit out there. They've done an excellent job and all aspects of this disc are top notch. Voyager has another winner here. ___ ___ ___ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [||||] [||||] === REVIEWS === [||||] ^^^^^^^ ENTERTAINMENT: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ [Wings: Korea to Vietnam, Maris] (Mac, Windows) -- Street Price: $36 by Scott Garrigus Aviation enthusiasts rejoice! Here is a title that you will find very interesting. Wings: Korea to Vietnam is the title of all titles when it comes to information about military aircraft and aviation from 1945 to 1975. In it you will find a most impressive multimedia aircraft database containing information including crew, hardware, manufacturer, owners, variants, etc. on over 500 military aircraft and more than 200 weapons systems. Each selection contains informational text and full screen photographs. Some of the devices also include video and a 3-D computer generated model for you to explore. Multimedia presentations that deal with the Korean War, Vietnam, and the Cold War can also be found here. The presentations include database entries that discuss air combat and histories of the combat (though the histories could have been more informative). Brief animations and deployment maps are included. There is even an Airfield section where you can visit five airbases that were used in Vietnam, Korea and the Cold War. To top it all off, the disc features three flight simulator missions. Fly the mighty Vulcan on a Blue Steel Nuclear attack mission in Eastern Europe; pilot an American Phantom in Vietnam; or fly an F-86A Sabre from a snow covered airfield in Korea. The aircrafts are not state of the art but still very entertaining and they add to the whole experience. Like aircraft and aviation? Then buy this disc. =-=-=-=-=-= REFERENCE: ^^^^^^^^^ [Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia: 1996, Compton's New Media] (Mac, Windows) -- Street Price: $59 by Scott Garrigus Encyclopedias on disc have been getting better and better from year to year and now Compton's has upped the ante with its new 1996 edition. Though providing a link from CD-ROM to on-line is not a brand new concept, Compton's is the first to provide such a function within the interactive encyclopedia realm. By clicking on the OnLine button in the menu bar you can connect to Compton's NewMedia Forum on America Online. It will use either your existing account or allow you to sign up along with 10 free hours (the standard AOL new-user offer). With this function you can link-up to Compton's Living Encyclopedia and integrate the CD-ROMs content with up- to-the-minute information and up-to-date articles and multimedia. Kids get access to the Study Break area which provides interactive puzzles, games and news. There is also a nation-wide resource for educators and parents called Parent/Teacher Connection. The disc itself provides a lot of new information and multimedia. The popular Editing Room feature is now more user friendly though still a bit sluggish. The excellent interface now allows size adjustment of viewing windows. There are also six new Explore Environments which provide links to the information on the disc but in more interesting and entertaining ways... an excellent way to get kids motivated toward the learning process. A family encyclopedia through and through, kids and young adults are the ones who will gain the most from the use of this disc. The on-line connection is a great step forward and I'm sure it won't be long before the other discs on the market follow Comptons lead. As a nice little bonus the encyclopedia comes with a FREE copy of the latest version of Small Blue Planet: The Real Picture World Atlas. +++++++++++ [Hubble Space Telescope CD-ROM Archive, Brentwood Interactive] (Mac, Windows) -- Street Price: $15 by Scott Garrigus The Hubble Space Telescope was placed into orbit 380 miles above Earth's atmosphere in the Fall of 1991, increasing the observable universe by 250 times. It has provided the first detailed glimpse of distant stars, galaxies, nebulae, supernovas, double stars and other space anomalies. The Hubble Space Telescope CD-ROM Archive brings many of the latest images directly to your desktop. While not an overly ambitious title in terms of interaction (it is basically a point and click database), the main reasons for the disc, the pictures, are excellent. Each one is presented with a textual as well as a narrated description. See the never before viewed images of a black hole or the spectacular photos of the Shoemaker Levy-9 Comet and its collision with Jupiter. Another nice part of the disc is the video coverage of the space shuttle missions 31 and 61. They show the launching and deployment of the telescope as well as other moments during the missions. One of the most interesting was the view of Florida in the evening. You could actually see the lightning flashes. I've never seen anything like it before. The Glossary and Internet Tutorial were a bit disappointing since (as I mentioned earlier) there is no interaction. They are both just text files to scroll through and are kind of brief. As an archive this title is very nice. The photos and video footage are great and it even comes with separate discs for both the PC and the Mac. +++++++++++ [The Guinness Encyclopedia, Wayzata Technology] (Mac, Windows) -- Street Price $19 by Rose Atiyeh I really like to say good things about programs I examine. Unfortunately, in the case of the Guinness Multimedia Encyclopedia for Windows, I have little good to say. It LOOKS promising. It offers animations, videos, and sound clips, even including basic phrases in 34 different languages. It seems to be well organized and has various ways to allow the user to search the database. The installation seemed quite painless. BUT... The new version of QuickTime for Windows that came in the package won't work properly with my Hercules Dynamite card (with 2 MB of RAM). When I select a video or animation for replay it takes FOREVER to load on my REVEAL 4X CD-ROM. When the "screen window" finally comes up it obviously "plays" when one presses the button but nothing shows on the screen... UNLESS I click on the "FILE" button while the video is playing. Then I can see part of the clip but it's blocked by the "FILE" options box. Trying various drivers didn't help a bit. This was very frustrating. Equally frustrating was the inability to get any sound at all whatsoever with my default-configured Sound Blaster 16. And when I went to see if there was an .INI file I could modify in any way, the only one I could find had no settings for a sound card. When I read the manual and searched on-line for help with the sound, all I could find was a bland statement along the lines of "the sound is caused to play when you hit the 'play' button on the screen." Hardly helpful. A call to Technical Support left me cold. The phone rang 8-9 times before the voice mail bothered to finally kick in and I was given NO choice. I was to leave a message with my name and phone number, and "they" would get back to me. I did that. Three days ago. I've yet to hear from them. Save your pennies, kids. This hassle just isn't worth it, especially with excellent encyclopedia software like Grolier's and Encarta out there. =-=-=-=-=-= EDUCATION: ^^^^^^^^^ [Spanish Now!, Transparent Language] (Mac, Windows) -- Street Price: $51 by Scott Garrigus The following is a paragraph from one of the stories, La Sombra de un Fotografo (The Shadow of a Photographer), which is provided with this disc. Son las tres de la tarde de un dia de invierno. No hay nadie en las calles. Solo silencio. Es la hora de comer y todo esta tranquilo. Calles sin coches, plazas sin gente, jardines sin ninos. The paragraph took me all of ten minutes to learn. And I don't mean memorize, I mean learn. That includes being able to read out loud with correct pronunciation and understand the meaning of each individual word and the sentences put together. I'll admit that I did have a bit of Spanish back in high school. Besides I've forgotten everything except for maybe the phrase Como esta usted? With Spanish Now I'm planning to study and learn the language in my spare time. It's unique teaching method is nothing short of amazing and it is so simple. The title uses original stories and articles to rapidly build and improve your Spanish skills. On-screen reference windows show the story you are reading complete with the special characters used in the language, the meaning of the currently highlighted word, the meaning of the sentence that word is in, the phrase meaning and comments with important grammar information. No flashy multimedia pictures or video. It's not needed. There is sound though. Native speakers pronounce every word and sentence with a click of the mouse. You can also record your own voice and compare the waveform to that of the speaker. In addition, there are three games available, Vocabulous, Unscramble and Plug-n-Play. These provide fun and easy ways to learn about words, phrases and sentence structure. About the only thing I don't like is the lack of an on-line dictionary. Sure, you can search for words in the text of the story but if the word is not present you're out of luck and you can only search in Spanish not vice- versa. I would never have believed that picking up a language was so simple. I really like this title and if you're interested in learning a new language, you will too. ___ ___ ___ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >Best Seller List: Top Twenty CD-ROM Titles/November 30 1995< >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< < 1> Windows '95 on CD-ROM < 2> Mechwarrior 2 (DOS) < 3> Full Throttle (DOS, Mac) < 4> Bookshelf '95 (Windows, Mac) < 5> MYST (Windows, Mac) < 6> Encarta 96 (Windows, Mac) < 7> Astronomica (Windows, Mac) < 8> Fury by Microsoft (Windows, Win 95) < 9> Phantasmagoria (DOS, Mac) <10> Information Underground (Windows) <11> Virtual Pool (DOS) <12> Star Trek Omnipedia (Windows, Mac) <13> New Grolier's Encyclopedia (Windows, Mac) <14> The Lion King Animated Story Book (Windows, Mac) <15> Buried in Time: The Journeyman Project 2 (Windows, Mac) <16> Gus Goes to Cybertown (Windows) <17> Primal Rage (DOS, Mac) <18> Jewels of the Oracle (Windows. Mac) <19> Dark Forces (DOS) <20> Mortal Kombat II (DOS) ___ ___ ___ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ----- /Esc\ Log Off: Let Us Hear From You! ----- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ CD-ROM On-line invites you to write in and let us know what's on your mind. We welcome reviews, news, suggestions, and comments of all kinds. This is your magazine, so let us know what you like and don't like and what you would like to see in future issues. Drop us a note at Editor@nsimedia.com +++++++++++ CD-ROM On-line brings you the latest information from the CD-ROM cyberfront for FREE! You might ask "Why do we do it?" Well, to be perfectly honest, we want your business. All we ask is that when you purchase CD-ROMs, give us a call. Our order lines can be reached toll- free at (800) 996-3987 within the United States & Canada, and at (516) 338-2032 for International Callers. The hours are Monday through Friday from 10AM to 6PM EST. 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Permission to quote excerpts from this issue of CD-ROM On-line may be obtained by sending e-mail to Editor@nsimedia.com. This document is provided for informational purposes only. This document may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be included; 2) All copies must contain the CD-ROM On-line copyright notice and any other notices provided therein; and 3) This document may not be distributed for profit. Copyright (c) 1995 Nexus Multimedia. All rights reserved. þ