CompuServe Messages

I sent you a separate message that your m.o. arrived and "spy" is on its way today. "Sherlock Holmes" has been followed up by two more volumes. Unfortunately, II and III aren't available on CDTV yet, only MPC (for power PCs). Apparently, the CDTV version of "Holmes" did quite well in Europe but almost no business in the USA. Probably reflects the dearth of marketing here, plus the relative dearth of CDTV units. That changed in a hurry the past few months with sale prices. Supposedly, there are 100,000 CDTVs and A570s out there, which surpasses the number of CD-I machines. Also, there's more software for CDTV than any other type of TV-ROM player; like you noted, however, a lot of it doesn't max out the machine. Now that you mention it, I'm not sure whether there are any flight simulators actually released for CDTV. It would seem like a natural; get Falcon and all the mission disks on one disc! Psygnosis showed "Planetside" as a demo — a 3D-fractal flight simulator that was astounding. It appears as a demo on the "Lemmings" CDTV disc. But it's never been released as a full game. The Tandy VIS machine is based on "Modular Windows," a stripped down version of Microsoft Windows. It isn't as powerful as CDTV, but the software was maxed out and there is some cool stuff for it. However, the machine appears doomed; relatively few have sold. CDTV remains the only TV-ROM player that can be expanded with a keyboard, mouse, etc. into its own computer. CD-I is hanging in there. The new 3DO machines may take over the market. Then again, maybe not. Some outfit in the UK reportedly has figured out how to cheaply convert ordinary audio CD players to handle movie-length videos! — Ron Legro, Milwaukee via AUTOPILOT (the only way to fly)