Encyclopedias?
Ken (and all),
I've had my hands on the Compton's Multimedia Encylopedia for just a few
moments. It's important that you understand that what I'm about to say is
after having played with the software for only about 45 minutes. Here
goes:
Save your money.
I have the Windows version which cost a whopping $895. The interface is
real nice, very pretty, very windows. So far, nothing seems to justify the
price. There may be a ton of info on this disk, but from the few
selections I audited, it's disappointing. Music comes from only one
channel. Not only that, but something about this program seems to "kill"
one channel of audio from my CDROM drive. I have to power down and restart
to get the other channel back for my other discs. Of course, this may be a
tech glitch, but I followed all instructions and the thing's running (sort
of). My guess is – – it's in the software.
The graphics and animation leave a lot to be desired. Some of the picture
and animation frames are exceptionally small (1 inch by 1 inch). Not very
exciting.
Many crashes. This is a touchy program. Lots of error messages forcing a
re-start of Windows to get out of the problem. The manual suggests this
process of re-starting. I'm using Norton Desktop. Every restart takes
over a minute. Lotsa fun, huh?
Again — I've only scratched the surface here, but the surface is very
unappealing indeed. And, in line with my comments on this forum regarding
the CD ROM biz — Brittanica's support is right in line with the others.
There is none. Oh yeah — there's a number to call. I got voice mail. I
left a message. No return call. This being the single most expensive
piece of software I've purchased — I oughta get a call-back, a box of
candy and
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