CompuServe Thread

#Incredible?

5 messages in this thread
#31458From: Christopher GroverNov 22, 1992 12:40 PM
What's great and what's medicore on CD-ROM? The answer depends a great degree on your particular interests. One of the programs that shows the promise of CD-ROM the best in my book is Multimedia Beethoven. If you are interested in classical music at all, this is an excellent music course with accompanying CD quality music as examples. Great example of random access, self-directed learning. Corel includes a CD-ROM version of their Corel 3.0 software which is actually about four graphic arts programs rather than a single drawing program. It's not a MPC title, but it certainly is a pleasure to install from a single CD-ROM rather than a dozen floppies. You can also run some of the programs from CD-ROM. Since they had the room, they included 12,000 pieces of clipart, over 250 fonts and over 100 animation clips. You mentioned Battle Chess. Games are a natural for CD-ROM considering the sound and storage capacity for graphics. I've been playing Loom with my kids (well, that's the excuse). Loom on CD-ROM has beautiful images, a good cinematic story, makes use of CD-ROM for voice and music. Only complaint about Loom is that it is a bit too short. That's a problem with adventure games. They are sort of one shot deals, once you know all the secrets. DeLorme's Street Atlas is a handy tool. It is currently being discussed on this forum. I also enly MS Bookshelf. Handy reference, especially if you work in Windows. –Christopher
#31492From: J. RoosthNov 23, 1992 1:37 AM
Well thanks for the reply, but I see you seem to be have about the same access to titles as I have…I guess that I was hoping for more to be available on CD than there is..but I may take you advice and get the Bethoven disk as it is available at a good price at Egghead
#31519From: Christopher GroverNov 23, 1992 10:42 AM
From your note, I couldn't tell how far you'd searched for CD-ROM titles. I think many of us are waiting for more releases and greater variety. I get the feeling that many of the titles we're seeing now have been rushed to market. In several cases they are simple straight transfers of floppy-based programs to CD-ROM. It's a good sign that Egghead and Software Etc are carrying CD-ROM, but they do seem to have just the same two dozen titles. MS products, games, a few reference works and books on CD-ROM. There are quite a few offerings in special professional areas though and I'd expect that to grow. For example, Sweet's (a division of McGraw-Hill) publishes a product catalog that architects use to specify building materials. Sweet's has developed a CD-ROM version of their multi-volume catalog. I know similar things are going on in the legal and medical profession.
#31571From: J. RoosthNov 24, 1992 3:07 AM
Yes I know about some of those from a professional stand point..there are several medical refs available..most are two expensive or are not the ones I would use if they were on CD
#31541From: Rich Bowers/OPANov 23, 1992 4:39 PM
If you live near a sizable library you might ask if they have a copy of either "CDROMs in Print" or "The CDROM Directory." Both these contain thousands of titles listed in a variety of ways. The directoroies cost between $100-150, so they're not exactly a consumer item. BTW, the next editions of both are likely to contain something like 5-6000 listings! Rich Bowers