#Best CD-ROM's?
10 messages in this thread
David, I'm a freelance reviewer of CD-ROM and multimedia products. I am
willing to offer some suggestions if you can help me better identify your
needs. For reference the best are Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia,
Microsoft Bookshelf and The Oxford English Dictionary. Street Atlas USA is
OK for maps, but note that the map data is not current and also contains
some errors. If you would buy a street map that's newest data is from '90
then go for it. They also (if you have really deep pockets $495) have Map
Expert with more features. I you write in C get the C User Library. Most
of the CD-ROM games are warmed over disk based titles, so use caution
there. The main benefit of a CD-ROM based game is usually better sound and
less hard disk requirements. There are also some good GIF collections out
there. Danger Hot Stuff is an inexpensive collection of GIF's, FLI's and
music that will really show of your PC. Sound Blaster compatible card
recommended. Want to know what was sent on the Voyager? Get Murmurs of
Earth (highly recommended). Dessert Storm will give you Time Magazine's
coverage of the War in the Persian Gulf in text, sound and pictures. Corel
Draw is good for art and desktop publishing. For other suggestions and
reviews on many CD-ROMs call Resource International Publishing's BBS at
(817)582-0672.
Shop the Swap meets for best prices.
Happy shopping!
Bruce
Bruce,
Thanks for the suggestions. As far as my actual needs, I suspect they'll
be met, at least initially, by the Windows SDK (which I already have), MS
Bookshelf (my "free" application with my Gateway system), MS Developer
Network (which I already have), & some others I can't think of at the
moment. I'm now thinking about what other CD-ROMs won't be strictly needs,
but which will become very useful (like my laserprinter, fax, etc. … they
each seemed to be toys when I bought them, but soon became indispensable).
I'm also thinking about which will be just plain fun to use; they could be
games, or actually useful … although the primary intent would be for the
joy of using them.
What's the C User Library?
BTW, I bought a SoundblasterPro on sale at Egghead.
Dave
The C User Library is a collection of user supported C source code from the
C Users Group library and C Users Journal up to 10/92.
Walnut Creek CDROM
1547 Palos Verdes, Suite 260
Walnut Creek, CA 94596-2228
(800) 786-9907 or (510) 947-5996
$49.95
There is C USERS JOURNAL source code in the Computer Language forum too.
(GO CLMFORUM)
Hi! I'd have to admit great disappointment in the quality of CD-ROM
material. The Compton encyclopedia is laughable. It might be good for 5
year olds but its no serious source of info. For example, you get to a
screen (all text mode, of course) with a list of composers. Each composer
has one audio piece, of about 20 seconds each, and full of awful static
like its recorded on a 100-year old record player. USA Atlas, World
Atlas… possibly even more useless. You get a map of the USA. If you bug
say California you get a map of (guess what) California. You bug L.A., but
you don't get a map of LA. You get a (text mode of course) screen full of
info like its population and that they have a movie industry. Like Wow!
This stuff is so amateurish that if you haven't got a good reason to buy a
CD-ROM, such as loading Microsoft's NT development kit, save your money and
go out to a few symphonies or visit LA in person or what have you. – David
David, I think you are expecting too much of Compton's Multimedia
Encyclopedia though I admit quality can be greatly improved. The CD-ROM
has a total capacity of 650 Megabytes of data or about 75 minutes of 44.1
Khz digital audio, but not both. I believe Comptons chose to use WAV
format files sampled at 11 Khz for much of the audio, so they would have
room for the text and pictures. They did this to maintain compatibility
with low end systems. MPC compatability initially required that the
software work correctly on a 16 Mhz 286. This has since been changed to a
16 Mhz 386 SX. If you read the articles on the composers you would have
found a decent amount of information on each of them. No, it wouldn't have
been as much as would be in a biography on the composer or even as much as
is contained in the printed encyclopedia by the same company, Encyclopedia
Briticannica. Multimedia is new and a lot of stuff put into Comptons is
more of a sales gimic than something of practical value. Many of the
pictures and animations have little value too, but they increase the
picture count statistic for the sales and marketing types. Remember
Microsoft dedicated an entire CD-ROM to Beethoven's 9 th Symphony. I don't
work for Compton's I'm a freelance CD-ROM reviewer. It seems you want the
equivilant of Street Atlas World and the Library of Congress on one CD-ROM.
If you maintain those expectations you will be greatly disappointed with
every CD-ROM you examine. I think CD-ROM's offer great promise and
currently provide some very handy research tools plus they can be a lot of
fun.
>> It seems you want the equivilant of Street Atlas World and the Library
of Congress on one CD-ROM. <<
I didn't get that impression by reading David's criticisms. Furthermore,
being the owner of a CD-ROM player, but yet to have purchased any disks,
I'm happy to hear about David's experience. So far I haven't come across
much good information about the software that is available now, and it all
looks pretty pricey. As far as your points are concerned, I hope you don't
waffle as much in your reviews as you did in this post.
Hello, PMJI–
I have to agree with Bruce on at least a couple of points. It is awfully
easy to have unrealistic expectations when it comes to CD-ROM. I've also
been disappointed in some titles that haven't lived up to dreams, but we're
dealing with a relative immature area of personal computing. It is going
to take some time to develop quality standards. I'm not at all ready to
write off the whole field. There are some great products out there which
make me think we're going to see some real quality products in the future.
Unlike anything we've yet had on our desktops.
As for Compton's, I haven't had a chance to explore it yet. I always had
the impression that it WAS an encyclopedia for children. Am I wrong? I'm
interested in getting a good CD-ROM encyclopedia. Any suggestions? Any
bets the Microsoft's Encarta will be the one to get?
–Christopher
Far from perfect but I am quite impressed with the encyclopaedia that
comes with Microsoft Bookshelf, definitely better than Crompton's, which I
use less often. No, Crompton's is not a Children encyclopaedia, although
they may have one for children.
My two cents come to this. How many $99 street price products have you come
upon that contain the amount of information that CE V.5.0 contain? Can you
tell me of an equivalent atlas product for the $40 that we sell the US and
World Atlas for? Name an equivalent product for ProPhone where you can find
all the names addresses and SIC codes. Have you seen "The Animals"?
Sherlock HOlmes Consulting detective?, How about Cinemania? We carry over
600 titles some good, some not so good, but all of them deserve to be
evaluated as individual works irrespective of their media. As to their
price I sell CDs for better prices than their equivalent disk media
counterparts. Frank Harris Computron, Ltd.