THE SURF IN SCI-FI, BUT NO MULTI IN THE MEDIA
A Review of Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
by Nathan Bruinooge
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction has long been the standard-setter in
science
fiction reference; Grolier's now brings us a multimedia CDROM with the same
material,
plus much more. Like the book form of the Encyclopedia , the CDROM provides
archives
of 300 science fiction books, old and new. It adds a number of images,
sounds, films,
hypertext, and search mechanisms--standard fare for multimedia encyclopedias.
Grolier's divides the CDROM into helpful sections, though often it's the same
information
being accessed via different routes. The Themes section contains articles,
media clips,
and links on subjects like 'Space,' 'Life Forms,' and 'Mind & Spirit.' The
Book Browser
provides easy access to a host of science fiction books, author information,
summaries,
and hypertext links.
The Time Machine is a detailed, graphical timeline of
the history
of science fiction, with, of course, plenty of links to other information on
the disk.
The Gallery is an archive of the (otherwise scattered) multimedia clips.
Finally,
there's a detailed Word Search function and a Collections menu that allows
you to store
customized groups of articles and media information.
So why bother with the CDROM--what does it provide that the book won't or
can't? As with
the general multimedia encyclopedias, the answer boils down to one thing:
hypertext.
There's nothing like following a trail from a familiar book, via link to its
author, to
someone more obscure, and on to undiscovered (and fascinating) country, at
the click of
a mouse. For a sci-fi fan, browsing this encyclopedia is like surfing the
'Net; there's
a seemingly infinite amount of material . . .
. . . as long as you're talking about words. When it comes to the actual
multis of
media, this CDROM is thoroughly disappointing. Photographs of book covers
and authors
are numerous, but not particularly unusual--we'd expect that sort of thing
from a bound
encylopedia anyway.
The sound and Quicktime movie clips are a decidedly
uneven
and haphazard bunch of bites, ranging from the mildly interesting to the
inane. There's
a disproportionate number of clips from what few (relatively obscure) science
fiction
authors Grolier's could convince to chatter in the front of a camera or tape
recorder for
awhile. Meanwhile, more significant authors who normally aren't media shy
are rarely
heard or seen, multimedia wise--Bradbury and Asimov are two examples.
Multimedia
encyclopedias have a long way to go before their multimedia information
becomes much
more than novelty, and this CDROM is no exception.
Visually, there's some very attractive, surreal background art for the
various screens.
The interface is intuitive and elegant--it shouldn't take long for anyone to
find
whatever information they're looking for. In case anyone does have trouble,
there are
detailed help files. There are no sound effects for events on the interface
itself, but
I, for one, found this refreshing. I was a little disappointed with the
smoothness and
speed from screen to screen--I was running the program by itself in Win95
with 12mb of
RAM, and there was still a big of lag when switching between the major
sections or calling
up media clips.
Overall, this encyclopedia is a good quality program in a genre (multimedia encyclopedias) that is still finding its feet.
Multimedia Cafe Scorecard
| Product: |
Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |
| Company: |
Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
|
| Cost: |
n/a |
System Requirements:
486dx/33 or better CPU,
Windows 3.1 (DOS version available),
MS-DOS 5.0 or better, 4 MB RAM, SVGA Display,
CD-ROM Drive and 3 MB Hard drive space.
Breakdown:
Entertainment Value 3
Educational Value 4
Concept 4
Depth 2
Interface 4
Overall Score:
Copyright © 1997 InfoMedia, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.