Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom From: Barry@nexthire.demon.co.uk (Barry Pickles) Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!sgiblab!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!hookup!news.sprintlink.net!demon!nexthire.demon.co.uk!Barry Subject: UK: PC HOME CD #5 Distribution: world Organization: Next Hire Reply-To: Barry@nexthire.demon.co.uk X-Newsreader: Simple NEWS 1.90 (ka9q DIS 1.21) Lines: 132 Date: Sun, 27 Feb 1994 10:39:52 +0000 Message-ID: <762345592snz@nexthire.demon.co.uk> Sender: usenet@demon.co.uk HI! Issue 5 is now out. I didn't post a review of disc #4, as it wasn't worth the effort! The contents of disc #5 are as follows: FINE ARTIST CREATIVE WRITER --------------- These are non-interactive demos of two new programs for pre-teens from Microsoft. Fine Artist is a draw package and Creative Writer is a story creator, but it also has other art facilities, including the ability to make greeting cards and banners. In the right hands, the output can look very good INFERNO ------ Demo of a new game from Ocean. This is one of those games that requires a special (i.e: marginal) boot configuration. I don't like messing about with different boot options. CYBERRACE --------- Playable demo of a futuristic racing game. Not worth the effort of loading! LOST VIKINGS ----------- Playable demo of a platform & ladders game. MY kids like it. METAL & LACE ------------ Demo of a 'Mortal Kombat' type game. This one has to boot from floppy! It amazes me that, in the age of interactive CD technology, programmers can make retrograde actions! DARKSEED -------- Non-interactive demo of a graphics adventure, apparently conceived by H. R. Giger ( of "Alien" fame). Looks good - but I hate non-interactive demos! DETROIT -------- 'Kingdoms' ( What? OK - Sim City! ) - type game,. in which you get to build a motor-car empire - or not, as the case may be! Playable demo. TORNADO ------- Playable demo of flight sim. POOLS PREDICTOR --------------- Nothing to say about this C++ QUIZ -------- If you want to test your knowledge of C++ programming, here you are. I prefer to retain my sanity! FINANCE COMPANION ----------------- Home finance application OPTIC NERVE ----------- Graphics/sound demo. Requires special boot configuration. JANGLE ------ Another graphics/sound demo. Plays for 40 minutes overall, but you have to select the tracks yourself - its not a contiguous demo. I guess I'm getting old as the music sounds to me ... er.. jangly! CHEET SHEETS ------------ Just what it says. AUTODESK ANIMATIONS ------------------- 74 Mb of flicks created by the magazine readers. Some excellent ideas, especially considering the age of some of the contributors. Worth a spin! SKYLIGHT -------- Windows-based relational database. JUNIOR ESSENTIALS ---------------- Demo of multi-discipline educational package aimed at primary school kids. MICRO MACHINES -------------- Special level of this unusual racing game. EPIC PINBALL PINBALL DREAMS PINBALL FANTASIES ----------------- NOw this is more like it! I'm a total pinball fan and have been since I was - er... younger than I am now. Here is one table from each of these programs. Pinball Fantasies is limited to 5 mins, rather than a number of balls. Loved 'em all! KNOWLEDGE ADVENTURE ------------------- This is a sampler for a whole set of educational CDs covering Dinosaurs (in 3D!), America, Bugs, The Body, Speed, Science, Space, Undersea and Animals. The whole thing runs for 30 minutes and has some excellent pictures and video clips, all accompanied by an audio soundtrack. This is an excellent sampler and well worth running, if you have kids. You need 3D glasses (not supplied) for the Dinosaur movie. Next month is the last CD before my subscription runs out. I shall not be renewing it, as the CDs (which is why I ordered the mag in the first place) do not live up to their earlier promise. There are too many non-interactive demos for my liking - they could just as easily have put that stuff in the magazine editorial, instead of wasting CD space. There are also too many demos that require special configurations for your PC. It seems to me that this is a bad idea - not everyone can alter their configuration to suit the requirement of the program, yet we all have (more or less) a standard platform. If the programmers can't live within that standard, then p'raps they should be writing for a different machine. Europress are releasing a new mag. next month, dedicated to multimedia and, yes, it will have a cover-mounted CD. This may be more to my tastes. We shall see, but I won't make the mistake of committing myself to a subscription this time. Barry -- ******************************************* * Internet: Barry@Nexthire.demon.co.uk * * Fidonet : Barry Pickles at 2:252/150 * *******************************************