PsL Monthly 1994 January

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RE-01: RETAIL PRODUCTS This section describes Retail-Only products sold by PsL. Unlike shareware, you cannot try these programs before buying them and our rock-bottom mark-ups do not allow for returns, but we only carry items which have received top marks by everyone trying them and which we have tested ourselves. Most of these items have been reviewed extensively in magazines such as PC Magazine and PC World and recognized as the best of their kind. Selling retail products represents a departure from PsL's devotion to public domain and shareware software; however, it is still in keeping with our overall philosophy of providing information about (and a source of) high quality, low cost answers to your computing needs. It also is in keeping with the more aggressively commercial approach that shareware authors have moved towards over the years. In most areas in which there are both shareware and retail-only programs, the shareware programs often are better programs at better prices. PsL offers these products at only a few dollars above our cost, which is why we have to charge more for credit card orders and why the prices are subject to change when the prices we pay go up. Products are also subject to availability. Call or check the current PsL News for current prices. "Cash Price" is for payment by cash, check or money order. Retail product orders paid by check are held for 10 days for checks to clear. Prices are subject to change. If this file does not have a recent date on it, check with PsL for latest prices. All sales are final unless otherwise noted. Warranties are solely the responsibility of the manufacturer. If unsure about compatibility of a product with your system, contact the manufacturer for more information. Following are write-ups of some of the Retail Products carried by PsL. Call for pricing on other products. Categories: 1. Special Promotion Prices 2. Desktop Publishing 3. Task Swapping, Multi-Tasking, DOS 4. Business 5. Supplies & General Hardware 6. Voice and Music 7. Modem and FAX 8. Mouse and Ports 9. Video and Printers 10. Games & Education #30387 Personal Label Printer ----------------------------- PsL Price: $129.95 The Avery Label Printer is another of those dedicated label printers about the size of a tape dispenser. What makes this one special is the price ($129.95), plus the fact that it is from Avery. Whether you have a laser printer through which you have to run a full sheet of labels to print a single one*, or a dot matrix printer which requires five minutes to swap between paper and labels, almost everyone can make good use of a dedicated label printer. (* Feeding a sheet of laser labels back through with labels missing can melt the wax paper where the labels are missing and cause serious damage to the drum.) The PLP comes with about $100 worth of software. The PLP software lets you grab and print addresses (or any other text) right from the screen while in your word processor, database, etc. The famous Avery LabelPro Software (list price:$99) lets you design professional looking labels with graphics (import PCX files) and fonts. Although you get some labels with the PLP, you'll also want to stock up while we have them at "show special" prices too: #30388 White $9.99 per roll #30389 Clear $6.99 per roll U.S. Robotics FAX-Modem Deal ---------------------------- #30363 $289.95 Internal #30364 $299.00 External We have made a special purchase of U.S. Robotics 14400 Sportster FAX-modems. Features include V.32 bis at 14400/12000 bps, V.25, V.42 & MNP 2-4 error control, V.42 bis and MNP 5 data compression for effective throughput to 57600 bps, and 9600 bps Group3 send-receive FAX capability. And of course it supports all modem speeds down to 300 bps. 5-year warranty by U.S. Robotics. Modem Bonus ----------- PCFDial is an excellent program for keeping track of names, phone numbers, and phone calls. If you have a modem, it will dial the phone for you. Despite this obvious tie-in to modems, we have never thought before about bundling this program with the sale of a modem, so here it is: Purchase any modem from PsL and we will include this disk free. To get it, be sure to mention this offer and specify disk size needed. (NOTE: PFDial is a shareware program; payment to the author is required for use of the program beyond a reasonable evaluation period.) FREE Games with Mouse! ---------------------- PsL's $29.95 mouse is so good that we have always said that if you do not agree that it has the best feel and is the best-tracking mouse you have ever tried, you can return it (with all the original materials) for a full refund (excluding shipping). Now, because we have just gotten in a big supply of these mice as part of another deal, we are sweetening the pot: when you buy a mouse, we will throw in four disks of arcade games to use your mouse with. (Be sure to specify 5.25" or high density 3.5" disks.) #30004 Publish It! Lite ----------------------- List: $60. PSL Price: $41.95. Cash Discount Price: $39.95. is a wonderful bargain for those interested in getting into desktop publishing. We can only assume that for Timeworks, this is a loss leader which they hope will make people want to upgrade to their full Publish It! program. Naturally this one does not have as many features as the full program, but it is certainly competitive with First Publisher and at just half the price. The only drawback is that laser support is not available. #30369 Virtual Reality Studio 2.0 --------------------------------- PsL Price: $59.95 lets you create your own personal, scrolling 3-D world. It contains a complete library disk of pre-designed objects (cars, trees, boats, houses, furniture, etc.) to form the basis of your virtual environment. You have complete control over color, shading, shape, detail, layout, sound, and animation. You can create a replica of your home which people can "walk" through or you can design a game that takes place in a 3-D, scrolling fantasy world, and you have a choice of moving through your world by walking, driving or flying. You can even record your journey like a VCR and play it back. A sound editor is provided for adding sound effects and a library of sound clips is available. AdLib, Sound Blaster, and Roland sound cards are supported. Requires 640K, a mouse, and EGA/VGA. A tutorial video tape is included. #30010 Grammatik IV ------------------- List: $100. PsL Price: $63.95. Cash Price: $61.95. We have tested many grammar checking programs and this is the best. Many magazine reviews have found the same. It also checks spelling and is user configurable. #30281 HiJaak PostScript ------------------------ PsL Price: $228.95 Cash Discount Price: $219.95 If you have a FAX card, you should check out HiJaak PS, which, in addition to having all the features of HiJaak 2.0, will convert a PostScript file to a format acceptable by virtually any FAX card made. Since most major desktop publishing and graphics programs will print-to-disk in PostScript format, anyone can create professional looking FAXes with a variety of fonts and graphics without needing a PostScript printer. (Call 800-828-8088 for a demo sent to your FAX.) Task-Swapping, Multi-Tasking, DOS ================================= Supplies & General ================== #30021 Avery LabelPro for Lasers #30117 Avery LabelPro for Dot Matrix ------------------------------------ List Price: $100. PsL Price: $59.95. It is not too surprising that the top name in laser labels would come out with a pretty good label printing program, and this is the best we have seen for laser printers. Features include preset layouts for various sizes of Avery labels (or other brands), graphics displays and the ability to view the output on screen before printing. It comes with an integrated database function or labels can be printed from existing database files or from dBase or WordPerfect and other file formats. Two typefaces are included and they can be scaled from 6 point to 96 point. In addition, clip art and other designs are included. PCX files can be imported as well. To get you started, several sheets of many different types of labels and other Avery materials are included. (PsL stocks the popular 4"x1.3" size laser labels and can get the other sizes quickly.) Printers supported include the HPLJ, Canon, Xerox 4045, PostScript and compatibles. A version for dot matrix printers is available at the same price. #30122 Dot Matrix 3.5" Disk Labels ---------------------------------- PsL Price: $16.95 Avery Laser Labels ------------------ are specially designed for use in copiers and laser printers. Good for mailing list, disk labels, etc. #30339: 3.5" Disk Labels (#30339) (qty: 600) $35.00 --------------------------------------------------- Make professional looking disk labels with either a dot matrix or laser printer. User Avery LabelPro, below, or see the label making shareware programs in the Words & Graphics - Printing section. #30338: Laser Labels - Video Tape (#30338) $35.00 -------------------------------------------------- 300 spine labels, 300 face labels. Tidy up your video tape collection with custom printed labels. #30376 System Memory -------------------- PsL Price: $59/meg If your system uses SIMMs for holding RAM chips, you can upgrade memory as easily as you would insert an expansion card in an interface slot. If you are not sure if your system uses SIMMs, or if you don't know what an expansion card or an interface slot is, you are probably better off leaving memory upgrades to your dealer. #30028 Name Tag Kit ------------------- List: $100. PSL Price: $59.95. Cash Discount Price: $57.95. makes impressive looking name badges quickly and easily. This complete kit even comes with fancy peel-off tags and card-stock (with plastic holders) name tags! Has six predefined formats for ease of use, or create your own. Mix up to eight hi-res graphics fonts. Many printers are supported, including the HP LaserJet, but the tags provided are on continuous, one-across, form-feed stock. Import name and address lists to avoid retyping. Prints mailing labels too for follow-up mail-outs. #30027 Tripp Lite Isobar IB-4 Surge Protector --------------------------------------------- List: $100. PSL Price: $59.95. Cash Discount Price: $56.95. After reviewing as many available surge protectors as we could find, we selected the Isobar IB-4. It features two pairs of isolated, filtered sockets (four sockets, total), plus RJ11 phone jacks for modem, fax and telephone protection. We decided to get this because librarian Duane Hendricks had his system fried by a nearby lightning bolt. He had a cheap surge protector, but they are usually worthless. The Isobar is a heavy-duty unit with premium components with 21 active electronic filtering components; it is rated at 15 amps. We have one of these on every system at PsL that doesn't have a Tripp Lite Battery Backup. Tripp Lite Battery Backup ------------------------- #30024 400-va: PsL Price: $199.95. Cash Price: $191.95. #30026 500-va: PsL Price: $329.95. Cash Price: $316.95. Shipping in the U.S. is $18. We finally got tired of losing our work when the circuit breaker tripped because someone turned on the microwave oven in PsL's lunch room at the same time our space heaters were on. Because we (and quite a few of you) have been very happy with the Tripp Lite Isotel computer and phone system surge protector that PsL has been selling, we decided to go with Tripp Lite's battery backup system. The 450-watt unit is sufficient for a loaded 386 with a VGA monitor. Tripp Lite suggests a 350-watt unit for "XT's with hard disks". We have a 200-watt for our phone system, since we used to frequently lose calls when power went out. We have noticed that the unit kicks in several times a day, which we interpret as a voltage sag, even though the lights don't dim. Just knowing that we are sparing our machines that abuse makes us feel better, even though the power only goes completely out once or twice a month, usually. #30054 1.44 Meg 3.5" Bargain ---------------------------- PsL Price: $49.95 Get a 1.44 meg 3.5" drive for as little $69.95 and maximize your floppy storage in the minimum space. We installed some of the drives in our machines. Installation is a breeze. You just slide the drive in and hook it up to existing cables. All you need is a Phillips screw driver. All screws, mounting hardware, etc, are included, along with detailed instructions. If you already have two 5.25" drives, just take out drive B: and put the 3.5" drive in its place. If you have a 720k 3.5" drive, at the low price of a 1.44 meg drive, you should consider upgrading and doubling your disk storage space, particularly on a laptop. Since the price of 1.44 meg disks are under a dollar and still falling, a 1.44meg drive is bargain all around. If you do not have a hard disk, having this inexpensive drive can let you run programs that will not work on 360k drives. We get more programs like this all the time in PsL. Other retail products which we sell are backed solely by the manufacturer's warranty and no returns to PsL are allowed. However, PsL backs these 3.5" drives with a one-year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee. If the drive does not work in your machine, or if you just don't like it for some reason, you can return it to PsL for a refund of the purchase price (excluding shipping). #30052 2-Drive Floppy Controller + IDE Controller, 2 serial, 1 parallel & game port --------------------------------- PsL Price: $29.95. Older computers may support 720k 3.5" drives but not 1.44meg 3.5" drives. These controllers support 360k, 720k, 1.2meg, 1.4meg. Check your machine before ordering. These controllers are supposed to replace your existing one. If your hard disk is connected to the same controller card as your floppy drive(s) or your floppy controller cannot be removed, you CANNOT put in a new floppy controller unless your present floppy controller can be disabled. #30275 Koss Self-Powered Speakers --------------------------------- List Price: $40. PsL Price: $34. These high-quality Koss speakers are designed for use with computer sound cards. They are shielded and small enough (4"x6") to fit on the back corners of your desktop PC. They will run off batteries or an AC adapter (not included). Their frequency range is 50-20,000 Hz, with a maximum power input of 100 mW, and a maximum power output of 7.2 watts. These are heavy-duty speakers with excellent sound. Order them the same time as a sound card, and deduct another $5 from the already discounted price. Mouse, Ports ============ #30048 3-Button Mouse ---------------------- PsL Price: $30.95. We checked out the competition and settled on what we think is the best deal presently available - a slick three-button, serial mouse with software drivers. There are plenty of cheap (price and quality) mice around, but this is an EXCELLENT, heavy-duty mouse. PsL offers a 30-day money back guarantee (excluding shipping and any damages to the mouse, the manual, the disks or packaging) if you don't agree that this is the best mouse you've ever used. Some people ask why we don't carry a bus mouse. It doesn't make sense to us. A bus mouse card takes up a slot and cannot be used for anything else. A serial mouse can be used on any serial port. If you don't have a spare serial port, you can add a serial port card and maintain maximum flexibility, since many devices can use a serial port. #30414 Command Pad ------------------ PsL Price: $15 Arcade games on the PC already equal and sometimes surpass those on the Nintendo-style games, but if you are still using a mouse or even a joystick to play them, you are missing out on the playing action of the arcade game machines. For only $15, there's no reason to miss out any longer. This Nintendo-style game controller plugs into your game/joystick port. (Many computers and nearly all sound cards have game ports.) No drivers are needed because most games have gamepad/joystick support built in. #30411 Motor Mouse ------------------ PsL Price: $39.95 The Motor Mouse works like a standard serial mouse, but looks like a fire-red Lamborghini Countach sports car. This car/mouse comes fully loaded with features: a Lamborghini for a cursor, front fender panels for mouse buttons (which you can hardly tell by looking), horn honking, and the ability to change the size and color of the cursor. Load the "Cruise Control" software (Windows required) for additional features. Motor Mouse works with DOS, Windows, and OS/2. In Windows, various characters pop out now and then. When Motor Mouse arrived at PsL, everyone around here loved it. We would have expected to have to pay a big premium for such a well-designed, super-cool mouse, but it is very reasonably priced. #30051 Multi-Port Card ---------------------- List Price: $40. PsL Price: $20.95. Cash Price: $19.95. For what we used to pay for a single serial port card, you can now get this card with TWO serial ports, a game port and a parallel port, all of which are user configurable through a bank of jumpers. You can even disable ports you don't want or need. Games & Education ================= #30416 Bram Stoker's Dracula ---------------------------- PsL Price: $39.95 Battle the Prince of the Undead in this incredible 3-D animated arcade game. As Jonathan Harker you will travel to Transylvania to track down and destroy hoards of vampires and finally face the Dark One himself in his dreadful castle. The VGA graphics are very well done. The excellent user interface is reminiscent of Castle Wolfenstein. The game also features digitized sounds and music to enhance the overall creepiness. Requires a 1.44mb disk drive, a Microsoft compatible mouse, 384K EMS memory, and a hard drive. #30415 Front Page Sports: Football Pro -------------------------------------- PsL Price: $45 If you are looking for a stunningly realistic football simulation, look no further. You are in total control of the season from start to finish, with hundreds of user-definable options. Authentic NFL rosters and stats are used, and leagues can have up to 28 teams with 1400 professional players. There is a comprehensive tutorial, incredible animation filmed from actual players, digitized speech and helmet-crunching sound effects, a play editor with over 1000 stock plays, 10 field viewing angles plus a blimp-view zoom, three skill levels of coaching and play, play book printing capabilities, and much, much more. This game was voted 1993's "Sports Game of the Year" by Computer Gaming World. Requires a 386/25 or better, 2 meg RAM with EMS, DOS 5+, VGA, 10 meg of free hard disk space, and 1.44 mb floppy drive. A mouse or joystick is recommended. #30410 Game Maker ----------------- PsL Price: $59.95 You can create your own arcade games and adventure games without doing any programming. You can easily make characters and monsters which can fly, walk, run, jump, and make sounds. Characters can shoot or throw any type of object to kill monsters. Creating scenes for your game is just as easy as creating the characters. Among the many features is the ability to import graphics. Several templates are included which can be modified to give you a head start on making your own games. Requires VGA graphics, hard drive, and a mouse. Joysticks and Sound Blaster compatible sound cards are also supported. #30408 Hole-In-One-Miniature Golf Deluxe ---------------------------------------- PsL Price: $29.95 The windmills and cinder blocks of real miniature golf are nothing compared to many of the obstacles you'll face while playing this game. There is unusual gravity, magnets, and even golf balls that are moved telepathically. Attempt a hole in one while navigating through busy city traffic or dodging machine gun fire. Hole-in-One has eight different golf courses. Digitized sound brings the action to life, and sharp realistic graphics add to the enjoyment. Up to 4 people can play. #30374 Inca ----------- PsL Price: $29.95 As the fabled El Dorado you must fulfill the prophecies and battle futuristic Conquistadors, rocket across unknown galaxies, and unravel the ancient mystery of the lost Inca treasure. This amazing game features motion-picture quality digitized video and a beautiful soundtrack for sound cards. The story line unfolds with incredible cinematic sequences featuring real actors, such as are normally only found on CD-ROM games. There are exciting space battles, dungeon-like mazes to explore, Spanish Galleons in outer space, challenging folklore-based puzzles, sword fights, and unending action in this epic adventure of space and time. The mouse-based interface is very easy to learn and use. If you've been yearning to play the type of games usually found on CD-ROMs, but don't want to have to buy the hardware, this award-winning game is it. Requires a 386-20 or better, 640K, 17MB of hard disk space, and a mouse. This is available only on high density 3.5" diskettes. #30373 The Incredible Machine ----------------------------- PsL Price: $34.95 Sierra's Incredible Machine is a delightful puzzle-game and freeform "invention" factory. Those of you old enough to remember the old Rube Goldberg drawings know what this is all about. In the accompanying picture, a bowling ball falls on a seesaw, causing a rope to turn on a light which is focused through a magnifying glass, lighting the fuse to a rocket which flies up and breaks a fish bowl, attracting a cat which walks over a mouse's cage, causing the mouse to run, driving the pulley, etc., etc. In the puzzle mode, you are presented with certain elements and required to add other elements to cause a specific result. In the freeform mode, you have access to 45 animated parts for creating your own machines. Just to make sure things don't get boring, you can also change air pressure and gravity so that balloons and bowling balls behave differently. The program has hi-res VGA, a crazy music background, and sound effects. Requires 640k, VGA, 386+, hard drive, and a mouse. #30342 Links386 Pro ------------------- PsL Price: $49.95 Provides the most realistic play and best graphics of any Golf game we have tested! It includes digitized graphics of courses, excellent animation, and digitized sound effects. It requires a 386 or faster CPU and Super VGA video. #30341 Microsoft Golf For Windows --------------------------------- PsL Price: $49.95 This is actually the non-386 version of Links, above, but rewritten for Windows 3. Links386 and MS Golf Courses ---------------------------- These courses can be used with Links, Links386 and Microsoft Golf. Links Courses are created with actual digitized photographs with precise attention to detail, including an actual score card from the club. They are the next best thing to being there. (Only available on multiple 3.5" disks except Bay Hill which is 5.25". Mauna Kea is only on 1.44MB 3.5" disks.) #30349 $19.95 Hyatt Dorado Beach East Course beautiful seaside course. #30350 $19.95 Pinehurst Number Two the PGA Tour Championship course. #30351 $19.95 Bay Hill home of Arnold Palmer's Nestle Invitational.(5.25") #30352 $19.95 Barton Creek the Legends of Golf championship course. #30353 $19.95 Troon North the number one course in Arizona. #30354 $24.95 Mauna Kea this course is priced a little higher because it is for SuperVGA only. Photographed in late Spring, this beautiful course is the top-rated course in Hawaii. (1.44MB 3.5" disks) #30345 Firestone Course for Links & Golf For Windows ---------------------------------------------------- PsL Price: $19.95 #30344 Jack Nicklaus Signature Edition Golf ------------------------------------------- PsL Price: $49.95 The graphics in JNSE are not as high-res as in the Links/MS games. You get a graphical golfer instead of a digitized real one, but none of this seriously detracts from the play of the game. Also included is a Course Design program for creating additional courses to play. #30372 NY Times Crossword Puzzles --------------------------------- PsL Price: $34.99 Swfte, the company that publishes this package, did not mess around. The puzzles in this set were licensed right from the pages of New York Times, meaning that they are the most challenging puzzles you are likely to find. The New York Times Crossword Puzzles and Microsoft Windows make a good combo. Some people say that the best way to tackle a crossword puzzle is to work on it for a while then put it away and work on it some more later - an approach for which Windows is ideally suited. The approach used by the program is clever. The 200 "daily" puzzles are divided into days of the week, so that you can work a different puzzle each day. There are also 50 "Sunday" puzzles, which are longer and even harder. Other features include a "peek" mode, three skill levels, and the ability to save and reload the puzzle you are working on. #30394 Sierra's Pinball for Windows ----------------------------------- PsL Price: $29 Sierra's Pinball For Windows is like all Sierra games: lots of entertaining graphics and sounds. There are eight different playing fields and themes based on other popular Sierra games, such as Leisure Suit Larry. Our favorite was the layout called "Draxon 2". Its black holes and gravity fields created bizarre effects not possible on real pinball games. If you are a pinball purist or don't like Windows games, stick with Tristan, which is still the most realistic pinball simulation, but if you just want to have a fun and flashy game to pop up while you are in Windows, this is it. This comes on 1.44mb 3.5" diskettes. #30409 Pinball Dreams --------------------- PsL Price: $34.95 Pinball Dreams is a very realistic pinball machine simulation game. There are four games to play, each with it's own set of digitized sounds, images and pinball action. You'll find all the usual pinball game gadgets such as balltraps, ramps, bumpers, tunnels and more. You can even "bump" the machine, but be careful not to tilt. You can choose from four different playing field themes, each with corresponding digitized sounds. Choose the Western theme and you'll hear gunshots, for example. Each playing field is three times the height of the screen. As the ball moves up and down the playing field, the screen scrolls up and down. Requires 3 meg of hard disk space, 570k of free RAM and a VGA monitor. #30380 Strike Commander ----------------------- PsL Price: $59 This is a flight simulator for SERIOUS flight simulator lovers. Minimum hardware system requirements call for 4MB RAM, 27+MB disk space, 256-color VGA, and a 1.44MB 3.5" drive. Recommended system set-up includes a 486-33 or better, 8MB RAM, joystick, sound board and 33MB of disk space REAL disk space: compression utilities are NOT supported. If you use something like Stacker, you must have 27+MB of unStacked disk space. What you get if your system meets the qualifications is fantastic graphics and animation, fractal-generated landscapes, sounds and music -the result of two years of development and graphics techniques previously used only in multi-million dollar real flight simulators. This is not just a flight simulator, though. The flying missions are part of a rich military adventure taking place in the near future. Translate It! For Spanish, German & French ------------------------------------------ PsL Price: $59 Per Language Timeworks has another sure hit with this series of language translation programs for English-Spanish (#30395), English-German (#30397), and English-French (#30396). Each program lets you translate text files in either direction. Each comes with a very large 250,000 word dictionary, as well as a user-modifiable dictionary. The programs do not simply do word substitution; they perform full-sentence idiomatic translations. Different tranlations of a word are based on parts of speech. You can choose whole-document translation, or an on-screen, interactive mode. You can even translate documents as you create them with the built-in text editor. Translate-It! is also compatible with all major word processors. This is a real help for us at PsL where we often get FAXes in German, French, etc., with nobody available to translate them. Although Translate-It! does not do a perfect job (90-95% accuracy is claimed), it does well enough to let us figure out what is being said. Timeworks is so sure of this product that they offer a 60-day money-back satisfaction guarantee. #30371 Tristan Pinball ---------------------- PsL Price: $34.95 Tristan is without a doubt the top pinball simulation ever written for the PC. If you have ever enjoyed playing a real pinball machine, you can be assured that you will love Tristan. The game has all the feel, pace, features, and fun of a real machine. You can even "jiggle the machine" by hitting a user-specified "nudge" key (such as the space bar), but if you overdo it, you'll tilt it and lose. #30109 SAT Personal Trainer -------------------------- List Price: $50. PsL Price: $39.95. Cash Price: $37.95. If you have students in your family who are facing the S.A.T. college entrance exams, this software will help prepare them for it. It will give you sample math and verbal SAT exams, prepare detailed training programs customized to your particular needs, help you develop strategies for taking tests, and more. For visual feedback, it charts your progress with 3-D graphs. Davidson, the publishers of the program, offer a 30-day, money-back satisfaction guarantee on this and all of their other programs. CD-ROM and Multimedia ===================== Clip Art & Graphics =================== The Women of Venus CD #30403 $29.95 No, this is not a collection of UFO sightings. It is a collection of hundreds of full-color pictures of winners in the Venus Swimwear's International Pageant. The CD has software for DOS, Windows, Macs, Amiga, and Unix with music files which play in the background while pictures are being viewed. Or you can view the files with any program which can handle the TIF graphics format, such as Paint Shop Pro for Windows, and convert the files to other formats. If you like the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, you will love this CD. Color Magic Clip Art CD #30404 $49 This CD contains over 600MB of 256-color, 300dpi drawings which you can use royalty free in publications. Software for Windows 3.1 makes it easy to browse by thumbnail or keyword to quickly find the picture you want, as well as to convert the drawings into a dozen different standard graphics formats. Works on the Mac, too, plus has support software in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. Pixel Perfect Graphics CD #30406 $29 Get thousands of black and white, 300 dpi drawings for use in desktop publishing. Pictures are in the following formats: PCX, TIF, WPG, BMP, MAC, Printshop (old & new), Newsroom, Printmaster, and First Publisher. Categories include animals, business, computers, food, frames, holidays, medical, sports, states, countries, transportation, occupations and more. The artist is Kirk Gibson of Disneyworld, Forida. Cataloging software is included. The CD has support in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese. Education & Games ================= Multimedia Beethoven [$99] $60 (#30154) (MPC) In addition to this being a music CD that you can play on any CD player, this is a detailed study of the music and of Beethoven himself. This is a must for any serious music lover or student. CD Storyline: Red Hen & Boy and the Donkey $30 (#30284) The two popular children's stories on this CD are narrated while a graphic drawing depicts each scene. The young user can click the mouse cursor on parts of the picture to have the narrator identify them. The excellent music sound track makes this a well-polished production. An extra attraction to this package is that each of the story scenes can be printed out for the child to color. Chessmaster MPC SALE: $30 (#30242) King's Quest V SALE: $30 (#30187) [MPC optional] Journey through fearsome lands on a noble quest. Beautiful 3-D graphics. Mad Dog McCree $39.95 (#30407) This is based on one of the most popular video arcade games in the world. The PC version is so true to life that it takes a CD-ROM to store all the live action video and digitized sounds. To save the town from Mad Dog's gang, you will have to survive a shoot-out in a saloon full of outlaws, stop a bank robbery, out-draw vicious gunfighters, watch out for ambushes, and stand up to Mad Dog himself. Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe SALE: $30 (#30322) This CD gives you the opportunity to fly the unfriendly skies of Europe from 1943-1945. In this unique air combat simulation, you can hone and apply your flying skills for the Allies or the Third Reich. The CD will take you through training flights (complete with an instant replay gun camera), all the way to full-fledged historical missions. In-flight displays include highly accurate reproductions of cockpit instrumentation of the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter, P-38 Lightning fighter/bomber, Messerschmitt 109 fighter, the mysterious Gotha 229 flying wing, and many other classic aircraft. An extensive historical overview provides a wealth of information regarding economic and political factors of World War II. You can personally set the strategy and direct the war effort for your side, including designing your own customized missions. This is a very detailed simulation that requires a lot of determination to master. Spirit of Excalibur SALE: $30 (#30313) Is a fantastic animated role-playing game set in the period following King Arthur's death. As a hero of the Round Table, you must assemble a noble band of warriors to restore the Kingdom to it's former glory. You'll encounter Rogue Knights, Wizards, maidens, mythical beasts, and more in your quest. The original musical soundtrack supports Adlib and Roland compatible sound cards, and digitized voices are provided from the CD-ROM audio output. The game uses an icon-based menu system, so you don't have to memorize any commands, and mouse and joystick input are supported. The excellent scrolling graphics require VGA. This package contains a full-color wall map, a detailed hint book, and extensive historical background information on Arthur's England. Wing Commander & Ultima VI $64 (#30247) Wing Commander II Deluxe $64 (#30269) Bible Library SALE: $49 (#30191) 9 complete Bibles, 20 reference works, 27 concordances Viva 2000 French #30303 - Learn English from Spanish $49 This CD make it easy to learn another language because you get to hear the words spoken as they should be. (Requires a Sound Blaster compatible card or LANtastic Voice Adapter or Covox Sound/Voice Master.) The use of graphics also keeps things interesting. Magazine Rack SALE: $25 (#30216) Hundreds of magazine articles dealing with PC's - through summer 1992 Microsoft MM Bookshelf [$195] $129 (#30155) (MPC) Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, the American Heritage Dictionary, Roget's II Electronic Thesaurus, the World Almanac and Book of Facts, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Hammond Atlas. In addition to the basic information and the ability to search all of these sources at once for a subject, the multimedia enhancements let you hear some of those Familiar Quotations being spoken (such as JFK saying: "Ask not what this this country can do for you..."), hear those tough words in the dictionary pronounced, see animated graphics in the encyclopedia (such as an extensive "movie" of how a CD works) and so on. #30379 Microsoft Encarta ------------------------ PsL Price: $279 This impressive multimedia CD contains the entire text of the 29-volume Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. There are more than 25,000 articles, including over 1000 articles written exclusively for this CD covering subjects such as history, modern culture, and computers. The audio portion of this CD lets you listen to 350 musical segments, hundreds of bird and animal sounds, samples of over 45 languages, 100 readings by authors, 5000 word pronunciations, and much more. There are thousands of high quality 256color images, and nearly 1000 maps and charts. The easy-to-use Windows interface makes browsing and searching for information extremely easy. You can quickly search the entire disk for a certain word, or view a scrolling alphabetized list of topics. Other features include a Timeline of World History, a Research Wizard to help you gather available information, dictionary/thesaurus, a "see also" list of related articles for each entry, a whimsical adventure game for children, and much more. Since this is a Windows application, all text and graphics can be easily exported into a word processor for the creation of reports. This is a powerful learning and research tool that could be used by every member of the family. Requires a minimum of 2 meg RAM, hard disk, VGA, and a 386 or better processor. An MPC-compatible sound card and drive are recommended to fully access the sound and graphics. Toolworks Reference Library SALE: $55 (#30210) NY Pub.Lib.Desk Ref.; Webster's Thesaurus, Guide to Concise Writing, and 3rd Colleg.Dictionary; Dictionary of Quotable Definitions; Dictionary of 20th Centry History; J.K.Lasser's Legal and Corp.Forms for Small Business; National Directory of Addresses and Telephone Numbers Quicktoons Cartoon Classics $19.95 (#30399) This disk contains public domain color and black-and-white cartoons starring Betty Boop, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and others. Both Windows 3.1 and Macintosh versions are included. You can easily incorporate these cartoons into your multimedia presentations, or just sit back and enjoy the whacky entertainment on your desktop. Wild Places SALE: $29 (#30257) features stunning photographic images and digitized audio clips. Wild Places contains images of deserts, forests, and seascapes. These disks will work with Macintosh and PC systems. CD-ROM Drives & Multimedia ========================== SyDos Personal CD (#30385) PsL Price: $325 ($9 S&H) If you want an external drive with no installation hassles, it's hard to beat the Sydos Personal CD. It plugs into any parallel port and has a pass-thru connector so that you can still plug in a printer. With a 545ms access time and 176kb throughput, it is amazingly zippy for a CD drive with a parallel interface. An optional interface card is promised for the near future to make the drive even faster. Its printer port interface and small, light-weight size makes this unit ideal for use with laptops. Its $325 price is extremely reasonable for an external, especially since you don't have to buy an additional interface card for it. Mitsumi Internal CD-ROM Drive (#30384) PsL Price: $225 This is a bargain price for an MPC-compatible drive with 350ms access time and 150kb throughput. It is Photo-CD ready, and includes a proprietary SCSI interface. NEC 74M External CD-ROM Drive (#30270) PsL Price: $623 Cash Price: $599 280ms access, 300kb/sec throughput, 64k buffer, SCSI. NEC 84M Internal CD-ROM Drive (#30271) PsL Price: $575 280ms access, 300kb/sec throughput, 64k buffer, SCSI. Pioneer Six-Disk Changer CD-ROM Drive $990 (#30223) External. Access time: 800ms. Buffer: 32k. Interface: SCSI. Trantor T100 SCSI 1 CD-ROM interface kit 600e Interface Kit: $75 (#30225) Toshiba 3401B Internal $623 (cash discount price: $599) (#30383) External $727 (cash discount price: $699) This is one of the fastest CDROM drives available. It has an access time of 200ms and 300kb throughput. It has a high-performance SCSI-2 interface card included, and is Photo-CD ready. Toshiba XM-3301A External $599 (#30230) Toshiba XM-3301B Internal $459 (#30231) half-height, SCSI, 325ms, contamination-free sealed enclosure. 64k. 150k (Get Trantor interface kit, below.) CD Caddies $6.50/each or 10 for $50 (#30315) (If you need mass quantities of these we recommend you purchase directly through Educorp at 1-800-843-9497.) Sound Cards =========== #30287 Pro Audio Spectrum 16 Basic ---------------------------------- PsL Price: $129 This MPC-compatible sound card features 20-voice stereo sound with AdLib and Sound Blaster compatibility, 8 bit digital sound recording/playback at up to 44 khz (CD music quality), MIDI port (requires optional MIDI Mate Interface), SCSI port for attaching a CD-ROM drive (requires optional SCSI Cable Kit), joystick port, software controllable volume/treble/bass controls, and a music and sound effects library. A lot of nifty utilities come bundled with it, including a wave editor, input source mixer, TrakBlaster Pro, sound recorder, MIDI sequencer, text-to-speech synthesizer, and more. Windows 3.1 drivers are included. #30279 Pro Audio Spectrum 16 ---------------------------- PsL Price: $189 The main enhancement to this card over the PAS Plus card (above) is 16-bit digitizing for true CD-quality sound. While many people are quite excited about this ability, the problem is that 16-bit digitizing at 44k takes a tremendous amount of disk space. If you don't expect to need to digitize sounds with absolute CD quality and you want to save some money, you do not lose much by getting the Plus card rather than the PAS 16. #30355 Pro MovieSpectrum ------------------------ PsL Price: $299 Media Vision's MovieSpectrum lets you display video in a window, capture single frames or video sequences, add recorded or live video to your multimedia presentations and more. You can input video from a camcorder, VCR, laser disk player, or from any TV receiver with video output. Included with the card is Macromedia's Action!, which is a multimedia presentation package which lets you combine sound, text, graphics, full-motion video and user input, Microsoft's Video for Windows, DOS Player and Recorder, and more. #30275 Koss Self-Powered Speakers --------------------------------- List Price: $49. PsL Price: $34. These high-quality Koss speakers are designed for use with computer sound cards. They are shielded and small enough (4"x6") to fit on the back corners of your desktop PC. They will run off batteries or an AC adapter (not included). Their frequency range is 50-20,000 Hz, with a maximum power input of 100 mW, and a maximum power output of 7.2 watts. These are heavy-duty speakers with excellent sound. Order them the same time as a sound card, and deduct another $5 from the already discounted price. #30360 CD-Speedway ------------------ PsL Price: $59.95 CD-Speedway is the ultimate caching program for CD-ROM drives. It can increase your CD-ROM speed by up to 1000% (that's NOT a typo). It employs unique Intuitive Caching technology that transfers data to your hard disk, RAM disk, or any drive device for almost instant access. CD Speedway dramatically increases the speed of text searches and clip-art viewing/retreival, and uses only 19K RAM. Requires 640K, and XT or better, and DOS 3.3+. ]]]]]]]]]]