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1995-02-16
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REVIEW
THE 1995 GROLIER MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA
FORMAT: PC/CD-ROM
DATE: DECEMBER
PRICE: US $149.00
Encyclopedias have always fascinated me because of the huge amount of data
that they gather in what we call knowledge. It is supposed to provide
information about virtually everything. Of course, it does not include
answers on subjects that no one knows for sure what the answer is, but
instead, it provides facts and information. This is what you basically
expect from an encyclopedia and thus, what is expected from a multimedia
encyclopedia as well.
"The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia" achieves this goal perfectly and
even surpasses it. It features more than 8,000 pictures including 4,000 new
ones, 33,000 articles, hours upon hours of sounds, animations and videos with
a total of 6 hours of multimedia.
Included are also the new features introduced by "Grolier Electronic
Publishing" which are called Knowledge Explorer(tm), the Pathmakers, the
Timeline and the Fact Boxes.
In Knowledge Explorer(tm), ten new essays have been added in 1995 about four
main topics: Arts, History, Science and Nature. For example, you can listen
and watch explanations in the Arts section about architecture, music,
paintings and sculpture, while in the History area, you will have a wide
selection of periods from the Origins to the present time. It is a very
pleasant feature that summarizes the information about the topic.
With the Pathmakers, renowned experts give you their personal views through
video interviews and commentaries about six mains subjects: Innovators and
Inventors, Great Thinkers and the Frontiers of Knowledge, The Novel and the
American Experience, The Artist in the Modern Era, Explorers and the Horizons
of Discovery, and Great Sports Achievements of History. Among these six
experts, you will find Buzz Aldrin, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Kurt
Vonnegut, Jr.
The Timeline is a graphical interface that links pictures, multimedia and
text to thousands of articles. If you pick a specific period, let us say the
Dark Ages from 500 A.D. to about 1400 A.D., you will have the possibility to
see the era's overview for many parts of the world. For example, at the
beginning of this period, Buddhism was introduced in Asia while in Europe
Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800 A.D. On each time line
there are small pictures that you can click to immediately access the
articles related to that subject. The Timeline is a very useful tool that
instantly gives an idea about what happened in the world at that particular
time.
In some articles, the Grolier Encyclopedia shows a special icon called the
Fact Box. When you click on it, you will access a list of facts about the
article you are reading. For example, if you were reading an article about
Abraham Lincoln, the Fact Box would give you facts about his life like where
and when he was born, how many children he had, who was his wife, who was
inside his cabinet, etc...
The multimedia maps included in the encyclopedia are really the icing on
the cake, and it is one of my favorite features. It mixes history and
geography with graphical animations and commentaries. It is just brilliant
and I love it. The only thing I could suggest in the next edition would be
to add more of them!
For geographic fans, the program brings 325 new detailed maps with cities,
rivers, mountains, regions, etc. Each map comes with links to information
and geographical locations around the world, and for example, if you click
on some major city, you will see the city map. Specific areas on the maps
like mountains, rivers, deserts, seas and oceans provide information when
you click on them.
Finally, animations about topics such as the Human Body, Technology, Natural
processes and simple machines are featured and they carefully explain in a
simple way how things work. You will see animations about dynamic clouds,
TV broadcasting and much more!
To resume how I liked the "1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia", I will let
you know that I spent many hours playing around and discovering pictures,
sounds, animations and videos about our world and history. This
encyclopedia is not just a collection of graphic and sound files, but also
a reference tool where you will be able to find an article about
nearly anything or at least, a reference about it.
Of course, I searched for a few uncommon subjects to establish just how
good this encyclopedia is. So, just for your information, I looked up
the following subjects:
- Schrodinger's Equation
- Differential calculus
- Photon
- Pyroxene
- Phidias
- Aeneid
I found articles for all of them. As there are about 8,000 pictures for
33,000 articles, I was quite unlucky to have selected articles that are not
accompanied by any pictures. But sincerely, I did not expect to find any
with such uncommon subjects.
──────────┐
Conclusion│
──────────┘
"The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia" is by far the best multimedia
encyclopedia ever created on a computer. There is everything you need inside
to give you instant access to a world of knowledge from mathematics to
chemistry, from history to geography, from literature to sculpture. This
Encyclopedia is perfect for the whole family!
─────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: │
─────────────────────┘
386 SX-20 MHz or better,
Min 4 MB memory,
Windows 3.1 running on MS-DOS 5.0 or higher,
Hard drive required with 6MB free,
Single speed CD-ROM drive (150 Kb/s) or faster,
SVGA 256 color graphic card and monitor,
Microsoft Mouse or 100% compatible,
8 Bit sound card.
───────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────
┌────────┐ ┌─────┐ │Grolier Electronic Publishing Inc.,
│GRAPHICS├─────────────────┤ 95% │ │Sherman Turnpike,
│SOUND ├─────────────────┤ 90% │ │Danbury, CT 06816.
│MUSIC ├─────────────────┤ 90% │ │Tel: 203-797-3530
│GAMEPLAY├─────────────────┤ --% │ │
│INTEREST├─────────────────┤ 95% │ │
└────────┘ └─────┘ │
┌────────┐ ┌─────┐ │
│OVERALL ├─────────────────┤ 93% │ │
└────────┘ └─────┘ │
│
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