Name............. Groliers Encyclopedia 2
Publisher........ Grolier Inc; Amiga port by Xiphias
Price............ UK: £29.99  US: $24.99
CDROMs........... 1
Used Space....... 440 MB
Language......... English
Bootable......... Yes
Filesystem....... Information not available.
Requirements.....
Usable Software..

                  Amiga KS1.3+ ............. Information not available.
                  Amiga KS2.1+ ............. 100%
                  Amiga KS3.0+ ............. 100%
                  Amiga KS3.0+ AGA ......... 100%
                  IBM PC WIN3.1 ............   0%

Release Date..... November 1, 1993

Contents......... Encyclopedia with articles linked to 2,500
                  64-color ILBM images and 8svx digitized
                  sounds.

Access Software.. Click on any word you see to search for articles
                  with the same word. CD32 interface also can be
                  controlled with Amiga mouse or keyboard.
                  Access to articles and linked pictures
                  through a search engine, a "Picture
                  Browser," or a "Topic Tree."  Help button on
                  every screen triggers an automated demo with
                  a digitized voice and automated pointer
                  movements and button color changes.  User-
                  controllable text size (two choices) and
                  printer preferences.

Comments......... The original version was CDTV only, while
                  this version (usually noted with a "2" or "II") works 
                  on Amiga, CD32, or CDTV.
                  Other related CD-ROMs:
                   Groliers Encyclopedia 

Testers Opinion.. "The encyclopedia:  Adequate at the level
                  of most encyclopedias:  well-written
                  articles at approximately junior high school
                  level.  Longer articles provide significant
                  detail and include bibliographies and author
                  credits.  Some authors of encyclopedia
                  articles are subjects of articles of their
                  own.  A major limitation for research is the
                  lack of tables and lists - for example,
                  Presidents of the U.S. with their dates,
                  national and state flags (nor are there
                  pictures of flags), the periodic table...

                  The computer implementation:  Excellent.
                  Title and full-text searches from the search
                  screen can be customized with limited
                  Boolean syntax.  Searches can also be
                  initiated by clicking on any meaningful word
                  in an article or by following links from
                  pictures.  Pictures are linked to text and
                  in many cases to high-quality digitized
                  sounds of animals, classical compositions,
                  and musical instruments.  A pleasant
                  digitized American male voice explains the
                  contents of each screen on request, and
                  responds to inappropriate search requests.
                  There are no menus and no "Quit" gadget, but
                  RAmiga-Q causes the program to exit.  It has
                  been completely stable.  

                  Gripes:  The "Help" demos, once started,
                  cannot be interrupted.  User preferences
                  cannot be saved; printer preferences
                  apparently are read from Sys:Prefs, but text
                  size is always large at the start of a
                  session (limiting the amount of text
                  displayed) until the user changes it.

                  My mail-order CD-ROM (bought late 1995) came
                  in a plain jewel case with no label, no
                  documentation or identification other than
                  that printed directly on the CD, and no
                  product registration or provision for later
                  updates."          (Bill Falls bfalls@cais.com)

                  As far as I know, this is the only such
                  CD-ROM presently available for the Amiga,
                  which also makes it the "best" by default.
                  I found it quite easy to use and full of
                  interesting and useful information.  There
                  are several search methods (keyword,
                  outline, topic), as well as file Print and
                  Save options.  There are over 2,000 pictures
                  and illustrations, as well as hundreds of
                  sound files, to compliment articles; and
                  every article seems to have a Bibliography,
                  so you can go to the library and look for
                  additional information, if need be.  Not up
                  to par with what I've seen available for
                  "other" computers; but still a "must have"
                  title that's a bargain for the price.
                  RATING: 85%                   (Mike Gratis)

Keywords......... Multimedia

Sources.......... Bill Falls (bfalls@cais.com)
                  Mike Gratis
                   Anders Bakkevold 

Converted on 22 Aug 1996 with RexxDoesAmigaGuide2HTML by Michael Ranner.