Review: Magic Illusions CD-ROM

By: Jason Compton

Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe has become quite an important Amiga publisher. With the flagship of the Aminet CD-ROM set, the Schatztruhe also publishes TurboCalc 2.0 and a slew of other CD-ROMs. Many of these have been reviewed in AR, and, for the most part, we've been very supportive.

Even The Beauty of Chaos, perhaps a slightly overindulgent work from a pair of fractal fans, was tolerable. But I think Magic Illusions comes dangerously close to the line of being ridiculous.

It is a collection of over 200 stereograms in IFF, BMP, and GIF format, in three resolutions. (320x240, 640x480, 1024x768) Tools are included to create your own.

Stereograms, for those of you who have missed the trend, are pictures that have been altered by an algorythm to look like a pile of garbage but, when stared at correctly, produce a 3D illusion of the object under that pile of garbage.

Mathematical and physical justification and explanation of the phenomenon is included, in both German and English (although some words slipped by the translators).

I suppose I should come out and admit that I have a very difficult time seeing stereograms. That being said...

Isn't this a bit much? Granted, I'd rather buy a CD with 200 stereogram images than a book of 50, but if I had my choice I wouldn't buy either.

For true fans of the genre-and I mean FANS-I suppose it's a must-have. But for the rest of the world...I just don't see the allure.

Stefan Ossowski's Schatztruhe
Veronikastr. 33
D-45131 Essen
Germany
++49 201 788 778

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