home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Gold Medal Software 5
/
Gold Medal Software - Volume 5 (Gold Medal) (1995).iso
/
windows
/
misc
/
cyberr02.arj
/
OCEANS
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-10-18
|
5KB
|
91 lines
Ocean Life
Volume 2 (Micronesia)
Volume 3 (Hawaiian Islands)
review by
William M Frazier
If you love warm ocean waters, you probably dream of going to
the South Sea Islands, the Caribbean, or Hawaii. The sea life found
in these areas surpass the color and beauty of sea life found nearly
anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately, due to limited personal
resources or time, very few of us attain this dream. Realizing
this, Sumeria Inc. has released a series of multimedia CD-ROMs,
titled Ocean Life Volumes 2 and 3. Incorporating movie clips, sound,
and still photographs, the CD-ROMs take you t o the reefs of
Micronesia and Hawaii, where you can experience the richness of life
found in these underwater worlds.
Ocean Life, Volume 2, is a two CD-ROM set, and covers the area
around Micronesia. Ocean Life Volume 3 contains a single CD-ROM of
sea life found in the waters off the Hawaiian Islands. Both CD-ROM
volumes are in hybrid format, meaning that you can run them on
either a Macintosh or IBM compatible computer. All 600 MBs of data
are available on either platform. Whether you are using a Mac or a
PC, system requirements are pretty steep. For the Macintosh you
need to run the System 7 or newer operating syst em, have 6 MB of
RAM, and a 256 color monitor. On the PC side, you need at least a
486DX CPU running at 33Mhz, DOS 5 and Windows 3.1 or newer, 8 MB of
RAM, SVGA (256 colors or more at 640 by 480 resolution), and a sound
card. On both the Mac and the PC you also need a CD-ROM drive
capable of a sustained transfer rate of 150 KB per second.. The
system I used for this review is an IBM compatible 486 computer with
8MB of RAM and a double speed CD-ROM drive.
You can run Ocean Life directly from your CD-ROM, or install the
icons to your Windows desktop. Installation of Ocean Life is easy.
Just run Setup from your file manager, and the Ocean Life program
group and icons will be created on your desktop. Unfortunately, if
you have problems, documentation and help files are limited.
Program documentation consists of a ten page pamphlet inserted in
the CD-ROM jewel-case. Two of these pages are used to list the
terms of the software license. On-line help is a l ittle better,
explaining the purpose of the various icons found on the user
interface. There are also a few README files on the CD that explain
some of the common problems found in the program and changes to the
documentation that occurred after the pamphlet went to print.
One of the first things you find when running Ocean Life, is
that 256 colors is the minimum for decent color reproduction,
especially in the movie sequences. If your system supports more
than 256 colors, use them. Ocean Life is also a resource hog. You
should close any other applications you may have running.
Ocean Life is a multimedia presentation of tropical fish life
found in the areas covered by the two volumes. Both employ a
similar user interface. After the introduction movie sequence, you
arrive at the main selection screen. From this screen you can view
movies and hear descriptions of various families of tropical fish
life. You can also access other selections from this screen, such
as a fish Family Index, Morphology, Reef Life, Charts and Maps of
the area, a Play All selection, and program Help. T he main method
of presentation is a combination of audio narrative coupled with a
movie clip. You are also treated to soothing, New Age background
music throughout the program.
Ocean Life, Volume 2 has a few problems that need to be
mentioned. First of all, it is nearly impossible to access the menu
bar at the top of the screen. You can cause the menu bar to become
visible, but you can't get the menus to drop down. The other
problem is even worse. QuickTime for Windows has a nagging problem
of consuming Windows resources. After watching 10 to 15 movie
clips, you run out of resources, and the Ocean Life program exits
prematurely. Unfortunately it doesn't return your Windows
resources, and you have to completely exit Windows. Volume 3 solves
the menu bar problem, and all menu items are available. The
QuickTime problem with Windows resources is still there, but Sumeria
has improved their program recovery routines. Most of your Windows
resources are recovered after Volume 3 closes.
I made a toll call to Sumeria technical support and questioned
them about the problems I found in Volume 2. They were honest about
the bugs in the program and informed me that a new version would be
released by late September or early October, fixing most of the
problems. Owners of Volume 2, who are having difficulty with the
program, can call Sumeria and have the new version mailed to them
free of charge when it is released.
Ocean Life is an excellent, non-technical introduction to
tropical fish and their habitat. It has an intuitive user interface
and incorporates all of the basic elements of a multimedia
presentation. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in
tropical fish, from the aquarium keeper to the young, future marine
biologist.
Sumeria Inc.
329 Bryant St., Suite 3D
San Francisco, CA 94107
(405) 904-0800