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by: Hailey Lynne McKeefry
You can travel through the last century, year by year or decade by decade, with Our Times Multimedia Encyclopedia of the 20th Century. Navigation is as easy as clicking on a timeline, searching for a keyword or browsing Fast Facts, which highlights notable events. The CD-ROM contains 52,000 articles, 2,500 images, and 120 minutes of narration and video documentaries that are connected with more than 65,000 hyperlinks. The complete Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition is also included.
$69.95. Vicarious, 800-465-6543 x900, 415-610-8300.
by: Lori L. Bloomer
If you'd like to be under the sea exploring a coral reef, check out Jean-Michel Cousteau's World Volume 1, Cities Under the Sea: Coral Reefs. Your tour places you on a submarine that moves you from one underwater laboratory to another. Each demonstrates a different principle of ecology: Living Communities and Biodiversity are just two. A pair of Hot Topics games explore what might happen to the coral reefs in the next century.
$49.95. Enteractive, 800-425-9999.
by: Hailey Lynne McKeefry
Marcus Welby or Trapper John wannabes can jump into the fray at Legacy Memorial Hospital with the Emergency Room CD-ROM. Take imaginary patients all the way from admitting to discharge. Choose the patient in most need of care from the waiting room, and then give him or her a thorough physical. Once you've pinpointed the problem (which could be any of 400 ailments), send the patient to the imaging room for further testing or to the treatment room. If you take too long, your patient dies. If you do well, you'll move up the ranks from medical student to real live doctor.
$99.95. IBM Multimedia Publishing Studio, 800-898-8842, 615-793-5090.
by: Ian Etra
If you thought installing your sound card was scary, you might want to keep the lights on for Phantasmagoria, a monstrous seven-disc CD-ROM adventure. Adrienne has just moved with her husband, Don, into a large mansion, built by a long-dead magician and reputed by local townsfolk to be haunted. You direct Adrienne's explorations around the estate as she tries to penetrate its shady past--and figure out why her husband's behavior has become increasingly strange. While the plot is reminiscent of The 7th Guest, The Shining and more than one Scooby-Doo episode, live-action video and computer-generated effects make Phantasmagoria a uniquely chilling experience. One especially nice touch is the sinister MIDI soundtrack that gradually builds an atmosphere of suspense. Just be warned: Phantasmagoria contains some scenes that would make Stephen King lose his appetite. It may be too much for some kids.
$69.95. Sierra On-Line, 800-757-7707, 206-649-9800.
by: Hailey Lynne McKeefry
Whether you're going back to school yourself, or trying to help a son or daughter pick just the right university, choosing a place of higher learning can be confusing. On Campus 96 lets you create search criteria (cost, location, majors) to narrow down your choices among 1,730 possible schools. There are more than 300 campus video tours, for three hours of video in total, as well as campus maps of many of the schools. Financial tools, such as a Tuition Planner and a Student Loan Calculator, help you create a realistic plan. All aspects of the program, such as the college database, printing functions, videos and maps, can be accessed by clicking on different items in a dorm room.
$49.95 (street). Kaplan InterActive, 800-527-4836, 212-752-1840.
by: Tom LaSusa
It was April 13, 1970, almost a year after man walked on the moon, when the Apollo 13 astronauts found their mission objective radically changed. It was no longer a survey of the moon; it was a mission of survival. Apollo Interactive catapults you back in time to the days of the ill-fated Apollo 13 flight, as well as the other Apollo missions.
Nostalgic videos include the heart-pounding liftoffs, the first moon walk, and the 1975 meeting of American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts. Detailed graphics illustrate the various parts of the Apollo rockets and their functions. Apollo Interactive is the perfect gift for space buffs, nostalgists and future space explorers.
$14.99. The WizardWorks Group, 800-229-2714, 612-559-5140.
by: Tom Ponzo
Visit the vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., with Beyond the Wall. You can search the names of the American servicepeople commemorated there, travel to each section of the wall and click on faces to get a detailed biography of selected GIs, or click on the artifacts at the base of the wall to view the lives they left behind. The CD-ROM is narrated by Adrian Cronauer, the Armed Forces Radio disc jockey portrayed by Robin Williams in the film Good Morning, Vietnam.
$49.98. Magnet Interactive Studios, 800-996-0011, 310-369-2851.
by: Nancy A. Lang
Windows 95 Power Tools offers power users in-depth, illustrated information on key topics related to the OS. Coverage includes networking, messaging and communications, multimedia, and advanced topics that address system management, optimization, DOS and the Win95 command language. The book comes with a CD-ROM packed with programs and utilities, including a Windows batch programming language and interpreter, two screen-capture programs, and a disk-space analyzer. Author Martin Matthews aims his book toward both beginning users (most of Win95's base at this point) and those who played with betas for several months.
630 pages. $40. Random House, 800-733-3000, 410-848-1900.
by: Tom LaSusa