What was once five is now one--that's the allure of the Microsoft
Encarta 98 DVD-ROM Reference Suite from Microsoft Corp. For just
under $130, you get all three of the major Microsoft reference
works--Encarta 98 Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition, Encarta Virtual Globe
1998 Edition, and Bookshelf 98--on a single 4.5GB DVD. No more
swapping discs to go from the article on Romania to the country map.
No more waiting to load another disc for quotes from George Bernard
Shaw after reading an article about the playwright. It's all now
just a click away.
Although the look of the program hasn't changed much (which is to
say, the disc's creators haven't fully integrated all the titles
into a single unified interface), the content has been spiffed up
with more multimedia to hold younger readers' attention. There are
33 new panoramic views from around the world--more than double the
number of 360-degree images contained on the Encarta 98 Deluxe CD.
The virtual tours are also much more elaborate. You can virtually
visit Paris, for example, jumping from views of the fountains in
front of the Eiffel Tower to the room in the Louvre that houses the
Mona Lisa. Other tours with appended articles include Mayan ruins,
San Francisco's Chinatown, and London's Westminister Abbey.
The disc's Virtual Globe, meanwhile, adds more detail to its maps
to let you locate more than 1.2 million places and to zoom in within
1,000 kilometers when viewing the 19 different maps. There are also
four new 3-D World Flights: topographical 3-D flybys of such natural
landmarks as the Grand Canyon and the Andes Mountains. They're
flashy, but ultimately uninformative.
Though all this is light years ahead of a paperbound
encyclopedia, there's still room for improvement in Microsoft's
first stab at an encyclopedia on DVD. The video clips, for example,
could be reformatted to take full advantage of the detail and image
clarity supported by the DVD format. Sound clips and music samples
should be remixed so listeners can enjoy the aural sensory
experience of Dolby Digital surround sound.
Is the Encarta 98 Reference Suite now the most accurate, in-depth
multimedia encyclopedia available? Not really. But Encarta continues
to shine for its slick presentation of everything from human history
to planet cartography.
The Paris virtual tour offers a panoramic
view around the Eiffel Tower and a glimpse inside the Louvre.
Microsoft Encarta 98 DVD-ROM Reference
Suite
Microsoft Corp.
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond,
WA 98052-6399
800-426-9400;
425-882-8080
www.microsoft.com
Requires: 133MHz Pentium
or faster; 70MB hard drive space; DVD-ROM drive; Windows 95 or
Windows NT 4.0
Mfr. Est. Price: $129.99