REVIEW: THE GROLIER MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA Grolier 1995 I always enjoy reviewing CD-ROMs, especially encyclopedias and reference works. Of main interest is how easy it is to locate and retrieve information. Of course, the accuracy of that data is most inportant as well. Recently I spent an afternoon with the GROLIER MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA and here's what I found. According to the material that accompanied the review copy, there are 32,287 in-depth articles, 8,017 still images and 118 moving graphics totalling almost 2-1/2 hours. There are also 638 maps and 507 sound clips as well. The Grolier people have prepared a chart that compares their multimedia encyclopedia with Encarta and Comptons that is very interesting, indeed. In other words, there's a lot of stuff on this CD! The GROLIER MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA's contents are based on their ACADEMIC AMERICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA. Grolier has been in the encyclopedia business for a long time and published their first CD-ROM in 1986. The 1995 edition has several new and innovative features such as Pathmakers. These are topical "guided tours" using video interviews with an authoratative personality on the subject - Buzz Aldrin, for example. The interview is linked to related articles and images. There's also the Timeline and Knowledge Explorer features that enhance user accessibility as well as maps, fact boxes, animations, videos to compliment the over 30,000 articles contained in THE GROLIER MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA. You'll need a 386/20 or higher with Windows, 4MB RAM, 6MB hard disk space, VGA or SVGA, sound card & speakers and, of course, a CD-ROM drive to enjoy this great information package. I was very impressed by the incredible amount of information to be found on this CD-ROM set. Grolier is a long-established player in the encyclopedia publishing business and their electronic version was not a disappointment. They have several other CD-ROM based products, including THE GUINESS MULTIMEDIA OF RECORDS that I will be reviewing soon. %T The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia %I Grolier Electronic Publishing Co %C Danbury CT 1-800-285-4534 %D 1995 %O For WINDOWS/MPC and Macintosh, average price around $60.00 ISBN: (MAC) 0-7172-3982-9 (WINDOWS) 0-7172-3981-0 %K encyclopedia, multimedia (C) 1995 Michael Crestohl Nahant Massachusetts USA mc@shore.net DISCLAIMER: I have no interest, financial or otherwise, in the success or failure of the book or materials reviewed herewith, nor have I received any compensation (other than a review copy requested by me) from anyone who has. All opinions expressed are strictly my own. Other Internet and Aviation book/software reviews by me can be obtained by anonymous FTP from: x2ftp.oulu.fi in the /pub/books/crestohl directory.