Multimedia

CD vs. BBS (And the Winner Is...?)
CD's and Multimedia

CD vs. BBS (And the Winner Is...?)
From Catalog 38, page 42

Did you ever spend 20-30 minutes trying to download a program only to find that your disk was nearly full and the download aborted? How about those programs that sounded good in the terse description but turned out to be dogs?

I know, it has happened to me more than a few times. I still use the boards frequently for E-mail and up to the minute modifications, but ever since I added a CD-ROM to my PC, I have increasingly looked to CD's for my data.

Consider the "Shareware" CD's - most of them are updated or appended every three to six months (and the interval is getting shorter all the time). With hundreds of megabytes on each CD, you would have to own a "baby Bell" to compete on a cost per byte basis.

When you add the security that comes from getting your programs pre-screened, the advantages are compelling. The BBS isn't going to fade away any time soon, but then, neither is the CD-ROM.

Every day new titles are introduced, and the information seems to be increasing exponentially. With the increased volume, prices continue to decline! Can you say the same about your phone bill?

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CD's and Multimedia
From Catalog 31, page 59

Virtual reality in the PC game today comes in the form of CD's. The reality is that you can hardly avoid them if you want to embrace the concept of graphical user interfaces and multimedia.

Today everything from operating systems to full motion games and mind boggling clip art comes on CD's.

Don't even consider installing OS/2 or Windows NT from diskettes. The time and effort, mostly time, are extremely wasteful. I spent the better part of an afternoon loading OS/2 about a year ago, and then had to reload it a few days later. If I had to do it today, it would be almost self-installing with my involvement limited to about five minutes thanks to CD's.

Full motion video is another area where CD's make perfect sense. The video data stream is so huge that you can only get about an hour on one CD. That sounds just OK until you realize that the average hard disk probably only has room for one or two minutes of video available.

The time for CD's is here. If you are waiting for something better, your wait will probably be a long one!

And, it gets better (or worse depending on your point of view). I have recently noticed that some vendors are selling CD -ROM software with on-line documentation and other free extras for a lower cost than the same program distributed on diskettes.

Other companies in the retail distribution chain have begun to put protected copies of major vendor software on "sampler" CD's, which they sell for a few dollars or give away free. In an effort similar to the "Shareware" method of distribution, you get to try before you buy. If you decide you want to purchase the full program, you call the distributor for a password to unlock the program, and the distributor bills your credit card.

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