Re: Need advice

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article pubpc1@library.ucla.edu writes...

>While it is true that there are not many CD-ROMs for the GS, there is
>more that 1.

    Yes, there are _two_: YourWordBox! and System 6 Golden Master. ;-)

>Specifically, slightly more than two dozen (26?) I believe.
>You've got discQuest Encyclopedia & the discQuest set of some twenty
>plus information CDs.

    These are not Apple II CDs however, they've been written for and
designed to run on either an IBM PC or Macintosh. discQuest merely
acts as an interpreter, it grabs the text (and sometimes graphic and
sound data) and cross references and links it together more or less
the same way the PC/Mac software would do. All titles in the dQ series
are like computerized library references or encyclopedias.

    It's still very useful, and provides almost unlimited reference
CDs so long as discQuest is continually updated, but it kind of lacks
something since these discs were not developed with the Apple II in
mind (their not even intended to be used on other platforms in fact).

>Then you have the System 6 Gold Master, your GEM, the AUGE CD, the
>HyperCard and HyperStudio CD-ROMs from Joe Kohn and the Golden Orchard
>as a second class of CDs.  The third class are the font and graphics
>archives.

    All these remaining titles are storage archives, it's like getting
a mini-Apple II FTP site on disc. That concept is a fantastic one, but
I'm disappointed there hasn't been any Apple II software to take
advantage of CD-ROM media other than a place to "dump" a bunch of stuff.
I mean write a game that makes use of the 550 MB of storage, or a
complex HyperStudio stack that uses megabytes of video with sound
(DreamVision and Mini-Movies showed it was possible, but lacked enough
space to store anything more than a few seconds of A/V) with tons of
graphics, animation, music and recorded sound.

    I'm talking about CD titles that would _require_ a CD-ROM drive
(or a heck of a lot of hardrive space ;) to run from. Using a CD disc
to store archives is useful, but not very exciting in the end, and
the main reason PC/Mac people have CD-ROM drives in the first place.
That is why I half jokingly said there are only two CD titles written
for the Apple II, as the above two were more than just storage medium
(at least YourWordBox!, I don't know much about S6GM, but it could be
booted directly).

>Still, if Mac people are dumping their single speed CD-ROMs, why
>not pick one up for pennies?

    True enough, all you need on an Apple II is a single or double
speed drive, and external ones can be purchased for around $25-$50
if you look around. The only thing is you'll mostly be using it to
pull data files off of (SHK archives, MOD, WAV, GIF, MID, text, etc)
or listening to music disks. I'm not knocking either, I'm just rather
disappointed you can't use a CD-ROM for more on an Apple II like you
can do on other platforms (and you certainly could, the potential is
there afterall).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca