Your rocket lands on Mars, and it's your job to explore an abandoned city. This CD-ROM inspired by Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles picks up where the classic sci-fi novel sets down. Players investigate the mysterious and beautifully rendered Martian landscape and visit an eerie estate that yields a secret library brimming with banned books (not unlike the library in Myst). The tomes reveal, among other things, codes that will help you deactivate a force field around the city jail. In addition to the game, the CD contains video clips of Bradbury discussing such subjects as his childhood dreams and the possibility of a manned voyage to Mars. While Chronicles may not have mass, Myst-like appeal, its unearthly pleasures are still compelling enough to keep gamers coming back for Mars. (CD-ROM for PC & Mac, Simon & Schuster Interactive, $49.95)
OPRAH ONLINE!
Although the online audience is still only a tiny fraction of TV viewership, everyone from Peter Jennings to the Cartoon Network is trying to hook the digerati. America Online's Oprah Online! is one of the more successful efforts: Colorful graphics make it pretty, and service features (a helpline, live chat sessions devoted to the day's topic, and an update on past guests) make it a useful adjunct to the show. Subscribers who long for their 15 minutes of fame can pitch themselves as potential guests. One woman wrote: "I am having an affair on AOL.... It has improved my sex life 100%. All your inhibitions go away when you are typing." A popular section lets users suggest show topics. Some recent entries: Taking Care of Disabled Mates, Abusive Nannies, and Bosses Who Should Be Fired. But it was a mother who had the most startling proposal: Help! I have a Normal Family! The only major drawback is the time it takes to download Oprah graphics the first time you enter the area. At 2400 bps, a common modem speed, it's 28 minutes—a long wait even for the most ardent fan.
FIGHTER DUEL
Throttle-up your Spitfire, nose into the sky and, before you know it, eight enemy aircraft swarm in to attack. Fighter Duel is the most realistic flight-fight CD-ROM yet. The cockpit control panel features 10 gauges, including a directional gyro and an altimeter. With a modem, cyber-aces can battle a second player in another city. Scrupulously researched, Duel lets armchair dogfighters choose from 13 historically accurate World War II planes and pick a skill level from first-time flyer to hardened top gun. The challenge is to outfly all the bogies while living within the strengths and weaknesses of your chosen aircraft. Try a low-speed turn in a high-performance F4U Corsair, for example, and you'll become one with the planet very quickly. (CD-ROM for PC, Philips and Jaegger Interactive Media, $49.99)
>Ray Bradbury
MEN ARE FROM MARS
WHEN RAY BRADBURY VISITED the 1933 World's Fair, "I saw the future and was delighted," he says. Inspired, he wrote The Martian Chronicles in 1946. Now 75, the author, who didn't work on the Chronicles CD-ROM, has blunt views on modern technology—and modern life.
Do you own a computer?
No. I write on an IBM Wheelwriter. I could out-type you any day. I write a short story in three hours, and I don't change it. Computers are for changes.
Don't you want to be able to play the Chronicles CD-ROM?
I'm not a game player. That's the activity of boys, young men.... CD-ROMs are for men, not women.
Don't women have some of the same interests as men?
Haven't you noticed? They don't surf, do they? They don't ski as much as men. They don't play soccer. There are a lot of things that women don't do. Because they are built differently. Because their interests are different.
What do you see now for the future?
A completely moronic nation unless we do something about education. Unless we do that, the civilization is lost.
- Contributors:
- Erik Ashok Meers.
