Subject: REVIEW: VGA Spectrum CDROM disc
From: [email-masked] (Vitas Povilaitis)
Date: 13 Feb 1993 20:47:40 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	VGA Spectrum CDROM disc

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	A CD-ROM disc of sound and graphics.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		S & S Enterprises
	Address:	P. O. Box 552
			Lemont, IL 60439

	Telephone:	(800) ROM-DISC
			     [766-3472]

LIST PRICE

	Unknown

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	You'll need a CD-ROM drive and CD-ROM filesystem software.

COPY PROTECTION

	None

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 2000 running OS 2.04.
	GVP G-Force 40:  40 MHz 68EC030/SCSI II/12 MB RAM
	15 MB total RAM
	Toshiba CD-ROM drive
	Xetec CD-ROM filesystem software

	Since the disc is standard ISO 9660 format, it should be readable on
any CD-ROM drive under any OS revision.  I have not tested this disc on a
CDTV.

REVIEW

	Because it's so hard to find CD-ROM discs for the Amiga, I think
more people should review discs from other platforms to see if they are
usable with the Amiga.  I'm writing this review in the hopes of encouraging
you to do the same.

	The disc has been produced with the IBM PC user in mind.  All the
supplied support software is for MS/DOS. Consequently, the disc is mastered
in ISO 9660 Level 1, which means that filenames are limited to MS-DOS length
(8 characters plus 3-character suffix).  However, the filenames are generally
meaningful.

	The disc contains about 586 MB of graphics and sound files.  The
root directory contains the following sub-directories:

	ANIMATE

		FLI	Uncompressed .fli files.  I don't know how to run
			these on the Amiga.

		GL	Uncompressed .gl files.  There is at least one grasp
			animation player for the Amiga

		PLYR	ZIP'ed MS-DOS animation players

		ZIP	MS-DOS self-extracting archives

	CLIPART		MS-DOS self-extracting archives

	DEMO		Contains ZIP'ed demos for MS-DOS.

	UNZIP		Various sub-directories containing uncompressed
			programs and data.  Very little of the data is
			usable by the Amiga.

	GAMES		Contains ZIP'ed games for MS-DOS.

		UNZIP	Various sub-directories containing uncompressed
			programs and data.  Very little of the data is
			usable by the Amiga

	GIF		Contains eight sub-directories of a variety of
			unsorted GIF files of varying quality, and a
			SWIMSUIT sub-directory.

	MAC		Contains two sub-directories of a variety of
			unsorted MacPaint files.

	PKWARE		MS-DOS ZIP package

	SOUND

		CMF?	Four uncompressed CMF directories.  I don't know how
			to handle these on the Amiga.

		CMS1	One uncompressed CMS directory.  I don't know how to
			handle these on the Amiga.

		ROL?	Five uncompressed ROL directory.  I don't know how to
			handle these on the Amiga.

		SBI1	One uncompressed SBI directory.  I don't know how to
			handle these on the Amiga.

		TRKBLAST
			Uncompressed MOD directory.  Use a MOD player like
			EdPlayer.

		VOC1	Uncompressed VOC directory.  Use a sample player
			like OPlay [OmniPlay].

		ZIP	EXE files; probably self-extracting MS-DOS files.

	TEXT		Some text about the CD-ROM

	UTILITY		EXE files; probably self-extracting MS-DOS files

	This files are of various quality and much like files you'd find
on a BBS.

	The graphics files can be viewed on Amigas by many different
programs, such as ADPro.  The audio files can be played by many different
sample players, such as OPlay.

DOCUMENTATION

	The disc comes with no instructions.

LIKES AND DISLIKES

	Its too bad that there are MS-DOS self-extracting archives on this
disc; it makes the data unportable, and unusable on the Amiga without a PC
emulator.

		[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  The self-extracting archives can be
		extracted on the Amiga using UnZip 5.0.  - Dan]

	The files are of various quality like the ones you'd find on a BBS:
not the greatest, but nice to have around.

BUGS

	None.

CONCLUSIONS

	This is a collection of various files like you'd find on a BBS.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	Copyright 1993 Vitas Povilaitis.  All rights reserved.
--
-Vitas P.-  22 Wolcott Avenue, Rochester, NY 14606
UUCP: moscom.com!grace!vitas
Internet: [email-masked] or [email-masked]
Graceful Boot BBS: (716) 426-4779
---

   Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews
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