The Cutting Edge: Computing / Technology / Innovation : CD-ROM Installation PDQ? Alas, No
The most alluring aspect of personal computing these days is the growing abundance of CD-ROM programs that promise to inform, educate and entertain us in dazzling new ways.
You might think that nothing could be easier than inserting a CD-ROM disc and having its contents appear on your screen. After all, when you put a CD audio disc into your stereo, you get instant music. Unfortunately, computers are not as easy to operate as stereos. They’re not even close.
There are many complexities in the world of CD-ROMs. Unlike CD audio, there are many variations of CD-ROM, both in file structure and in program features and operation. These differences can spell trouble.
Some CD-ROMs are structured so they work only on Macintosh computers. Others work only on IBM and compatibles. Some will work on both kinds of machines. Among the IBM-only CD-ROMs, some require Windows and others don’t. Many need a sound card, some don’t.
This means you can’t just pick any title off the shelf. You need to study the fine print to make sure its hardware requirements match your computer. Of course, that means you need to know fundamental hardware details about your computer, like the kind of microprocessor it has, such as 386 or 486, and how much random access memory. Not only do you need to know whether it has a sound card, but you should also know the brand and model.
It gets worse. Some CD-ROMs, especially those published by Knowledge Adventure Inc., expect you to know intimate technical details of your sound card’s installation. You can probably easily install the CD-ROMs without actually knowing these details. But if you encounter problems, it can be tough to make corrections without a fairly technical understanding of your computer.
The performance specifications of your CD-ROM drive are important too. Older drives can transfer data only at 150 kilobytes per second. That’s OK for text, most audio and photographs. But it’s too slow for video clips.
If you’re buying a CD-ROM, make sure it is at least a double-speed model. There are plenty of single-speed units still on the market at what seem like bargain prices--until you realize they are inadequate for many of today’s CD-ROM titles.
Like everything else about personal computing, double-speed CD-ROM drives will be obsolete in a year or two, if not sooner. The industry is headed toward easily affordable full-color, full-motion, full-screen video with stereo-quality audio.
That will require faster CD-ROM drives and special hardware to instantly decompress highly compressed video files. It is available now, but it is expensive.
Despite these potential problems, most of the time it is easy to install and play CD-ROM titles on your personal computer--particularly if within the past year you bought a multimedia 486-based PC or one of the higher-powered Macintoshes with a CD-ROM drive.
The Microsoft CD-ROM titles are easy to install and use and offer high-quality programming. However, they do need about eight megabytes of hard disk storage to obtain maximum performance.
Other publishers whose CD-ROMs I have found to be reliable and easy to install are Sumeria, Sony Imagesoft, Allegro New Media, Claris Corp., Aris Entertainment and Grolier.
Knowledge Adventure CD-ROMs have a more complicated installation program than most others. Most current CD-ROMs require Windows and take advantage of multimedia features that can be built into Windows. Knowledge Adventure titles, however, are really designed to run under DOS. They can be installed to run from within Windows, but doing so is awkward at best.
The Knowledge Adventure installation modifies a couple of critical Windows files, and it creates a separate program configuration file. Unfortunately, that configuration file conflicted with other features of my computer, causing my computer to freeze up when I tried to run the CD-ROM program I had just installed. (It happened with every Knowledge Adventure title I tested.) Although the instruction manual explained how to edit the configuration file to correct such problems, it is a technical task that casual users will find daunting.
Bill Gross, Knowledge Adventure’s chairman, acknowledged that the installation program can be difficult. The trade-off, he said, is the ability of his firm’s programs to do things not normally possible from within Windows, such as full-screen video. But because of new programming features that Microsoft is making available to software developers, he said, by Christmas he expects Knowledge Adventure to have true Windows versions of its programs without sacrificing the extra performance of the DOS versions.
Computer File welcomes your comments but regrets that the author cannot respond individually. Write to Richard O’Reilly, Computer File, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, or message oreilly@latimes.com on the Internet.
