-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 
|-=>CompuNotes<=-|
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Notes from The Cutting Edge of Personal Computing
January 17, 1997
Issue 64

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Managing Editor: Patrick Grote -- mailto:pgrote@inlink.com
Assistant Editor: Writer Liaison: Doug Reed-- mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com
Graphics Editor, Webmaster: Judy Litt mailto:jlitt@aol.com
Archives: ftp://ftp.uu.net/published/compunotes/
Website: http://users.aol.com/CompNote/
email: notes@inlink.com
fax: (314) 909-1662
voice: (314) 909-1662
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CONTENTS
My Notes:
1=> Product of the Year Voting!
2=> This Week's Winner!

Columnists' Corner:
3=> Product of the Year Voting Form!

Reviews:
4=> Product: Using Microsoft Explorer 3.0 Special Edition by Que 
Publishing, Reviewed By: Patrick Grote, mailto:pgrote@inlink.com, MSRP: 
$49.99 with CDROM
5=> Product: Shattered Steel
Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com
6=> Product: Terminal Madness, Que Publishing, Reviewed By: Patrick 
Grote, mailto:pgrote@inlink.com

Web Site:
7=> Gamespot <http://www.gamespot.com/>

Interview:
=> None this issue.

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CompuNotes is: Available weekly via email and on-line. We cover the PC
computing world with comprehensive reviews, news, hot web sites, great
columns and interviews. We also give away one software package a week
to a lucky winner for just reading our fine publication! Never dull,
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Patrick's Notes
1=> Products of the Year!
Enclosed in this issue you'll find our best of the year ballot form. 
Please take a few minutes and vote for those products you would like to 
see win! We'll post the results in about a month!

2=> Winner!
This week's winner is oscar.super.zippo.com! Send them a congrats 
message mailto:oscar.super.zippo.com!

3=> Product of the Year Voting Form! mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com
CompuNotes Software of the Year Awards, 1996

There was a lot of great software that came out in 1996, and we'd like 
to give you the chance to reward those that were the cream of the crop. 

I've compiled a list of nominees in 8 categories for you to select from. 
All of these nominees were software titles that were reviewed by 
CompuNotes and appeared in CompuNotes issues starting with Issue 26 and 
Issue 61, all of which were published in 1996. After the list of 
nominees is a short form which you can cut and paste into an email 
message to send back to me - simply fill in your selection for each 
category. 

The product with the most votes wins it's category; the product with the 
most overall votes also wins the "Overall Product of the Year" prize. 
Write-in's are allowed but are limited to software that we reviewed 
during 1996 - for example, the review of Quake is forthcoming, so Quake 
will appear among the list of nominees for 1997. 

Please do not vote more than once! This isn't because it would be 
"wrong" but simply because I expect to be getting a large volume of 
replies and multiple messages from the same person won't help matters. 
Voting ends effective one month from today. Thanks, and thanks for being 
such great readers! 

If you'd like to know what issue the product was reviewed in, check out 
the CompuNotes Archives Database at 
http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/dr2web/compnote (a JavaScript enabled 
browser is required). 

-Doug Reed, Associate Editor mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com

-=>Category: Business Application
Microsoft Office 95, Professional Edition
WordPro96
AskSam Pro 3.0
DacEasy Accounting
ABC Graphics Suite

-=>Category: Internet Application
HotMetal Pro 2.0
HTML: The Definitive Guide
Website Professional
Digiphone Deluxe
Net Chameleon

-=>Category:Utility
Norton Navigator for Windows 95
WinProbe95
WinShield95
WinZip 6.2
Norton NT Tools

-=>Category: Communications
Procomm Plus 3.0
LapLink 7.5
Delrina CommSuite95
PC Anywhere32

-=>Category: Game
Warcraft II
Mechwarrior II
Civilization II
Zork:Nemesis
MissionForce:Cyberstorm
Descent II
Steel Panthers

-=>Category: Educational
Encarta '95
Mathemagics
Complete Guide to Gardening
Mighty Math Numbers Heroes
Discovery: Ocean Planet
Healthy Cooking Deluxe

-=>Category: Programming
Symantec Cafe
Visual C++ 4.0
Perl 5 Desktop Reference
Visual Basic 4.0
The Java Programming Language by Ken Short and James Gosling

-=>Category: Reference
Complete User's Survival Guide
The Corner Drug Store
When You Can't Find Your Unix Systems Administrator
Dictionary of PC Hardware and Terms

<cut here>
CompuNotes Awards -1996
mailto: Doug Reed, dr2web@sprynet.com

Business Application:
Internet Application:
Utility:
Communication:
Game:
Educational:
Programming:
Reference:

<cut here>


4=>Product: Using Microsoft Explorer 3.0 Special Edition
Reviewed By: mailto:pgrote@inlink.com
MSRP: $49.99 with CDROM

If you are a regular reader of CompuNotes, and I hope you are, you have 
noticed we review quite a few books. We've made a conscious effort to 
seek out the best books that can help people get the most of their 
computer investments.  We only review books that can have an immediate 
impact on you and how you use your computer. 

It is with that in mind I chuckled when we received the title Using 
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0. I cleverly thought to myself, "How 
tough can it be to use a browser? I mean past pointing it where to go 
and how to deal with bookmarks there just isn't much left." As I started 
to read and peruse the 830 page tome I came to realize I was very wrong 
concerning my initial thought.

  Using Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 by Que is a SPECIAL EDITION. I 
know you have seen these huge. Black books sitting on the shelves 
begging you to buy them. As I started to read I noticed it kept touting 
itself as the most complete reference. This somehow made sense as the 
documentation you receive when you download Internet Explorer is the 
help file. 

As I got to the table of contents page I was impressed, almost too 
impressed. This book covers loading IE3, configuring IE3, searching for 
information, building a web site, downloading files, viewing web pages, 
using Front Page, Java, JavaScript, VBScript, ActiveX controls, VRML 
worlds, newsgroups, Microsoft Internet Information server, IE3 addins, 
real time voice, chat and much more. 

As if this wasn't enough, the book includes a CDROM that features 
examples of everything listed above. One minor point is the CD isn't 
autorun. With this Windows95 feature being so new user friendly you 
would think they would have made this happen.

As you read the book you'll be impressed with the layout. The first page 
of the chapter notes what is covered in the coming pages. If you look on 
the right hand side of the pages there is any easy to use tab marking 
system. This is a boon when you jump from page to page. Caution notes 
are shaded for easy to recognize importance and web addresses are bolded 
for easier reading when you are typing them. 

The book is written in easy to understand language, but it isn't geared 
towards beginners. It is geared towards someone who has experience with 
the Internet. 

The actual usage of IE3 is explained in the first 200 pages or so. It is 
very complete and demonstrates the power of IE3. Take for instance Word 
documents. If you view a Word document on a web site or FTP site the 
controls for Word pop up. I didn't know that feature existed . . .

As we all know well, IE3 isn't alone in the world. The book does a good 
job explaining Internet Mail and Internet News and their usage. They 
missed a few features that are in the latest releases of these programs, 
but 90% of what the programs can do is covered. 

Moving onto creating your own web page, you'll be very satisfied with 
the prose. Really, a book inside a book, the sections dealing with web 
page creation are fantastic. The supplemental items on the CDROM give 
you all the tools you need to create your own web site. 

The Java, JavaScript and VBScript chapters didn't appeal to me at first 
as I am not a programmer. I found myself engrossed as the chapters did 
more than introduce someone to the programming aspects. The chapters 
explained and showed with graphics the impact these technologies could 
have on a web site. By showing a before and after you really see the 
difference the technology makes. 

As you make your way to the appendix section you are in for a treat. The 
appendix covers installing IE3 for Windows 3.1 and a detailed listing of 
what is on the CDROM!

Using Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 from Que is a must have for any 
serious user of Internet Explorer 3. You will save time, learn more and 
have more fun on the Internet!

5=> Product: Shattered Steel
Reviewed By: Doug Reed, mailto:dr2web@sprynet.com
Requirements: 486/66, 8 MB RAM, 2x CDROM
Reviewed On: 486/66, 12 MB RAM, 2x CDROM

Fans of games featuring mecha (giant human-piloted robots) have had a 
lot to cheer about the last couple of years. First there was the much- 
anticipated release of Mechwarrior 2, followed this summer by the 
release of EarthSiege 2. Now Interplay and Bioware have teamed up to 
forge a new entry into the genre, Shattered Steel. Even though this is 
Bioware's first game, it hold out a promise of great things. Shattered 
Steel does have a few flaws, but is still a gem worth possessing. 

The game is set in a future where governments have disappeared and mega- 
corporations rule the day by strip-mining worlds for their natural 
resources. To protect their resources they have created planet-runners, 
one-manned robotic machines that carry the firepower of twentieth- 
century battleships. Planet-runners (simply called Runners) are the same 
as the 'Mechs in Battletech and the Hercs in Earthsiege. The player is a 
mercenary in the employ of the Mach-Shearing corporation, which has 
recently had some problems on the remote world of Lanios 3. Upon landing 
on Lanios 3, the player quickly realizes that this is no raid by a rival 
corporation; instead the colonists and miners on Lanios 3 have run into 
alien beings of untold power... 

As evidenced from the storyline, the game is set in a dark, "Alien"- 
esque environment. The game comes with fifty solo missions and a number 
of missions designed for multiple players. Shattered Steel can be played 
over modem or LAN, or using KALI, over the Internet. Besides the 
inevitable anarchy and team modes in multi-player games, players can 
choose to play together to complete the campaign game. You can even play 
the campaign missions against another team - the other team plays the 
role of humans helping the aliens in their battles. Needless to say, 
these last two options provide some of the newest elements of multi- 
player game play - the idea of playing together as a team through a 
campaign. I haven't tried this yet, but I think it provides the coolest 
idea yet for first-person mecha action. Having played a few of the 
missions in the campaign game, believe me, you will need all the help 
you can get. This is one tough game to beat. 

Gameplay is simple to learn; the default setup uses the mouse and 
keyboard. If you've played X-Wing or Tie Fighter the principles are much 
the same; the player allocates power to the shields, weapons, and engine 
as needed while engaging the enemy. The mouse buttons fire the primary 
and secondary weapons, while various keys are used to move the Runner or 
twist the torso. Although there are a few keys to learn, the number of 
keys necessary to learn is far less than that of Mechwarrior 2 or 
Earthsiege. The emphasis is on the action, not on the mastery of the 
keyboard. Various types of Runners are available and can be loaded with 
both a primary and secondary weapon (primary weapons are lasers or 
cannons; secondary are ranged weapons like rockets and missiles). The 
variety of weapons are interesting - you go from the weak and 
ineffectual laser all the way to the tactical nuke. Prior to initiating 
a mission you are briefed with a 3-D wireframe map by ANIC, a futuristic 
computer that acts and sounds a lot like a certain computer in a very 
well known science fiction movie. You can also alter the load on your 
Runner, if you have acquired sufficient experience and salvage to do so. 

The graphics are the industry standard - beautiful. The landscape is 
gorgeous, even in the low-res mode on my 486. In most games of this 
sort, like Mechwarrior 2 or even Apache, where combat is on or low to 
the ground, I have trouble discerning subtle changes in angles until 
(usually) too late. Not so in Shattered Steel; here the ground effects 
seem very realistic and well done. Pop over a rise and surprise- there's 
the alien compound you were sent to investigate. Play your cards right 
and you can hide behind that rise, using to lure the overwhelming enemy 
force to their doom. Get used to the odds being overwhelming; in the 
third scenario alone I killed over 17 enemy targets and still failed. I 
mentioned it before and I'll mention it again; this game is a challenge 
to win at. The designers state specifically that this is intentional; 
the missions require a well laid out plan more than they do fast trigger 
action. Proper power allocation is only one of things you must master; 
hit and run tactics are a must in the early portion of the game for 
success. 

The cut scenes are also gorgeous, certainly up the industry par, 
introducing the player to the storyline without really letting you know 
what you are in for. It is these cutscenes that lead to the majority of 
problems that I had with this game. Shattered Steel can be played under 
Windows 95 or DOS; I installed and ran the game in Windows 95 because of 
problems with my CDROM. Specifically my CDROM, a 2x Sony, occasionally 
has problems with reading CDs, a problem with the drive and not the CDs 
themselves. In most games it simply stops and asks me to check the 
drive; at the start of Shattered Steel, however, it would always result 
in a fatal crash (in DOS). Running in Windows 95 was better, but I still 
have lots of problems with the game crashing during the opening movie. 
This wouldn't be a problem if you could skip the movie, but for some 
reason the designers in their infinite wisdom decided not to include 
that option. The movies are nice, but after a while they get old. 
Hopefully Bioware will fix this shortly, as it the most flagrant flaw in 
an otherwise great game. A patch is due to be released soon which will 
hopefully fix this problem as well as add a mission editor. That's 
correct - players will be able to create their own Shattered Steel 
missions. Given the depth of the universe provided- greedy mega- 
corporations and an alien species battling amongst one another, the 
possibilities are just about endless. 

Overall I like this game a lot, and would recommend it to all mecha fans 
or action game fans out there. A demo is available for a tryout, 
however, like most demos these days it is very large (7+ megs). Be 
forewarned that you will need VESA 2.0-compliant drivers to play the 
game; Scientific Display Doctor's excellent shareware Univbe drivers are 
included on the CD but you will have to pay to use them after the 21-day 
trial period expires. Bioware is very active in their support of the 
game; they have set up a mailing list for it and their response time to 
questions is very fast (24 hours or less). With the patch and mission 
editor, as well as the multiplayer options, this is a great game with 
lots of replayability. I'm giving it a conditional overall gold based on 
those features and the just plain fun that I had playing the game. A 
worthy opponent for all you freebirth clanners out there! 

Interplay Productions  
16815 Von Karman Ave.          
Irvine, CA  92606                  
<http://www.interplay.com>

Ratings:
Installation/Ease of Use: Silver
User-Friendliness: Gold
Quality: Gold
User: action gamers and fans of big giant robots!

6=> Product: Terminal Madness, Que Publishing
Reviewed By: Patrick Grote, mailto:pgrote@inlink.com
MSRP: $9.95

OK, imagine you are in Las Vegas as a press member covering Comdex. You 
are one of 210,000 people trying to learn the latest about all the 
products. You get there in the morning, hustle as fast you can and try 
to hit all the vendors you have marked off for that morning! When lunch 
time rolls around you typically have two choices: 1) Waiting in line for 
the vendors inside the convention center or 2) Waiting in line for the 
vendors outside the convention center. Either way you wait and wait and 
wait and wait. 

As a member of the press we may have it a little easier when it comes to 
lunch, though. We have a room called the press room. At certain times 
dictated by phases of the moon and new product release dates from 
Microsoft, trays of snack food are brought out. As one of a few hundred 
press members your chances of hitting a dollar sandwich by the time the 
food is gone is slim. As your turn in line comes to the now empty food 
trays you can have a few Ritz crackers and a lime flavored water. Yeah!

This year I was happy to receive an invitation to Lunch at Peiros. 
Basically a PR company representing twelve technology companies rented 
out a restaurant across the street from the convention center and 
offered lunch free to the press. The food wasn't the only draw, however, 
as you were able to receive demos and talk with representatives from the 
technology companies without having to elbow your way past fifty others. 
Nice. 

As we were waiting in line for the food I look over and see a familiar 
face signing books. Odd, I don't know any professional writers. Then it 
hit me, it was Judd, Judd from the Real World III on MTV. (For those of 
you who don't know, the Real World is a TV show about 7 strangers thrown 
together to live with each other for 4 months or so.) 

Judd was an aspiring cartoonist on the show and I was surprised to see 
him signing a cartoon book for the press. I went over, made a fool of 
myself while talking to him and got the book. I went back to the line 
for the food and tossed the book in my bag of literature. 

Later that afternoon the heavens seemed to have developed a leak and Las 
Vegas was nailed with rain. I mean a lot of rain for a town that never 
gets any. There were shuttle buses running from the convention center to 
your hotel. They were due to arrive at 3:00pm. As I stood at the 
uncovered loading point for the bus I started to anger as the minutes 
went by. 3:01, 3:03, 3:05. Ugh! As the bus arrived and we started 
packing in it was 3:10pm and I wasn't wet anymore. Any moisture that had 
soaked into my body was steamed off due to anger. I reached into my 
literature bag for that book by Judd. Finding it and the clever title of 
Terminal Madness, I began to read. By the fifth page I was laughing out 
loud. By the tenth page two rows of people were laughing with me when we 
read the cartoon where the farmer sends a cyber love message to the 
address farmlover@iquest.net. In the next panel you see a cow answering 
it . . .

The book is filled with hilarious black and white cartoons describing 
people in hilarious positions with computers. Most are real life 
computer situations so that everyday people can relate not just computer 
professionals. For instance a woman hits the escape key and the computer 
sprouts legs and runs off her desk. 

Computer professionals shouldn't feel like they are missing out either. 
Computer professionals usually feel cocky about their skills, but  one 
panel where Forest Gump says, "Retrieving lost files is like a box of 
chocolates ..." the computer professionals is knocked down a peg a bit 
and shouts, "Shut up Forest!"

The art is well drawn and very understandable. The jokes are right on 
and hit the mark on every cartoon. Very rarely have I read a cartoon 
book and chuckled or laughed at every cartoon, but this one did it for 
me!

If you're looking for a great laugh or for a book that can't miss as a 
present, you need to buy TERMINAL MADNESS by Judd Winick from Que 
Publishing.

7=> Site:  Gamespot http://www.gamespot.com/
Type of Site: Entertainment / Games-related site
Reviewer: Lex Raaphorst  mailto:arpt@xs4all.nl
Browser Used: IE 3.0 (M$)
Browser Recommended by Site: none
Enhancements/Plug-Ins Required: Java-applets
Internet Connection Used: ISDN
Load Time of Main Page during Peak Hours: Differs very much, once within 
20 seconds another time I gave up after waiting more than 3 minutes.
Load Time of Main Page during off-peak Hours: less than 10 seconds

First something about the look of the main-site. It's designed for a 
640x480 resolution, which is not common anymore nowadays. But I like it. 
People without a good monitor (or videocard) have no problems with it. 
At least I assume that everyone surfing the net has at least VGA. 
Another pro of this site is that they have a low-band version, which has 
less graphics. The site is fancy, but not too.

This is what Gamespot claims to have on it's site: "Gamespot's home 
page, the most comprehensive gaming site on the Web, offering the most 
up-to-date reviews, features, demos, links, hints, cheats, and tech 
support on PC games available.  Includes reviews of PC games, online 
games, PC gaming hardware and PC software and hardware contest 
giveaways". Now, I can tell you it's there indeed! Some things are only 
accessible when you're a member (talk about games, add reviews, 
contests). They do not tell if it's for free or not (-), but I took the 
risk and subscribed. Since I became member immediately and didn't have 
to give a credit-card number, I assume it's for free :). Okay, now it's 
time for the real contents.

The main page is divided in 8 game-types (action, adventure, puzzle 
classics, interactive movie, role playing games, simulation, sports and 
strategy). It also has a link to the 'Gamespot top 10', which is a bit 
confusing, because it links to a page 'hardware and more'. This page is 
also divided in 8 items (3D-gaming, controllers, sound, on-line 
programming, Win95 programming, Top Ten, top downloads and index (=main-
page)). So the Gamespot isn't only about games, but also about the 
hardware you probably need for it. As an extra for the console-lovers 
there's a link to a special Videogamespot.

When you enter one of the game-types from the main page you are able to 
choose from a huge list of games. This links give great information 
about the selected game. It gives the company info, a Gamespot review, 
and when available, a player-review. The pages I've tried all contains 
screenshots of the game. Both the genre-page as the specific game-page 
contains the following links: 'demo/download', 'technical info', 'other 
links', 'hints & tips' and 'let's talk'. All those options has perfect 
schemes below them. They give tables with checks what is available and 
what isn't e.g. for the 'technical info' the table contains this fields: 
Gamespot test system, testers notes, readme, tech support, tech tips, 
player tech tips and patches & drivers. When you're on a games-page it's 
all about the specific game and on the genre-page the table contains 
records with games in that genre.

The feedback-section on the site gives you the opportunity to choose in 
what category you want to give feedback. The overlook of this page is 
great, as it is on the other pages.
The subscription-form is easy. It ask for you snail-mail too, in case 
you win something in a contest. They ask permission to give your address 
to third-parties (with several options). You need also give a password 
(for the member-only parts of the site). 
All links I've tried, and that were a lot (can't say all of them, but I 
have a full-time job too), worked correctly and I didn't notice any 
strange things happen on this site, except for the 'Top-10/ Hardware 
link'.

Personally I found a lot of interesting stuff on this site. All the 
games I've played in the near past (let's say about the last 18-24 
months) can be found there. Also the very new games are already there. 
Handy when you have a new game in mind, but can't decide which one it 
should be. The fact that Gamespot took care of hardware too is very 
helpful, especially because a lot of magazines forget that part of PC-
gaming. Positive as I am I entered some contests too, maybe I'll earn 
something with this review :). But let me tell you that this is 
objective and I didn't make a deal with the contest-jury.

Reviewers Overall Spin: Silver with a Golden Border
Site Content: Gold
Site Presentation: Silver

--END OF ISSUE



