If you already own a multimedia encyclopedia on CD-ROM, don't automatically assume you don't want Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia - 1995 Edition (Compton's-1995). Since I already own and use Encarta-1994, comparisons between the two were inevitable. However, Compton's-1995 stands up to the challenge nicely. Compton's-1995 contains the complete information of a 26-volume encyclopedia on a single CD-ROM, and includes over 33,000 articles, more than 7,000 pictures, over 100 videos and animations, and over 14 hours of sounds. Compton's-1995 is a product of Compton's NewMedia and comes on a CD-ROM for Windows.

Installation of Compton's-1995 through Windows (e.g., File/Run/etc.) is a breeze. You are given two options for installation, minimal installation (takes approximately 11 Megabytes for the program files and Windows video driver) and full installation, which takes approximately 21 Megabytes. The full installation option copies database index files to your hard drive and is supposed to result in enhanced searching speed, although I tried this and didn't feel that it was worth the extra 10 Megabytes hard disk space required. Upon installation, a new icon ("Compton's") is created in Program Manager. Clicking on the "Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia - 1995" icon starts the program. Compton's-1995 comes with a booklet describing installation, product features, and use. The documentation is not extensive, but is really all that is needed. Primary operation of Compton's-1995 is through an information search bar on the left side of the screen, dialog boxes, and a menu bar across the top of the screen. The menu bar contains On-line Help, Events Highlights (gives you a short slide show about recent historic events), Editing Room (used to create your own multimedia presentations by combining and arranging any of the information in Compton's-1995), Bookmark (for returning to information at a later time), Picture Tour (browses through pictures in the encyclopedia, either the complete tour or one of 15 available categories), Notebook (for keeping notes -- you can paste text and pictures here), Dictionary (Webster's New World Dictionary), and Setup/Preferences (for changing program settings).

There are several ways in which you can search for information: Contents (alphabetical listing), Idea Search (typing a word, phrase, or question will result in a list of related articles, pictures, movies, sounds, and tables), Infopilot (finds groups of articles related to a topic), Topic Tree (displays articles arranged by topic and subtopic for narrowing your area of interest), Atlas, Timeline (charts people and events in U.S. and world history), and Explore (takes you into four different settings to explore information in the encyclopedia in a different way). The "Guided Tour" gives you an overview of the encyclopedia presented by Patrick Stewart.

I found Compton's-1995 to be somewhat slower than Encarta, although this is not (for me) a significant drawback, and my overall impression is that the multimedia aspects of Compton's-1995 are not as strong. Still, there are plenty of great photos and illustrations. In addition, while the Atlas is functional, it is not especially impressive (no topographical representations are given). However, the depth of information provided in the articles in Compton's-1995 is significantly more extensive than that provided in Encarta, and I believe that Compton's-1995 is a useful encyclopedia if information is what you're looking for. While the text provided is not what you might expect from a highly detailed encyclopedia like Britannica, Compton's-1995 contains plenty of information.

Overall, I am impressed with the information in Compton's-1995 and think it is a good reference tool. It's also fun to use with no age barriers (everyone in the family had a good time looking up favorite information). It is easy to immerse yourself in this encyclopedia for hours and lose track of time. In particular, the Timeline is especially fun to browse through and contains a wealth of historical information, all of which is hypertext (i.e., clicking on any event on the Timeline will take you directly to the relevant article).  An especially nice feature is that clicking on any word in an article will bring up the dictionary definition of that word (not everything is in here, but it is a useful feature nonetheless). I recommend Compton's-1995 either for a first or second multimedia encyclopedia.

System Tested On:  IBM compatible PC (Gateway 2000) with a 80486 at 66 Mhz; DOS 6.2 & Windows for Workgroups 3.11; 8 Megabytes (MB) of RAM & 420 MB hard drive

Minimum System:  IBM compatible Multimedia PC with 386SX/16MHz or better processor (486SX/25 MHz recommended); Microsoft? (MS) Windows 3.1 or later, MS CD Extensions 2.2 or later, and MS-DOS 3.1 or later; 4 MB RAM (8 recommended); SVGA graphics card (640x480x256 colors) with compatible monitor; MS mouse or 100% compatible; MPC-compatible CD-ROM drive (150 KB/s sustained transfer rate); Sound Blaster sound card or 100% compatible with general MIDI support (Wave table recommended); Stereo speakers or headphones