Interactive History--Just a Click Away.

• Author: Silbergeld, David LL.
• Position: World war II on CD - Evaluation

A multimedia collection from Countertop Software includes three new titles.

First is "The Complete WWII Collection," comprising five CD-ROM's. Without question, World War II was one of the greatest conflicts in history, involving millions of soldiers, sailors and airmen, from all over the world in the first truly mechanized global war. No amount of CD's can tell us all about that conflict, but to present a balanced reference and entertainment collection, each of these five CD'S was selected to communicate some of the essential elements of the war.

Disk 1, "History of World War II," includes a narrated chronology covering the major battles. Each entry includes dramatic photographs and original film footage. There is a section on the causes of the war, biographies of major political and military leaders, full screen photos of major U.S. combat ships and aircraft, and, finally, the holocaust.

Disk 2, "U.S. Combat Units Official Records," contains detailed reports of troop actions and movements-24 volumes worth-from the Army Center of Military History. It is loaded with recently declassified information. This CD provides in excellent source of information for the hard-core researcher. Disk 3, "WWII Shootout," is a interactive trivia game that will test your knowledge of this great conflict. More than 500 questions cover both heaters of the war, Pacific and European.

Disk 4, "Air Warrior II," provides dog fighting simulations--one-on-one aerial combat in 35 different World War I and II aircraft, flying more than 300 missions. You can play or even challenge others on line.

Disk 5, "Warbirds," is a complete drawing program with editing tools and more than 1,000 general-purpose, clip-art images from dozens of libraries, for your creative side.

System Requirements: Pentium 16 MHz or better, Windows 95 or 98, DirectX, 32 MB of hard-drive space, 4X CD-ROM, SVGA monitor, high-color VESA 2.0 compliant PCI video card with 2 MB of video RAM, Sound Blaster, joystick (supports Thrustmaster CH capability).

The second collection is "The Complete History of America's Wars"-a five-CD set that covers U.S. military history from the Revolutionary War to Desert Storm.

Each of the CDs covers a different period of time. Disk 1 covers the Revolutionary War, the Quasi War, the Tripolitan War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. Disk 2 focuses on the Civil War, including hundreds of photographs, multimedia presentations of every major battle, and a...