October 20, 2004

Ancient Civilizations (**** out of four) is a set of four CD-ROMs, each magnificently portraying ancient cities and cultures. The collection includes videos, text, photos, narration and other media to illustrate several ancient sites, including Egypt, Pompei, Petra, Crete, Teothuican and more. The set also includes a 22 by 34 inch map, The Romans, from National Geographic, along with the following programs:

Exploring Ancient Cities portrays four ancient cities: Pompeii, Petra, Crete and Teothuican. First published by Scientific American, this production features more than 500 photos, 100 minutes of full-screen slide imagery, narration by Rod McKuen and music by John Lewis, both of whom are Academy Award winners.

The program offers a rich, lush look at these astonishing ancient cities. Explore any of the sites by looking at the photos and videos, take one of the "Grand Tours," or look at just the architecture, paintings, or sculptures from each site. Or read original articles from Scientific American while viewing photos of each city; click on selected text, and you’ll see photos illustrating areas within the site. We marveled at the size and beauty of these cities and the stories of these ancient civilizations.

The program also includes maps to show locations and layouts of the cities, a time line dating from 3000 BC to 1000 AD, and excellent help so you can find it all. After seeing the beauty and grandeur of these ancient cities, you’ll want to visit one or all of the sites soon.

Egypt: Voyage to the Land of the Pharaohs, from Montparnasse, follows the story of Egypt from prehistoric times to the present. The program is filled with beautiful photos and impressive satellite maps you can zoom in on for more details. You can also magnify many of the photos to see the details of bas-reliefs, mural paintings and statues.

Follow the detailed history of Egypt in sequence, or move around to see and hear selected parts of the two main narrative soundtracks on Egyptian history and civilization. There are nearly 500 photos, 50 blueprints, maps and diagrams, 300 literary extracts, and much more. While viewing any of the sites, you can drag the icon for that site to the "travel journal" and create a personal itinerary to follow later in a real or virtual trip.

The program contains details of more than 6,000 years of history, and you can locate key events of any era. There are captivating chronicles of the time of Pharaohs, the Greco-Roman colonization, the introduction of Christianity, and past and current political and economic history. We enjoyed discovering more about the relationship of Cleopatra and Caesar and their involvement in the history of Egypt and the many other historic figures described and portrayed in the program.

Discovering Ancient Egypt includes 1,700+ images and computer generated reconstructions, 16 videos and interactive maps and more than 240 text pages exploring ancient Egypt.

The program lists categories of information available, such as Kings and Queens, Pyramids and Temples, Hieroglyphs, Gods and Goddesses, Mummies, Ancient Stories, List of Dynasties, and Everyday Life. Click on any category to see text and photos and sometimes videos of that subject. Highlighted words within the text link to explanations of that text. A comprehensive search menu lets you find specific people, places, items and more and brings up a list of found items and links to the associated information. A time line displays events in Egypt from 3000 BC to 30 BC and also display events in other ancient countries and cities in a matching time line above. There’s also a map of Egypt, options for printing images and help for navigating the program.

Ancient Civilizations is a photo album of past and present wonders of the world from the portfolio of award-winning photojournalist Tom Till. More than 22 images from sites on five continents are displayed in full color. You can use any image as wallpaper for your computer or have all the images displayed as a slide show.

There are magnificent photos of Machu Pichu, Temple of Athena, Treasury at Petra, Great Wall of China, Castle of St. John, and many more.

Ancient Civilizations is a collection that is beautiful to view, a wonderful reference, and a superb value. Recommended.

Create A Fashion Show With Barbie (ages 5 and up)

Barbie Fashion Show CD-ROM (**** out of four) gives girls a chance to create a complete fashion show. It’s quite a thrill to assemble any one of the three theme shows by choosing your models, creating new fashions from the designs and patterns provided, adding all the fashion accessories, picking out the best sets and music for the show and then choosing all the moves your models make during the show. Finally you sit back and watch the show play. As you win prizes for your designs and shows, you are given more models, fashion designs, patterns, sets and music to choose from.

This program incorporates a wealth of fun and creative interactivity and will be loved by Barbie and fashion fans alike.

From Vivendi Universal, Windows 98/Me/2000/XP with Pentium II, $29.99.

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