America’s Funniest Home Videos

YOU’RE A PRODUCER AND DIDN’T KNOW IT!

A Review of America’s Funniest Home Videos

by Ron Enderland

In what is sure to be a growing trend, the hit ABC show America’s Funniest Home Videos

(henceforth referred to as AFHV) has produced an interactive CD ROM, and friends, it’s a winner!

What is featured here are over 450 video clips, 30 story lines, and three different ways to "multimediate" (Hey! I just invented a new cyberslang term, and YOU WERE

THERE!).

When you start the program, you are greeted by an image of a house. The

simplest way to

experience this CD is to head for the attic.

In the attic, there are some thirty different items strewn about, each representing a story

line. When you select an object, you are prompted by a clever game interface to fill holes

in the story with video clips. At each square on the game board, you are asked to select a

video from six or so choices. The videos are named so that you have a rough idea of what

they are. You can also choose "Surprise me!" and let the program put the story together itself.

When all holes are filled, you hit a play prompt to view your masterpiece. The results run

anywhere from mildly humorous to "Ow! My side! Please stop!"

Once you’ve mastered the feel of the Attic, you may want to progress to the Editing Room,

where you have total control over the video selection, instead of having only six to choose

from. You may have to read the help screen a time or two to master the intricacies of being

a producer, but it’s not overly complicated. It is suggested that you start

in the Attic first, so that you get a feel for what you’re doing.

You can also go to the Living Room, and experience couch potato mode. Here,

you can simply view the video clips one at a time, grouped by categories if you wish.

If you can sit

through all 14 monkey clips without bursting out in raucous laughter, then you are a truly

unhappy person! You can learn to recognize your videos by name here, a tremendous help

in the story production process.

Once you’ve created what you consider a masterpiece, you can save it permanantly as a

clipset file. Interestingly, Mac users and IBM users can swap these files to compare their efforts.

You may also automatically subscribe to CompuServe, where the game will take you directly to the AFHV forum. Here, you can swap clipsets and chat to other

would-be producers.

The game is excellent. Unfortunately, it’s not perfect. The video performance is not always

the greatest, even with my quad-speed. You have to pass through an annoying ad for more

software before you can exit the program. But, these aren’t serious problems.

Though three megabytes of disk space is claimed for installation, I got by with a paltry 117

KB, since I already had QuickTime for Windows already installed.

This is a nice piece of software. It was produced in a clever manner, and it remains fresh and interesting through numerous playings.

Multimedia Cafe Scorecard

Product:	America’s Funniest Home Videos
Company:	Graphix Zone 42 Corporate Park, Suite 200 Irvine, CA 92714 714-833-3838

Cost:

n/a

Windows 3.1 or higher
486 SX 25 mhz or higher
8 MB RAM
3 MB available hard disk space
256 colors (65,536 recommended)
640×480 screen resolution
Windows compatible sound card
Double speed CD ROM drive (300 KB/sec transfer rate) or faster
Mouse
Modem (optional)

Macintosh and Power Macintosh:
Color Macintosh (68040 or higher)
256 colors (thousands of colors recommended)
Power Mac: 12 MB RAM with Virtual Memory turned on
Mac: 8 MB RAM with Virtual Memory turned off
System 7.01 or higher
3 MB available hard disk space
Double speed CD ROM or faster
Modem (optional)