INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE
Inside The White House
A Review of INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE
by William T. Yates
It’s probably the most famous house in America, perhaps in the world. But how much do you really know about it? Who really lived there? Who was the first President to live there? (Hint: It wasn’t George Washington!) Thynx (formerly known as The Bureau of Electronic Publishing) has put together an interesting compendium of information about the White House and it’s residents. There is a lot of information on the Presidents and their families, much of which is ‘human interest’ information and reminds us that the inhabitants of this most famous of residences were real people and this was their home.
At the opening screen, Air Force One flies over the White House while a car pulls up at the door. There is a nice spoken introduction and unobtrusive music plays in the background. The music can be adjusted to three volume levels or turned off completely by clicking on the speaker icon. You are presented with a set of five buttons which bring up screens on History, Timeline, Pictures, Virtual Tour, and The Internet. The History screen provides a series of scrollable text windows which give an interesting history of the White House and all of the complex happenings which made it what it is today.
The Timeline screen provides less information, sort of a Trivial Pursuit set of facts about the White House, first telephone, first wedding, etc. There are 22 pictures of the White House through history. I was left wanting to see more historical pictures and more informative present-day pictures. TheVirtual Tour of the White House is the biggest disappointment in this package. You don’t see pictures of the real rooms, but only simple 3-D drawings. And I could not find a way to get to the second floor. The first floor plan is presented and by moving the mouse to make a hand point left, right, or straight ahead, and clicking, you can make your way about. Surely the technology exists to do better! But technology level is no excuse for the single page ‘booklet’ that comes with the CD-ROM. There are no instructions whatsoever. For $49.95, you deserve more.
The Internet page enables you to connect to the Internet via AOL and provides a number of related web sites to visit. This page brought up a minor problem. On all the other pages you can go ‘back’ to a previous page by clicking a button. Not here. Here you must bring up the ‘Insider Menu’, a pop-up menu which sits unobtrusively in the lower right of the screen. This menu offers access to additional resources: Presidents, First Ladies, Secret Service, Assassinations, Air Force One, U. S. Coins, The Internet (again), Morph, Credits, and the ultimately necessary Exit.
The Presidents page provides biographical material, a few significant events, and even the text of their Inaugural Address! The Timeline covers all Presidents. The First Ladies (Families and Pets included) takes a look at the wives and families of the Presidents. The Secret Service screens provide a history of the heroic group which, in addition to guarding the President, also goes after counterfeiters. Assassinations covers all the successful and unsuccessful attempts on the lives of Presidents. And did you know that Harry Truman once ordered his plane to buzz the White House? Picture trying that in a 747! You can take another of the ‘virtual tours’ of the current Air Force One; this one is more interesting than the ‘tour’ of the White House, but that may be because the interior of the big jet is less familiar than the interior of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
A short history of U. S. coinage tells you why two bits is a quarter. One of the funner aspects of this disk is Morph. Here the images of the Presidents morph into one another in chronological order. In all, this is not a bad disk, but certainly could have been better. The ‘virtual tours’ could have been much better and minor typos detract from some of the text. You would think someone could proof these things or at least run a spellchecker on them. It does provide information, some of which may not be so easy to find, such as all the Inaugural addresses. Ultimately, you will have to decide if it’s worth it.
Multimedia Cafe Scorecard
| Product: | INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE |
| Company: | Thynx |
| Cost: | $49.95 |
System Requirements:
PC Requirements:
486SX, 33 MHz; Windows 3.1; 8 MB RAM; 640×480 256-color monitor; 2x CD-ROM; 4 MB disk space; MPC-1 audio board
Macintosh Requirements:
68020, 60 MHz; System 7.0; 640×480 256-color monitor; 2x CD-ROM; 4 MB disk space
Breakdown:
Entertainment Value 3
Educational Value 4
Concept 4
Depth 3
Interface 4
Overall Score:
(* 0 rating, 0 votes)
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