Installation is simple and rapid and requires less than 2 MB of hard disc space. Any MTS 2 PC will handle the job, but moderately high performance of the video, audio, and computer hardware is needed to get the most from the program. All operations are both intuitive and self-explanatory; even though it is superfluous, the 32-page User Manual is well written and well illustrated.
Operation is flawless in all respects; if your configuration does not fully handle some feature of the program, the problem is reported and all workable functions are still provided. That sort of graceful failure should be a model for every Multimedia program.
Space limits us to only a representative sample of the power and flexibility of the program. Figure 1 shows the initial screen of information about a participating country--here, Belgium. In Figure 2, we see a portion of that country's medal statistics; selecting a year would give details on the medals won in those games. In Figure 3 we see a static list of information provided for each winner of any medal in any game; a still picture is provided whenever available. The icon in the bottom right indicates that John Kelly is one of the 100 athletes for whom a more extensive presentation is supplied. Clicking there gives a body of information of which Figure 4 is an example: a biography covering more than his Olympic experience and illustrative imagery (still or video). Another feature is a well-designed film or slide sequence, illustrated in Figure 5, of each year's Games.
Essential to the usefulness of the program is a well-designed search engine; fortunately, Olympic Gold gets high marks here, too. It permits filtering the selection so one can look for information on only women from France or participants in the Games of 1896. Access is very rapid, and all references checked proved accurate. The attractive introductory sequences-one animated, one live-action-can be suppressed at startup or turned off altogether. Sound level and other options are easily exercised from unobtrusive icons always accessible on-screen. Olympic Gold is a model of designing for people.
The only problems encountered with the program were minor. The brief musical interlude when a reference is retrieved becomes tiresome quite quickly and cannot be turned off. When the program is first started, the audio volume is set very high and cannot be turned down until the introduction is over. When a media problem did occur, a vague message appeared suggesting new drivers without specifying a device; experience on similar problems resolved this one by changing video mode.
Olympic Gold is a superb use of multimedia that will add dimension to the 1996 Games and beyond. While in itself it won't justify buying a multimedia PC, it will be a favorite for showing off what the machine can do.
Michael Richter is a freelance writer and a avid reader who lives in Los Angeles. He can be reached at mikrichter@interramp.com
©1996, ProMotion, inc.