
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 16, 1993                   TAG: 9308200084
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LARRY BLASKO ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FIRE UP THE PC AND HEAD FOR ANOTHER PLANET

August is when kids who couldn't wait for school to end begin to whine about being bored and parents harbor dark thoughts about sending the little beggars to the moon - or at least to summer camp.

Instead, with a suitably equipped IBM PC or compatible, parents and kids alike can travel to the far reaches of the universe with Discover Space by Broderbund for $39.95.

Discover Space is not one of those "sit still, Kid, we're going to educate you" programs. It's fun and so seamlessly menu-driven that it lets you explore with no fear of being lost in the software.

The knowledge that you pick up becomes incidental to the good time you're having.

The opening screen offers a selection of star maps, planets, deep sky objects, the sun, comets and asteroids and space exploration. These aren't simple icons, but rich 256-color illustrations. Clicking on any one of them will send you on a journey through the topic.

In any particular topic, the text contains certain highlighted words, usually technical terms or acronyms. Click on any highlight and a concise definition pops up.

In some areas of the program, animation is available. A popular one with kids of all ages is sure to be the section on asteroids that lets you specify the size and velocity of an asteroid striking Earth and observe the consequences. Hint: It's just throwing rocks, but very big rocks and very big velocities can spawn very big consequences.

Wonder how the sky outside your home would look if you could see it through the smog and the glare of city lights? The software will obligingly show you the sky for many cities and times. It will also tell you when to bring the flashlight along for the next eclipse that puts you in the shadow path.

Installation is easy, but the software's five 3.5-inch high-density floppies want to see seven megabytes of free hard disk space. You'll want to have a VGA or SVGA color monitor, at least a 386SX system running at 16 megahertz, and a mouse.

The software also supports many printers and sound cards.

Discover Space is, not surprisingly, very pro space exploration. The box comes with a membership form for The Planetary Society and a booklet by G. Harry Stine extolling the "final frontier."

The software itself makes some interesting predictions about human use of space both near-term and a century out. And while it's tempting to snicker at the idea of space tourism 25 years or so hence, baby-boomers born when all that flew had propellers or feathers have seen stranger changes.

Broderbund products are ubiquitous in software stores and mail-order companies.

For CompuBug's book, "ABCs of Computing, a Plain-English Guide," send $10 to CompuBug, P.O. Box 626, Summit, N.J. 07901. For an on-disk hypertext version, send $10 to DPA, 1160 Huffman Rd., Birmingham, Ala. 35215. Specify disk size and monitor.

by CNB