The Complete National Geographic 110 Years
by Riverdeep
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Software Reviews of The Complete National Geographic 110 Years
Customer Review: Great concept, horrible execution.....
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this set immediately after it was released and was apalled at what I had bought. While the concept of having every issue on disc was a great idea, the use of JPEG images for the data instead of PDF was completely botched.Tech support, back in 1996, said they could have used less compression on the images of the pages, but they would have had to use even more than the 30+ CDs they had in the set and they decided that merely HAVING every issue would make up for any shortcomings in presentation.
The end result: a [very costly] set of 30 CDs I hardly ever use and it's a shame as I really wanted to sit back and enjoy as many issues as I could but the text, while mostly legible, is a chore to read.
Spend your money elsewhere or go to the library!
Customer Review: This software is not produced properly.
Summary: 2 Stars
Like other reviewers, I found this set of CD ROM hard to use. Its quality of text and photo are poorly made. Worse, it may have some bugs in its program that I can only zoom to the point of full pages, no zoom in further. The print out is very bad too. So it is hard to read both on screen or on pages. I tried some later years, the quaility doesn't improve much.The program like to ask for registration but failed to log on to its server through my cable connection.
By buying this set of CDR, I was hoping I can get something useful, but now, I have to find out a way that 'unlock' it photos like NG claimed to be one benefit of registration but I never was able to.
Customer Review: Great content, but horrible print quality
Summary: 3 Stars
I can hardly begin to say how nice it is to have all these wonderful articles at my fingertips. Unfortunately, the print is practically illegible. It looks like the print from a typewriter ribbon that has been used much too long. The pictures are very grainy. Don't but this until you borrow a friend's set and see how it looks on your computer. I'm amazed that National Geographic is willing to sell it.Customer Review: A Rich, Visually Stunning Reading Experience
Summary: 5 Stars
I was excited when I saw this collection on sale. I remembered pouring over my father's collection that took up a large part of a bookshelf, but only represented a few years of the magazine's history. Now here was a more-or-less complete collection (every issue to the end of 1998) that only took up minimal shelf space.The only bad thing that can be said about this package is that, as noted below, the picture quality is at times annoying. (I recommend viewing it at smaller than 800x600.) Basically, in order to see the photos at their best, the darkness option at the bottom of the screen must be slid all the way to the lightest setting (then it looks excellent), but then to set the text at its most visible, it has to be slid back to the darkest or next to darkest setting (and even then, it can look slightly smudged). Unless you read first, then look at the photos afterwards, you have to keep switching back and forth. Also, when the text is on a non-white background, as for text accompanying diagrams and charts, it is a strain to read. But even then, it is not difficult to read most of the text, and this is still a worthwhile package. After all, you get an (almost) complete collection of the wonderful photographs and fun, educational essays that is National Geographic Magazine (note: you do miss out on things you can only get with the hardcopy like special scented features, holograms and 3D effects (buy the hardcopy if you need such gimmicks), and for the map inserts you need to purchase another cd-rom collection). Even the old ads are a hoot to look at, and the search engine is excellent. And sure, there are 30 cds to switch between, but imagine trying to track down an article amongst hundreds of magazines filling up a room instead.
When you consider all of the text you get (110 years worth of magazines, many of which are extremely rare), the price is a great value. Knowing the excellent quality of the magazine, my one fear in laying out the large amount of money necessary for this collection was that say, in 5 years, it would be necessary to buy it again to get those newer issues on cd, but so far I have gotten an update cd that covers the year 1999 and hopefully more will be released.
This excellent (though flawed) product is highly recommended.
Customer Review: An invaluable source of knowledge and a bargain to boot!
Summary: 5 Stars
National Geographic has been, for over a century, a wonderful repository of photographs and text on virtually any subject imaginable. Its combination of great writing and stunning illustrations has made it a mainstay in innumerable homes since its inception in 1888.Recently the National Geographic Society released this near perfect digital incarnation of every page of its entire collection of journals. I first picked it up as soon as it was released back in 1996. Back then, its 31 CD-ROMs ran for $149 and I happily paid it for the collection. While the quality of some of the older pages' text left something to be desired and the constant swapping of discs was a tad annoying, the wealth of information more than made up for it.
When the DVD-ROM version appeared I eagerly snatched it up. Now, the only trade is in the quality of the images. That, coupled with the bargain price, makes it such an excellent and invaluable product that everyone should own it.
Unless you are lucky enough to own every paper issue of the National Geographic Society's journal (and even then the search tool would be immensely useful) this product is virtually a must-have.