__ Just Outta Beta __
__ Immediate Gratification __
Release: July/August
Those who enjoy the nuts and bolts of putting together multimedia presentations are not necessarily the same people who can turn out a well-designed product. A look at most companies' sales presentations reveals that much of what passes for multimedia is, well, butt-ugly.
Perhaps it's simply because many designers are put off by having to learn HTML, scripting languages, or the filmic metaphor of multimedia authoring programs like Director. Quark Inc. thinks so and hopes to capitalize on that reluctance with its new Immedia application, which adds intuitive and easy-to-use multimedia authoring tools to its XPress page-layout program.
Immedia presentations can contain anything that an XPress page can plus animations, video, transition effects, sound, and hypertext. Programming in Immedia is a point, click, and drag affair, accessed through the floating QuarkImmedia palette: simply define elements within the XPress layout as objects, then assign events to those objects. For instance, a picture on a page becomes an object that, when clicked on, takes the viewer to another page, plays a movie or sound, or pops up a text box. Complex actions are programmed using a scripting metaphor in which a series of events are linked together but there is no true scripting language to learn.
Intriguingly, Immedia promises to deliver content over the Internet without the design restrictions of HTML. To view an Immedia site, download the free Immedia Viewer (now available only for Macintosh) from the Quark homepage or any Immedia-designed site with a Viewer. Access Immedia content by entering the URL directly into the viewer. Unlike HTML Web browsers, the Immedia viewer has no interface, so when the site loads, all the user sees is the Immedia presentation itself just as if it were a CD ROM, but at those lightning-fast online speeds.
While it's not likely that the release of Immedia will lead print designers to rise up en masse to claim the Web in the name of 37-point Caslon Open Face, it will at least make it easier for them to branch out into interactive media.
- Eugene Mosier *
__ Quark Inc.: (800) 788 7835, +1 (303) 894 8888, www.quark.com/. Immedia is an XTension for Quark XPress; a copy of XPress 3.32 is needed in addition to the Immedia application. __
__ Game controller __
Release: Summer
Make rocket ships fly with a nod of your head! Perception Systems' Zón game controller is a small box that houses motion-sensing technology and frees your hands from the usual joystick shackles. Besides, it'll only set you back US$99.
Perception Systems: +1 (818) 907 6068, email info@percepsys.com.
__ Voice to the virtual world __
Release: July/August
OnLive! Technologies has added voice to the virtual world. OnLive Traveler is a stand-alone VRML browser that incorporates microphone input from your Pentium PC. Full-duplex additive voice bridging, gain control, and spatialization and distance attenuation provide realistic 3-D audio allow ing users to talk and hear multiple users simultaneously. Now you can talk with the avatars, walk with the avatars....
OnLive! Technologies: +1 (408) 366 6000, www.onlive.com/.
__ The Adventures of Pinocchio __
Release: July/August
The Adventures of Pinocchio is a live-action Moviegame from Powerhouse Entertainment. Martin Landau and Jonathan Taylor Thomas star in the CD-ROM that will be released simultaneously with the feature film. (Look for that trend to continue.)
Powerhouse Entertainment: +1 (214) 233 5400, email pwrhouse95@aol.com.
__ The Wrath of Sparky __
Release: August
"Alternative" cartoonist Tom Tomorrow's latest book, The Wrath of Sparky, should establish Tomorrow (aka Dan Perkins) as this generation's Bill Keane. Kidding.
St. Martin's Press: (800) 288 2131, +1 (718) 984 3398.
__ The Pandora Directive __
Release: August
Tex Murphy is back in The Pandora Directive. This six-CD-ROM adventure revolves around the disappearance of the Mayans and the UFO incident in Roswell, New Mexico. Three story routes and seven endings will keep you guessing.
Access Software Inc.: +1 (801) 359 2900, www.accesssoftware.com/.
__ FrankyOnline __
Release: August
Tsuyoshi Takashiro's Future Pirates Inc. is back with FrankyOnline, a 3-D interactive cartoon network aimed at America's under-12 set. Franky is a media hybrid - a 3-D graphical world on CD-ROM is augmented by regularly updated online content. Kids will be able to play networked games and enjoy music, karaoke, magazines, chat, and email. The FrankyOnline CD-ROM is available free for PC, Mac, and other platforms.
Future Pirates Inc.: +1 (310) 450 6600, www.franky.com/.
__ Dominion __
Release: August/September
Dominion is kinda like SimCity, but with planets, and aliens, and advanced weaponry, and mercenaries, and robots.... And you'll need a PC and a CD-ROM drive.
7th Level Inc.: (800) 884 8863, +1 (214) 498 8100, www.7thlevel.com/.
