What is Microsoft Encarta 97 Deluxe?

You’re fascinated by the War of 1812 (you big nerd) so you fire up Encarta for a map of the key battle sites. Go ahead and click around, but don’t expect anything to happen, not even for the sites that are written about in other sections. Stick to the dozen or so paragraphs on the war and you may stumble across an occasional hyperlink, although these exist for only a fraction of subjects that could be cross-referenced. The others? Look them up yourself.

This seems to be the attitude taken by the Encarta folks, who’ve dubbed their latest installment “deluxe” because there are two CDs instead of one. You’d think that with two CDs the encyclopedia would be pretty comprehensive. Silly you.

An encyclopedia should cover just about everything, which is no doubt a tough gig to handle even with two CDs. Encarta offers about 30,000 articles, 14,000 photos and illustrations, 1,800 sound clips, and 150 videos and animations. OK, that’s not bad. Still, you’d think the self-proclaimed “Ultimate Information Resource” wouldn’t be so sloppy. Despite a cumbersome Windoid interface, Encarta’s biggest sin is its scattered shortage of hyperlinks. For example, you can learn that Michael Jordan played in the NCAA and the NBA, but you can’t hyperlink to sections on either league.

Mahr, Joe. (March 1997). CD-ROMs. MacAddict. (pg. 82).

Download Microsoft Encarta 97 Deluxe for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.1 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

Minimum Requirements

• MC68040 processor
• 8 MB RAM
• 2X CD-ROM drive
• System 7.1

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II