GEMini CD-ROM disc
Available from: UNICA, 061 429 0241 Price: 23.33
The GEMini CD-ROM is one of the first CDs to come out for the ST that is packed full of PD & Shareware programs, fonts, music, demos, graphics files and almost everything you could want for. With this disc you could actually start up a PD library of your own as you'd already have 700 floppy disks of PD!
There is one little thing wrong with the disc, though. All the programs are in two forms; ZIP compressed format and uncompressed. This means every program is repeated twice. The reason for having these repeats is because the disc is supposed to be used with a BBS; the compressed files are for quicker downloads. I think they should have chosen them all to be in compressed format as then we'd have loads more software on the disk than there already is.
There are 2,800 files on the disk which is 600Mb, but do remember the files are repeated. However, there are still loads and loads to choose from. When you double click on the drive icon you are presented with some folders seperating the compressed and uncompressed programs as well as some files that contain all the programs that appear on GEMini. When you go into one of the folders you get a list of other folders such as ones that contain DAs, graphics and utilities and then you go into those and choose the programs you want.
GEMini is really worth buying - you get over 600Mb of software on one disc priced at just 23. If you wanted to buy these programs from a PDL you'd probably spend about 800. This means buying GEMini and a CD ROM drive is actually cheaper!! Of course it's even cheaper if you already own a CD-ROM drive.
If you don't have a CD-ROM drive then your best bet would be to buy the Apple CD-300 drive for 200. Unfortunately, Atari never released their CDAR drive in 1988 which means we have to resort to buying third party drives. To connect your ST to the drive you will require the ICD Link as well as its driver software. For more details write to us at the usual address. The Apple CD-300 is available from Harwood Computing on 0773 521606.
From: Unica Contact: 061 429 0241 Price: 23.33
The Uppers....
- Packed with 2800 files of software
- Very, very cheap.
- You could start your own PDL with it
and the Downers
- Requires a CD-ROM drive to use it.
Overall: 80%