The Inside Scoop on Gaming

After overcoming some legal wrangling, WotC/TSR has finally published their massive Dragon Magazine Archive. It's hard to describe, but "massive" fits quite nicely. Every single page, including the front and back covers and every single advertisment from the first 250 Dragons (and the seven issues of TSR house organ "The Strategic Review"), is included. Even if you're not a regular AD&D player, the sheer volume of matierial makes it worth the price.

*The Box*

The archive comes on five CD-ROMS, in a standard jewel case. You also get the loading instructions and a brief summary of the interface controls, along with a card for a discounted subscriptioni to the print version of Dragon. No beefs here, though you might want to transfer the disks to a soft CD wallet ASAP, otherwise you might risk accidentally scratching your disks if you go flipping around the archive a great deal.

I'm actually quite fond of the cover art for the archive. It features a green dragon standing atop a tower of oversized books, with a typical fantasy chick sitting on his back, holding onto a pair of reins that control the dragon. An original work (as far as I know) it's a nice metaphor for what the archive wants to accomplish.

*Loading*

Loading the archive onto my computer went without a hitch. Please note that you're going to need quite a bit of room on your machine for this archive. The search engine takes up ninety megs of RAM on it's own. Loading the eitire archive on your hard drive is possible, but it would take several gigs.

*The Interface*

This is the meat of the matter. With such a huge volume of matierial, it's vital that you be able to search it easily, otherwise a user risks becoming hopelessly lost. Generally, there are no problems here.

Upon booting up the program, you're presented with the open pages of a book. On the first page, WotC welcomes new users, while on the second page there are buttons for registering the program, doing an automtic check for upgrades on the TSR site, or moving on. At the top of the screen are buttons for browsing issues, searching for specific articles, editing your bookmarks, or changing print and viewing options.

Clicking on Browse brings up a menu that allows you to look at the online manual, or look at the magazines year by year. The magazines are displayed with thumbnails of the covers, and below that the issue number. It's fortunate that they include the issue numbers, because the thumbnails are far too small to make out. Clicking on an indvidual issue brings up the magazine for viewing.

The Search function is where the interface really stands out. There are two modes availible. Basic Search just lets you type words for the engine to hunt up, while Advanced Search allows you to use Boolean logical operators ("AND", "OR", "NOT", ect.) for more focused searches. Either method gives you the option of scanning for words in the article titles, or the body of the text. You can also narrow the search to individual CDs, or years. Once the search is completed, clicking on the results automatically brings up the article listed.

Once you have the article or issue you want, the buttons at the bottom become useful. View lets you resize the image for better viewing, and allows you to choose to view a single page at a time, or the two facing pages at once. "View" also has the Print button, though you can also print by typing CTRL P.

GoTo has the options of going to the first page of an article, the last page, the start of the previous or next article, or just jumping to a specified page.

There are also icons for moving the page around, magnifying the page for better viewing, and for highlighting and saving specific texts or images, so you can create your own mages of information, customizied however you see fit.

One note on printing: This is the only spot where I had a problem. I received an error message the first few times I tried to print a page, until I figured out that you should set your printer to print grey-scale images and text. Users of older printers and drivers should keep this in mind. If you don't want to waste all the ink on your printer cartridge printing images, there is also an option for just printing straight text.

*The Scans*

The scans of the pages themselves are of high quality, and readable throughout. In some of the older issues there are visible flaws in the artwork from scanning twenty year old magazines, but there's nothing to scream about.

*Conclusion*

There's a lot here for everyone, even you don't play AD&D. Where else are you going to find things like the classic Fineous Fingers cartoons, or Wormy? If you're feeling nostalgic for old tournament modules, pick this up. If you need that obscure article on Elven Cavaliers, grab it. If you _must_ find that Giants in the Earth column with AD&D stats for Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, this is what you need.

And even if you don't play AD&D, there's bound to be _something_ in here for a system that you did play.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Dragon Magazine Archive
Author: n/a Category: Magazine Company/Publisher: Wizards of the Coast, Inc./TSR Line: Dragon Magazine Cost: $44-70 ISBN: 0-7869-1448-3 Capsule Review by Royce Day on 10/10/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Modern_day Horror Far_Future Space Comedy Espionage Post-apocalypse Old_West Superhero Diceless Generic	After overcoming some legal wrangling, WotC/TSR has finally published their massive Dragon Magazine Archive. It's hard to describe, but "massive" fits quite nicely. Every single page, including the front and back covers and every single advertisment from the first 250 Dragons (and the seven issues of TSR house organ "The Strategic Review"), is included. Even if you're not a regular AD&D player, the sheer volume of matierial makes it worth the price. The Box The archive comes on five CD-ROMS, in a standard jewel case. You also get the loading instructions and a brief summary of the interface controls, along with a card for a discounted subscriptioni to the print version of Dragon. No beefs here, though you might want to transfer the disks to a soft CD wallet ASAP, otherwise you might risk accidentally scratching your disks if you go flipping around the archive a great deal. I'm actually quite fond of the cover art for the archive. It features a green dragon standing atop a tower of oversized books, with a typical fantasy chick sitting on his back, holding onto a pair of reins that control the dragon. An original work (as far as I know) it's a nice metaphor for what the archive wants to accomplish. Loading Loading the archive onto my computer went without a hitch. Please note that you're going to need quite a bit of room on your machine for this archive. The search engine takes up ninety megs of RAM on it's own. Loading the eitire archive on your hard drive is possible, but it would take several gigs. The Interface This is the meat of the matter. With such a huge volume of matierial, it's vital that you be able to search it easily, otherwise a user risks becoming hopelessly lost. Generally, there are no problems here. Upon booting up the program, you're presented with the open pages of a book. On the first page, WotC welcomes new users, while on the second page there are buttons for registering the program, doing an automtic check for upgrades on the TSR site, or moving on. At the top of the screen are buttons for browsing issues, searching for specific articles, editing your bookmarks, or changing print and viewing options. Clicking on Browse brings up a menu that allows you to look at the online manual, or look at the magazines year by year. The magazines are displayed with thumbnails of the covers, and below that the issue number. It's fortunate that they include the issue numbers, because the thumbnails are far too small to make out. Clicking on an indvidual issue brings up the magazine for viewing. The Search function is where the interface really stands out. There are two modes availible. Basic Search just lets you type words for the engine to hunt up, while Advanced Search allows you to use Boolean logical operators ("AND", "OR", "NOT", ect.) for more focused searches. Either method gives you the option of scanning for words in the article titles, or the body of the text. You can also narrow the search to individual CDs, or years. Once the search is completed, clicking on the results automatically brings up the article listed. Once you have the article or issue you want, the buttons at the bottom become useful. View lets you resize the image for better viewing, and allows you to choose to view a single page at a time, or the two facing pages at once. "View" also has the Print button, though you can also print by typing CTRL P. GoTo has the options of going to the first page of an article, the last page, the start of the previous or next article, or just jumping to a specified page. There are also icons for moving the page around, magnifying the page for better viewing, and for highlighting and saving specific texts or images, so you can create your own mages of information, customizied however you see fit. One note on printing: This is the only spot where I had a problem. I received an error message the first few times I tried to print a page, until I figured out that you should set your printer to print grey-scale images and text. Users of older printers and drivers should keep this in mind. If you don't want to waste all the ink on your printer cartridge printing images, there is also an option for just printing straight text. The Scans The scans of the pages themselves are of high quality, and readable throughout. In some of the older issues there are visible flaws in the artwork from scanning twenty year old magazines, but there's nothing to scream about. Conclusion There's a lot here for everyone, even you don't play AD&D. Where else are you going to find things like the classic Fineous Fingers cartoons, or Wormy? If you're feeling nostalgic for old tournament modules, pick this up. If you need that obscure article on Elven Cavaliers, grab it. If you _must_ find that Giants in the Earth column with AD&D stats for Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, this is what you need. And even if you don't play AD&D, there's bound to be _something_ in here for a system that you did play. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)