DIGITAL L.A. : YOU CAN'T GET ANY MORE MAD THAN WITH THIS CD-ROM SET.

Byline: David Bloom 

Very few of the computer titles that come into the office get much of a response from the staff here. One, however, caught just about everyone's eye: Totally Mad.

The seven-disc CD-ROM set (about $70, from Broderbund) has every issue of the magazine - known for Alfred E. Neuman and his ``What, Me Worry?'' attitude - since its inception in 1952. There are plenty of other goodies, too, including a roll of special Mad toilet paper, which sort of sums up the gleefully self-deprecating mind-set of the magazine, its editors and their electronic archive.

``We had to do it before the Y2K thing hits, because it may not work after that,'' said co-editor Nick Meglin of the decision to create the collection.

``It may be more devastating to computers than Y2K ever was,'' said John Ficarra, Meglin's colleague at the top (they'd say the bottom) of Mad's (dis)organizational chart.

The collection actually helps ease one of the great traumas of young adulthood: ``coming home and finding Mom and Dad have thrown out your Mad magazines with the old wallpaper,'' said Meglin.

``Now, instead of Mother having to schlep 200 issues of Mad to the trash, she has only seven discs to take out,'' Ficarra said. ``We're doing it for the mothers of America.''

Mad has gone through some changes over the past five decades, said Meglin, who has been with the publication from the start.

``I watched my kids grow up on Mad, and now my daughter is raising her own children and having to decide whether to let them read it,'' Meglin said. ``Now Mad is pushing envelopes in all kinds of ways.

Before, you could leave it around. But we don't create anything, we just put up a fun-house mirror to reflect the things that are going on in culture.''

And that means that a lot of stuff that Mad never dealt with before is now nearly mandatory material. And outlets such as ``South Park'' and Howard Stern's radio show push boundaries way beyond what Mad ever did at one time.

``Show me an episode of `Friends,' which airs at 8 o'clock at night - 8 o'clock - that doesn't revolve around somebody trying to (have sex),'' said Meglin.

``There's no question there are things in Mad now that we wouldn't have done years ago,'' said Ficarra.

``Conversely, we've done things in Mad years ago that we can't do today.''

One was an off-the-wall journal Dick De Bartolo wrote about drug use, said Ficarra. Also, gays and many other groups are no longer comfortable humor targets.

And with Totally Mad, you can page through all this stuff and much more, including animated marginalia by Sergio Aragones, interviews with the ``Usual Gang of Idiots,'' even music clips from old flexi-discs that once were included with some issues.

It does have some unusual system requirements, however, including a 2-byte soft chewy center, and a 9-shelf storage space to accommodate the truly gargantuan box in which the discs come.

And if you believe that, then you truly are Totally Mad.

Cinderella slips

After a summer of nearly perfect buildup for its new Dreamcast machine, Cinderella Sega finally stepped in a couple of pumpkins just as it was celebrating a big coming out (more than 410,000 units sold in the first week).

Even during Sega's celebratory party at a mammoth club in San Francisco's South of Market high-tech district, word was circulating about problems with big titles, including Blue Stinger, NFL 2K and Ready2Rumble.

It's a shame, because the football and boxing titles are excellent and great fun.

Activision's Blue Stinger at least looks fabulous, even if its story is a little well-worn and its game play has faced some criticism.

Sega has vowed to fix or replace any problem software or hardware for free.

And yes, Sega's bigger problem is still formidable competition from Sony and Nintendo, who both are unleashing $150 million marketing campaigns this fall for their existing PlayStation and N64 consoles, now selling at cut-rate prices.

Trust me, you'll get real tired this fall of seeing the ads on television from the three competitors jockeying for your attention during the Christmas season.

Net notes

McAfee.com, the online site for the utility software maker, has included free tools to eradicate the so-called Christmas, or Kriz, virus designed to attach hard drives and executable files on Christmas day.

Go to the anti-virus center at www.mcafee.com for a checkup.

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PHOTO While Totally Mad contains every issue of the humor magazine, there is lots of extra content, such as music clips and animation.