The interactive environment.

The hot product in home computing today is multimedia -- a marriage of your computer with your TV set and CD player, with Nintendo and your bookshelf thrown in, too. By using a computer-based CD called a CD-ROM, multimedia PCs can present video, stereo sound, photos, animation, charts, games and text, as well as databases or software programs -- basically anything that can be digitized.

The best multimedia developers are combining all of these things into a truly new form of media, as captivating as television, but with more control. This "interactivity" is what makes multimedia software tick. By involving you in creating the structure of the presentation, multimedia can draw you into the learning or entertainment process.

PC marketers see CD-ROM as a new chance to get computers into the home. In the last Christmas season, 80 percent of computers sold had multimedia capabilities. According to The New York Times, the CD-ROM industry sold $590 million worth of software in 1994 to the six million households with multimedia computers.

Todd Harris, former editor of CD-ROM World, says marketers have tied in to the environment as an issue with appeal for multimedia buyers. "It makes for great video, great pictures. It's a controversial and provocative subject, and it's something the baby boom generation is interested in," he says.

So far, most environmental disks have dealt with animals and zoos, with CDs featuring national Geographic and Jacques Cousteau. Warren Buckleitner, publisher of the Children's Software Review, says most of these CDs are aimed at kids. "Software designers are always looking for things that appeal to children, and animals are very meaningful to kids," he says. "There are few kids who don't like animals."

The best-known environmental software is not really multimedia. The Sim series of games -- SimCity, SimLife, SimEarth and now SimRainforest -- count among the best-selling software programs of all time. The programs put you in the position of guiding the development of a city, a species, a planet or a rainforest, while the computer plays out the implications of your decisions.

The much-loved SimCity has been modernized and greatly improved with the recent SimCity 2000. It now offers control of more details, like sewer and water lines, renewable energy sources and a host of new disasters.

SimEarth, introduced in 1990, deals with global changes, letting you tinker with how much solar radiation the Earth receives, how quickly the greenhouse effect heats up the atmosphere and other macro-variables. It plays out the results on life forms, water, land and air, as millions of years tick by.

On a slightly smaller scale, SimLife lets you play God with species and their immediate environments. You can create your own fanged carnivore and let it loose on a world full of llamas. It's fun, and a little creepy. In fact, that's a danger of all the Sim series. They more you play, the more the simulation starts to seem real.

Digital Wildlife

With the cooperation of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WFN), software giant Microsoft has developed Dangerous Creatures, which focuses on predators and the spectacular defenses of certain prey. It is in every way an impressive CD, with an intelligent design, high-quality illustrations, lots of photos and videos -- everything you could ask for. But after seeing it, it's unclear what it says about nature. Like most mainstream media, it's violent and emphasizes the "charismatic megafauna" over the important but less photogenic species.

Microsoft's other new CD, Explorapedia: The World of Nature, is on more solid ground. Covering astronomy as well as earth sciences, botany and zoology, "space-frog" host Thaddeus "Tad" Pole guides kids around from desert to farmland to rainforest in his flying saucer. It has plenty of media, with talking throughout the CD, often the voices of children.

A World Alive is billed by its publisher, Voyager, as an "interactive documentary." Like a normal documentary, you watch a 30-minute video on wildlife. But when, say, a howler monkey comes on, you can pause the video and click the mouse to jump -- monkey-like -- to more information. Here you learn that the monkey's howl can be heard three miles away. For some reason, you can't hear it. The emphasis is on the video.

National Geographic's Mammals: A Multimedia Encyclopedia, is long on content, with entries on over 200 mammals, sorted by name or by order. And of course it has the impeccable photography that National Geographic is known for. What it lacks is an interesting structure. Initially developed in 1990, it was conceived essentially as a book, and now plays as a book with some fairly dull video.

While most of these disks are factually correct, some can give messages that are downright offensive. Sanctuary Woods' It's a Bird's Life is an interactive CD with a children's story written by actress Shelly Duvall. It tells the story of eight parrots, six of whom are endangered species, living at Duvall's house in Los Angeles. When the house burns down in a brush fire, the parrots head for the Amazon rainforest. They arrive to find widespread destruction of the forest from logging and mining. So they ... go back to LA, taking 32 Amazon parrots with them!

It's commendable that this CD introduces the issue of rainforest destruction to young children. But the solution it offers -- that endangered species should be taken into the celebrity homes of America -- is half-baked.

Somewhat better for small children is the Wonders of Learning series from National Geographic. The World of Animals covers dinosaurs, butterflies, spiders and farm animals, while Our Earth gives an introduction to air, rain, maps and geology. Not much more than books read aloud, they at least have nice photographs and rudimentary activities, and good content. Strictly for ages eight and under.

Undersea Adventure

Odell Down Under (MECC), Oceans Below (Software Toolworks) and Undersea Adventure (Knowledge Adventure) all take you to see the mysteries of the deep, and the first two are challenging and fun. The only CD to stay away from is Undersea Adventure. Designed for small children, it tends to pander. As if a video of a dolphin leaping out of the water in playful pursuit of a boat isn't exciting enough, Undersea Adventure tacks on a cheap slide whistle sound effect every time it clears the water. Undersea Adventure deserves another criticism for its ridiculously oversized packaging, though it is not alone in this regard (see sidebar).

A much better adventure game is MECC's Amazon Trail. As you paddle up the Amazon and back in time, you pick up clues and supplies, aided by your guide and occasional visits from an ethereal jaguar. You encounter villagers, scientists and explorers and ask them questions about the rainforest.

On a whole other wavelength is Quantum Gate, a two-hour "interactive movie" from Media Vision. Chock full of sci-fi intrigue -- and only a little environmental info -- Quantum Gate sends you on a mission to save the Earth from a pollution-induced plague of mutant insects. One of many doomsday scenario computer games, this one slips in at least a little environmental awareness. It is also a state-of-the-art multimedia program, so you'll need plenty of computing power.

There are surprisingly few multimedia CD-ROMs on the market for adults, especially those well-informed on environmental issues. Apple Computer recently announced a CD called Earth Explorer, which covers the environment in general. While aimed at ages 10 and up, it may be interesting for adults.

The most talked-about environmental CD for adults is from MDI in England, the Big Green Disk. The Big Green Disk does deal with many substantive issues -- from water pollution to global warming. But while it's had some rave reviews in the computer press (with one reviewer calling it "a really lush disk"), the lushness doesn't extend to the sound and video. The only sounds, in fact, are the voices of the narrator and guests, and the only visuals are clips of people sitting and talking. "Talking heads" can be a bore on television, and they're even more so here.

Multimedia is a whole new genre, and it is still in the process of sorting itself out. Some CDs pay too much attention to form and not enough to the substance of the information. Others suffer from simple lack of imagination, such as when the narrator reads aloud from the text shown on the screen. But by giving text, audio and video in a single package, CD-ROMs can present Earth-based issues in a way that a book, radio show or TV program alone cannot.

CONTACTS: MECC, 6160 Summit Drive, Brooklyn Center, MN 55430/[phone]; Microsoft, 1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399/[phone]; MDI, The Old Hop Kiln, 1 Long Garden Walk, Farnham, Surrey, GU97HP England/(011) 44-252-737-630; Voyager, 1 Bridge Street, Irvington, New York 10533/[phone].

Time to Downsize 

The best thing you can do as an eco-conscious consumer is look beyond the splashy labels, read the fine print, understand what the claims mean -- multimedia CDs are an environmentalist's packaging nightmare. While the music industry has done away with the "long box," it's still alive and well in the interactive world. The product -- a CD in a jewel box -- comes in an oversized cardboard-and-plastic package designed solely to take up shelf space and get your attention in the store.

The crush of new titles promises to increase pressure to downsize the packaging as stores run out of space, and increasing public exposure should get environmentalists interested in greening the multimedia world. Until then, try ordering directly from the publisher -- and tell them to keep the packaging. One good alternative is renting CD-ROMs, which stores like Blockbuster Video in San Francisco are starting to do.