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Launch of a New Medium

by Brian Leibowitz

If the future of hypermedia magazine publishing here today? 2Way Media, Inc. is betting on it with their Launch entertainment magazine, available bimonthly on CD-ROM.

I use the term magazine very loosely - Launch is a fully interactive multimedia publication that shares very little with its paper counterpart.

Launch is packed with everything from reviews and information on hot new movies and albums to "virtual interviews" with celebrities to playable demos of the hottest new video games. All of these are accessible through a stunningly rich multimedia "point-and-click" interface.

After the introductory video sequence, you see a city sprawled out across your monitor and split into two screens, the east side and the west side. The high resolution high color images are crowded with places to go and things to see.

The east side sports such features as "The Temple of Twitch", where in this issue you can try out a playable demo of MechWarrior 2 or FX Fighter for the PC, Power Pete,or F/A-18 Hornet for the Macintosh, or go to the Cyber Cafe with its fully interactive comic book.


A video clip of Spike Lee Graces the West Side
On the west side are hot items like "The Hang," an interactive club. This issue's featured artist in the Hang is none other than Alanis Morissette. Included are an exclusive full length video of a live performance of her smash hit "Hand In My Pocket," and an interactive interview, where you can watch any of a handful of video clips of Alanis talking about her new album "Jagged Little Pill."

Out in the lobby of the Hang is the "Vibreaker", where you can check out new music releases from about twenty different artists. This issue includes albums by Alanis Morissette, Lisa Loeb, Morrissey, and Smoking Popes to name a few. For each album, there is a brief review and several related pictures that flash on the screen as you listen to partial recordings of three tracks from the album.

There is also the Cinema, where there are usually a couple of full length movie trailers and an interview of a director or some other big wig from a third movie. In this issue are Four Rooms, Strange Days, and an interview of director Kevin Smith about his new film Mallrats. Keep in mind that this issue is a few weeks old.

And there is plenty more after that.

The one thing that inexorably binds it to conventional magazines, however, is the phenomenal amount of advertising that it contains. At least they are somewhat cool ads though. On each side of the city are outdoor television screens that constantly run footage of stock television ads aimed at the college age group. Apple Computer, Butterfinger, Levi's, and Sony Music are just a fraction of them. There are also links to fully interactive multimedia ads scattered throughout the virtual city. There are a few cute ones too. In the Hang there is a cardboard cutout of the suave martini guy seen on bus stops all over the city that says "Mr. Jenkins is feeling a bit pixelated. perhaps a second martini would help". And after a few second in the cinema lobby the Butterfinger bars fly off the shelf and float through the air to grab your attention. One of the more bizarre ones is a clip of Spike Lee talking about social empowerment followed by the slogan "Power is Macintosh."

Thank the ads though, they are the reason that this packed CD only costs $9 at Sam Goody. And I do mean packed. If you take the time to fully explore Launch, you will find over 500MB of video in over 200 sequences, including the exclusive 50MB Alanis Morissette live concert recording, and many places to go that I haven't even mentioned.


How it Rates: (On a scale of 1 to 10)
Content9
Graphics and Sound10
Fun Factor10
Interface8
Hardware Requirements6
Overall9
+ Nice variety of video clips, game demos, hypermedia documents, etc.
+ Top notch graphics - it doesn't get much better than this.
+ I like Alanis Morissette
+ First full blown multimedia entertainment magazine
+ Only $9
- It would be nice if they called it a promotional and only charged $3.
- Video and interface may be a little sluggish on double speed CD-ROM drives.
= A cool new media rich publication packed with plenty of features and strong potential. Somewhat crowded by overanxious advertisers. Check out the web page at "http://www.2LAUNCH.com" for more information.

Before you run out to buy this new publication, make sure you have adequate hardware to take advantage of it. The PC version requires a 33MHz 486 w/ 8MB RAM, 256 color display, sound card, and double speed CD-ROM drive, and supports Windows 3.1or Windows 95 (it also supports 16 bit color if you have it). The Macintosh version requires a 68040 processor, 8MB RAM (4.5MB free), double speed CD- ROM drive, and System 7.1.

However, these are the minimum requirements. I tested it on several PCs under Windows 95 ranging from a 66MHz 486DX2 with 8MB RAM and a double speed CD-ROM drive to a 100MHz Pentium with 16MB RAM and a quad speed CD-ROM drive.

The crucial factor seems to be the CD-ROM drive. Most of the video clips sport frames twice the size of the "standard" 160x120 pixels, and consequently require much greater bandwidth. If you want fast smooth video, I would recommend a quad speed CD-ROM. It is probably also best to have a 66Mhz or faster CPU, and 16MB of RAM will help make sure the interface isn't slowed down by annoying disk swapping. On the other hand, it was "usable" on the 486 mentioned above. No Macintosh's were tested.


2Way Media - The producers of Launch


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