The publisher is the Voyager Company.
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Content
In 1974, peasants digging a well in China unearthed a life- size terracotta statue of a warrior. Archaeologists were called in, and over the next several years, they slowly uncovered the tomb of Qin Shi Huang Di, the first emperor of China. The tomb contained an army of over 7,000 life-size statues to protect the emperor after his death. The First Emperor of China CD provides information about the archeological excavation, Chinese history, and facts about Qin Shi Huang Di.The CD is organized around five main topics. These are:
- 1. Qin Shi Huang Di
- 2. The Great Wall
- 3. The Museum
- 4. The Bronze Chariot
- 5. Discovery of Qin Army
For each topic, there is a color video accompanied by text that provides information about the topic. The user can choose to have the text narrated in either in English or Chinese. The narration is accompanied by Chinese music, and is very clear. The videos are interesting, depicting such things as the actual archaeological excavation and aerial shots of the Great Wall.
The CD also features maps, a chronology, a timeline of Chinese history, a glossary, thumbnails, and a bibliography. All of these features are very helpful, and very well done. For example, the glossary shows a word and its definition, and it also will pronounce the word in Chinese for the listener. In the map section, the user can choose an area of China to close in on and see a more detailed map. Audio pronunciations of place names are also provided here, as are pictures of each area. The thumbnails feature provided about thirty small pictures of a chosen topic for the user to view. The bibliography provides many additional sources, but many are sources that would be unavailable to students, like "Oriental Arts."
Ease of Use
The CD provides help in balloon form that can be turned on and off. The navigation through the CD is easy, and the user can return to the table of contents from any screen. The user can mark any of the cards to save them.Other Reviews
CD-ROM Superguide(1995) by Michael Langberg
"Students of Chinese history and culture might find The First
Emperor of China a useful study tool... For anyone else
interested in the subject, I'd recommend spending the same
amount of money for a coffee-table book displaying sharp color
photographs of the Qin tomb."
System Requirements
- Color Macintosh (25-MHz 68030 or better) System 7
- 4.000K of free RAM (at least 8 MB installed)
- 13-inch color monitor
- QuickTime compatible CD-ROM drive
Installation Details
The installation of this CD was complicated, and took about twenty minutes to complete. First, one must copy Hypercard 2.1 to one's hard drive. Then, one must allocate 4,000K of memory to HyperCard. One also must install special fonts from the CD, and copy the First Emperor stack to the hard drive. The directions for this were unclear and confusing.Recommendations
This CD is interesting, but I believe students would tire of it quickly. Once one has viewed several of the topics, it all begins to look and sound the same. While the discovery of the tomb in real life was a very exciting and important event, this CD does not seem to adequately convey this excitement.
Reviewed by Diana Huff, who graduated from Texas A&M University in 1995 with a degree in Elementary Education. She completed a Master's degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Texas at Austin in 1996.