Special Review
Steve recently sent me an email asking for a frank and honest review of his new CD-ROM. While I waited for it to arrive, I visited his web site and was quite surprised by what I saw. Not only was the web site unusually designed, but it contained samples of the same graphic artistry which appear on his CD. Based upon what I saw at his site, I grew anxious about the arrival of his CD.
When it arrived, I first noticed that while it came nicely packaged, it did not have any printed instructions. Most CDs these days come with an insert in the jewel case with minimal instructions for installing the software. While this was not a problem for me, it might be for less experienced computer users.
I used a Packard Bell Pentium II 233 Mhz computer with 32 MB RAM and 2 MB VRAM. The system was running Windows 95, but the CD may also be used on older Windows 3.1 systems, too. Steve recommends your system have 12 MB RAM and 1 MB VRAM minimally. Once the CD was recognized by my system through AutoStart, it presented a brief animated introduction to the CD which was very pretty and also made use of some of the graphic elements from the CD.
The KUDO browser installation dialogue box was the next screen to appear. I am familiar with this graphical browser since it comes packaged with many commercial clip art packages. I’ve never cared for it and have found it to be buggy. This occasion was no different. I was unable to install the browser even after rebooting. A dialogue box would pop up stating it was looking for previous versions of Kudo on my system, and then the system hung. Luckily, past experience allowed me to get past this easily by simply exiting out of the installation program by using Control-Alt-Delete, and then using the Microsoft Explorer to browse through the CD’s folders until I found a SETUP.EXE for the 32 bit version of Kudo. Once installed, everything ran fine (If you need a good image browser and graphic manipulation tool, I recommend you take look at ThumbsPlus).
Upon running the Kudo browser, it presents you with graphical thumbnails of the various catalogs of images on the CD. There were over 400 images all dealing with elements of magic, ranging from top hats, wands, cards, boxes, chains, silks, etc. Additionally, there is a folder containing gospel-related images and phrases. Hidden on the CD are also a number of Word documents which contain sample patter for different effects, all with a gospel slant.
As a recent convert to Christianity, I can understand where Steve’s heart is, but I would have preferred the CD not have a gospel slant to it. There is a time and place for everything, and while magic can be used as a means to share the word of God and your religious beliefs, I would not feel comfortable, myself, with putting this type of material on a commercially available CD for the general public who may not perform gospel magic or share the same religious beliefs. A separate CD would be highly recommended.
Now to the artwork. It’s top notch. The images are available in different formats, GIF and TIFF, as well as in different sizes. This allows the user to choose the appropriate image for the appropriate medium: low resolution for Internet web sites, gray-scale for laser printed promotional materials, and high resolution color for those hefty four-color projects at the local printer. The images are crystal clear, and very artistic. This is not your typical cartoon clipart. Make no mistake. Steve has gone to great lengths to present the best photographic treatments of magic props for your commercial use. There are no royalty fees either which means once you buy the CD, the images are yours to use in any way you see fit. Be sure to read the legal document for all the skinny to make sure you do not compromise the artist’s rights.
I’ve added some of Steve’s artwork through out this web site, particularly his titles in my Reviews section. I think you will find his graphics to be very professional in appearance, and they will greatly aid you in your own marketing efforts. My two recommendations are to lose the Kudo browser (or fix the install routine) and to move the gospel images to a separate CD. Other than that, you couldn’t make a finer investment in presenting a better image to your clients.