From John Crofts
Sherwood, Nottingham
I recently acquired a copy of the disc in question. The minimum system
requirements clearly state, and I quote, “486DX2/66 MHz, 8 Mb RAM, Double Speed
CD-ROM drive, Microsoft Windows 95 or 3.1 or later, 16-bit Windows sound card.
The preferred specification is Pentium P75 or higher, 16 Mb RAM, Quad Speed
CD-ROM drive, Windows 95.” Nowhere do I see any mention of “an old 386 computer
that uses 8-bit colour”.
Since I possess a computer with the minimum requirements less a sound card, I
thought that I would reset my machine to 8-bit colour, try it out, and see what
happened. The result was disappointing in that it simply did not function
without the sound provision.
When I bought my machine only three years ago, multimedia had not yet become
the norm. It is therefore inconceivable that there are many 386 machines about
with 16-bit sound cards. The statement that the disc checked out satisfactorily
in a professional test house is of no help either since the disc probably does
work (if you happen to have a Pentium machine running Windows 95 and 8-bit
colour).
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However, all is not lost, one can always reset the computer for 8-bit colour,
run the software, then attempt to reset the computer back to 16-bit colour
without accidentally selecting a screen mode that does not totally crash the
video. This is a very real risk for the novice, and would entail a complex reset
from basics, or a call to a help desk.
It is quite clear to me that the Health Education Authority has dropped a
real big one here. How many of these discs will end up in the bin?
