Great Museums of the World
Travel Europe's most revered art museums without leaving your desk. Living up to its name, Great Museums of the World is an interactive tour of 14 renowned institutions of art, including Parisian treasure the Louvre, Florence's Uffizi, the National Gallery and the Tate in London, and St. Petersburg's Hermitage. Soothing classical tunes set the pace for an educational and enjoyable guide to some of the West's best-known artists and artwork. The package comprises five CD-ROMs: three volumes devoted entirely to the Louvre and two focused on other European museums. The Louvre CD-ROMs are the most comprehensive, though each are structured differently and include different features. All boast prominent works from the collection as well as audio tours and commentary that teach about the artwork, subject, or artist; the third volume is dedicated to the Egyptian and Italian art collections alone. Also included is a history and tour of the building that allows you to see, floor by floor, which collections live where. The remaining two CD-ROMs present less-comprehensive tours of other European museums; these are abbreviated versions of the same features offered for the Louvre program: building histories and visual tours, plus masterpieces and lesser-known works from respective collections. Again, there are audio and textual overviews by subject, work, or artist, and all programs allow you to print out works of art and zoom in to examine pieces in greater detail. One especially entertaining feature unique to these volumes: a panoramic tour of a virtual room that houses masterworks; you navigate the room with your mouse, simulating a walk through the gallery. There are some frustrations in using the product: Many volumes differ slightly in format and organization, so navigation and key features may prove confusing as you move from program to program; some allow you to zoom in on any part of a painting, while others highlight only a corner for illustration. The search functionality in several of the volumes is imprecise; for example, in the Italian art segment of the Louvre tour, a search for the museum's most famous work and creator, the Mona Lisa by da Vinci, turns up no results. And while the selection of museums is impressive, we missed North American gems such as New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim. Though no substitute for seeing such masterful works of art in person, Great Museums of the World is certainly a less expensive, more convenient alternative until a chance for the real thing comes along--and if it does, a great primer for first-time visitors. Art aficionados and history buffs may unwittingly spend hours exploring the virtual halls of Europe's most respected art collections. --Leah Ball
Great Museums of the World is a five CD-ROM collection of interactive tours through Europe's finest museums. Explore the arts and antiques of the most famous museums in London, Paris, Florence, Amsterdam, Rome, Moscow, Madrid, Vienna, and other cities. Among the museums you will visit are the Musée d'Orsay and The Louvre in Paris, the Tate Gallery in London, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, and Museo del Prado in Madrid. This CD-ROM collection is stunningly detailed and complete.
Great Museums of the World Accessories
Great Museums of the World Reviews
Wolf. I found the programs quite comprehensive, not so elementary as to be insulting and visually well done. In all the time since I first bought this product, CounterTop Software has done nothing for the non-PC user. Villanova, PA The three stars were for the PC content I used to be able to enjoy, after considering the fact that all I can do now is stare at the disks. Any software that claims to be of interest not only to interested adults but to school-age learners should not have this shocking shortcoming.
The music was a good touch. Fortunately, I did not have any of the technical problems that have been experienced by some other reviewers. Steven M. Great. I bought this product when I was running a laptop PC. Now that I have switched to MAC, this software is useless.
Having said all that, why in the world is it not MAC-compatible.
Maybe there's something similar that WORKS. I tossed them. TOO BAD. I purchased this set of five CD's and got ready to enjoy an art appreciation tour of Europe's museums. WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT.
As one reviewer remarked, 'the software is buggy." I have a new HP Pavillon computer with 200 Gigs of hard drive and fast AMD Athlon processor, and make my living as a software engineer, so it's not the computer. I could never get any of the Louvre CD's run, even after successful setup of EACH CD and it was dicy whether the other CD's would run. Such a good idea. Forget it.
Maybe there's something similar that WORKS. I tossed them. As one reviewer remarked, 'the software is buggy." I have a new HP Pavillon computer with 200 Gigs of hard drive and fast AMD Athlon processor, and make my living as a software engineer, so it's not the computer.
WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT. I could never get any of the Louvre CD's run, even after successful setup of EACH CD and it was dicy whether the other CD's would run. TOO BAD.
Forget it. Such a good idea. I purchased this set of five CD's and got ready to enjoy an art appreciation tour of Europe's museums.
This is amazing for the money. Hey, I'm happy. The scope is wonderful - a taste of the architecture, the art, and the history.You must understand that I am of the older generation - we were stuck with expensive books or saving for these trips. Maybe that is why this tour seems so valuable to me. Very authentic in atmosphere and effect. What can I say. For those of us who long, and I mean long, for a trip abroad, this is well worth many times the cost. I run a 633MHZ, Intel Celeron and it runs like a dream.
This is a fine bunch of CDs. Beyond that, I would recommend this because it is the perfect match of form and format; the art looks better on a computer screen than in does in a text, and you can click in for close-ups and details that enlarge with astounding clarity. There's not a whole lot of art from the last centurythey might have included a bit more modern stuffbut overall it offers a fine, sizable collection of art. If these guys come out with CD's focusing on modern artor architectureI will be in line to scoop them up.
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