Customer Reviews

Dragon Magazine Archive : 250 Issues of Dragon Magazines and Dms Electronic Media Utility (Dragon)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is an absolute must have for anyone who is serious about gaming, and for those of us who have been in it for some time, it can be a fun-filled walk down memory lane. I found myself staring in disbelief at articles about Gamma World, the Jester NPC class(! ), a Top Secret mini-module that is a parody of Disney World, stats for Rocket Raccoon, etc, etc, etc. I forgot most of these things existed, yet the memories came back so vividly. You can not beat the price on this item, especially when you consider the fact that you get three decades worth of gaming resources.

I do have to agree with everyone else, in that I haven't seen such a primative interface in recent years, and if it weren't for the fact that every issue is in .pdf format, it would be an utter waste. Thank god for Acrobat! If you buy this collection, be sure to download a copy of Acrobat 4.0, because the only time you'll go back to the actual interface will be when you want to do a search. This is an absolute shame, and Helikon Technologies should be raked over the coals for this tragedy. All things said and done, I can truly say without a doubt in my mind, this is one of the best deals on Amazon.

250 magazines for the price of a year's subscription! A great deal. But even on my 19" monitor, the ridiculous interface and screen layout made it difficult to read the text. I fired up Acrobat and I have started reading the issues directly on that--a big improvement. The only thing this method lacks is a search feature--but I can slog through the regular interface to get article listings and then go back and read them in Acrobat. Despite some problems, a 4-star for its enormous and valuable content.

All of the issues, including games, adventures, ads, and inserts are included, searchable, and printable, in full color, but there are problems.

The on-line registration doesn't work, the update which the ReadMe.Txt file says will be available by the time it's published, isn't. In fact, Helikon shut down their FTP server; they say that you should contact "CustServ@Wizards.com" who will be happy to send you the update...

The interface works, slowly, but it works -- on 95/98 boxes. I tried it on an NT 4.0/SP 4 box (far exceeded the stated minimum soft/hardware requirements), but it didn't work. When I fired up Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0, I found that many (1/2) of all graphics are of an un-recognized/un-readable type (sorry, MAC users).

The interface is disappointing, slow, and apparently works only on 95/98 systems, but all of the VAST information promised is there -- if you can get it.

This thing has a ton of information. Besides the 250 issues of the Dragon, you also get 7 issues of it's predecessor, the Strategic Review. At an average of 100 pages per magazine, that's 25,000 pages of gaming material.

The bad side of that is, a lot of the stuff in the magazines isn't particularly relevent these days, or interesting to read. For instance, reviews of games, and reviews of various computer products, conventions, pics of new miniatures. These take up a surprising amount of space, and aren't worth reading. It would have been nice if the Dragon soley concentrated on gaming articles, adventures, & such.

The built in interface isn't as bad as some make it out. Yes, it's slower & rather bloated compared to Acrobat, but has most the functionality of Adobe Acrobat, plus the options to kill graphics (which helps a lot when printing out), search, and bookmark articles. On a mid range computer, you probably will notice no speed problems (fine on my K6-3/450, which is a cheap computer), but tends to bog down on my ancient P120. Once you get used to the hotkeys, you'll find it's much better to use it than Acrobat.

The search functions are nice, but whoever did the scanning & conversion to PDF should put the name of the game the article is about into the article title. For instance, when trying to find articles on Traveller, you have to search in the article body, not the article title, which leads to a lot of bad results (reviews, editorials, etc). It also would have been nice if they put what type of article it was in the article title, so you could quickly look for adventures, magic item lists, etc.

If you have any interest at all in D&D, or TSR's other games, or other older games (Traveller, Champions, etc), then you should buy this.

Even with a clunky interface, this archive is just what any avid player needs. What gamer hasn't had to flip through beat-up back issues and yellowed photocopies of classic articles?

Not anymore. Looking for E.G.G.'s "Good Isn't Stupid" article? [click, click, print] -and still have time left over to cruise "Dragonmirth."

Every article, every table, every cheesy ad, and every short story since the beginning are now at your fingertips.

The interface lacks the polish one would hope for, and the ancient manuscript motif (complete with sword pointer) seem unnecessary, but here's the bottom line: You can find the content, and ALL the content is there.

Every episode of "Wormy" is on this archive...

Compare the price with what a subscription costs, think of all the articles you've misplaced or always wanted, and then tell yourself this isn't a smart buy.

G'wan...do it for Wormy!

Disappointing, very disappointing to say the least. The silly and difficult to use interface ruins this product. I have a 17" monitor and run at a decent resolution and still couldn't get very much on the screen due to the almost 1.5 border the program creates. Your best bet is to use the search feature, then use Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the magazine and view it within there. Had some really great potential, which was ruined by making it too cutesy.

The content is great; no doubt about it. But the software itself is seriously and utterly flawed. It pegs my processor at 100%, even when it isn't doing anything! It sits like a giant Otyugh in RAM, consuming nearly 40 megabytes. You can't print without exiting the program and the page numbers are all off by a page or two, causing no end to the confusion. Don't buy this.

Digitizing past issues of Dragon Magazine and issuing them on CD is just good common sense on the part of Wizards of the Coast. I am really glad to see that the company is saw this idea through. However, the end is result is flawed.

Whoever scanned the magazines, probably Helikon Technologies, did so at a TERRIBLY LOW resolution. When you view a magazine initially it looks fine, but image quality RAPIDLY degrades when you try to zoom in.

Even at 25% zoom, the pictures and text start to get fuzzy.

So, if you want to take a close look at the scale pattern of a dragon, or really get a good look at the jeweled amulet a thief is holding, or even want to take a look at some of the really small advertisements in the magazine, forget it.

Anyone who has tried to hold the magazine up to their eyes for close inspection of a picture knows what I am tlaking about. You can't do that with this CD archive.

It's tragic! They spent hours of work putting all the issues into electronic format but fail to retain the image quality.

I bought it simply becuase it's the only opportunity of its kind (they may not rescan all the magazines), but EVERY time I go to use it I can't help but try and zoom in on an interesting picture or advertisement only to see it blur.

Okay, so this sounds great. 250+ issues of perhaps the greatest gaming magazine for a low price (I mean, imagine paying $5 for each of 250 magazines! That's a nice $1,250! You can buy this for $40-$70, depending on where.) Ah, but lo and behold, nothing in it works. Even the current patches offered by the software companies don't help. So, overall: lovely idea, horrible execution. This product has greatness in it that doesn't work.

I was very impressed with this product,but you do need a fast machine with lots of RAM to fully appreciate it. On my PC,the search engine works fine,a little clunky,but more than fast enough to whiz through pages,as long as they are not zoomed in all the way. Everything prints just as you need it to,and I haven't had the need to look up stuff through Adobe at all. Bottom line,an indispensable addition for a DM who just wants the right article or picture to supplement his campaign. And when more patches are released to update some of the problems (like some missing inserts)well,all the better.