By Dale Farris, Secretary
Golden Triangle PC Club
April 2002

Program Overview

Just in time for Spring and Summer 2002 bird watching, and all other bird seasons, bird enthusiasts now have available in one collection four of the finest software programs on birding now on the market. In this super collection, Topics Entertainment has coordinated efforts with various software vendors to combine in one package four programs all birders will most definitely want to add to their collection.

This super Ultimate Birder collection includes the following programs.

North American Birds - Peterson Multimedia Guides

National Audubon Society Interactive CD ROM Guide to North American Birds

The North American Bird Reference Book

Eagles Forever? (collection of 22 beautiful screen savers on eagles)

Whether spying a Chickadee stealing a pinch of birdseed from the backyard feeder, or trekking through the marsh in search of a Purple Gallinule, millions of people around the world enjoy bird watching, novices and experts alike. Now you can explore the bright colors, melodic songs, and distinctive characteristics of thousands of North American birds with Ultimate Birder, a super 4-CD-ROM suite. With hundreds of illustrations, over 700 birdcalls, more than 600 maps, an extensive fact library and more, this collection of birding guides and resources will leave you fully prepared for your next birding adventure.

Program Features

I.  North American Birds - Peterson Multimedia Guides

Roger Tory Peterson's guides present the most effective bird identification system ever developed. Now you can reference his amazing work on CD-ROM in this important computer program that integrates Peterson's guides into a easily accessible computer program.

This program includes detailed data on nearly 1,000 North American birds, including habitat, feeling, nesting, range, and status. All birders likely are quite familiar with the many extant Peterson's guides to birds, and with this neat computer adaptation of his guides, any computer owner can now compile a thorough study of their bird of interest.

The visual category guide presents eight bird groups to choose from, including perching, non-perching, fowl-like, birds of prey, aerialists, swimmers, long-legged waders, and smaller waders. With superb photographs, Peterson's famous illustrations, audio files for over 700 birdcalls, video clips and more, you'll have the essential information every birder needs for a comprehensive and fascinating study

Features:
Roger Tory Peterson's commentary
Bird Finder
16 video clips
Photographs and Peterson's illustrations
Over 700 bird calls

II.  National Audubon Society Interactive CD-ROM Guide to North American Birds

From Red-winged Blackbirds to Belted Kingfishers, this visually rich, multimedia guide explores over 700 fascinating North American birds. Providing you with all the essential resources needed for a complete study, this easy-to-access program includes 2,100 photographs, 700 range maps, birdcalls, detailed essays, and much more.

The 5 cataloging tools, including color, life zone, location, shape, and size, help you easily identify specific species. Study the 62 distinct habitations where North American birds thrive with the Ecology section. Discover how birds have evolved throughout time with a descriptive multimedia presentation. You can even edit and print illustrated life lists, learn birding techniques, plan birding vacation, and more with the Notebook feature.

Features:
Bird Browser for 723 North American Birds
Video Essays
2,100 Photographs
700 range maps
Notebook feature - edit and print illustrated life lists
Ecology studies
Index and Glossary
Information on Bird Anatomy
Birding Techniques

III.  The North American Bird Reference Book

Uncover amazing details about rare and widespread species with The North American Bird Reference Book. This invaluable resource suits both the novice and seasoned birder, providing fascinating descriptions for over 900 North American birds.

Before heading outdoors, quickly reference factual information and view over 700 brilliant photographs with the Bird Information Center, a comprehensive research library. Over 600 maps help you locate a specific bird's habitat, and over 400 birdcalls aid you in identifying specific species. You can even record the date and location of all your sightings with the Bird Utility feature.

Features:
771 images
626 Range Maps
Over 400 birdcalls
Detailed research library
Log book

IV.  Eagles Forever? by Bill Silliker

Capture the beauty of these majestic birds with a collection of 22 breathtaking images photographed by renowned artist Bill Silliker. This revealing screen saver compilation is produced by Second Nature Software, which donates 100% of all after tax profits to The Nature Conservancy, an international non-profit organization.

Contributing over $2.2 million dollars to date, Second Nature Software's donations go toward research funding, educational work, endowing preserves, monitoring, restoration, and purchasing land.

Features:
Beautiful, full-color screen saver images of eagles

Special Features

Includes 4 CD-ROMS:
Each program sets up its own interface
Easy to use interactivity
Images and sound all authentic
Beautiful, full-color photographs
Settings re-created to add realism to the information about the birds
Essential for all serious birders
Essential for all public libraries

Minor Program Overlap

While there are birds that are covered in more than one of these programs, each program does offer distinct features that set each apart. In addition, as any birder knows, this collection of information on birds, as massive as it is, doe not of course cover all known birds in North America. This is the best reason for considering this super collection of four programs, because one program alone cannot possibly cover all known North American birds. Thus, when you encounter material on a bird in more than one of these programs, it is easily understood, as birders find more information on more birds by working with all programs.

The 22 screen saver images in Eagles Forever? by Bill Silliker do stand out as beautiful, full screen, multi-color images of eagles that can highlight a formerly dull computer screen.

Targeted Customers

Any serious birder will want to add this marvelous collection of wonderful bird watching software to their collection. Novices to birding now have the best assortment of bird watching software they can use to help them get started in watching for birds and learning about birds in their area.

All public libraries can easily consider this collection an essential tool to add to their growing list of quality educational software they make available to their customers, especially children and juveniles. Each program can be separately installed, so librarians can choose to load each program on separate machines, if they wish.

Any family that is interested in quality educational software for their children will also want to seriously consider adding this collection to their own library.

Install and Setup

Each of the four programs separately installs, which gives you the freedom to select which program to install first. Of course, if you have the free hard disk space, you can install all four programs.

Note that the collection of 22 screen savers will install all these files, and you cannot select from the collection.

In each program, the many, many image files are provided in a proprietary file format, rather than a generic JPG or GIF type of file. This means you cannot find these images from the file and folder structure on the disc, and in order to use these images, you must install each program's own interface.

However, some of the AVI and WAV files can be accessed directly from the CD ROM disc, although this will of course make more sense if you access these files from within each program's interface.

Each program should install and set up with no problems.

Uninstalling the programs involves the use of the uninstall feature in the folders on the Start, Programs menu.

Price

No pricing yet set. Brand new collection of software. Look for this to soon be available in most all software retailers, such as Best Buy, CompUSA, OfficeDepot, etc.

Minimum System Configuration Requirements

Pentium or higher processor
Windows 98 and higher, including XP
16MB RAM (32 MB RAM recommended)
80MB free hard disk space
800 x 600 high color display
6X CD-ROM drive
Printer (optional)
Internet Access (optional)

About TOPICS Entertainment

With corporate offices located in Renton, Washington, TOPICS Entertainment is a premiere publisher of educational software and spoken word audio products. Founded in 1990 as a specialty video products distributor, TOPICS quickly became one of the most prolific suppliers of special interest video in the United States, servicing more than 5,000 independent retailers.

In 1994, founder and President Greg James (already an accomplished documentary video producer), entered the company into video publishing. The company's first release, “America By Rail,” went on to become one of the biggest successes in special interest video, selling more than 300,000 units. Other productions from Mr. James include the enormously successful “Learn Country Line Dancing” (2,000,000+ units sold), the “Awesome” children's series (500,000+ units sold), and the “I Wanna Be...” children's series starring ABC's Steve Pool (350,000+ units sold).

In 1996, TOPICS recognized the growing PC market and entered into consumer CD ROM publishing. Realizing there was a need to show consumers a better value, TOPICS first release, “Super Games Galore,” was one of the first collection-type software products on the market, containing more than 300 computer games. Also released that year, “Math Resource Center” (a joint venture with Encore Software), became one of the biggest selling math titles of all time, selling more than 250,000 copies.

Since 1996, TOPICS has become a leading publisher of language and reference software, and was ranked the 13th largest consumer software company in the U.S. (according to NPD INTELLECT/PCDATA Market tracking). With over 150 titles released since 1996, TOPICS Entertainment has sold more than 5 million software units to U.S. consumers.

In 2000, TOPICS infused its potent value message to spoken word audio. To date, the company has compiled more than 40 releases and sold more than 1,000,000 units to both national retail chains and specialty independent resellers. Covering all the popular genres of literature and entertainment, each beautifully packaged, multi-cassette or CD collection carries a $19.99 street price with a contained value of over $60. As one of the fastest growing product lines at TOPICS, the company is committed to growing this segment of business by continuing to offer more titles and increasing the value of content.

TOPICS Entertainment doubled its sales volume in each of the last six years and is one of the few publishing companies in America that is solely financed by it's own profits, and remains entirely debt-free. The company's stellar growth is due entirely to its commitment to consumers and retail customers. It is completely dedicated to producing the best quality products at the best price, and to always provide the highest levels of customer service in the industry. For 2001, TOPICS was ranked the #1 fastest growing consumer software company, with a 200%+ rate for the year!

Contact Information

Lindsay Collins
Director of Marketing
TOPICS Entertainment
1600 S. W. 43^rd Street
Renton, Washington 98055
425-656-3621
425-656-8013
lindsay@topics-ent.com
info@topics-ent.com
www.topics-ent.com

You can also order from other retailers or online vendors.