Encarta '95 Intro

[AEigner]

My elementary school had a copy of this and Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia from 1993. The cool kids always got to use Encarta, I was always stuck with Grolier's. Joke was on them because the teachers hadn't memorized the content from Grolier's and couldn't tell when it was copied verbatim. Better content too, I learned more. Still... GAH Encarta was so cool and slick.

[Er89John]

You can see Morgan Freeman at the Intro page.

[TazeMEbroseph]

@Er89John i really hope you are not that retarded

[DRAVIDIAN718QUEENSNY]

@Er89John LMAO get ya education kid

[Er89John]

@DRAVIDIAN718QUEENSNY You cant Understand a joke huh? It's Nelson Mandela if i am right?

[x42bn6]

44 members of the content industry liked this.

[DubyaTeeEff]

Wow... I dunno why, but I think this creeped me out as a child.

[EnnesX]

This came with my P5-100, 8MB EDO, 1GB HDD, Win95 system. I think out of all the computers I had before and after, this one left the deepest impression on me. This era of consumer computing was probably the most exciting, because the changes were really material in making us use the computers in different ways. Quite frankly everything since has really felt only evolutionary to me.

[Mikaelft]

Haha. Received this when I bought my first CD-rom (4x). Damn that was expensive :( cd-rom, soundcard, speakers & microfon... on my good ol' 486 SX2 50mhz <3

[ceredigio]

The spoken words heard here are, in order: Nelson Mandela's inaugural speech in Pretoria in April 1994; Neil Armstrong on the moon (pretty obvious!!); a clip from a recitation of a passage from 'Death of A Salesman' by Arthur Miller; and Maya Angelou reading a poem at Bill Clinton's first inauguration in 1993. The trumpet heard is Wynton Marsalis playing a solo which he specially composed for the CD Rom!

[ceredigio]

Closed captions:

". . .eeeeeeeooooOOooo Let there be Justice for all (SAAAY!) Let there be peace. . for all. (DRUMS) It's one small step for man. . .you don't understand! Willy was a salesmen! (jazzy trumpet/drums) Say simply, very simply, with hope (crickets) good morning!. . "

LOL

[mybluebelly]

"yesterday a shaft of life cut into the darkness" (kennedy)

[ceredigio]

@mybluebelly That was on the preview of MS Bookshelf in the MS multimedia catalogue sampler that came free with many of their CD Rom programs in the 90's. I don't recall hearing that clip on any Encarta, it did have a clip of his inauguration speech ('ask not what your Country can do for you...') and later versions had a video of his Cuban Missile speech ('any nuclear missile launched from Cuba...will be regarded as an attack on the United States by the Soviet Union'.)

[GemsOfStradus]

I loved this program so much. I also had Cinemania 96 and Music Central 97. No wikipedia back then and what little info there was on the net really was a half-assed mess so these disks really came in handy even years past their release. I'd love if there was a download single-file somewhere that I could keep on my harddrive for nostalgia value. It's funny to think that each disk seemed like a huge amount of info but that it could all be easily stored in a fraction of a laptop today.

[ceredigio]

@GemsOfStradus I liked Music Central as well, but Encarta was the best! It was kind of like the Wikipedia of the 90's.

[collegeman1988]

It seems funny that when Encarta was around in the 1990s, it seemed that nothing could get any better than this. Then high speed Internet came around (along with Wikipedia and YouTube) and made Encarta obsolete.

[springdom]

HAHA this was the wikipedia back in the day

[ceredigio]

@springdom I was thinking that as well! :-)

[robfosters]

I remember this so well. It was included with my first ever PC bought for me by my parents. A measly 486DX4100 with 4mb Ram. Ran this well though. Forever grateful to my parents for buying me the computer though. £950 was a lot of money for an ordinary working couple to part with in 1995. It was'nt even my birthday!

[Heffsta02]

does anybody remember the horrible 'rap' entry with some guy rapping about eating vegetables lol

[ceredigio]

@Heffsta02 I cant recall that exactly but there was a clip of 'the message' by grandmaster flash in the rap article, don't remember him talking about vegetables lol

[VideoDocR]

I used to love it too. It was amazing how you can have on your computer a complete encyclopedia, just the size of a whole shelf! And with one click you can find articles to read about any topic that you want full of multimedia.

But now guys, do you think there is a chance for Encarta with google and Wikipedia out there??

[ceredigio]

@VideoDocR No there isnt, indeed it isnt published anymore!!

[laonefaye]

Does anyone remember the name of the Ladysmith Black Mambazo track? Been looking for that for ages, no luck.

[93DNA94]

@laonefaye Ingwe (The Leopard)

[laonefaye]

@93DNA94 Thank you!! Err, you wouldn't also happen to know which album that was from, would you? :x

[93DNA94]

@laonefaye ur welcome...I believe is self-titled 'Ladysmith Black Mambazo'. Too bad the Encarta MSN website was was closed a couple of years ago, but I still have the Encarta 97 Encyclopedia..

[ceredigio]

@laonefaye I'm sure it's available on Utube

[ceredigio]

This may have been Encarta 95, but it was released in 1994!

[NitekMuscle]

It had the best splash page of any multimedia encyclopedia of that era.

[ceredigio]

@NitekMuscle Encarta 96 had a similar looking screen (but that one was nothing compared to this one), it was also the first encyclopedia with a UK edition so the two editions had different opening theme music with different sound bytes. The US one had Dostoyevsky and Maya Angelou (but not the bit from her which is heard here), while the UK one (which was my first encounter with Encarta) had Shakespeare and Emily Bronte, with a snippet of an Irish reel at the end!

[SmallKrum]

This brings back the most wonderful memories!!

[gregmango12]

thank you!!! I am 25 and randomly this will flash into my brain. this WAS the internet!!! Every time I here " That's one small step for man..." this pops in my head

[akt1010]

oh memories of being a kid ! LOVE!

[ceredigio]

I could have sworn the music for Encarta 98 (or was it 99, can't remember) was on YouTube but now it's gone!

[ceredigio]

Love this very nice sound montage! I was something of an Encarta freak when I was a kid! This was the last US Encarta to be sold in the UK before UK English versions started coming out.

[cantorock]

I can remember teachers always telling us "Do not copy from Encarta" for every assignment :D

I used to use Encarta at the library, and loved the first half of this introduction, but hated the second. Even now, I think it starts much better than it ends

[Minic15]

@cantorock But you don't understand.

Willy was a salesman.

[theygotwhattheydeser]

@Minic15 I never knew the meaning of that until I read Death of a Salesman...good memories.

[ceredigio]

@Minic15 Nobody dast blame this man. You don't understand: Willy was a SALESMAN. And for a salesman, there's no rock bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine...he's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine.

[ceredigio]

@Minic15 And when they start NOT smiling back...that's an earthquake. And then you get yaself a coupla spots on your hat, and you're finished. NOBODY dast BLAME this man. A salesman has gotta dream, boy. It comes with the territory. - Excerpt from 'Death of A Salesman' by Arthur Miller

Now, can you remember the August Wilson passage?? :-)

[ceredigio]

@cantorock Given that '95 was the year after democracy came to South Africa, I think it's very appropriate that the theme starts with Nelson Mandela and Ladysmith Black Mambazo

[cantorock]

@ceredigio Me too. That's why I said that I like the beginning more than the end. The first few lines and the music is inspiring, and it's really well put together, but then it kind of fades a little bit towards the end and sounds like a mishmash.

[ceredigio]

@cantorock Encarta 95 may have been called that, but it was actually released in 1994!

[VideoDocR]

@cantorock I love Encarta! You could just remove the text at the end that says it was from Encarta loool :P

[arkhangelsk]

maaaan, i spent hours on this as a kid. what a nerd. i wish i could play mindmaze again, too . . .

[gomulkaa]

THANKS FOR THIS! Wow, I still remember using this on my Packard Ball and being in awe of that running cheetah video.

[ClintonKun]

Awesome! thanks for putting this up, I haven't heard this in a long time, brings back memories!

[dogglet1234]

Can someone put the maze game music plssssss

[Burtybeetle]

god, the nostalgia is killing me

[ceredigio]

@Burtybeetle I miss Encarta :-( and the 90's, the golden age of interactive multimedia CD Rom :-(

[jomattia]

anyone know what the choral piece at the very beginning is?

[snarfomg]

@jomattia it's orlando de lassus' "lagrime di san pietro" but i don't know what piece exactly ...

[snarfomg]

@jomattia v=JIOaHpWoVJ4

[jomattia]

@snarfomg thanks! beautiful piece.

[ceredigio]

@jomattia It's by an Italian Renaissance composer called Orlando Lassus. The opening music of the UK edition of Encarta 96 started with 'Speciosa facta es' by Tudor composer John Dunstable.

[aaron2da]

I loved this program, I remember using it for all my homework as a kid... Its because of this program I remember so much random info...

[Minic15]

@aaron2da I was too young to be actually using any of the information. I was just playing the maze game, not having a clue what I was supposed to be doing.

[ceredigio]

@Minic15 How did you manage to make this? Did you record the theme off your computer?

[Minic15]

@ceredigio For the still image, I brought up the intro screen, took a screen capture with the Prnt Scrn button on my keyboard and cropped it in MS Paint. For the theme, I used a program called Replay Media Capture that allows you to hit record on any audio that's playing on your computer, but I'm pretty sure you can just as easily do it with the Audio Recorder software that comes with Windows. After that, I put the image and the audio together in Windows Movie Maker, and there you go.

[ceredigio]

@Minic15 Do you have Windows Vista? Does it still run on there? I installed my old 'Dangerous Creatures' CD Rom on my Vista laptop and it still works apart from the videos not being able to play but you can still hear them!

[Minic15]

@ceredigio I've got Windows 7, and it worked well enough to get this intro running. As for any of the multimedia within the program, I don't know.

[ceredigio]

@Minic15 If the videos use the same technology/data/whatever-it-is that MS D C uses, then they are probably unplayable, but their soundtracks as well as all the other sound clips might play

[ceredigio]

@Minic15 Encarta 96 had a slightly similar looking screen to this one, it was also the first encyclopedia with a UK edition so the two editions had different opening theme music with different sound bytes. The US one had Dostoyevsky and Maya Angelou (but not the bit from her which is heard here), while the UK one had Shakespeare and Emily Bronte, with a snippet of an Irish reel at the end!

[ceredigio]

@Minic15 The trumpet heard here is Wynton Marsalis playing a solo which he specially composed for the CD Rom!

[1rekles1]

wtf is this

[SheriffOfaloaf]

@1rekles1

It was the internet before there was the internet.

[Minic15]

@SheriffOfaloaf Before Club Penguin, even.