TOURBUS: Thursday, September 12, 1996

DRIVER: Patrick Crispin

TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP:
CNET (PART TWO)


Before we pull our little bus of Internet happiness back into CNET, I want
to give a little tip of the hat to the folks that are making today's post
possible:
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Okay, let the fun begin!  In our last tour we started looking at the CNET
("see-net") mega-Web site at http://www.cnet.com/

We've already looked at CNET's "News," "Reviews," and "Features" sections.
By the way, if you ever want to see any of our old TOURBUS posts, just
point your browser to http://www.worldvillage.com/tourbus.htm  :)

Today we are going to look at CNET's "Gamecenter" and "Personalities" 
sections.

You can quickly find your way around the entire CNET site by taking a look
at the left-hand (yellow) side of any of CNET's pages.  This yellow part is
a directory of all of CNET's departments and sections, and you can even
click on the links in the yellow part to be taken to a particular
department or section.

Our first stop today is CNET's Gamecenter.
Since I tend to spend most of my non-email-reading moments playing games
on my Mac like "You Don't Know Jack" and "Eric's Ultimate Solitaire," the
Gamecenter is one of my favorite resources in the entire CNET site.

The Gamecenter has 6 sections (well, 7 if you count "List all," which I 
won't):

GAMING NEWS (http://www.cnet.com/Gamecenter/News/).  This page
       gives you the latest news on new computer game releases,
       upcoming games that are still in development, and industry
       notes from the gaming software giants.  Now if only they could
       tell us when "Myst 2" is going to be released ... :)

    
SHOOT-OUTS (http://www.cnet.com/Gamecenter/Shoot/).  It turns
       out that I am not the only one who doesn't know the difference
       between the games "Quake" and "Duke Nukem 3D."  Fortunately,
       the kind folks at CNET have conducted head-to-head tests of
       a whole bunch of seemingly similar computer games to find out
       which game is really the best.

    
GAMING GUIDES (http://www.cnet.com/Gamecenter/Guide/).  Can't
       figure out how to win the computer game "Civilization II?"
       Lost in "Descent?"  This section is for you!  The Gaming guides
       page gives you tips, techniques, and dirty tricks to help you
       win some of the most popular computer games around!

    
EXCLUSIVES! (http://www.cnet.com/Gamecenter/Exclusives/).
       While a lot of CNET's Gamecenter is focused around commercial
       games,  the Exclusives section has links to the absolute best
       freeware and shareware Mac and PC games around.  They also have
       a pretty cool "ten greatest games of all time" page, but I'm
       boycotting that page because it does not mention "Myst."  :)

REVIEWS (http://www.cnet.com/Gamecenter/Reviews/).  If you are
       thinking of buying a computer game anytime soon, visit this
       section first.  The reviews section has extremely in-depth
       reviews (including screen shots!) of 54 of the most popular
       games on the market today.  By the way, if you want a chuckle,
       check the screen shots from "Bad Mojo" (the game where you are
       a cockroach scurrying around a San Francisco slum).

    
Sneak peeks (http://www.cnet.com/Gamecenter/Sneak/).  Want to
       see sneak previews of games before they are ever released to
       the public?  This section is for you!

CNET also has a good number of very respected columnists on its staff, and
you can find a collection of these columnists' articles in CNET's
"Personalities" department (http://www.cnet.com/Content/Voices/).  Some of
CNET's "talking heads" include:


John C. Dvorak (http://www.cnet.com/Content/TV/Dvorak).  Dvorak
       is CNET's resident "no holds barred" CD ROM reviewer, giving
       you direction on whether to "Buy it," "Try it," or "Skip it."
       Best of all, Dvorak's page contains a directory of every CD
       review he has ever done!!

    
Douglas Rushkoff (http://www.cnet.com/Content/Voices/Rushkoff).
       During the Roadmap96 workshop, my dad wrote (in MAP07:
       Netiquette) that " the net is international.  If you tell a
       Belgian she's being un-American, SHE ISN'T OFFENDED.  OF COURSE
       she's un-American; you're un-Belgian.  She doesn't care about
       being lectured on the First Amendment and American values.  She
       doesn't HAVE a First Amendment, and she thinks Belgian values
       are BETTER."  If you want to more in-depth discussion of this,
       take a look at Rushkoff's recent article "Internet
       Imperialism?".

Christopher Barr (http://www.cnet.com/Content/Voices/Barr/).
       If you are looking for the latest articles on Net topics, check
       here.  Barr can be a little blunt, but the honesty of his
       articles is refreshing.  If you are looking to cut through the
       fluff and find the truth about JAVA, cookies, the $500 NC
       computer, and the Microsoft vs. Netscape battle, Barr's
       articles are for you.

    
Rafe Needleman (http://www.cnet.com/Content/Voices/Needleman).
       Needleman gives you the latest info from the front line of the
       browser wars.

     
Movers and shakers (http://www.cnet.com/Content/Voices/
       Movers/).  Keeping up with the latest batch of gurus on the Net
       can be a full time job.  Fortunately, the folks at CNET have
       created the "Movers and Shakers" section which gives you
       profiles of the most interesting and influential people shaping
       the digital world.  There list of movers and shakers is far
       from complete, though ... it does not include Bob or me.  :)

There are a couple of other parts of CNET that I want to show you, but I'll
save that for a future TOURBUS post.  In the mean time, pop on over to
CNET, download some games from the Gamecenter, take a look at Dvorak's CD
reviews, read every one of Barr's articles, and have a wonderful and safe
weekend!

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