CD-ROM BOOM
The push for mass use of CD-ROM “for the common man” came with the initial installation, and subsequent standardization of CD-ROM drives in the personal computer in the late 1980s. On their own CD-ROM drives were expensive, costing between $600 to $1,200 (roughly $1,130 to $2,260 in 2013).[1] CD-ROM titles were also few and expensive. The first personal computer system that came with installed, low-cost CD-ROM drives were the Headstart LX-CD and Headstart III-CD, made in 1989 by Philips subsidiary, Headstart Technologies Company.[2] They company was able to reduce the price of CD-ROM drives by half. CD-ROM became immediately popular, and by 1990 drives were on backorder by two months with Apple.[3] Other companies, including as Panasonic, Pioneer, Toshiba, IBM, Tandy Corporation, Microsoft (who preferred the term “multimedia”), and Warner New Media, all promised CD-ROM drives as standard features within the coming years, with an expected growth of the CD-ROM market of 40% between 1988 and 1993.[4]
But since the cost of drives was still high, the “true value” was in the software available, such as word processing and spreadsheet titles. Billed as educational tools for the home, as well as work horses, systems were sold with CD-ROMs containing entire encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauruses, geographical databases, and other reference resources. If that was not enough to sell systems with CD-ROM drives, and aware that children were an important market, companies started to offer games as part of the deal, some times as many as 30 titles, “ranging from Arctic Fox to Willow.”[5] Numerous educational enterprises popped up to capitalize on the new technology, selling information in ways never before imaginable, putting an “electronic campus” on a single disc.[6] For example, in 1992 a company called Lightbinders packaged much of Charles Darwin’s life’s work along with timelines, study guides, maps, 650 images, sound recordings, and more on a disc titled simply “Darwin,” for $99.95 ($166.38 in 2013).[7] The weekly magazine Newsweek also jumped on the bandwagon in 1992, “a valuable headstart [sic] on its competition,” and began offering a quarterly version of itself on CD-ROM for $100 each ($166.50 in 2013).[8]
Of course, none of this would be relevant if people were not aware of the significance of CD-ROM technology. One disk could hold 250,000 pages of text, and was called “the new papyrus” because of its revolutionary capacity to store and provide information.[9] With each description of the new technology, companies and journalists encouraged consumers to purchase a system “equipped with VGA color graphics, with as much video memory as possible; anything less will limit its ability to show the graphics that are a hallmark of CD-ROM.”[10] By 1993, the cost of producing one CD-ROM disc fell to $1.00, and several drives capable of different processing speeds were available. A New York Times columnist on personal computing, Peter Lewis, described for the consumer the practical and visual benefits of double, triple, and quadruple speeds (referring to the rate at which the drive transfers data from the disk to the computer).[11] While there were no programs “tap[ped] the full power” of the triple-speed drive, “scores of new, affordable” software titles were just released, “combining high-quality, color graphics, stereo sound, full-motion video clips, animation and lots of text.[12] How-to books also became available, anticipating massive use of CD-ROM.[13] Also by 1993, Hollywood saw potential for expanded production and distribution into a new market. Film makers started making “interactive cartoons” and other interactive projects on CD-ROM for in-home entertainment, and talk of “digital convergence” of the computer industry and the entertainment industry surfaced.[14]
The video game industry, which was itself mainstream entertainment “born digital,” immediately took advantage of CD-ROM capability. Computer games were available on CD-ROM as early as 1987, and in the home console industry in 1989. In 1990, the Software Publishing Association established the Multimedia PC (MPC) norm, which included CD-ROM configuration, increasing the practicality of PC gaming.[15] In 1992, Sega of America partnered Sony Electronic Publishing to create CD-ROM games for their home console. The “new generation of movie-like video games” featuring “high-quality sound and realistic, rather than animated, characters” would serve as a “weapon in the battle” between Sega and Nintendo.[16] Sega’s new “lifelike” games would be a defining feature of the company’s new marketing strategy as it vied to take the top spot from Nintendo in the, by then, $6 billion industry.[17] The move would ultimately change console gaming, with all console market shares moving to optical disc format within a decade. It seemed that like television before it, CD-ROM was on its way to becoming ubiquitous in the home. Against this background, Senators Lieberman and Kohl conducted their hearings on violent video games in 1993.
[1] Peter H. Lewis. “CD-ROM for the Common Man.” New York Times (1923-Current File), 1989.
[2] Ibid.
[3] “CDs Earning Interest,” Compute! Issue 123, November 1990, M-2.
[4] K A. Frenkel. “The Next Generation of Interactive Technologies.” Communications of the Acm 32, no. 7 (July 1989): 872–880; L R. Shannon. “Time to Make Way for CD-ROM?.” New York Times (1923-Current File), 1991.
[5] Lewis, 1989.
[6] Cox, Meg. “Electronic Campus: Technology Threatens to Shatter the World of College Textbooks.” The Wall Street Journal (ProQuest Historical Newspapers: the Wall Street Journal 1889-1996), June 1, 1993, A1.
[7] L R. Shannon. “Darwin on a Disk, and More to Come.” New York Times (1923-Current File), 1992, C11.
[8] Adam Bryant. “Newsweek to Be Issued Quarterly on CD-ROM.” New York Times (1923-Current File), 1992, D6.
[9] L R. Shannon. “How to Make the Most of ‘the New Papyrus’.” New York Times (1923-Current File), September 28 1993, C12.
[10] Shannon, 1991.
[11] LEWIS, By PETER H. “Faster and Faster, More Data on CD-ROM.” New York Times (1923-Current File), 1993, 1.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Shannon, 1993.
[14] Peter H. Lewis. “Multimedia (Especially the X-Rated) Stars at Comdex.” New York Times (1923-Current File), 1993, F12.
[15] Therrien, Carl. “CD-ROM Games.” In The Video Game Explosion: a History From PONG to Playstation and Beyond, edited by Mark J P Wolf, 121–125, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008, 122.
[16] BRYANT, By ADAM. “Sega Links with Sony to Make CD Video Games.” New York Times (1923-Current File), 1992, D5.
[17] Ibid.
