OnLive! Traveler for Windows 95

OnLive! Traveler for Windows 95 -- By now you've likely seen MTV using OnLive! Traveler for hyping the Mighty Mighty Tikki God. If you have seen it, then you know what OnLive! Traveler is all about; if not, you're definitely missing out on something big. Imagine Alpha World or WorldsChat on steroids. Now imagine traveling across 3-Dimensional worlds and being able to speak to others along the way. Not just text-based speech, but real, live audio-based conversations. Now perhaps you begin to see the possibilities. OnLive! Traveler delivers all of this and more. Similar to AlphaWorld and WorldsChat, you create your own 3D avatar (more than 30 different alien, animal, and human characters are available for you to customize to your delight) and step into a realm unlike any you've ever encountered before. OnLive! presents its Utopia collection of worlds for you to venture into, or you can check out MTV's demesnes, the mighty cool Tikkiland worlds. In either case, you can explore landscapes, chat with other avatars, fly into the sky, jump through translocation portals, check out web links (through the use of your web browser), and much more. OnLive! Traveler is quite simply a step above and beyond applications like Alpha World and WorldsChat, and not just because of its advanced audio communications capabilities. Background music, ambient effects, and realistic background scenes add extra dimension to the Traveler's mystique, while user profiles, on-line web help, audio configuration wizards, an extremely useful 'Where is Everyone' feature, hot spots, and landscape maps make this app pure simplicity to use. Unfortunately, you're going to need some serious high-end hardware in order to run Traveler. Nothing less than a Pentium with 16 megabytes of RAM, Windows 95, 14.4 Kbps modem, and a PPP connection or better (no support for SLIP as of yet) will get you up and running with OnLive! Traveler. Additionally, the Traveler only works with a 256 color display at this time, so you'll likely need to modify your display settings before running the application. Still, if you've got the juice to run the Traveler, by all means do so -- this may well be the killer communications app of the year! Pros: The next killer app? Live vicariously through an audio-equipped Avatar in a 3D 'net world Cons: Slow, high entrance requirements limit the potential user base, 256 color display only New: This is the initial review for OnLive! Traveler Version Reviewed: 1.0 Beta 12.11 Date of Review: 7/12/96 Reviewer: Forrest Stroud apps conference Main Menu