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==  Review:  BCINet CD-ROM                           By:  Jason Compton  ==
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Better Concepts, purveyors of quite a few original CD-ROMs of the font,
music, clip-art and adult variety, have decided to delve into the realm of
the online collection of Aminet with their BCINet CD.

BCINet's material is "...hot off the archives of the Internet!" To get this
out of the way:

Aminet is a separate entity, and its moderators weren't involved in the
compilation of this CD.  The material on BCINet is significantly
"different" from a direct Aminet compilation.

Now to the point: BCINet is a collection of hundreds of megs of,
essentially, all around good, up-to-date software.  The material is
archived in directories resembling the Aminet hierarchy, and can be
accessed directly as such, or with a graphical front-end program.

If you choose the direct route, you just do a lot of un-LHAing.  The
graphical front end offers a more automated way of copying and/or
accessing what you want.  I found the graphical front-end a nice idea, but
a bit awkward to work with: for example, if you left-click on a directory
(as you would normally do on the Amiga), you will always be asked if you
want to select the entire contents of the directory.  Right-click avoids
this, but I find that a bit backwards, since left-click is the more
"instinctual" of the choices.  The interface program also seems to have
trouble with the first mouse click you issue to it if you've switched
screens.  In short, it's a good effort, but unless you're doing some
heavy-duty moving around of files, a directory management program like
DirWork will probably suit you just fine.

As a general-purpose compilation of useful software, BCINet succeeds.  The
software is a great selection, all up-to-date and functional, since Aminet
is screened rather well.  (Sadly, the Deluxe Galaga archive on the disc is
corrupted, though)

Its recommended price of US$15 puts it about dead-center between Aminet
Share and Gold CDs.  Future BCINet CDs are planned to keep the material up
to date.

Better Concepts Inc
10 Mandon Terrace
New City, NY  10956
800-25-AMIGA