Cromwell Productions Limited, 1997, £ 19.99

Following their acclaimed series of videos on historical subjects, Cromwell Productions have entered the world of interactive information technology with this two CD-ROM set, which the makers describe as 'The Definitive Guide to the English Civil War'.

Just how justified this claim is remains to be seen. It is undoubtedly a quality product, but it is difficult to gauge at what area of the market it is aimed at. Historians are, in the main, not the greatest users of technology and so it would have to be a formidable product that would persuade us to replace the book for the micro-chip.

What you get for your money is two CD-ROMs. The first is 'The English Civil War' itself whist the second contains S R. Gardiner's 'History of the Great Civil War'. Although both run independently of each other, you will need to install the disk read er software contained on the first CD-ROM before you can use either. It will run on both Apple-Mac and Windows (compatible with both Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 and later). The mini mum system requirements are a 486 CPU with 8MB RAM, dou ble-speed CD-ROM drive and 8 bit graphics. To carry out the test, I used a portable ('lap-top') PC with a 166Mhz Pentium CPU, 16MB RAM, running Windows 3.11.

The accompanying documentation is limited but adequate, and initial installation is very straight forward. After installation you can explore the first CD. The first part of this you reach is the Main Menu which, itself, is broken down into a num ber of subject headings :- Religious Aspects; Life in Civil War England; Civil War Battles and Sieges; Eye Witnesses; The Cavaliers; The Roundheads; Civil War Armies; and The Trial Additional subjects which can be accessed from the Main Men are The Road to War; Civil War Overview; Cromwell; Charles and Propaganda - King's Cabinet Opened.

Every screen is accompanied by some Seventeenth Century music courtesy of Tarleton's Jig. Initially this is a pleasant enough aspect, however as there are only a few pieces of music included, after a while, well, just make sure you can control the volume on your computer !!

Click on any Main menu title and you are taken to the relative sub-menu. Roundway Down, First and Second Newburys, Cheriton. Cropredy Bridge, Marston Moor Lostwithiel and Naseby. The Campaigns of Montrose are repre sented by Alford (when I would have thought that Kilsyth Auldern and Inverlochy all had a better claim to be included whilst the Second Civil War is represented by Preston.

No less than nineteen sieges are described, including Bristol, Gloucester, York, Chester, Basing House, Newark an Latham House. Taken by Storm carries a video description of the storm of Leicester, a spoken account of the storm of Basing House and details of Civil War Siege Artillery.

One feature of the CD is 'Ask the Expert'- certain topics include this feature which enables the user to 'call up' Dr. Le Prince, Dr. David Chandler or Stuart Reid to provide additional dialogue.

The Eye Witness section includes the well know accounts by Gwynn, Atkyns, Waller and Hopton plus other not so well known eye witness accounts. The sections on the Cavalier and Roundheads contain biographies of certain key personalities There are few surprises in the list of those included although Montrose is a noticeable absentee. However, there is a lack of consistency in names and titles, for example, Edward Hyde is referred to as 'Clarendon' whilst the Earl of Essex is referred to a 'Robert Devereux'.

The section on Civil War Armies is itself broken down into Flags, Artillery, Horse, Armies, Foot and Navy. The section on flags is excellent, with a number of colours being reproduce in full colour. The section on armies individually describes the eleven armies of the First Civil War, including The Western Association, the Covenanters, Montrose's Army and the Irish Reinforcements.

The section on the trial of Charles I deals with both the actual proceedings of the trial and, interesting enough, the legalities of the trial. Also available via the Main Menu are biographies of Charles I and Cromwell, a summary of events leading up to the war in The Road to War, and an overview of the war itself. The last topic on the main menu is Propaganda, which is basically a video re-enactment of the capture of the King's Cabinet at Naseby and a reproduction of the Kings Cabinet Opened. It is a pity that this section didn't include examples of other documents such as news-sheets and pamphlets.

The second CD-ROM contains S. R. Gardiner's 'History of the Great Civil War' and appears to be a reproduction of the Windrush Press reprint (which is currently available from Caliver Books). This is Gardiner's complete text and is presented just as in the books, i.e. in volumes and pages. The accompanying index (also as it appears in the books) allows you to search for the first letter only of the topic you are looking for.

For example, if you wanted information on 'London', you select "L" which gives you the L index. As you can not narrow down this search with further letters, you are forced to go through the whole of the L index until you reach your required subject. This is a slower method of searching than if you were using the books themselves. It is a great pity that a 'word-search' facility was included where the entry of a key word would return an index of every reference to it.

It is difficult to gauge just what is the intended market for this product. If you are new to the subject or if it is just one area of your interest then it is worth having as an introduction and general history. On the other hand, those of us who have been studying the subject for a number of years will find little new here. There are a number of notable exclusions from the topics covered and I was disappointed in the reproduction of Gardiner's work there is nothing that would persuade me to purchase this over the books themselves. However, there are a number of good features - I particularly liked the sections on Religious Aspects, Seventeenth Century Cartoons, Sieges and Taken By Storm, and the Legalities of the King's Trial. The were some excellent parts within the Civil War Armies section and I enjoyed the Propaganda section even though Religious Aspects covers Anglicanism, Catholicism, the Independents, Presbyterians and the Bishops Wars (but strangely not the Irish Rebellion). Life in Civil War England looks at Everyday Life, Music (again !) and an excellent collection of Seventeenth Century Cartoons and Engravings.

Civil War Battles and Sieges takes to a sub-menu which is broken down into Battles, Sieges and Taken By Storm. Each battle has its own animated map and verbal description which takes you through the key moves. I have to say that the graphics were a little 'Monty Python' - I was almost expecting a giant foot to come down and squash a troop of horse !. Two of the battles are accompanied by video footage of a relative enactment. My main disappointment was that information relating to the associated campaign is limited to a basic location map which indicates how the opposing sides arrived at the battlefield. So, for example, there is no link between Lansdown and Roundway Down. The battles covered are Edgehill, Lansdown--it's coverage was a little limited.

Nevertheless it is entertaining and is very good value for money. If you already have a multimedia PC it would make a nice addition to your library.

(We have found this to be an excellent addition to any recruiting display - Ed)

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com