Journal: Newsbytes Sept 2, 1994 pNEW09020029 COPYRIGHT Newsbytes Inc. 1994 Title: Explore Venus by CD-ROM for PC and Mac. Author: Menefee, Craig Full Text: Explore Venus By CD-ROM For PC And Mac 09/02/94 SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1994 SEP 2 (NB) -- Virtual Reality Laboratories, Inc. (VRL), has announced it will release a CD-ROM Sept. 7 that contains the combined radar photos sent back to earth from Venus by the Magellan spacecraft. Called "Venus Explorer," the CD-ROM lets a viewer identify surface features by name, or zoom in on more than 200 megabytes (MB) of high-resolution images of the planet's surface. Curt Borchardt, VRL operations officer, told Newsbytes the CD-ROM display is designed to give the impression of physically moving across the surface of Venus, beneath the planet's famous cloud cover. "I took the disk home one Saturday before we released it and just sat down with it. It really affected me when I realized I had mankind's complete knowledge of Venus, sitting there on my home PC. There are strange, river-like features, places that look like gorges and mountains. And there are small, dark areas which the spacecraft has never photographed. That's what led me to realize I was gazing at the sum total of everything mankind has learned about the surface of that planet. I was amazed." Most of the CD-ROM's images were taken by the Magellan spacecraft which arrived in 1990 and began orbiting the planet once every three hours. The craft is still continuously scanning the surface and sending back streams of digitized images. Says a prepared release: "Venus Explorer reveals images showing a surface not yet fully understood by planet scientists. However, we know now that it is a hellish place of bizarre landscapes, bathed in a gloomy twilight at high noon, and scarred by flaming winds from its terrible climate." "Exploring Venus" attaches adjustable colors to radar images released by NASA in more than 165 CD-ROM data sets. The CD-ROM joins VRL's "Mars Explorer" CD-ROM, released earlier this year. Suggested retail is $69.95 for both PC and Macintosh versions. Virtual Reality Laboratories, Inc., is a privately held firm headquartered in San Luis Obispo, California. (Craig Menefee/19940902/Contact: Valerie Devonish, 805-781-2254)