NEON GENESIS EVANGELION
Collector's Disk Series

Volumes 1-2, released
Volume 3, in 05/96

Macintosh/Windows Hybrid CD-ROM
SRP: ¥6,800 each

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Macintosh:
Required: CD-ROM drive
Suggested: 640x480 or greater screen resolution, 16-bit color, After Dark 2.0u or later (Volume 2 only), Kanjitalk 7

Windows 3.1 / Windows 95:
Required: CD-ROM drive
Suggested: 640x480 or greater screen resolution, 8-bit color, 8MB RAM (for screen saver), Japanese support

 GAINAX, although probably best known for producing anime, is not a stranger to creating computer titles. They initially started supporting computers with the PC98, DOS/V and FM-Towns Japanese systems a few years ago writing software titles such as NADIA AND THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER and PRINCESS MAKER. As the computer scene in Japan is changing, they are now renewing their computer support with Macintosh and Windows hybrid CD-ROMs. With the hype and critical acclaim the EVANGELION anime received, it is to no surprise that GAINAX is cashing in with the release of the EVANGELION Collector's CD-ROM series.
The audience GAINAX is aiming for with this series appears to be the anime fan with some knowledge of computers. These disks are simply a large collection of cell scans, advertisement artwork, icons, screen savers and sounds; all in different formats and organized into folders. However, GAINAX did not bother creating a slow Macromind Director interface or even include any viewing programs, leaving the user to use built in operating system utilities or any graphics programs they may own. This is great news for English speaking fans as no Japanese language extensions or utilities are required to take advantage of the CD-ROMs.
The contents of the disks are split into four headings:

Graphics:

As the primary content of the CD-ROMs, the various pictures come in 3 different formats: Macintosh PICT, Windows BMP and JPEG compressed files. Most PICT and BMP files are in 640x480 and sometimes 1024x768 resolutions. The JPEG files are 2048x1536. So while the first disk contains only about 150 different full sized pictures, this makes for over 550 files in total.
The graphics themselves are not grainy screen captures or quicktime movie grabs, but very high quality scans in 24 bit color. If you have ever seen an EVANGELION picture in a magazine or advertisement, it will probably appear on one of these CDS (the disks also contain a text file in Japanese listing where the graphics had first appeared).
The first disk contains about 30 custom artwork scans, most of the main frames from the opening title animation, and various cell shots from the first 9 episodes. As a bonus they also threw in pictures of titles of the episodes (both English and Japanese versions).
This disk also contains 18 pictures modified to work well as desktop background wallpaper, and an assortment of icons.
The second disk continues where the first left off (180 more pictures), with even more poster artwork, almost every single cell they missed from the opening in the first disk (I think I can recreate the entire opening now in full 2048x1536), and shots from episodes 9-15. They also finally added indexing pictures.

Voice:

The sounds come in three flavors as well: AIFF, Macintosh SND, and Windows WAV files. They also are in 22khz and 44khz options.
The first disk contains only 44 different voice clips, while the second disk contains 111 clips. They are arranged by character, and probably include almost every occurrence of Asuka saying "Baka" in the show.
Screen Saver:

The first disk only contains a Windows screen saver, while the second disk contains Macintosh After Dark files in addition to more Windows files.
The Windows screen saver comes with an installer that does all the work of copying DLLs, writing .INI files, etc. The screen saver itself is mainly a slide show of various artwork with different transitions, although the second disk contains more variety (including one with PenPens walking across the screen). Note that I have only tried the screen savers on a Japanese system.

Etc:

This small folder contains random sounds and extra pictures, plus fun utilities on the second disk (like a PenPen mouse watcher, and a shutdown clock).

Overall, I find this to be a great series of disks with high-resolution, professional quality graphics. The only real drawback is the price tag, although I find most software stores in Japan sell for less than the suggested retail price (about 5,000 yen in this case).
So if you are looking for EVANGELION resources on your computer and you can handle the price, grabbing even one these CD-ROMs will be a treasure trove of digital information.

--Mark L. Johnson