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I need to create a CD-ROM for the purposes of marketing and demonstrating
our DOS-based software.  Ideally the demo would run under DOS for reasons
I'll list later, but if the only solution involves Windows, I'll go with
that.  So far, I've heard of Instant Replay Professional by Lifeboat
Publishing (a.k.a. Programmer's Paradise).

1.  Are there any competitors to IRPRO? (i.e. create demos including
    animation playback that run under DOS)?  

2.  Does anyone have any experience with IRPRO, e.g., performance of
    animation playback?

Basically, my needs are:

a.  Resultant demo runs under DOS, ideally.  Windows is a second choice.
    I don't care what the creation software runs under.

b.  Display 1024x768x256 images directly if the system running the demo
    supports it.

c.  Play back an animation of my DOS software in operation.  I have
    a $1600 black box which digitally scan converts 1024x768 down to
    NTSC in real-time, so I'm hoping some standard full-motion video
    capture board can digitize the resultant signal without too much
    loss of resolution.  By the way, any suggestions on boards that
    can digitize 640x480 at a fairly high frame-rate?  One of the
    highlights of my software is its speed in updating the screen.
    Not much changes over time, but I would like to capture those
    small but rapid changes.  As this will end up on a CD-ROM, file
    size is not a concern.

d.  Simple ability for the user to navigate the demo via the keyboard.
    Mouse support is not important.
 
The reasons I would prefer the demo run under DOS are:

I.  One of the largest markets for my software is Asia, where not
    everyone has Windows.

II. I fear getting the Windows demo to work in the field might be
    more difficult.  I plan to ship a CD-ROM drive along with the
    CD-ROM, and installation needs to be as simple as possible
    (incidentally, anyone have any suggestions for the easiest-to-
    set-up CD-ROM; e.g., is there such a thing as a parallel-port
    CD-ROM, and if so, what is its performance?)  If the end-user
    is not familiar with Windows, then just getting his system to
    work with Windows, over the phone to Asia (12 time zones difference)
    might be tough.

III.  My software runs under DOS, and although none of my competitors'
      runs under Windows, I would like to maintain the message that
      my software is state-of-the-art (which it is, in its field).
      Although Windows now has fast graphics (thanks to local-bus),
      it is still limited in processing interrupts frequently and
      without latency.  Having the demo run under DOS might avoid
      such discussions with the potential customer in the first
      place.


Any suggestions, including suggestions of where to get information?


-- 
Michael Malak                   Washington, DC dance info: 
malak@access.digex.net          FTP://ftp.digex.net/pub/access/malak/schedule
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