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A CD-ROM drive isn't much good without driver software. Take a look at ExtenDOS Pro — it's easy to use, very fast, and compatible with almost any new SCSI drive.

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Strange things, computers. Just a short while ago (several years, actually — Karen) we were marvelling at how good floppy disks were compared to cassettes. Now we've got CD-ROMs — shiny pieces of plastic barely bigger than a floppy, but capable of holding up to 650MB of data.

As well as the CDs crammed with ST PD and shareware, there are a lot of generic discs from the PC market you can use — clip-art, MIDI files, GIF images. You'll still need driver software, though...

ExtenDOS Pro by Anodyne Software (distributed in the UK by System Solutions) is the only CD-ROM driver which runs happily on all Atari machines. Competitors such as the ICD driver supplied with the Link 2 are more specialist, since they run under MiNT or MultiTOS.

ExtenDOS comes with everything you need in one simple package and runs under all TOS versions and with multitasking environments like Geneva and Magic. ExtenDOS will run CD-ROM drives attached to the SCSI ports of a TT or Falcon; if you have an ST, ExtenDOS will only work with one of the ICD host adaptors like the AdSCSI, Link or Link 2.

The manual provides a quick-start installation guide. Assuming your CD-ROM drive has an ID of 5, just copy the files to your boot disk and re-boot. Most modern CD-ROM drives have a switch on the case enabling you to set the ID — check your manual. If your drive has a fixed ID, you'll need to reconfigure ExtenDOS. This is done by editing the EXTENDOS.CNF file in a text editor. As long as you know the drive's ID, this is easily done.

Once ExtenDOS is set up and copied to the AUTO folder, a quick re-boot gets you going. ExtenDOS is almost transparent in use. The EXTENDOS.CNF file specifies a drive letter for the CD-ROM drive (the default is P). Opening the icon from the Desktop accesses the contents of the CD as if it were a write-protected hard drive partition. Files can be copied, programs run, and archives extracted without worrying about the mechanics behind it.

What sets ExtenDOS apart from the competition, like the MiNT driver, is speed. The MiNT driver is SLOOOOOW — open a folder with megabytes of data in it and you almost have time for a cuppa before the window opens. There's none of that with ExtenDOS — it is slower than working with a hard drive, but not much.

Double-speed CD-ROM drives have a data transfer rate of about 300K per second, and ExtenDOS is happy to work at that speed. A cache buffer stores regularly-accessed data such as the FAT.

ExtenDOS can access single and multi-session CD-ROMs, including the Kodak PhotoCD format, and can play normal audio CDs. Since most new drive manufacturers use the same basic mechanisms from a few big companies, ExtenDOS should work with almost any drive you can find. Be careful of the cheap CD-ROM drives advertised in PC magazines though, as they are almost always IDE rather than SCSI, and they won't work.

The manual lists a selection of drives from Chinon, NEC, Philips, Sony, Texel and Toshiba, and mentions that any other SCSI drive should work with multi-session and PhotoCD but won't necessarily play audio discs. We tried it with a Matsushita mechanism that wasn't on the list, and while it worked fine as a CD-ROM drive, it wouldn't let us listen to any audio stuff.

The Audio CD player comes as a Desk Accessory which has controls like a real CD unit. There is a track and time display, and a 'shuffle' function which plays tracks in a random order. As it's an accessory, you can listen to your favorite CD while you work.

ExtenDOS is easy to use and very fast. If you've got a CD-ROM drive, chances are you'll be thinking about this already. If you're planning to buy one, it's well worth adding the cost of ExtenDOS to your budget. FRANK CHARLTON

HIGHS • Faster than the ICD/MiNT drivers • Good drive support

LOWS • Audio not available on some drive types

In short... Easy to use, very fast and it works well. Overall, the only sensible way to use CD-ROM.