CD-Rom Information

Details Title: Intron Depot D: A Collection of Masamune Shirow's Full Color Works Publisher: Masamune Shirow / Seishinsha, Popcom Soft (Shinkikakusha/Shogakukan) ISBN4-09-906561-8 C0879 P6800E Price: 6800 Yen Release Date: 1996 Box Dimensions: 19 x 26.5 cm Contents: 2xCDs, Mousepad, Feedback Card. Specifications Windows3.1 / Windows95 CPU 486DX66 MHz or higher 16MB RAM or higher 640 x 480 display (1024 x 768 Rc) 4-Speed CD Drive or higher Note: CD-Roms and Mousepad in the box. Mousepad is the same picture as box cover. Installation needs to be done, and a software will run to display the images. Also in the Roms- a desktop clock and calendar. No information available about the Macintosh Version. Mine is the Windows95 version. Sorry.

Comments & Review

Yet another Shirow merchandise, the Intron Depot 1 Collection, in CD-Rom format. Contains 2 pieces of CDs, and a mousepad. The viewer is a built in program which needs to be setup and installed into your PC, and my version is for Windows 95. Graphics used are into two file formats, Bitmap (for thumbnails, logos etc.) and JPEG for the actual pictures. Pictures on this CD-Rom are of high quality (~ up to 3MBs in size). The contents are almost identical with the Intron Depot artbook, but rough sketches and pre-colored drawings for some of the illustrations were shown, and these are most interesting. I would say that its the best thing about the CD-Roms. Here's a breakdown of the images: Appleseed (50 pcs JPEG), Black Magic (7 pcs JPEG), Cover (39 pcs JPEG), Dominion (15 pcs JPEG), Game (19 pcs JPEG), M66 (9 pcs JPEG), Orion (19 pcs JPEG), Poster (10 pcs JPEG) and Omake (18 pcs BMP). Total would be 186 pieces. Have you spotted the peculiarity so far? Yes. You got it! Ghost In The Shell images were missing! I have no idea why, but my best guess would be copyright problems. As many of you would have known, Ghost In The Shell is under Kodansha's publication, and they make quite a lot of CD illustration collections themselves. Therefore, since this is Shirow, Seishinsha and software house Popcom Soft's project, I think Kodansha didn't give their consent. Just an opinion on why this is so, but certainly there might be other valid or official reasons that I do not know of.

I received my copy of the ID-D1 CD-Rom at a bad time- a bare few days after the ID-D2 CD-Rom, so that might have upped the standard of what I expected from a Shirow Rom. But otherwise, judging that it was made in 1996 and contains images from Shirow's first collection, I'd be fair and say this is a well-done piece of work. How could I EVER complain about a collection of full-color Shirow art??? ^_^ I guess this would be pretty hard to find now, so those who are looking for it- good luck and happy searching!