The Omnipedia
Based on the best selling Pocket Books publications The Star Trek Encyclopedia by Debbie Mirek, Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda and Star Trek Chronology, also by the Okudas, Star Trek Omnipedia is
a voice-activated reference guide to the Star Trek universe. There are nearly 6,000 entries of hyper-linked information including a history of the future, a list of actors and roles, ship diagrams, 100 video
and audio clips, 2,000 color photos and pictures of various uniforms.
The Omnipedia is designed to look and sound like a 24th century Interactive Technical Manual. The screen has an upper (index) and lower (information) window with material organized for access via
Encyclopedia, Episode, Chronology, Resources, Topics and Search modes. The interface can work with speech recognition, which completes the Federation computer simulation by adding audio
responsiveness to Majel Barret's voice-overs.
Encyclopedia mode is essentially a digitized version of the published Star Trek Encyclopedia where Trekkies can find thousands of entries sorted alphabetically on a wide array of Star Trek trivia. While
lesser subjects contain only a sentence or two, weightier topics, such as prominent crewmembers, show several pages of detailed information. Pictures accompany many of the entries, which are also
cross-referenced with hyperlinks.
An alphabetically sorted database of the entire list of Star Trek movies and television episodes is provided in Episode mode. Each entry includes a brief plot summary along with other useful information
such as production numbers and writer credits. Like the encyclopedia entries, all entries are extensively cross-referenced and some are linked to multimedia clips. The Omnipedia covers the original
series, the first six movies, most of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the first season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Chronology mode is an electronic version of the Star Trek Chronology and contains a database of notable events in the Star Trek universe ranging from fifteen billion years in the past to the 123rd century.
The Okudas weave events, both real and conjectured, into the Star Trek universe in chronological order with all information referenced by episode title. The unique multimedia bonuses referenced in the
first three modes are indexed in the Resources section and include tables of ships, actors, locations and foodstuffs along with special pictures of deck charts, equipment, symbols and interactive displays
on warp speeds and bearings.
Topics is a collection of five multimedia narratives on James T. Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, the starships Enterprise, a history in the Star Trek universe and the production history of the series. Each narration is
several minutes long and is presented in a 3x3 grid of still frame pictures and video clips and, as an added bonus, Mark Lenard is the narrator in each segment. The Omnipedia search engine allows you to
locate specific and related entries based on keywords and a useful predefined search returns a list of all the video clips.
