For the slightly less than serious CD-ROM fan, Lock 'n' Load contains about 1,000 great (and, it has to be said, not so great) Public Domain games including many classics and some new games that never made it to these shores. Designed to run from Workbench, some of the games don't work unless you boot from the Lock 'n' Load disc, although it's fairly simple to get them running.

If you have an image processing program or a PD utility capable of reading GIF format images then this should be of interest. Walnut Creek (the guys behind the disc) include utilities for viewing the 5,000 full colour images spanning such diverse subjects as abstract art, birds, cartoons, frogs, young women in swimsuits, and so on. All images are scanned in 256 colours.

This two-disc set from 17Bit Software contains over 1.2 gigabytes of music-related programs and files. Pitched at the Amiga and PC, not all the files are of use to Amiga owners, but the majority have an Amiga bias. The first disc is packed with Amiga IFF samples and music programs such as Protracker and the second contains a huge selection of music modules.

Walnut Creek's disc contains more space-related information than the average encyclopedia. For the serious astronomer, there are 5,000 text files covering such diverse subjects as asteroids, astronauts, NASA news bulletins, the Usenet sci.space archives from the Internet and all the NASA press releases since 1962. There's also more than 1,000 image files.

Although it's quite old, this disc provides a fascinating insight into fractal generation. There's a large selection of pre-rendered fractal images and you can render your own with the Mandelbrot generator included. Fractal Universe is odd in that it is neither a reference title or a PD collection. Fractal nuts will love it but the rest of us may be left rather cold.

If you're an AMOS programmer then this is one CD that should be at the top of your shopping list. Containing the entire range of disks from the official AMOS Public Domain library, the AMOS PD CD is perhaps the greatest collection of AMOS files ever compiled. Hidden away within the many directories you'll find more than 1,600 AMOS source code files, 100 Sprite Banks, 250 CText Banks (colour fonts), 800 useful game-related sound samples, music banks and so on.

Some of the source code and demonstration programs are less than impressive but a fair selection of real gems can be found if you persevere. Not only will you find the utilities useful, but less experienced coders should learn a trick or two from the included source code. The range of PD graphics, sprite banks and sound samples are an absolute boon too if you're not too handy with the more aesthetic side of programming. For AMOS coders everywhere, this CD is a must.

The Multimedia Toolkit actually has very little to do with multimedia. Instead, it's a huge collection of resource files including 500 original images in 24-bit, HAM8 and HAM format, more than 3,000 clip art files, hundreds of CompuGraphic, Type 1, Postscript and bitmapped fonts, 750 music modules and 2,000 sound samples. This wide-ranging collection of files provides an excellent selection of Amiga-related support programs.

The prize for the most expensive CD title goes to 3D-ROM, which contains more 3D objects than you could shake a stick at in a variety of formats including Lightwave and Imagine. A booklet explains how to access the objects and acts as a valuable catalogue of the contents. Just about every 3D object you could ever want is included from Amigas to TVs, spaceships and trees. A brilliant disc at a stupidly high price.