"VISIONS OF MARS"
(A Collector's Edition)
A Collection Of Martian Facts & Fantasies On CD-ROM

An Exact Copy Of The Message For Future Mars Colonists
Which Will Be Left On Mars

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA (February, 1996) -- Vision of Mars, a new first edition
collector's item, multimedia CD-ROM from Virtual Reality Laboratories,
Inc., pulls together decades of human reveries about the red planet,
ranging from major science fiction works and space art to the infamous
"War of the Worlds" radio broadcast.

Conceived by The Planetary Society and produced by Time Warner, the $69.95
interactive program is designed both as an educational collector's item on
Earth and as a greeting to the first human settlers on Mars in generations
to come. It will travel abroad the Russian space mission to Mars in 1996
and be left there in a time capsule attached to the Mars '96 Lander,
making it the first commercial software title to have a home on another
planet.

The disk features spoken messages to the future colonists from renowned
astronomer Carl Sagan, prominent science fiction writers Arthur C. Clarke
and Judith Merril, and Russian Vyacheslay Linkin, chief scientist of the
Mars '96 Lander, expressing our hopes and dreams for them. Other audio
material includes part of the Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" broadcast
that generated panic in America when it aired in 1938, a Welles interview
looking back on that remarkable episode in radio history and a recording
made of the discussion in the Jet Propulsion Labs as the 1976 Viking
spacecraft landed and gave Earthlings their first contact with the surface
of Mars. Hear Gene Roddenberry, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Carl Sagan
and others as Viking I lands.

Visions of Mars also contains over 70 books, short stories and articles
written about Mars, including works by Brian Alders, Isaac Asimov, Ray
Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Umberto Eco, Fred Hoyle, Ian McDonald, Larry
Niven, Frederik Pohl, Carl Sagan, Clifford Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, Kurt
Vonnegut and others. In addition, the program showcases space photos,
scientists' rendering of Mars through the ages and paintings of Mars done
by children.

The disk was created by a VIP team headed by project manager Jon Lomberg,
co-creator of the "Interstellar Record" that traveled on the Voyager
spacecraft in the late 1970s, conveying highlights of life on Earth to any
extraterrestrial beings who might discover it.

Because of its planned role as a message to the space pioneers of the
future, Visions of Mars includes information on how the program was made
and a list of those who assisted in its production. Instructions on how to
play the CD are recorded on the label using experimental "nanotechnology"
from JPL. The label is written in the five languages of the countries
participating in the "1996 Lander Mission:" Russia, USA, France, Germany
and Finland.

Sony Corporation and Digipress of France provided expert technical guidance
to prepare the CD to withstand space travel and its sojourn on the surface
of Mars.

Visions of Mars is available on CD-ROM for MPC and MAC. It's available
exclusively from Virtual Reality Laboratories at 800/829-8754 in the
United States.

Founded in 1989, Virtual Reality Laboratories, Inc. develops high-quality
scientific entertainment and business productivity software. The San Luis
Obisbo, CA-based company publishes Distant Suns-First Light; space
exploration software; Distant Suns; Mars Explorer; Venus Explorer; Visions
of Mars; Vistapro, a sophisticated 3-D landscape generation tool;
Formbuster for Windows, the first forms processing program that turns
paper forms directly into PC format; and Register It!, the Electronic
Registration Card.
 
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