In late '93, Sega downsized its CD player, but it didn't stop there. Welcome To The Next Level: Genesis CDX. In April the Sega folks gave us this lightweight compact gameplaying and music CD unit that sizes up at 5 3/8 by 8 3/4 inches.

This sleek black minisystem rings up at $399.99 suggested retail. Beautiful packaging aside, one of the most outstanding features of this sable system is the sound quality, and the best part is no further purchases are needed to experience the ambience and graphics. Bundled with the CDX is Sonic CD, Ecco the Dolphin and an arcade classics CD with Super Monaco Grand Prix, Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage and Columns.

If you want to hear all the bells and whistles, pop in Sonic CD. The action music and grunts of characters taking blows come alive in Streets of Rage.

To experience soothing sound, choose Columns on the arcade disc. Similar to Nintendo's super popular Tetris, this game uses brightly colored baubles in lieu of blocks. I often run Columns for background music, which sounds a lot like ancient music of the Romans and Egyptians with a little bass mixed in. Ecco the Dolphin's cooing and splashing water sound effects also make for great background, not to mention the great graphics.

Now let's get the to dollars and cents. You can often find the core Genesis that plays cartridge games from $90 to $120 bundled with a few titles that vary from store to store. The attachable Sega CD can be had for about $229 bundled with Sewer Shark. So how about the CDX for about $399 and some change?

It will pay for itself almost immediately for those without a portable music CD player, which can run a couple hundred.

Game nuts can easily pack the CDX in an overnight bag or attache and slide in a few music CDs with the game CDs. Though targeted for the traveler, I enjoyed the increased shelf space in the game room. And speaking of home use, the CDX can be hooked up to your stereo. When the player is used with the TV, an on-screen guide let's you reprogram the order of up to 19 tracks. It may sound kind of silly, but I had a blast playing amateur mixer shuffling tracks and dancing. And like the Sega CD, it plays CD+G (music video discs).

In the setup category, there are three easy steps: plug in the AC adaptor, the stereo AV cable and hit the monitor button on the TV. Another bonus is the 6-button Arcade Pad.

Sega is strong, of course, in the games category, but it is sorely lacking in the ever-growing edutainment market. Recognizing this, a Sega spokeswoman says the company has been testing some edutainment titles and may not make a media splash until the Summer CES June 23-25 in Chicago. With these titles, homes without thousands of dollars in personal computer equipment will find the CDX a bargain as a stand-alone unit. Thousands of fun and educational titles are being cranked out for PCs with CD-ROM players, which are putting a hurting on 3DO and CD-i.

Meanwhile, Software Toolworks brings in the animals two by two with the San Diego Zoo Presents . . . The Animals! (also on 3DO, MS-DOS, Mac, $49.95.). Due in stores on Wednesday, the CD provides hours on end of digitized animal sounds, photo stills and digitized video.

Sega could have gone one step better and made the 16-bit cartridge detachable. How so? One of the CDX's best attributes is the sound quality of music CDs. In the same vein Sega may also want to consider making an adaptor for the car. Nonetheless, the Genesis CDX is an integrated joy.

D-Day goes high-tech

War movies, documentaries and re-enactments are a 10 on the fascination scale. Like the "Jurassic Park" madness, D-Day tributes have hit us on all multimedia fronts, though no game is in sight-yet.

Discovery Enterprises transfers the best of its video from the Discovery Channel's "Normandy: The Great Crusade" to CD-ROM for $49.95. The video and still portions are of cinema quality. The disc opens with haunting war music and the sound of soldiers' marching as the fade-to-black technique is used to show us scenes of horror-stricken faces. To add to the theatrics, each intro uses a grainy still as a backdrop for crisp black and white photo that move about the screen in montage fashion.

The voiceovers boom in stereo yet the sound carries the static that lets one know this is straight from the archives. But the best part of the interactive show is the auto pilot feature. Clicking on this icon turns the CD-ROM into a documentary, taking you from D-Day mission preparations to the end.

But don't get too lazy or you will miss such great features as radio spots and letters from soldiers. "We weren't flesh and bones at the moment but hard cold things," writes Pfc. Thomas Raulston of the 506th Infantry.

Another great feature is the textured-looking maps color-coded for land, air and sea in various grades of browns, greens, cobalt and crimson red complete with swastika marking Hitler territory.

Normandy's slightly irritating limitations are you can't run a selective search or freeze frame. I was also dying to make printouts, but there is no such prompt or icon. Sadly forgotten, a print function would have turned a mere video disc into a storehouse of information.

However, its best feature is the auto pilot so "click" back and enjoy.

It's play time

- World of CD-ROM in Northbrook informs us it has more than 1,600 titles for rental and sale, with about 10 percent for the Mac market. Opened last September, the 1,400 square foot store also carries multimedia system with speakers. Titles range from preschool education to adult entertainment. About 400 soft porn and X-rated materials, its biggest draws, are smartly relegated to another room at the end of a closed-off hallway.

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Eugenia C. Daniels can be reached on Chicago Online at TribFriday @aol.com or at the Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., 4th Floor, Chicago, Ill. 60611. While she cannot respond individually, items of general interest will be answered in her column.