n this CD-ROM connected to the wildly popular X-Files TV series, users have supposedly tapped into a top-secret government database with all of the secrets of The X-Files. The database is accessed from an opening menu marked by the familiar "X" logo. Users can then launch the main navigational device, a so-called "X Browser" that, like the show itself, is black and murky, backed by an ominous soundtrack. Mysterious symbols act as function keys; the main one of interest is "Surveillance."
Clicking on "Surveillance" opens a window with thumbnails of key X-Files characters. Selecting the characters brings up more opaque icons representing types of files: hypertext dossiers, still images, audio and video clips and, interestingly, 3-D evidence files that can be manipulated. Clicking on any of these icons brings users to the heart of the database, a wealth of detailed information on every episode...uh, case...of The X-Files.
Starting from the image of former Special Agent Alex Krycek, for example, users can access a graphically enhanced audio record of his call to the Cigarette Smoking Man. Click on the file icon, and users can see the case file in question, "Anasazi/The Blessing Way/Paper Clip." Hypertext links lead to images of the digital tape of top-secret government UFO files, or the dossier on Fox Mulder's father, or a navigable Quicktime VR of Assistant Director Walter Skinner's office.
A document reader brings up views of the classified army records of the Cigarette Smoking Man. Icons along the side of the case file window allow users to page methodically through all of the links, or bookmark the file, or go somewhere else. Want to find something specific? The X Browser's search function allows users to look for things by keyword, or case file, or subject (i.e. "extraterrestrials").
All links lead to the truth
Like the similar Star Trek Omnipedia, Unrestricted Access is aimed at the die-hard fan, or X-Phile in this case. There's no "game" here, and no narrative. But that's not to say a Phile won't find something to capture his or her interest for the hours and days it would take to wade through everything this disc has to offer. The Phile faithful will appreciate the extreme attention to detail evinced by the CD-ROM's contents; there is information on virtually every aspect of every episode of the five-year-old show, right down to dossiers on walk-on characters and a Quicktime VR of the keychain Mulder gave Scully for her birthday.
If that weren't enough, Unrestricted Access also contains features that allow users to customize their desktops: X-themed screensavers, wallpaper, icons, pointers, sounds and color schemes. An optional "Factfile" displays a piece of X-Files history or trivia each time users boot up their computers.
And there's an interactive component. Since the X Browser is based on Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.0, users can update the Unrestricted Access database from a Web site with dossiers and other information on new episodes (it's unclear whether that includes the X-Files feature film, Fight the Future). Although, as of early June, there were no updates available.
One drawback: Because Unrestricted Access confines itself to the fictional universe of The X-Files, it contains no behind-the-scenes stuff. Unrestricted Access also does precious little to illuminate the Byzantine conspiracy arc that the show has constructed over the last few years; the copious data don't really add up to a whole, even if the parts are tantalizing.
