Reading Sony Data Discman CDROMs on a Mac

I have been in Japan for two years and have been frustrated by all the CDROM titles out there that I can't run on my Mac There are several good dictionary titles on Sony Data Discman CD-ROMs, for example, and I don't want to spend the yen needed to buy a Data Discman unit when I already have a computer and CD-R02~1 drive available. Is there any way that I can coax my Mac into reading these programs

The Sony Data Discman CD-ROMs do indeed have a lot of interesting titles; the problem has been that Sony wants you to believe that you need a Sony Data Discman to play them. In fact, though, these CD's can be mounted on a Mac desktop and used. Many of the CDs are in the form of a thesaurus/encyclopedia/dictionary. While some are very good and useful, others are more suitable as a door wedge than a dictionary -- so be sure to do a bit of investigation before you spend your money.

Let's assume that you have gone as far as purchasing a Sony Data Discman CD-ROM. If you want to read it on your Mac, you'll need to take it apart in order to mount it in your Mac CDROM drive. On the lower left-hand corner (with the label facing you), y ou will see a notch on the side. If you use a sharp pencil to push that in, you can then carefully remove the innards (one CD-ROM). You will notice that it is smaller than the usual CD-ROM, but you can put the Sony CD-ROM into your Mac CD caddy by using a n inexpensive (200 yen) adapter available from almost any record shop. CD rental stores often sell these adapters as well.

When you have successfully inserted the CD-ROM into the caddy and put the caddy into the Mac's CDROM drive, you can concentrate on setting up your system folder. In order for your system to be able to read the CD-ROM, you'll need three extensions that are provided by Apple your system install disks:

• High Sierra File Access
• ISO 9660 File Access
• Foreign File Access

I have had consistently good results by putting the Foreign File Access into the extensions folder, and the other two into the system folder (not the extensions folder). If you use other removables, such as an MO drive or Syquest disk, it may be wise t o temporarily disable those drivers to avoid conflicts.

The next step requires the use of Shokendai (downloadable from Nikkei MIX). Shokendai, written by Yoshinaga, is a freeware program that acts as your front end to the Sony Data Discman CD-ROM. Although the current version lacks the ability to read sound , it allows the visual data of a Data Discman CD-ROM to be read and used in exactly the same way as you would expect. (Don't forget to double-click the black stars on the left of the screen.) This solution allows you, for example, to keep a Sony Data Disc man for your portable dictionary needs, and then use the Sony Data Discman's CD-ROM on your machine in the office (useful when doing a translation, for example). In this way, you can make the most of your resources.

Reportedly, there will soon be a commercial version of Shoken called EB Player. The English version of EB Player is already on sale, and a localized Japanese version is scheduled for a mid-September release. HAL Corporation (phone 03-3 846-4751, fax , 03-3846-4775) will handle Japan distribution. The price has apparently been set at 12,000 yen for the Japan version, about double the price of English version and certainly a lot more than its freeware progenitor.

PS. If you're interested in using Fujitsu CD-ROMs on your Mac, best advice is to just be patient. Apple and Fujitsu are now working together so that all Fujitsu Town CD's will usable on a Mac (and vice versa) the end of this year.