This is a Riven Calendar program on CD, with several other utilities and small games included.

Cedco was a large and well-known publisher of calendars, starting with physical calendars in the 1970s and expanding to software calendars sometime later. This particular artifact has a publish date in July of 2000, according to it's ISBN (0-7683-1034-2, shown above the UPC on the top of the box and the back of the jewel case.) The ISBN listing also indicates that this is specifically a 2001 calendar, despite the fact that the calendar software works with any year. (It was common for software at the time to recieve ISBNs; the rule was later changed so that only educational/instructional software can recieve an ISBN.)

  A composite scan of the box  (5673 x 4004, 19.08 MiB)  

The box contains nothing other than a cardboard insert and the jewel case itself. The jewel case contains one CD-Rom manufactured by WEA Manufacturing. The art printed on the CD itself doesn't indicate that this is a calendar at all, and appears to be a copy of Riven to an untrained observer. Even worse, the disk's software label (the name of the CD displayed when it's in your computer) is just RIVEN.

    (1437 x 1437, 2.76 MiB)  

  All files on the CD  

  All files on the CD (Disk image)  

Cedco had published many other software calendars before this one, and the software is built to use interchangeable assets. This is evidenced by the CD's booklet, which advertises the fact that this CD's assets can be extended with images from other Cedco products. Furthermore, the software on the CD is generically named "Cedco Calendar" and simply includes a collection of 53 Riven images.

Unfortunately, the Riven images themselves are very poor quality. All of the images are JPG quality 65 and are only 1014x690 in size. They appear to be direct, low-quality upscales of in-game renders with some color corrections. Even worse, the images have been stretched vertically to fit into a taller aspect ratio. The only notable image is the Christmas lights easter egg on Temple Island; all other images are regular Riven screenshots.

A comparison between the calendar versions and the original Riven screenshots can be seen here:

  Calendar version  (1014 x 690, 0.07 MiB)  

  Riven version  (608 x 392, 0.17 MiB)  

  Calendar version  (1014 x 690, 0.05 MiB)  

  Riven version  (608 x 392, 0.15 MiB)  

  The 53 images included on this CD  (991 x 694, 0.51 MiB)  

There are also extra files on the disk that are leftover from other calendars released at the same time. Two files, (var.txt and varimage.gif) belong to the "Varga Calendar" that consisted of 53 pinups from the 1940s. Unlike the trivia questions stored on riv.txt, the final section of var.txt contains descriptions of the 53 images, indicating that the software suite probably varies between different Cedco releases. Another leftover file is the riven.bmp found in /assets/map, which is a set of thumbnails from an ocean-themed calendar. Furthermore, some Dilbert assets appear at /images/Timdil.GIF, /images/Timdog.GIF, and /images/Wasted.GIF. (There are also leftover references to United Media inside of riv.txt, which is the company that owned Dilbert at the time.) To top it all off, almost the entire about folder is filled with information about other calendars, which would normally be accessed from the program's "about" menu but is rendered inaccessible by the fact that the program ignores them.

All of these files are installed to disk when the software is installed. However, they're not visible during normal use of the program, and neither of these seperate calendars appear in the list of availble assets.

The CD advertises six different features, some of which utilize the Riven assets (or whatever other Cedco assets are installed). The CD also includes QuickTime 2.1.2.59, which was several years out of date when this artifact was published.

• Screen Saver
• Calendar
• Address Book
• Trivia Questions
• Jigsaw Puzzle Game
• To-Do List

The main program is a generic piece of Java software with a suite of basic productivity applications. There is nothing special about this whatsoever, except for the fact that it displays one of the Riven images in the background.

  The main menu of the main program  (799 x 600, 0.43 MiB)  

  A view of the calendar  (800 x 600, 0.54 MiB)  

    (800 x 600, 0.55 MiB)  

  The to-do list  (800 x 600, 0.43 MiB)  

  "About Riven"  (1152 x 720, 0.49 MiB)  

  "About Cedco Publishing"  (1280 x 978, 1.76 MiB)  

  "About Cedco CD Calendar"  (800 x 600, 0.38 MiB)  

The screensaver simply displays a slideshow of the 53 Riven images using a piece of software called Screenworks, which offers some customizability inside it's own config program. Screenworks also allows you to set any of the images as the desktop wallpaper, and to cycle through them on a timer.

    (569 x 405, 0.12 MiB)  

    (569 x 405, 0.15 MiB)  

A jigsaw puzzle game is also included, allowing the user to create a jigsaw from any of the images included. Different piece counts are user-configurable, and the ability to rotate pieces is presented as a difficulty option. Unfortunately, the pieces don't actually connect to each other, they simply lock into place when they're placed correctly on the board. Groups of connected pieces cannot be moved, and pieces locked into place can't be moved either.

    (812 x 888, 0.46 MiB)  

Finally, the CD contains 262 trivia questions defined inside riv.txt. The questions are displayed in order when viewed through the software. Despite the fact that there are categories defined for the questions inside of riv.txt, these categories are neither visible nor selectable inside the program itself. The questions vary between trivial and esoteric, and range from things like the name of the Miller brothers' parents to the number of stonecutters that the D'ni had. While many of the questions relate to Riven directly and can be answered using game knowledge alone, a large number of them include information outside the scope of the game itself.

Extra photos:

    (1797 x 2134, 1.77 MiB)  

    (1797 x 2134, 1.84 MiB)  

    (2848 x 1452, 2.26 MiB)  

    (2848 x 2134, 2.52 MiB)  

    (2848 x 2134, 2.33 MiB)  

    (1770 x 1375, 2.79 MiB)  

    (4277 x 2818, 12.28 MiB)  

Box dimensions: 23.5cm x 18.5cm x 5cm