Inside Games & Entertainment Update
Volume 3, Issue #7


NEWS FEATURES

HAVE GUN--WILL TRAVEL
ABC has decided to take a financial interest with Gun, a one-hour dramatic
anthology, produced by Kushner-Locke Co. and award-winning producers. Gun
is an anthology about the travels of a pearl-handled, semi-automatic gun as
it passes from one situation to another in each of the episodes. There will
be prominent guest stars and directors featured in each episode. Peter
Horton (thirtysomething), Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction) and James
Gandolfini (Crimson Tide) star in the pilot.

SNITTY STORY
You may recall prima donna Nightline host, Ted Koppel, who stomped out of
the Republican National Convention in a tantrum after saying he found no
story there, will not be covering the Democratic convention this week.

FOOTBALL FRENZY
If you were not aware, this weekend opens the National Football League
season. Software publishers involved in the fine art of creating sports
sims were not just fully aware of this fact, they managed to do something
about it! They have brought forth titles, football simulations, that can
leverage their presence by simply "being there" for gamers as the first
games of the season are played.
One company who has managed to meet this deadline is Acclaim Entertainment.
They have released NFL Quarterback Club '97 for the Sony PlayStation, Sega
Saturn and DOS CD-ROM. The game features all 30 NFL teams, as well as the
current rosters for those teams. You can possess the great throwing arm of
Dan Marino, or the scrambling ability of Steve Young, or even the talents
of Troy Aikman or John Elway. Using their acclaimed motion-capture
technology, the movements of actual NFL players has been captured and
incorporated into the video gameplay. Actions like running, diving,
catching, throwing and tackling ahve been transferred to the computer
screen--what you see on the field is what you see in the game. There are
more than 500 new plays and the title also offers instant replay, player
trading--even detail down to the players' numbers on their jerseys and the
logos on their helmets. Plus, there's a supertrack cam that closely follows
every play.

SPACE COLONY ON THE NET
The intrigue and delight of multiplayer gaming over the Internet, as well
as singularly on your own computer, continues to lead the desires of
consumers when asked what they wish in computer gameplay. Accolade has
certainly taken note of this desire, as they are now shipping Deadlock, a
planetary conquest strat that includes play over the Internet. This title
represents the largest internal development ever undertaken by the company.
You become the leader of a space colony and compete against others, or
computer-controlled opponents, for planetary dominance,. You subdue
opposing colonies through military and economic domination, while building
and developing your colony's culture, economic and military strengths. You
may select from seven different species, each with its own, unique
attributes. Even when gaming with other folk over the net, 3D lip-synch
technology enables communication via chat mode while playing. For online
play, you may indulge modem-to-modem, direct-connect serial plug, via LANs,
and over the Internet through Mplayer and Total Entertainment Network game
services. Full motion sequences are played back through Smacker Video
Technology, licensed by Accolade from RAD Software. You'll need a Windows
3.1/95/NT machine to play this grand strat.

PERSUASION EVOLVES
It's been a long time--1994--since Persuasion, originally from Aldus Corp.,
has offered an upgrade. Now owned by Adobe System Inc., Persuasion version
4.0 is scheduled to be released in the fourth quarter. Persuasion has
caught up to the new technology on the Web and will offer integration with
Web authoring via Adobe Acrobat, not HTML, and links, interaction with
other Adobe applications, and an increased focus on cross-platform
solutions.

Menus, dialog boxes, palettes and keyboard shortcuts will more closely
resemble those of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.  Persuasion 4.0 will let
users drag and drop graphics files in EPS, TIFF, PICT, JPEG, GIF,
Illustrator or Photoshop format. Photoshop files will retain their layers,
and Illustrator files will keep their full color and resolution.

Web-focused users will be able to incorporate hyperlinks, movies, sounds
and graphic elements within presentations, then export them as Portable
Document Format (PDF) files using the bundled Acrobat Distiller 3.0
software. PDF presentations can be launched with any browser that supports
PDF, including Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, and
played back with anti-aliased text on virtually any platform, including
DOS; Windows 3.1, 95 or NT; or Mac OS systems. Users will be able to add
URLs to their presentations by dragging them from
a Web browser onto a slide and preserve links to URLs when saving
presentations to PDF.  Adobe Systems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., can be
reached at  (800) 833-6687 or http://www.adobe.com.

AMERICAN GREETINGS GOES INTERACTIVE
American Greetings is the world's leader in the greeting cards category and
now they have plans for expansion.  American Greetings will enter the realm
of digital animation, forging a major licensing agreement with new-media
company Enteraktion Inc., which will create and produce an extensive series
of interactive storybooks and other products based upon the company's most
beloved characters such as Strawberry Shortcake, The Popples,The Holly
Hobbie Blue Girl and The Birthday Bear. Folks can  get their hands on the
interactive products at retail and specialty stores.


THIS AMTRAK CAN'T DERAIL
A redesigned Amtrak station was introduced on the Internet at
http://www.amtrak.com. Amtrak, the nation's passenger railroad, drew upon
the talents of DIGEX, Incorporated, a national Internet Service Provider
based in Beltsville, Md., to provide hosting services for its Web site.

FUN IN A TREEHOUSE
Broderbund, well known for their edutainment titles, has a new kid on the
block. The Treehouse® CD-ROM hybrid for folks ages five to eight is
designed to help develop skills that are introduced in the first and second
grade level such as language, math, science and music. With some new
Treehouse friends, Casey and Lloyd the Lightning Bug, kids are encouraged
to use skill sets that help develop word recognition, vocabulary building,
coin value, natural science facts, creative expression, music styles and
instruments.

CHUCK E. CHEESE INVESTS IN ARISTO

Nolan Bushnell, who founded Atari Corp. and created Chuck E. Cheese
restaurants, will debut high-tech jukeboxes and video games next month that
are linked to the Internet. These units will be located in bars, hotels and
other public places with the potential of making billions of dollars.
Nolan,  as director of strategic planning for Aristo International Corp.,
has helped to contribute more than $10 million to develop these machines.
TeamNet, MusicNet Plus and TouchNet  enable people to play video games with
opponents in another location, order music as well as hear it, and access
the Internet with the drop of a coin or the swipe of a credit card.
The TeamNet machine, which is the size of a small billiard table, allows
two teams of as many as  eight players each, to compete against each other,
or against teams elsewhere through an Internet connection. Aristo is
already seeking corporate sponsors for its tournament billiard games.
Another product, TouchNet, allows people to use a compact, coin-operated
countertop touch-screen computer to play games and send messages via the
Net. The MusicNet Plus product plays high-quality digital music and enables
customers to buy recordings and merchandise from bands as well as tickets
to events.

CBS PROGRAMS LAUNCH
CBS will be bringing several old familiar names to their TV line-up this
fall. On Big Comedy Monday, September 16,  CBS begins with the Bill Cosby
sitcom Cosby and the Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen comedy Ink . CBS,
which ended last season in third place, is putting its money on Cosby to
give it a ratings boost and ordered an unprecedented 44 episodes of the
series.Murphy Brown features a new cast member, Lily Tomlin. Chicago Hope
will begin its new season and a sneak preview of the Rhea Perlman sitcom
Pearl will be shown.
60 Minutes returns for its 29th season September 15. The CBS Sunday and
Tuesday movies commence September 15 and 17 with a miniseries, Undue
Influence. Other shows to return are: The Nanny on September 18; 48 Hours
returns for its 10th season with a two-hour retrospective September  12,
Dave's World kicks off on a Friday schedule one week early on September 13
which will lead a new show Everybody Loves Raymond.
Promised Land,  starring Gerald McRaney will debut September 17 and is a
spinoff of Touched by an Angel. Meanwhile, Touched by an Angel premieres in
its new Sunday night time slot September 22.  On Thursday, September 19,
the Dick Van Dyke vehicle Diagnosis Murder returns for a fourth season,
followed by the premiere of Moloney, a drama starring Peter Strauss.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Scott Bakula and Nash Bridges hitsthe airwaves
September  20. Saturday's returning slate of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and
Walker Texas Ranger bow on September 21, while the night's third drama,
Early Edition, will debut a week later.  There'll be new episodes of Cybill
beginning September 23. Almost Perfect will be reworked and the premiere
dates for new shows Public Morals and EZ Streets will be announced after
the dates of the presidential and vice presidential debates are determined.
(08/26/96)

TV GUIDE IMPOSTER
Sounds like a lot of work--NetGuide Live (http://www.netguide.com) from CMP
Media has a Web search, listings and news site that it hopes will be the
first place most folks will go on the Internet. NetGuide Live will present,
in real-time, an hour-by-hour grid listing of events taking place on the
Web and online services--a kind of  TV Guide for Web content. NetGuide Live
will offer a search engine; reviews of about 50,000 sites; provide the
capability for parents to lock out objectionable sites;  bring news
headlines from CNN; and deliver reports about new items on the Web.
NetGuide Live is in beta now, and advertisers will start paying Sept.2. The
service formally launches with beefed up content Sept. 15th. Later this
year, NetGuide Live will offer users ways to personalize the service.
NetGuide Live will charge $3,900 for 100,000 impressions, not including
discounts for those who sign on before September.   (08/25/96)

THE ULTIMATE BUY--HSN
Barry Diller, chairman of both Silver King Communications and Home Shopping
Network, announced Silver King's purchase of the Home Shopping Network
(HSN) for about $1.3 billion in stock.  This announcement further fueled
speculation that Dillerwas getting set to launch another major television
network. Diller lead the launch of Fox, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's
News Corp., and already plans to drop HSN programming from Silver King's
stations and replace it with a traditional mix of locally oriented news,
sports and other shows.
Diller is seen by some experts to be positioning his companies to compete
head on with ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox, whose launch Diller spearheaded in the
1980s. The deal would reunite Silver King, which owns 12 TV stations spun
off in 1992 by HSN, with its old parent. Diller said speculation that he
would start a new national network was premature but he said cash generated
by HSN would help Silver King pay for programming and other costs in
developing its stations. Diller is also buying Savoy Pictures, a
money-losing studio that owns other television stations, for about $117
million in stock.
SHY DI SAYS 20/20 IS A NO GO
Word got out that Princess Diana had agreed to an interview in November
with Barbara Walters on TV's 20/20 in which Diana would take a fee of
around $1.1 million.  Princess Diana promptly denied the rumor, and a
spokesperson for 20/20 also denied any interview as well as issuing the
statement that 20/20 doesn't pay anybody for interviews. And by the
way--Diana's divorce is now final.

HOW CIVILIZED
Word has it that the famous Sid Meier, the one responsible for several
major mega-hits from MicroProse, is now actually going to be helping a
competitor of Spectrum HoloByte's develop more fantastic hits. Sid and
Firaxis Software, Inc., the company that developed Civilization, have now
received more than just moral support from Electronic Arts--that game
company has now acquired a minority interest in Firaxis. You can bet your
conquered world some similar sims'll be bearing that good ol' Electronic
Arts distribution label.

THE SEASON STARTS--DIGITALLY
The hopes and dreams of millions of football fans initiate this coming
weekend with the start of the regular NFL season. To tie in with football
season, EA Sports is going to debut their new Madden NFL 97 CD-ROM football
sim in October. Multiple play sets are included as well as over 100 NFL
teams, with NFL penalties and player fatigue all playing their role in this
offering. A new Iso-cam option lets you play the game through the eyes of
an offensive lineman or another player.

ACTIVITY DOES NOT LESSEN
Seems as though each week, one of the online game companies has a lot to
say about themselves. Once again, Engage has another announcement . . .this
time the company is going to collaborate with Concentric Network Corp. The
two of them are going to design an advanced, next-generation, dial-up
network and the appropriate software to enable Internet-based gaming by
this fall. The game environment programmers from Engage and the engineers
from Concentric's network systems group will work together to optimize the
current Concentric Network so that it will support both low and fixed
latency and high-throughput. This network will support something called
adaptive call processing. Such allows several different classes of
applications to share the same network resources, while each still receives
the specific required resources. You can access the Engage WWW site at
http://www.gamesonline.com.

FAMILY PLANET, A SAFE PLACE TO VISIT
Adults are questioning the safety of the Internet when it comes to
communications that involve minors. Concerned parents are looking for a way
to protect their youngsters from indecent programming such as pornography
and violence. Enter  Family Planet (http://family.starwave.com), a
comprehensive resource on the Internet that brings Best of the Web, a new
editorial feature that offers a directory of educational and entertaining
Web sites.  These Web sites have been screened and approved by Family
Planet as fun and educational resources for children. Each listing includes
a review that is rated on a scale of one to ten using criterion such as
usefulness, content, aesthetics, editorial tone, and safety. (08/29/96)

A CRASH-PROOF ASSIST FOR NEW FOLKS ON THE SUPERHIGHWAY
Not everyone on the Information Superhighway is experienced. With this
thought in mind Ruby Yeh created FolksOnline a product of Yinspire Inc.
FolksOnline is described as a community designed to assist newcomers and
casual users with their computer and Internet needs. There are also
recommendations of software that can help people achieve their goals. A
10-to-50 percent rebate is offered for all software purchases, and readers
can receive $100 for their first-hand stories if they are published on
FolksOnline. FolksOnline also offers a database that can link people to
house-call computer consultants, web designers, and local ISPs, who offer
dependable service and support. Another feature of the site, called Helping
Hands, gives people ideas for activities they can achieve on the Web, such
as develop a business, service, or engage in some other experience with the
potential to change the way they live and work.

COMING TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU--A TV SHOW
Fox is pulling a first in promoting its new series Millennium. Millennium
is set to fill the very popular slot on Friday night that belonged to
X-Files, which will now move to Sunday. In order to get the word out about
this new series, Fox is spending about $2 million in the promotion of the
premieres. Both shows are created by Chris Carter, who is expected to speak
as part of a live event beamed from Los Angeles via satellite to audiences
in 28 theaters in the top 25 markets.

PATTY HEARST COMBINES FACT AND FICTION
Patty Hearst, who made national headlines in 1974 when she was kidnapped by
Symbionese Liberation Army members, has written Murder at San Simeon,
described as faction. Faction, as Hearst describes the title,  is a mixture
of fiction and fact. Murder at San Simeon  is a mystery based on a death
more than 70 years ago aboard William Randolph Hearst's luxury yacht,
Oneida. Due September 4, Murder at San Simeon is about film producer,
Thomas Ince, who died aboard Oneida in 1924. The death had been attributed
to acute indigestion, but rumors have persisted that such is not the case.
Hearst's writing goal was to create enough jealousy and rivalry in her
characters without making them unlikable.

ACTION MECH STRAT DEBUTS
One of the hottest genres in computer games these days is the real-time,
action title. Interplay Productions fully intends to share, if not lead, in
this genre. The company has just announced a street date for their
mech-action title, Shattered Steel. The game will blast its way into retail
locations on September 27th. The game was developed by Bioware and features
Voxel routines and real-time polygonal shading methods. Message activity on
online services, such as America Online, and in usenet newsgroups, all
proclaim Shattered Steel as a smash-hit, even before the game's release.

There are 50 missions for single play, and 15 multiplayer missions. You
inflict real-time terrain damage when nukes blast huge holes in the
landscape. Only pits of burned-out damage are left in their wake, but you
have to do what you have to do to win! As many as 16 players can engage in
anarchy death matches. Check out Interplay's WWW site at
http://www.interplay.com where you'll not only find more info about the
game, but can also download a five mission demo.

THAT'S NO GORILLA, THAT'S MY SON!
An announcement from Jim Henson Pictures informs us that their first
feature film, Buddy, has begun production. This announcement comes from
Brian Henson, president and chief executive officer of Jim Henson
Productions, and Stephanie Allain, president of production for Jim Henson
Pictures, both of whom serve as executive producers of the film, along with
Francis Ford Coppola. Steve Nicolaides andZoetrope's Fred Fuchs are
producing this movie. Buddy, starring Rene Russo, is about Gertrude Lintz,
an eccentric socialite who raises a gorilla as her son. Supporting her in
the film are Robbie Coltrane as her husband, Dr. William Lintz; Alan
Cumming as her assistant, Dick Kroener; Irma P. Hall as her housekeeper,
Emma; and Paul Reubens as Professor Spatz. Filming is to take place in Los
Angeles with a release date of summer '97 under the direction of Caroline
Thompson through Columbia Pictures.

ACTIVEX SHOCKED
As ActiveX gains more and more developer attention as to its usefulness,
Macromedia has decided to certainly parlay their expertise with Shockwave
into this Microsoft environment. Now shipping is Shockwave for ActiveX
control and it will be bundled in Microsoft's Windows 95 OEM Kit, their
Internet Explorer 3.0, and their Internet Starter Kit. Shockwave lets you
view and interact with multimedia and graphics on the WWW, as well as
stream voice to CD-quality audio.

DUMMIES IN CYBERSPACE
From the conception of the original Dummies series of self-help books, IDG
Books now boasts over 25 million books currently in print, worldwide. Now
Dummies aficionados can continue their relationship in cyberspace at
http//www.dummies.com. Here visitors can check out sample chapters from the
newest books, speak with other Dummies readers in threaded chat rooms or in
real-time chat, learn about upcoming events in the Calendar section and
access other exclusive information in the Resources area.   (08/25/96)

THIS BEAR'S IN THE DARK
Some folks are afraid of the dark. To this end, Living Books® has
released The Berenstain Bears in the Dark CD-ROM. The Berenstain Bears in
the Dark helps children aged three to seven overcome their fear of the dark
and get excited about reading. Based on the well-loved book by Stan and Jan
Berenstain, this interactive storybook not only inspires children to
develop reading and computer skills, but also guides them in confronting
their fear of the dark with the encouragement of  this famous bear family.
The Berenstain Bears in the Dark encorporates Living Books' high standards
for humor, animation and sound effects that have won the company over 60
awards for technical and educational excellence.

MOVIESTAR
MovieStar 1.5 from Intelligence at Large is the only multimedia authoring
tool that creates fast start QuickTime movies as well as Web animations in
looping GIF89 and compressed JPEG formats. MovieStar enables Macintosh
users to combine video, 3-D graphics, pictures, sounds and MIDI music into
fast start  QuickTime, animation or multipart  MIME (Multipurpose Internet
Mail Extensions) files that can be streamed from a Web server. Folks that
find this tool useful are designers, QuickTime authors, media labs and
multimedia enthusiasts.

Each element of a fast start QuickTime movie or Web animation is
interpreted by  MovieStar 1.5 as an object that appears at time and space
intervals which are designated by the user. There's a lot of flexibility
here--objects can simply be dragged or pasted into a project window, giving
consumers the ability to change their minds by undoing any step. This makes
it possible for nonprofessionals to produce movies that would normally
require professional film production skills. Customers can order MovieStar
1.5 from Intelligence at Large by calling 800-IAL-SOFT, or by downloading
and purchasing the product directly from the company's web site at
www.ialsoft.com. A free trial version of MovieStar 1.5 is also available
from the Web site.

In addition, MovieStar 1.5 includes a plug-in for Netscape Navigator 3.0
and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The product comes with an Apple plug-in
that supports the fast start feature. Web users can watch fast start
QuickTime files as they are downloading. As an extra benefit, MovieStar 1.5
works with all QuickTime plug-ins, helper applications, viewers and
editors.

MovieStar 1.5 requires a Power Macr or any 68040 processor, such as the
Quadra, Centris, Performa 630r and Powerbook 190 or higher, with 12MB of
RAM and a CD-ROM drive. You can record video with MovieStar, use any video
source that can be connected to a Macintosh, including video cameras, VCRs,
video disk players, live video feeds and the Connectix QuickCam.

NAOMI JUDD TO HOST TALK SHOW
Country and western signer Naomi Judd will do a one-hour talk show in 1997
for Rysher Entertainment. Quincy Jones and David Salzman in Los Angeles
will produce Naomi with no distribution terms available. The show is said
to be formatted along the line of the Oprah Winfrey Show with a
single-topic talk of information and issues.

Due to Naomi's life experiences of begin a single mom, raising two
daughters, and struggling to put herself through nursing school, not to
mention her battle with chronic hepatitis, she's sure to enjoy a
sympathetic audience. Naomi's life story of coming from nothing to
celebrity status will be inspirational to her viewers.

MORE MINISERIES COMING
Plans are in the works for New Line Television to provide more made-for-
television movies and miniseries. In fact an exclusive arrangement with
Randwell Productions, the new company formed by producer Randy Robinson,
was signed to develop and produce long-form programming.  TV movies and
miniseries are popular not just in the US but internationally--so much so
that Randwell Productions will make at least four projects a year and help
feed the company's overseas output. deals. New Line has developed a method
in promoting new properties as well as continuing the strategy of
exploiting New Line's movie franchises such as The Mask and Dumb & Dumber
for TV.  (08/27/96)

SKIDDING AT SLATE
Well, seems as though coffee is as important to John Williams as the
beverage is to us at our publication. Recall the hoopla surrounding
Microsoft's launch and subsequent issues of SLATE, their online magazine?
Recall the hype surrounding Michael K's installation as the editor of the
publication? Well, barely two months into his job, the publisher of
SLATE--John Williams--has left the magazine to take a job with Starbucks.
We personally believe this to be a good move for Mr. Williams--we certainly
don't expect Mr. K to hang around much longer, either! Now, for a good dose
of Java!

PRICE DROP CONFIRMED
Remember all of the concern over the fact that Nintendo was going to intro
their new Nintendo 64 at a price point that seemed to forecast consumer
disregard for the machine? Your concerns are now over--Nintendo now plans
to intro the N64 at $199, instead of the earlier announced $249. Coming out
at the end of next month, this price drop is seen as giving the machine a
fighting chance against the lower-priced Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation
video console systems. N64 software titles remain priced between $50 and
$80 per unit. Nintendo continues to forecast nearly one-and-a-half million
unit sales in the U.S.

HUMAN VISION EMULATED
The up-and-coming revolution in 3D eyeware is a fact. It's simply a matter
of time and cost before a majority of game systems have 3D game options
that include the wearing of special vision accouterment to really envelop
the gamer in worlds of virtual reality. On September 1st, NuVision
Technologies is going to be shipping their new PC gaming product, 3-D SPEX.
These offer the user a stereoscopic 3D experience. The complete package is
comprised of 3D glasses with liquid crystal shutter eye wear, 3 premium
games, and all of the necessary accessories. What is amazing about this eye
wear is the SRP -- less than $100, for the eye wear AND the games.

$$$ MILLIONS TO QUELL RUMORS
A budget of $10 million in TV and print advertising has been appropriated
in the promotion of Sega's NiGHTs, the software title Sega hopes will
jump-start sales of its languishing 32-bit Sega Saturn machine. Then Sega's
Sonic the Hedgehog  will follow, promoting its playabilitly on multiple
platforms, including (of course) Sega Saturn. Sega of America will try to
zap itself back into young video-gamers' sights by Christmas with a $60
million marketing campaign from a new agency Ingalls Moranville of San
Francisco, but it may be too little, too late.
Analysts have expressed concern about Sega's future following the
devastating events of the past year, when Sega fell from No. 1 in the $6
billion videogame industry to No. 2, where it now trails Sony Computer
Entertainment's 32-bit Sony PlayStation. One expert expressed  concern
stating that this could be the end of the line for Sega as a hardware manufa
cturer, due to the fact that Sega squandered their momentum over the last
year and failed to appreciate some of the competitive moves of rivals. This
fear is contagious--even Sony Computer Entertainment is scared, according
to industry observers, based upon the latest news that Nintendo of America
may drop the entry price of its long-awaited 64-bit videogame machine,
billed as the fastest videogame player on earth, to $199 when it debuts
next month.

You may remember that the launch prices of Sega and Sony's 32-bit machines
were originally $299 last year, whereas now both of these manufacturers
have since dropped prices to $199. And both companies are losing millions
on hardware sales just to hook consumers on the lucrative software titles
that are not interchangeable among systems.

NASTIE STUFF GOING BYE-BYE
The debate over the impact of sex and violence in computer games is going
to become rather moot for Sega Enterprises. Starting this October, the game
maker is going to remove all violence and sex for their digital
entertainments. Not only will the company's adult-category games be
discontinued, but stricter restrictions will be applied to all titles.
Photos and animated images of nude women will not appear in any offering.
In games for those over 18 years of age, images of women in swimsuits or
underwear may appear. This change is reportedly not due to consumer
pressure but due to technological advancements that make such images too
realistic. Plus, let us not forget Sony Computer Entertainment and Nintendo
have already determined that there will no nude women in the games for