Editor's Warning: The following information contains not only information about Macintosh industry news and information, but also information about MS-DOS, 3D0, Genesis, etc. Readers who get squeamish when reading about other non-Mac platforms should skip this section.
• 3DO is supporting their technology thrust into the EC with the news that Matsushita (who develops the Panasonic 3DO player in the US) is working on a European PAL version. This new platform should see release this fall and the unit will accepts a whole slew of add-ons, such as a MPEG-1 compression video cart, I/O devices, and RAM cards.
•There’s plenty of joy within Acclaim these days. After all, they’ve had over $50 million pumped into the company. And that’s after only one week of sales of their next smash title, Mortal Kombat II. Not bad for a one week effort!
• Activision is absolutely delighted that spy mystery author James Adams will be working with them on a new series of interactive adventures. The titles will range over several scenarios during the next three years.
• American Laser Games is going to be releasing several new titles between now and December for a variety of platforms. For 3DO gamers, look for VR Stalker, which is an air combat flight sim that was produced by Morpheus Interactive. This should be along sometime in late September. Then there’s Crime Patrol, Space Pirates, and Crime Patrol 2: Drug Wars for PC/MS-DOS machines. Those who enjoy Sega CD should be on the lookout for Who Shot Johnny Rock? in late September, Crime Patrol in late October, and Space Pirates in December. And for Mac gamers, Mad Dog McCree, the original, live action Old West arcade hit, should be along in November.
• Atari is planning to join the parade to CD-ROM media-they are believed to be readying the release of a CD-ROM add-on unit by December of this year. This unit is compatible with all Jaguar 64-bit game systems and will have a SRP of under $200. There will also be an optional MPEG compression cart available.
• Guess it’s not over yet-remember the decision by the US Patent and Trademark Office to deny Compton’s New Media for patent rights to the manner in which retrieval and storage of notes and spoken text are handled on CD-ROM? Well, Compton’s has come back with a filing with the USPTO disputing the finding. The company claims the USPTO reached its conclusion with “improper hindsight” by combining goodies that would not have been so noticeable at the occasion of the original patent filings. A USPTO reaction could be generated within the next three months or so.
• Take seven of your best-selling title and pop them onto a CD, include a $10 rebate offer, and you have a fantastic promo! Interplay Productions has done just that, and the $10 rebate is good when you purchase any of the titles included on the sampler CD. The titles include Battle Chess(r), Buzz Aldrin’s Race Into Space(tm), Castles II: Siege & Conquest(tm), Lord of the Rings(tm), Sim city(tm), Star Trek(r): 25th Anniversary(tm) and Mario(tm) Teaches Typing.
• Cool stuff-one of my favorite screen personalities is, without a doubt, John Cleese, of Monty Python and Faulty Towers fame (as well as several major motion pictures). He’s now signed with Philips Media of America to produce training films. For those who were not aware of John’s penchant for such work, one of his most recent training videos that has turned into a rather unpublicized hit is How To Irritate People. For Philips, he’ll be creating CD-i titles based on Video Arts best-selling titles, such as Meetings, Bloody Meetings. A total of ten Video Arts programs’ll be distributed in the US and the EC over the next 12 months.
• Speaking of CD-i, Philips Interactive Media has debuted several new interactive entertainment titles as they attempt to broaden their offerings for their player. They include Time-Life Astrology, Hanna-Barbera’s Cartoon Jukebox and Cartoon Carnival, Sandy’s Circus Adventure, International Tennis Open, Richard Scarry’s Best Neighborhood Disc Ever and his Busiest Neighborhood Disc Ever. The company has also released a lower cost player, that being the Magnavox CDI-450. This is a top-loading player and comes bundled with Compton’s Multimedia Encyclopedia and International Tennis Open. The price is going to be $299. Another unit, the Magnavox CDI-550, will punch in at $499, but it will be bundled with a digital video cart.
• The ratings efforts continue . . .now it is rumored that Sega has already submitted several titles for ratings review. If you’ll recall, one of the arguments for institution of this system was that such ratings boards already exist for overseas markets. In our humble opinion, we don’t see the relevance of comparing the United States to Europe or any other specific country. We are a rather independent people and enjoy the fact that we make decisions based upon our own feelings, not some board decision by unknown, faceless folk determining what is good for us!
• Financial results for the first fiscal quarter ending June 30, 1994 for Spectrum HoloByte reveal revenues of just over $19 million with a net loss of just over $3-1/2 million. This loss included $1-1/2 million of amortization of purchased software and goodwill related to the MicroProse merger.
• Look for Turner Interactive to be releasing their CD-ROM animated adventure, The PageMaster, at the same time the Macaulay Culkin move of the same name is released in November of this year. Coordination of the game title was accomplished simultaneously with the movie production itself. The game will be released in Macintosh and MPC formats.
• Er, we got some delayed news here. Not so long ago, we mentioned that ASG Technologies would have a great new game, TimeSlip(TM), ready for your enjoyment by December of this year. Wellllll, TimeSlip . . .SLIPPED! Now we’re informed the title won’t be ready for roll out until June of next year.
• Atari is thoroughly delighted! They’ve managed several new agreements with Sega Enterprises Ltd. In exchange for $40 million, Atari has sold to Sega just over 4-1/2 million shares of common stock. Also, Sega receives worldwide, non-exclusive rights to Atari patents. Also, these companies will have a number of licensing agreements that’ll produce games that can run on either platform. And in the chummy, warm and fuzzy huggies attendant to such announcements, both companies will drop the legal proceedings they had filed against each other.
• Capitol Multimedia has decided to develop for the 32X (See Mudgeon: On Games(TM) below for more video game analysis!). Under their CapDisc label, the first titles’ll be Kingdom: The Far Reaches(TM) and NFL Instant Replay(TM). Capitol Multimedia also develops titles for Mac CD-ROM, CD-i, Sega CD, and PCs. So, they’ll also be titles for these platforms in time for the Christmas buying season. They’ll include the likes of NFL Football Trivia Challenge for Mac, PC and Sega CD, a multimedia, trivia game using photos and clips licensed from the NFL Films and Properties. Narration will be by Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier.
• Consumer Electronics Show Interactive ‘95 is no more! The competition from a group headed by Infotainment World, naming theirs E3, was too intense. Many major game publishers were lured to Los Angeles from Philadelphia, the site of the Electronic Industry Association’s conference. The problems arose when both exhibitions decided to hold their events on the same three days in May. The final straw came when Nintendo decided to forsake their Summer CES history of attendance and also head for the Los Angeles show. Prior to 1995, Summer CES was based in Chicago and was moved to Philadelphia for 1995. E3 is expecting around 1/2 million attendees and some 200 or so exhibitors. Winter CES will continue to hold sway in Las Vegas in January.
• Exciting news, friends. That mega-hit Myst that thousands have enjoyed on a variety of platforms-well, the designers of that super adventure now have informed folk they are at work on Myst II!
• For about $4 per hour, and a $20 start-up fee, you can now take advantage of Doom’s multiplayer feature via Interactive Visual Systems Corp. The built-in communications aspect of the game normally limits multiplayer involvement to two. But now, thanks to the new IVS Doom server, four can play simultaneously via their modems. Players’ll be able to cooperative in their all-out slaying of the mutants and monsters that populate this smash-hit game. Once the difficulty level is decided, and which one of Doom’s three episodes they want to play, plus whether the cooperative or death match against one another mode is desired, it’s off to gore and glory. The Doom server has been dubbed WANGO (Wide Area Network Game Operation) and it is an 80486DX running at 66Mhz with 32 phone line input. Modems must be able to pump bits at 9600 baud. IVS is located in Houston, TX.
• There’s a new Director of Merchandising at Interplay-and a well deserved promotion this is for Kim Carino. Formerly the Marketing Director at the company, Kim will now focus on turning Interplay characters into household names. Plus, she’ll continue to oversee the marketing activities of video game software until a replacement is found. Prior to Interplay, she also held marcom positions with Mattel Toys and Tomy Toys. We wish Kim well in her new position.
• Killen & Associates had completed an interesting report dealing with data communications expenditures by the year 2000. Entitled “The Internet: Impact on Commercial Transactions, Information Services, E-Mail, Marketing Services and Enterprise Services and Operations” (phew, that’s a mouthful), the estimate is that some three-quarters of a billion dollars will have to be spent to support apps on the Internet by the year 1998. This includes such apps as database inquiries, email, marcom services, and transaction processing. Current on-line services will have their work cut out for them in order to capture commercial Internet customers. This study may be obtained by calling 415-323-3842. Killen & Associates produces telecom and computer research studies used by supplier, user and investment services around the world.
• Clive Barker’s novels have made horrificly popular films. His most popular movie series has been Hellraiser. Now, Magnet Interactive Studios has signed a publishing agreement with Fifth Avenue Entertainment to produce an interactive CD-ROM game based on this series. The game will be designed by Doug Barnett (of Return to Zork, Lords of the Rising Sun, Star Rank Boxing and Ghostbusters II game fame). The agreement gives Magnet long-term publishing rights to Hellraiser properties, logos and characters for the game development. The final release will feature over 30 hours of play using state-of-the-art animation, special effects and cinematic production techniques. What’ll happen? Why, it’s you against Pinhead! You enter his domain, Virtual Hell. The title’ll be available for both Macintosh and PC release in time for Christmas of 1995.
• Cool new technologies continue to advance the game market. No, not all of the new products are software-some are neat hardware add-ons that enable the gamer to more thoroughly enjoy his or her game. Such is the product from Maxi Switch, Inc. They’ve created the MaxiSound board, a sound-enabled keyboard that does away with the proliferation and jumble of cords and speakers. Set to ship this November, the unit has to built-in stereo speakers, mike, and numerous jacks (for additional speakers or headsets, if you wish). Just think, no more reaching behind the CPU simply to add in another device. On the keyboard is a volume control slider. What’s really great is that this keyboard works with any PC sound board!
• Great news! Sid Meier’s Colonization(TM) is now shipping from MicroProse. This highly anticipated sim focuses on a single era in history, from 1500 to 1800, and allows you to discover and colonize the New World. In the last issue of IGU, we had a Sneak Peek for our readers-the finished product should receive outstanding reviews!
• Nintendo is none too thrilled with their FY ‘94 income forecasts. Looks like income is projected to be around the 104 billion yen mark, some 18 billion yen less than they had hoped to earn. Profits are expected to be about 10 billion less than expected, with exports returning fewer sales than projected. One reason for these numbers is the sales war Nintendo and Sega are battling in Europe for market share, where pricing for both units has dropped considerably.
• If you ask us, $42 million is a lot of money! Well, that’s exactly what Sprint and Motorola have decided to invest in a strategic move joining them with Interactive Network. This investment could certainly staunch the flow of green from the company’s ledgers and bring them into the limelight as a leading contender as one of the top four on-line services within the next year or so. Motorola will have last refusal/first negotiation rights for the manufacture of certain hardware elements, other than set-top boxes for cable distribution. Sprint, on the other hand, will make available data links for the network’s scoring and feedback loops as well as increased network functionality.
• For many years, Three-Sixty Pacific was _THE_ only publisher of way-great milsims for the Mac. Seems as though every Mac gamer I knew had at least one title from this company. However, the company fell upon hard times and a number of rumors circulated regarding its untimely demise. Good news-Capstone Entertainment Software has now purchased the assets of Three-Sixty, so p’raps milsim support on the Mac ain’t quite dead! This means the Harpoon Battleset will see the light of day.
