Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. provided $40 million, in what could
be described as a financial band aid, to the 3DO Co. (www.3do.com).
Matsushita signed a licensing agreement in December 1995 that agreed to pay
3DO a total of $100 million. $60 million was plunked down in December at
that signing. The final amount paid, $40 million, enables Matsushita to
license 3DO's 64-bit M2 technology. M2 is the code-name for 3DO's
next-generation game technology, which is designed to process graphics and
data in 64-bit chunks.
As part of the licensing agreement, Matsushita has the rights to use the M2
technology in consumer electronic equipment, including video game equipment,
digital videodisc (DVD), players or interactive television set-top boxes.
The white flag has now been extended from 3DO to both Sega Corp. and Sony
Corp., essentially conceding the game machine market to these two
companies. Wanting to remain in the electronics arena, 3DO, in September
1995, announced a product diversification strategy that would expand its
business beyond the game machine area to the Internet and personal computer
market.
America Online: COMIC CAPERS
Several months ago, America Online (AOL) initiated a new program for the
commserv that was designed to assist folk who wished to create innovative
content for the online community. Called The AOL Greenhouse, a number of
successful online ventures were created, one being the highly-acclaimed The
Motley Fool. Now another infopreneur as made the climb from development to
offering on AOL. This is ZMedia, Inc., and they are producing an original,
multimedia comic strip that is called Zombie Detective. The offering
presents textured graphics, original music, sound effects and animation
that let you actually appear as extras within the strip. You can also act
as an informer and role-play in a number of situations. The interactive
comic strip has an anti-authoritarian theme and a number of offbeat
characters and is delivered five days each week. To obtain the most
entertainment from this strip, you should check in each day to explore
another piece of the story. You must click on hot spots in each frame to
get your info.
AMERICA WEST OFFERS FLIGHT SCHEDULES
Want to know the comings and goings of flights for America West? Now you
can investigate the schedules running for 330 days out, including the
company's codeshare flights, at http://www.americawest.com. Customers
simply enter their departure city, destination city, date of travel and
preferred time of day. They then receive a listing of America West flights
that meet their criteria. Additional information, such as aircraft type, is
also available.
Apple: COME TO FRUITION
The ability to ease the development cycle for games is crucial for Apple
Computer. Already reeling for lower unit sales, the company had to do
something that would enable developers to create new entertainments for
Macintosh OS-based machines. More than 4,000 developers worked with Apple's
preliminary software development kit, called Game Sprockets, and over the
past nine months, submitted reports to Apple on this kit's viability.
Finally, Game Sprockets Version 1.0 has been released. Now, games that
operate on Macintosh OS-based machines can offer 3D sound, I/O device and
monitor control, real-time 3D graphics, Internet support and speech
recognition. Version 1.0 can be downloaded directly from Apple's WWW Game
Developer Site at http://dev.info.apple.com/games. These APIs can be mixed
and matched by developers to best compliment and enhance their titles. Game
Sprockets include DrawSprocket, an API for multiple buffering and display
control; InputSprocket, an API for digital joystick and input device
control; NetSprocket, an API for multiplayer gaming and Internet
connectivity that uses Open Transport; QuickDraw 3D RAVE, an API for fast,
multiplatform 3D graphics; SpeechSprocket, an API for speech recognition;
and SoundSprocket, which is an API for 3D Sound and Sound Manager
operation.
AST Computer: THEATER GAMES
The Hunchback of Notre Dame has received a variety of mixed reviews,
although the company is definitely headed toward yet another profitable
animated feature film. Accompanying the apparent success of the move, AST
Computer has joined forces with Walt Disney Pictures and will be
positioning their AST Advantage! 828 multimedia PC in 150 theaters in the
top ten markets in the country to demo Disney Interactive's GameBreak! The
Hunchback of Notre Dame Topsy Turvey Games offering. (Phew, that's quite a
title!) This is the first time a PC manufacturer has teamed with Disney to
offer a sneak-peak of the game while families are actually at the theaters.
The game is expected to debut on August 14th.
AT&T: FREE OLYMPIC CONCERTS
AT&T will provide a 17-day program of free performances by various
entertainers at the summer Olympics at the AT&T Global Olympic Village in
Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. AT&T's Global Olympic Village, a 21-acre park, is recognized as the crossroads of the 1996 Olympic Games. At AT&T's Global
Olympic Village, there'll be concerts, acknowledgments to the medal-winning
athletes, T-shirt auctions for Olympic Aid, multi-sensory video
spectaculars and interactive street theater, all starting on July 20. Among
the premier entertainers scheduled to perform are Joan Osborne, Ray
Charles, Travis Tritt & Marty Stuart, Santana, Sounds of Blackness with
CeCe Winans and Shirley Caesar, Jon Secada, Wei Wei and the American Jazz.
These concerts, as well as the entire entertainment program, will be
produced by Cossette Productions, which has produced the Grammy Awards for
the past 26 years.
ESPN: RADICAL CHILL
Sports--enormously popular and gaining in ratings each day. However, the
normal sports fare is being expanded of late, as folk become dissatisfied
with the egos and the salaries of the baseball and basketball players, and
younger folk demand more radical action. Due to this interest in more
radical sports, ESPN this summer introduced the Summer X Games, taking
place in Rhode Island, featuring such sports as in-line skating, acrobatic
skydiving, and street luge. The series has been quite popular. Naturally,
then, ESPN has decided to intro one and all to the Winter X Games which
will run at the Snow Summit Mountain Resort at Big Bear Lake, CA, from
January 30th through February 2nd of next year. There will be five extreme
