"Fuel for Gamers"

December 29th., 2000 through January 3, 2001

We wish all
a truly happy & successful
NEW YEAR!

Hola, Senor Mickey
Oni Online
Patching the Problems
New Info on Kohan
Bob Biscuit and the Russian Princess

Trouble Brewing
Technology Sinks Pirates
MP3 Goes for 10
More Music, From Intel
Creative Folk Can Win $150K
High–End Rio Ships
TI Puts a Concert Hall in Every Home
Yamaha Licensing mLAN

Sega’s All Stars

New DreamWorks Agreement

Put a Pin Ball in Your Pocket

Rumored Acquisitions Denied
Changing from a DK to a Penguin
Yikes! Time to Plan for E3
PSX Game Theft in U.K.
Holiday Upgrade by GameSpy
Trillions in IT Spending
Sayonara Sega
Meet the Developer
Sybex Offers Four Pokémon Books

Please Don’t Feed the Lions
Winning Wrestling from THQ

Gamers Like Player’s Choice Pricing

GranTurismo Bustin’ Out
Rolling Onto PS2 from 3DO
Racing on Your PlayStation 2
THQ Goes Fishin’

Poser Plug–Ins Set
Curl Up With A New Version
Musically–Minded Cirrus Logic
Greenleaf Unlocks Mac
Speedy Racey LaCie
Getting Into Mini I/O Via Varatouch
VocaLoca Offers a Lotta Streaming

If You’ve Died, There’s Help!
What’s In a Name?
NetZero Sues Juno Claiming Copy Cat

ActiveSky Gets Pumped–Up with VC
etter Wireless Game Control

Xbox Gets Revision
More Xbox Support
Critical System Testing To Nat’l Instruments

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Messages from Gamers Gazette sponsors

Darkness and insanity reign in American McGee’s ALICE. When Alice answers a distressed summons to return to Wonderland, she barely recognizes the befouled setting. Something is decidedly amiss. Undaunted by the diseased ambiance, cavernous confusion, and mortal danger that surround her, Alice sets out on a quest to undo the chaos.
  Equipped with courage, a keen appetite for the bizarre, and a lethal array of transmogrified toys, she'll penetrate the strongholds of her enemies, confront the forces of evil, and put the wicked Queen of Hearts in her place. — Continue the adventure — the Alice website.

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Staff
Publishers/Editors
Hartley & Pattie Lesser

Senior Contributing Editors
Reuben Ahmed
Michael Askounes

Contributing Editors
Mike Chantry, Ed Hurta, Alex Nekrassov, Russ Shady, Jeff Sheltren, Zach Sinrod

Contributing Authors
Paul Wolf, Chris Zelenak

Subscriptions
Gamers Gazette, The Official Future Games Network newsletter is published twice (2x) weekly in both HTML and TEXT–ONLY formats. All subscriptions are free. To subscribe to either version, simply click here.

To cancel your subscription, please send mail to fgngg–unsubscribe@listbot.com for the text version or to gghtml1–unsubscribe@listbot.com.

Legal Notice
While Gamers Gazette and the Future Games Network and their agents have used their best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published within the newsletter, Gamers Gazette nor Future Games Network does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident or other causes.

Gamers Gazette and Future Games Network and its affiliated sites and individuals may, from time to time, own, have positions or options in companies discussed herein and may also perform advisory services, and/or have other relationships with those companies.

Copyright & Trademarks
Copyright 1999, 2000 Cybereps. Feel free to distribute the TEXT–ONLY version of Gamers Gazette for any NON–COMMERCIAL purposes as you see fit. Please credit any excerpts to http://www.fgn.com/ggnews.html. Gamers Gazette is a trademark of Cybereps. Future Games Network is a trademark of Cybereps.

Contacts
Hartley G. Lesser
Pattie J. Lesser

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SPECIAL CONTESTS FOR GAMERS GAZETTE READERS **ONLY**

#1 — Certainly one of the most enthralling and exciting combat flight sims we’ve played of late has to be Microsoft’s CRIMSON SKIES offering... and the game is tough, as well! For those who believe they can master this alternate universe, the time is NOW to enter this special, Gamers Gazette only, giveaway! Yep, you can win a copy of this game simply by sending an email to contest HQ and enter the words Crimson Skies Screamer in the email subject header. You don’t have to enter any additional text in the body of your email. This contest will run through January 15th, 2001. GAME ON!

#2 — SANITY: AIKEN’S ARTIFACT from Fox Interactive — the Psionics are spreading their evil throughout the universe. Only Agent Cain (the voice of ICE T) stands against them, and he risks his own sanity in doing so! With more than 20 single–player levels and full multiplayer support for as many as eight gamers within 10 levels, you must try to collect 80 Talents to smash your opponents. Driven by Monolith’s LithTech 3D engine, you can also try to collect and trade new psionic talents with other online gamers, as well. To enter, send an email to contest headquarters with the phrase Fox Interactive’s Sanity in the header. No other text is needed. This contest will close on January 5th, 2001.

And don’t forget the Half–Life: Platinum Edition bundle giveaway... imagine, receiving ALL of the Half–Life games in a single offering! Fast–paced action and more... includes a variety of add–ons released by Sierra Studios over the past year. This is THE compilation game to get... if you win, that is. Random drawing at the close of the contest will determine the lucky participants. All you have to do is to send us an email with the words "Half–Life Platinum"... that’s it! More info at this direct contest link!

GAME ON, folks!

Hola, Senor Mickey Disney Interactive is becoming bi–lingual and will provide Spanish–language entertainment products in the U.S. and Puerto Rico which will include learning products, creativity titles and games. According to a Cheskin Research report in April of 2000, 43 percent of U.S. Hispanic households will own computers by year’s end of 2000. To accomodate these numbers, hispanic families will be able to enjoy Disney entertainment products in their native language. Some of the titles to be ported into Spanish include; Disney’s Centro De Actividades, El Rey Leon (Disney’s The Lion King Activity Center); Disney’s Libro Animado Interactivo, Pocahontas (Disney’s Pocahontas Animated StoryBook); Disney’s Libro Animado Interactivo, El Rey Leon (Disney’s The Lion King Animated StoryBook); Disney’s Libro Animado Interactivo, Winnie Puh y el Arbol De La Miel (Disney’s Winnie The Pooh & The Honey Tree Animated StoryBook); Disney Estudio Grafico, 101 Dalmatas (Disney’s 101 Dalmatians Print Studio); Disney Estudio Grafico, Presentando Disney Hercules (Disney’s Hercules Print Studio); Disney’s Libro Animado Interactivo, 101 Dalmatas (Disney’s 101 Dalmatians Animated StoryBook); Disney’s Libro Animado Interactivo, Presentando Disney Hercules (Disney’s Hercules Animated StoryBook); Aventura Interactiva, La Sirenita (Ariel’s StoryStudio) and Artista Magico de Disney (Disney’s Magic Artist Classic).

Oni Online As is the standard these days, whenever a company has a new title nearly ready for roll–out, there’s usually some sort of website dedicated to the promotion of said title. Such is certainly the case for the upcoming release of Oni by Rockstar Games. Developed by now–Microsoft development studio Bungie, this new site brings to gamers a variety of game information, raging from screens and game news to hints and tips to ensure you play the game to maximum capabilities. Oni is due to release in January of next year. Details.

Patching the Problems With some problems that affected the game’s AI, Shrapnel Games has just released a new patch for Space Empires—IV. Not only is the AI improved, but there’s a new game mode as well, the Combat Replay mode. Glom onto the patch at this direct link.

New Info on Kohan For anyone wishing to investigate the storylines, in–depth character info, some terrif screens as well as other title data, head over to the new, dedicated website from TimeGate Studios for their upcoming Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns. Developed for PC gamers, this title is set for release next spring. Details.

Bob Biscuit and the Russian Princess You’ll laugh, you’ll cry — it’s better than Cats. Heard that before? Tsarevna, an adventure game that can provide both laughter and tears, finds you as an American, Bob Biscuit, who must try to marry a Russian princess. YAV Games has released this 6.1 version for PC Win 9x/NT/2000 of Tsarevna, with graphics that resemble cartoons that requires you to do a lot of investigating, thinking and talking, not necessarily in that order and has a Russian and English language interface. You’ll explore many places and in the process learn how to deal with Asian officials. Described as a game for all ages, Tsarevna, a shareware title, sells for $12.00 and you can download a trial version at this location.

Trouble Brewing ’Tween Music Sites Uh–oh, just when you think one legal hassle has been adjudicated, yet another one pops up! This is what is occuring for MP3.com, who now have EMusic.com on their back. The latter has filed a copyright infringement complaint against the former for its My.MP3.com streaming service, with the filing taking place in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to Gene Hoffman, the ceo and president of EMusic, "Although MP3.com has entered into settlement agreements with the five major record labels, they have chosen to ignore their infringing actions with respect to independent record labels. EMusic strongly supports the rights of music fans to have access to convenient, inexpensive digital music — as well as the rights of all labels and artists to choose how and where their music is used." Currently, EMusic has the exclusive, digital rights to some 13,000 albums from more than 600 record labels and is unable to determine how many of these albums have been infringed upon in the MP3.com service. Details.

Technology Available to "Sink" Pirates According to BayTSP, they’ve just developed a technology that’s designed to track digital music files across the Internet. Called BaySpider, this product allows record labels or any music producer to track MP3, .wav or any other music files, regardless of the original distribution date or method of distribution. The technology extrats the electronic DNA from any given file and the scans the Internet for that code 24x7. Web sites, news groups, peer–to–peer groups can then be identified if they are hosting files that match the originals. This is accomplished using their Adaptive Search Technologyu that allows for the ID of a digitally encoded music file, no matter the file’s compression method or sampling rate. Once a file has been found, BayTSP takes a digital snapshot of the URL, date, and time stamps it, and then sends an infringement notice to both the host and the ISP. The spiders repeatedly hit the site until the infringed material is removed. Details.

MP3 Goes for 10 D–Link’s third generation of MP3 technology, the D–Link DMP–CD100, offers up to 10 hours of digital music. The compact blue and silver finish CD player plays any MP3 file burnt onto a CD–R disk, which includes files that are located in sub–directories, making it easier for you to manage your MP3s into categories. The MP3 CD Player also has an integrated 10 seconds of Electronic Shock Protection that offers skip free music and has two external output jacks for headphones and for line out. You can purchase this now for approximately $149.

More Music, From Intel With the popularity of MP3 players continuing to rise, Intel is entering this realm with their new Pocket Concert Audio Player. Equipped with 128MB of RAM that’ll store files in both MP3 and WMA formats, this player can provide as much as four hours of music as well as more than 20 hours of spoken–word audio. With the player comes a behind–the–neck headphone, a USB connection for PC connectivity, re–programmable firmware, FM radio with 10 preset station capability, and 17 levels of bass and treble equalization. Plus, you can use the devidce with the Intel Audio Accessory Kit that includes a home stereo dock and car audio adapter. The unit comes in a brushed aluminim case with blue–accented frame and weighs less than four ounces, easily able to fit into a shirt pocket, and powered by two AAA batteries for 10 hours of continuous playback. Details.

Creative Folk Can Win $150K There’s a juried contest set to roll out, one called "Artists in the Digital Age". Co–sponsored by Music Player Network and Spruce Convergence Services, you can combine your music with video and web acumen to create your own DVDonCD title using SpruceUp personal DVD authoring software, which is provided at no cost to you by Spruce Technologies. With a deadline of March 1st next year, the prices include: five days in a world–class recording studio; complete multi–camera and multi–angle video production; high–end digital video post–production; full high–end web development and hosting as well as an ecommerce storefront; replication and fulfillment with 1,000 complimentary DVDonCD copies; and a one–year Internet distribution contract. Judging will be provided by Grammy and Academy Award winning producers. Entries will be judged for their degree of excellence in the following three categories: Auido—Composition, Originality and Performance; VIDEO — Composition, Originality and Performance; and INTERNET — Integration and Composition. Plus, Backbeat Books will sponsor 10 runner–up prizes. Details.

High–End Rio Ships Now available from Rio, which is a SONICblue company, is the Rio 800 digital audio player. This upper–end device brings listeners up to two hours of music storage, a voice recorder, rechargeable batter, remote control and also works with other Rio accessories such as Backpacks, FM tuner and a car cassette adapter. The Rio 800 supports MP3 and Windows Media Audio (WMA) formats and can also be upgraded for emerging formats such as Audible and AAC. Bundled with the unit is the Rio Audio Manager 3.4 that was designed by RioPort. This helps you acquire, manage and work on various music files and content within a single app. Also, for Mac users, the system ships with Casady and Green’s SoundJamp MP for audio file management. Details.

TI Puts a Concert Hall in Every Home If you enjoy music, and aren’t too thrilled with the sounds on your PC or home audio system, Texas Instruments is changing that. TI’s Digital Audio Amplifier with the foremost in digital signal process technology enables a crisper, richer and fuller sound quality not just to your in–home systems but to digital headsets, home theater in a box, car audio systems and home audio mini–stereo systems. The Digital Audio system uses TI’s DSP technology, and the new Digital Audio Amplifier. This is a smart move for TI as the latest DSP reports that folk are leaving analog audio systems behind and replacing them with digital audio technologies.

Yamaha Is Licensing mLAN Technology If you’re a developer of digital audio hardware and software, you’ll be interested to learn that the Yamaha Corp. is making available the mLAN Licensing Program, which is based on industry standard IEEE 1394 which provides a solution for the high–speed transmission of digital audio and music. IEEE 1394 was invented by Apple and is now an inexpensive powerful serial bus connector for computer devices that offers high performance, real–time data transmission. The Yamaha mLAN hardware and software are located above the serial bus connection and work either individually or together with other computers or mLAN devices in conjunction with built–in IEEE 1394/Fire Wire ports. If you don’t have a built–in FireWire port, the IEEE 1394 can be installed making your machine mLAN ready so that you can route digital audio/music from one device to another without having to change the cable connection.

Sega’s All Stars You’ve got to be good to make it to Sega’s All Stars, and Midway Games Inc. is bursting their buttons with pride, because they’ve got three of their titles ensconced in the famous hall with Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, NFL Blitz 2000 and Hydro Thunder. These titles made it to the big time because of their sales numbers. All of the titles sell for $19.95.

New DreamWorks Agreement for Video Games There is joy at TDK Mediactive... the company has just signed a five–year, worldwide license agreement to develop games for DreamWorks SKG for titles that are based on the animated film release "Shrek". TDK Mediactive will develop a variety of titles for various video game platforms, with their Shrek title set for debut during Q4 of next year. So, what is Shrek all about? The title is also the name of the featured star, an ogre named Shrek. Fairytale characters invade his solitude as they’ve been banished from their homeland by the evil Lord Farquaad. Shrek decides to undertake an arrangement with Farquaad and has to rescue Princess Fiona, who will then become the evil lord’s bride. However, she has a dark secret... and, well, you’ll have to play the game and see the film to know more. Details.

Put a Pin Ball in Your Pocket Now you can play pinball on your Game Boy Color with Sierra On–Line’s 3–D Ultra Pinball as well as Hoyle Card Games. The Hoyle Card Games provide lots of favorite games such as Crazy 8’s, Cribbage, Gin Rummy, Go Fish, Hearts, Old Maid, Spades, War and six versions of Solitaire, as well as Free Cell, Golf, Klondike and Pyramid. You can choose to play against 14 Hoyle characters and there are multiplayer capabilities. The 3–D Ultra Pinball: Thrill Ride offers 14 pinball tables that have amusement park themes. You can nudge or shake the table controls, and the Rumble Pak simulates flipper and bumper collisions. Each of these titles sell for $29.95 each.

Rumored Acquisitions Denied All of that hub–hub, all of that worry, all of that concern — for naught! You know, last week you heard that Nintendo was going to glom onto Sega. Uh–uh! Ain’t so... according to company spokesfolk, such isn’t the case. No way, no how! According to Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi, "The information in some overseas report that we are buying Sega is completely wrong," and Sega’s PR pros also stated that news of the buyout "is completely false." The original report in the New York Times indicated that such talks between the two companies have been ongoing for months, but that the whispered deal could collapse. Trading for Sega on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was suspended due to this report about an hour before the session closed for the day. However, the rumor wasn’t all bad for the company, as Sega’s shares jumped nearly 11 percent to $9.25 (US). Nintendo’s share price dropped just over five percent to $152. A letter to the Times today from Sega requested that the paper cease and desist all such chit–chat.

Changing from a DK to a Penguin As of January 1, 2001, DK Interactive Learning will have a name change to Penguin UK/Dorling Kindersley Digital Media Division, which is a unit of Pearson plc., an international media company. This Digital Media Division will further DK Publishing’s content through licensing and other agreements as well as allowing use of digitized materials from DK Publishing and more than 12,000 titles that make up DK Publishing and Penguin UK’s libraries.

Yikes! It’s Christmas and Time to Plan for E3 Plans are already in the works for the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3Expo), which will again be in Los Angeles, California, from May 17–19. This year’s theme is Touch the Future, which is appropriate for the next–gen products that you’ll see. Head over to http://www.e3expo.com to pre–register or by calling 877/216–6263. Just a reminder, E3Expo 2001 is a trade event, and not open to the general public. No one under 18–years–old will be admitted.

PSX Game Theft in U.K. During their transportation from Austria, seems as though a whole slew of PlayStation games were stolen from a parked truck. The game was Sony’s just released Blade title and were being shipped for U.K. distribution. Some 1,500 units were ripped off, and The European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has now offered a reward for info regarding this thievery. Anyone with info should call the ELSPA Hotline at 0870 5133405!

Holiday Upgrade by GameSpy With added support for the likes of Baldur’s Gate 2, Deus Ex, Half–Life: Counter–Strike, No One Lives Forever, Quake 3: Team Arena and other hot titles, the newly released GameSpy3D should be of interest to gamers. Although this latest release is only for those folk who are registered users of the software, rest assured that as time marches onwards, a version for shareware users will also see the light of day.

Trillions in IT Spending International Data Corp., better known as IDC, has indicated that spending on information technology, worldwide, will surpass $1 trillion (US) this year. Some $70 billion of these expenditures will come from the Asian–Pacific region, excluding Japan. Expect "brick & mortars" to engage in the bulk of this investment, as e–commerce is estimated to be approaching the $500 billion mark this year. IDC also indicates that wireless mobile commerce will top $1 billion, and cell phone use will exceed 600 million, with PCs reaching 500 million. Details.

Sayonara Sega First Shoichiro Irimajiri was president of Sega, then he resigned in June to become vice chairman, and now (with no comment), Irimajiri is leaving Sega. This, of course, leaves one to add credence to the current New York Times rumor that Sega is up for sale to the highest bidder, despite the company’s adamant denials.

Meet the Developer Sega is publicizing a new contest, one they call their Phantasy Star Online Launch Contest. The two winners will each receive an all–expense paid trip to San Francisco to meet with Yuji Naka, the game’s developer, at the Sega offices. They’ll be treated to full VIP status and given a tour of the Sega HQ and they’ll also be the honored guests as the developer unveils the new game for the first time to North American consumers. There’s more info at the company’s website, including the entry details.

Sybex Offers Four Pokémon Books Your kids love them and you’re not so sure how you feel about that yellow critter with the chubby pink cheeks, Pikachu, who has a strong–hold on your wallet. Now Sybex has four books, available this month and in January, that all sell for $9.99, which will keep you informed about this phenomenon and the games associated with Pokémon. Pokémon Gold/Silver: Pathways to Adventure and Pokémon Gold/Silver: The Adventure Continues! are novelizations that are based upon the plots of the latest Pokémon Gold/Silver games. Jason R. Rich is the author of these full–color novels, and Pathways to Adventure series has sold more than 800,000 copies. Pokémon: Choose Your Own Pathway to Adventure is what is described as a branching–fiction adventure. You, the reader, decide how the plot will evolve, and there are multiple endings and numerous paths to choose. Alex Gray a real Pokémon fan wrote this book. Do you think you know everything about Pokémon? Pokémon Master: The Ultimate Quiz is written by Cynthia Boris, the mom of a nine–year–old Pokémon master, who tests your memory skills regarding everything Pokémon, from TV to the movies and Game Boy titles.

Please Don’t Feed the Lions If you’re a fan of the Lion King, now Disney has released The Lion King: Simba’s Mighty Adventure for the PlayStation and Game Boy Color, rated E for Everyone. Here you’ll play with your favorite characters in 3D from Disney’s feature animated film The Lion King, starting with the circle of life. As Simba, the young lion prince, you learn what it means to rule the Pride Lands, and you’ve got to be on the lookout for other nasty enemies as well as jungle obstacles if you wish to survive. The PlayStation version provides 18 minutes of film footage and the Game Boy Color has side–scrolling game play. After you’ve mastered your kingdom, you can play four bonus mini–games that are specific to each game console. The PlayStation version sells for $39.99 and the Game Boy Color sells for $29.99.

Winning Wrestling from THQ Seems as though mat rumbles are among the top games, sales–wise, this year. We’ve heard that both WWF Smackdown 2: Know Your Role (developed by Yuke’s Co. Ltd. of Japan) and WWF NO Mercy (developed by Aki Corp. of Japan) continue to rank as the #1 games in the PSX and N64 charts, respectively. The former game debuted on November 20th, with the latter game releasing on November 13th. Plus, across the pond in the U.K., WWF Smackdown 2 has managed to bust open all sales records, becoming the first game to ever sell 150,000 units in but one week. Details

Gamers Like Player’s Choice Pricing Nintendo is offering more goodies at a reasonable price beginning on December 26 — this time it’s Donkey Kong 64, Super Smash Bros., Pokemon Stadium, Perfect Dark and Pokemon Snap. Already Nintendo has a library of more than 20 Player’s Choice games such as GoldenEye 007, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64.

GranTurismo Bustin’ Out in Spring For those of you who are racing buffs, there’s a new GranTurismo 3 A–spec, for the PlayStation 2 which will be available this coming spring. The Gran Turismo franchise has sold more than 3.7 million units nationwide since the first Gran Turismo was released for the PlayStation in May 1998. Gran Turismo 3 A–spec will provide the most realistic environments to date such as sun glare off of the windshield that blinds you, reflections on the cars, heat rays that rise off of the tarmac, and more. You’ll also see facial expressions on the faces of the drivers as they pass you by. You'd better hand onto your steering wheel if you choose to use Dualshock 2 analog controllers, because you’ll feel the speed and pull of the curves in the road. There’s also new and improved sound, weather and more than 150 authentic European, American and Japanese vehicles. This title has no ESRB rating yet.

Rolling Onto PS2 from 3DO If you’re into multiplayer mayhem, and own a PS2, and enjoy the power of rumbling tanks, take a look at the new World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks offering. Just released by The 3DO Company for PS2’ers, you are presented with a tournament wherein contenders engage in heated combat using their tanks. Occurring in a post–apocalyptic society, the tank match–ups occur in battle stages, as the events are broadcast via the fiction WDL TV network. As many as four gamers can play simultaneously using MultiTap. The graphics are crisp and texture usage includes tracks in the dirt as well as shell and scorch marks on buildings. In fact, there’s one nuclear blast effect that can blow entire cityscapes into debris. Other "nicities" include wreckage that smokes, metal that sparks, and debris clouds from buildings that have collapsed. Details.

Racing on Your PlayStation 2 Another title now available for the PlayStation 2 from Electronic Arts is F1 Championship Season 2000, a racing sim in which you can race head–to–head in a four–player split screen mode using the Playstation 2 multitap adapter. You’ll compete against as many as 22 players in a turn–based time trial mode, with your choice of any driver from the 2000 season grid such as championship winner Michael Schumacher. You’ll get technical support from the Orange Arrows and Benetton Formula One teams, and enjoy realistic graphics with details such as modeled tire walls, sponsorships on the cars, and the carbon fiber where the paint is rubbed away or exposed. You’ll feel the pressure of a Formula One pit stop and the 22–man crew who race to get you back on track. This title is rated E for Everyone and sells for $49.95 and is available for the PlayStation and PC for $39.95.

THQ Goes Fishin’ You don’t need a fishing license with BASS Fishing for the PlayStation 2 from THQ Inc. which is licensed by the Bass Angler Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.), scheduled for release this coming summer. BASS Fishing (a working title) is developed by Pai who created Championship Bass. You’ll choose from 120 different lures and seven BASS Tournament Trail Lakes, that make the most of the PlayStation 2’s graphics. You’ll also be able to use THQ’s famous lure cam to capture simultaneous split–screen perspectives, while determining which mode of play you’ll choose; arcade, tournament and Practice.

Poser Plug–Ins Set For those using Poser, heads–up, for next month Curious Labs is going to be shipping their Poser Pro Pack. This will be a collectoin of new features, some functional enhancements, and third–party app integration plug–ins for use with Poser 4. (Poser is a 3D character animation and figure design tool.) Requiring Poser 4, you’ll be able to host complete Poser 4 scene files that include animated 3D characters via the included plug–ins for Newtek’s LightWave and Discreet’s 3D Stuiod MAX. Web designers can also use the Pro Pack to add animated character content created in Poser to their websites and other interactive projects. This is accomplished by exporting to the Viewpoint Media Player for 3D and Macromedia FLASH for 2D. Other goodies include 2D motion blur, multiple camera view panes, animated material parameters, compressed content and library files, and Python scripting support. Details.

Curl Up With A New Version There’s a new version of Curl en route from Curl Corp., this being Beta 3 for the company’s Surge Lab development environment and Surge browser plug–in. Plus, the company’s Beta program is now open to developers across the globe. With a release of the final product expected during Q1 of next year, you’ll find improvement in plug–in browser usability as well as the integration of Curl apps with the browser, as well as better security management. Also improved is the language and compiler performance, as well as runtime libraries for better interaction with web servers. There’s a new GUI Toolkit for Curl apps with many new controls, as well as added text formats for Superscript and Subscript. Details.

Musically–Minded Cirrus Logic Some may think of ICs and chips as somewhat boring, yet without such, we wouldn’t be playing the games or enjoying the digital music each of us craves. Now Cirrus Logic has created a single course for audio and video technology solutions, calling this technology their Crystal DVD processor. This new CS98000 DVD processor provides both the audio and video core processors for the DVD player market, with all necessary processing functions provided. This includes MP3 decoding, Dolby Digital, DTS outpout support, virtual 3D and multi–region, on–screen display with vertical flicker filter. There’s a programmable RISC core and 32–bit programmable audio DSP. Expect this processor to be used in DVD A/V mini–systems, home media controllers, combo DVD players and automative/SUV entertainment units. Details.

Greenleaf Unlocks Mac The Macintosh’s operating system has been unlocked, a first, courtesy of Greenleaf Technologies Corp. With this announcement also comes DigiGuard, a digital rights content wrapper that locks or encrypts digital content with a secure wrapper until you have completed your online transaction. DigiGuard is the first lock/unlock software technology for the Mac operating system that distributes wrapped content via CD–ROM and DVD–ROM.

Speedy Racey LaCie Get ready to see the fastest writing speed with the LaCie SCSI and FireWire CD–RW–161040 drives with 16x– recording speed that burn an entire 650MB CD–R media in four minutes. And, the 10x–rewriting speed and the 40x–playback speed are, to date, the highest performance levels available for Windows and MacOS. The advantages to you translate out to mean the best solution of advanced CD–recording applications, and the 8MB buffer, with high transfer rates provide a continuous data stream preventing buffer underrun. The CD–RW–161040 includes the Pure Phase Laser System ensuring quality recording by eliminating unwelcome reflections, and is useful to archive files and provides limited backup. The FireWire support makes the CD–RW–161040 hot–pluggable, meaning you can remove or swap it with other devices without needing to restart your computer, and the drive mounts just as soon as it is connected, so that you don’t need terminators, device IDs or a complicated set–up. The LaCie CD–RW–161040 will be available in January.

Getting Into Mini I/O Via Varatouch Using their Resistive Rubber technology, Varatouch Technology is now involved in the manufacture of a miniature joystick that’ll be most apt at assisting users with I/O control with desktop and portable devices when playing games or engaging in such mundane activities as presentations or telecommunication work. Called MiniPoint, the devices incorporates technologies studied within the company’s R2 Technology and presents advanced pointer development.

VocaLoca Offers a Lotta Streaming Blink your eyes and the technology changes. See, you blinked and now there’s a new interactive streaming technology, Interactive Streaming Platform from VocaLoca. VocaLoca introduces this two–way voice interactivity to streaming media for one–to–many mass Internet broadcasting. This is a great opportunity for you or your business to inform large audiences, which was previously limited to other forms of media such as licensed media networks and pricey technology providers. You can rely on this technology for corporate communications, e–learning, training, customer service — you get the picture. VocaLoca’s Interactive Streaming platform is easy to use, sounds professional and is scalable for both live and time–delayed rich media broadcasts, and you don’t need any special equipment or training. This product should do well, especially considering what the industry analysts projections are about streaming media’s potential growth, which may be as much as 10 times in just the next two years.

If You’ve Died, There’s Help! Thankfully, for all of those folk who may have been the recipient of loss of either character or experience — or both — when playing online at Blizzard Entertainment’s BattleNet service, resurrection is thine! If you were engaging in Diablo II play and found yourself the unwitting victim of such losses, the company is going to restore all characters who became deceased between the following dates: December 19th through January 1st. The deaths, due to a now–fixed bug, certainly caused some players to call upon the gods to punish Blizzard, but the company is coming through with flying colors.
   Also be advised that at Battle.Net, the following information has also been posted regarding the ladders... "On January 1, 2001 at 12:01 a.m. PT, the Diablo II Standard Ladder will be reset signifying the start of the new season. All characters created before January 1, 2001 will no longer appear on the Ladder. If you wish to be on the Diablo II Standard Ladder after this date you will have to create a new character following the reset. The Diablo II Ladder reset will not otherwise affect any existing characters and no characters will be deleted. The Battle.net web site will list the top 10 Ladder players on each ladder for each Realm. The new Ladder season does not have a final ending date however it is probable that the next Ladder reset will occur when the Diablo II Expansion is released." Words to the wise...

What’s In a Name? Apparently name recognition. Christianity Online changed its name to ChristianityToday.com in October of this year and the traffic to the home page has increased by 75 percent. This is due to the moniker, Christianity Today which has been in existence for 44–years. Online since 1994, Christianity Today International is at this URL has received the award of one of the Top 100 Web Site of 2000 by Yahoo Internet Life.

NetZero Sues Juno Claiming Copy Cat NetZero cries foul, claiming that Juno has infringed on NetZero’s U.S. Patent No. 6,157,946, which covers displaying advertisements or messages through a window that is separate from the browser. NetZero, the exclusive licensee of this patent, accuses Juno of using ZeroPort, an on–screen window that is a navigational tool that also displays advertisements and customized messages, for their Juno Guide. Can we just get along?? Huh?

ActiveSky Gets Pumped–Up with VC Add another $21.8 million to ActiveSky’s coffers courtesy of the deep pockets of the Chicago company JK&B Capital, a $600 million venture capital firm. ActiveSky plans to use the funds to further the technology for wireless delivery of video and multimedia images to PDAs, cell phones, and other mobile devices. Recently ActiveSky engaged in an agreement with Handspring to provide a multimedia player for Visor Prism and Platinum units. Previous ActiveSky investors include Star Ventures, Comverse, Innovation Capital, Sumitomo, PacRim Venture Partners, and Waypoint Ventures.

Better Wireless Game Control Not that you use your wireless device simply to play games, but such certainly can help while away the hours when you need to engage in entertaining activities. To help you better enjoy your digital delights, there’s now a game pad for the Palm computing platform. From WorldWide Widge Works comes the GamePad, using all of the familiar game pad controls you’ve come to know andlove. There’s a four–way direction control as well as four action buttons that are added to the existing Palm buttons. What’s nice about this device is that it simply clips onto the bottom of your handheld. You don’t need additinoal batteries and the device is easily removable. The company’s software allows the GamePad to operate correctly with most, current Palm–based games, with additional title support to follow due to their developer diligence. Details.

Xbox Gets Revision: A few new updates regarding downgrades for Microsoft’s Xbox. The graphics processor will be downgraded from 300Mhz to 250Mhz and the polygon performance is downgraded from 150 M/sec to 125 M/sec. The Mbox is still scheduled to be released in both Japan and the U.S. in the fall of 2001 and in the U.K. and Europe during the spring of 2002.

More Xbox Support Having a new system preparing to enter the market is always rather exciting... however, without folk to ensure sales of such systems, market penetration can be rather flacid. Up pops Microsoft, continuing their expenditure of revenue for their Xbox, as they have now anted up the funding necessary for three regional sales directors for the Xbox. These include Darryl Postelnick for the central region, Bill Arkwright for the western region, and Brad Wiles for the eastern region. All will report to Alex Kotowitz who is the all–important Xbox senior sales director. Details.

Critical System Testing To Nat’l Instruments You can build it, you can code software for it, but you’d better darn well test the entire system before you release it! Of such oversight are nightmares made, and Microsoft is ensuring such does not occur with their Xbox. The company has just announced that National Instruments will use their computer–based test solution for Xbox video game system controllers. Based on the open PXI hardware platform and NI LabVIEW 6i software, this will result in the Xbox offering high–performance and efficiency that’s fully customizable for whatever is called for... the NI–basesd test system demonstrates the integration of PXI hardware instrumentation and LabVIEW sotware. All functions of the Xbox game controller are tested, including the triggers and push buttons as well as the cable connectoins. This means the game controllers can be tested at a fast enough rate to meet Microsoft’s production schedule. VI Engineering will integrate, install and support the NI–based game controller test system. Details.