The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 206

Games www.smh.com.auicongames.html PREVIEWS a The industry has been showing off its wares in London. Colin Campbell selects his highlights and Jack Schofield enthuses about a retro-challenge. i ORE THAN 1,000 games were I shown at London's annual European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) this month but. if you took away those involving shooting, driving, flying or sport, there were probably about three. That isn't to say there are no good games.

Virtually every publisher can claim at least one title that promises to stretch a particular genre in a new direction. But while games are expanding the boundaries of hardware and design-craft, they are not exactly exploding in the areas of imagination. In line with this year's theme of PC gaming technology. 3Dfx launched its 2-D and 3-D accelerator. Banshee.

But more significantly, it forged a partnership ith the world's biggest games-maker. Electronic Arts. The company i 4 Co -r'n i in imtf mnfli mm in Tmi ir TiviyliiiifciiflfiniM mii I Return bouts: Lara Croft (left) and the Prince of Persia (above). says its marketing deal means EA's advertising will feature the The JS 'osft- designed and bulging with ancient cames such as GoldenEve and Diddv Ow Unoriginality has its place, with one title getting interest from publishers being Elite's PC driver, Grand Touring, a shameless homage to PlayStation's Gran Turismo. The biggest disappointment was Sega's failure to show anything of next-generation King Racing.

Future games such as Rare's Perfect Dark were shown only u.u: i i i 1.. PlayStation. Nintendo 64 and 3 Dfx logos. This was the first London show uhere Nintendo tried to seriously charm the European trade. Traditionally it has relied on its reputation for making great games but.

in the Pla Station age. 13 IVI11IIU ciuscu uirjis, wiuic uic uiuy titles actually on the booth to stir the blood were Zelda 64 and a playable version of Castlevania 64. console Dreamcast apart from clandestine previews to trade bigwigs. CC i it has been forced to Tomb Raider III (left) attracted the biggest crowds. The developers have focused on a less linear approach, with more varied environments and a complex X-F7f s-style story line featuring marauding take a serious Ux)k at its own I i a aliens.

Special effects include much improved lighting and tiny touches ability to market. Unfortunately, this first attempt was woeful. Sony's btxith was stylish and clearly such as Lara's breath being visible in the Antarctic level. One of the most exciting debuts came from Britain's Asylum. Publisher Interplay has picked up its 3-D strategy game Star Trek New designed to accept large numbers of people in a relaxing environment; Nintendo's was cramped, poorly CIRCUIT BREAKER MOTOR racing games often involve driving simulated versions of the latest cars around the latest circuits, so it's hardly surprising if they're beginning to seem more and more alike.

But Papyrus, an American software house, plans to offer something new by making it old. Its Grand Prix Legends lets you drive Formula 1 cars as they were in 1967 (before they were made slower and safer) around the great racing circuits of the day. In 1967, Fl cars had powerful engines but no aerofoils (wings) or ground-effect skirts for extra down-force and tenacious road-holding. Driven by people such as Jack Brabham, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill, anyone used to modern simulation games may find it a challenge to stay on the track. Dave Kaemmer, the game's developer, came to the UK to do research and visited three-times world champion Brabham and his car designer, Ron Tauranac, among others.

The game has taken about three years to develop and a team of 25 to 30 people have worked on it, says Kaemmer. "It would have been impossible to do it single-handedly." We won't know if the game is any good until Cendant Software, Papyrus's parent company, launches the finished version on the Sierra label. But from the PC-compatible version previewed at the ECTS, at least it's of historical interest JS Vie Guardian Worlds. Players can choose to lead the Federation, Romulans or Klingon, building colonies and military might while taking out the opposition. Interplay was also showing Giants and Galleon behind closed doors, the former coming from the MDK team, the latter from the original Lara Croft designers.

A PROJECT aims to bridge the gap between tomb raiding upstairs and movie watching downstairs, writes Stephen is no proper name yet given to I a revolutionary chip that can execute 13 billion instructions a second. Yet it is ideal for playing digital video discs, and in a games console it can produce startling graphics by manipulating pixels in real-time rather than polygon blocks. Lara Croft may be the games heroine of the moment, but the hardware drawing her means she has blocky polygon biceps rather than the svelte curves that would make her more lifelike. Project aims to change all that. It is being developed by VM Labs, which is based in Silicon Valley, although its founder, Richard Miller, is English.

"We're trying to take the shackles off games developers," he says. "At the moment, they're tied into working with development kits that don't allow them to fully express their vision." He also sees Project X-enabled hardware as the ideal home-entertainment system. "We're not pitching this against the big boys in the gaming console market, so you won't find us in Toys Us. Rather we'll be in other places where people invest in their home entertainment," Miller says. Project chips will appear in DVD players from Thomson, Toshiba and Motorola sometime early next year.

The price, as for other DVD players, should be about 250 so those who want a 99 gaming box will tend to opt for Sony or Nintendo. But if DVD takes off, then Project has a bright future. VM Labs will make real money in royalties from software companies developing for Project X. The key to success is convincing enough software developers to create compelling titles. VM Labs is already talking about a SUSIOO million ($170 million) marketing campaign next year for Project (it will have a proper name by then) along the lines of the Intel Inside advertising.

Tlie Guardian REVIEWS PAGES 17, 18 Red Orb can claim some of the best animation of the show with Prince of Persia 3D (above). The game retains something of the quirky feel of the 10-year-old original, while incorporating advances in motion- reconstruction of the past decade. It now appears likely that the title will appear on PlayStation and Nintendo 64 as well as PC. rff Right LI, Up, Right, Select, Right, R2, LI, L2. Red Barons and Blue Skies press LI, Left, L2, Down, Select, Left, Down, R2, R2, R2, Select, Up.

BATTLEZONE (PC) For unlimited shields, hold down CTRLSHIFT and type BZB0DY. For unlimited pilots and resources, hold down CTRLSHIFT and type BZFREE. For a full map, hold down CTRLSHIFT and type BZRADAR. For unlimited ammo, hold down CTRLSHIFT and type BZTNT. ALL STAR BASEBALL '99 (Nintendo 64) To get lots of broken bats during the game, type BRKNBAT at the codes section.

self destruct. fishield shield. finext skip to next level. filigM full light level. fibird bird assistance.

ficoins get coins. jjgems get gems. Sending return to main menu. jjq quit to desktop. jjmorph turn into Spaz (again for Bird.

again for Frog and again for Jazz). BLAST RADIUS (PlayStation) Enter these codes at the Main Menu: Enhanced Ships press Right, LI, Up, Up, Down, Right, R2, L2, R2, Down, Up, Down. Wraith Ship press Left, Right, LI, Left, Right, LI, R2, R2. L2, Left, Right, Up. Faces on Planets press Down, Up, LI, DEATHTRAP DUNGEON (PC) Type these codes during gameplay: ELVTS invulnerability.

TOOLS all weapons. TAXI skip level. MMMMUNGO strength. B3LLY speed. CAFFEINE health.

JAZZ JACKRACOIT 2 (PC) Type these codes during gameplay: figod invulnerable. figuns all weapons. fiammo all ammo. finish sugar rush. Py helicopter ears (type again for hoverboard).

4.16 icon SMH SEPTEMBER 26, 1998.