The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 83

THE VANCOUVER SUN. THURSDAY. MARCH 16. 2000 E3 Pokemon moves to a whole new level HOT SITES Katherine Monk Foods I Fabulous Foods www.fabulousfoods.com What exactly is the remarkable connection between the Net and food? Here's yet another recipe site, more down to earth than many, that will help you add to your NET WORKS lUTf I i i iniimn m. iwj.hu -hp, ii 'ju mnwmwui i.

'umw 1 v. U. 4 7 mm mm mmn) cap aid aeon Silly Survey www.sillysurvey.com Life kind of empty? Here's a chance to answer questions like who's greater Gretsky or Jordan? And then you can see how your reply matches with the others. In the dining segment we chose Surf over Turf, if you must know. mi GAMES PEOPLE PLAY POKEMON STADIUM Platform: Nintendo 64 Developers: Nintendo Age rating: All ages Did you really think a franchise this successful was going to shrivel up and die? With one of the most successful game titles in the 30-year history of videogames, Nintendo has made every effort to ensure Pokemon's long-term survival and Pokemon Stadium, which hit store shelves this week, proves their tactics should pay off.

Moving the whole concept from the handheld Gameboy to their big-box, N64 console, Nintendo essentially took the same game and boosted its pixel-power about a million times over. Now, instead of seeing hatchet-edged Pikachus and Char-manders, you see fully-sculpted, full-colour, three-dimensional pocket monsters in all their glory. For kids who've been forced to squint into a two-inch screen for the past two years, the ability to actually see the creatures in full detail is a huge bonus. Moreover, when you see the animals in close-up, cinematic grandeur, their celebrity is a little easier to justify. After all, it's one thing to worship a three-dimensional cartoon-style character with big black eyes and yellow fur.

It's quite another to love something with all the depth and form of a digital watch display. That's why Pokemon Stadium takes the whole game to a new level. Not only to you get to Instead of seeing hatchet-edged Pikachus and Charmanders, you see fully-sculpted, full-colour, three-dimensional pocket monsters in all their glory. Complete Guide to Kids in the Hall www.geocities.com HollywoodTheater9323ki ds.htm Fans who are more than a touch enthusiastic have a perfect outlet on the Net and this site proves it. Plenty of information and lots of links.

Pokemon, catching them in a Pokeball and moving on to different landscapes and levels. Of course, you can play the Gameboy cartridge at any time, but there's no improvement in the overall look of the game, even when it's on a big TV. It looks like a Gameboy screen only bigger. And that's just not very appealing. The ability to download all your captured monsters into the big machine, however, makes the compatibility with the Gameboy cartridge a giant plus.

Kids will be able to show off all the Pokemon they captured and trained in a virtual trophy room built specifically for big-time bragging rights. Together, with the lab that allows the gamer to analyze each Pokemon and study its natural behaviours and fighting tricks, Pokemon Stadium manages to bring a breath of fresh air into a bunker of hype not to mention another few billion into Nintendo's bank account. watch the monsters in a whole new way but you can collect them, store them, catalogue them and trade them with a whole new set of tools. Engineered to work in tandem with an existing Gameboy Pokemon pack the blue, red or yellow cartridge that plugs into the handheld model Pokemon stadium has three operational modes: you can play the straight fighting game where your Pokemon square off against your opponent's, you can plug in your Gameboy cartridge to the controller (the add-on serial port is included) and play Gameboy Pokemon on the TV, or you can download your whole treasure trove of Pokeballs into the N64 memory slot, take them to the lab, and file them away for safe keeping. Simply, Pokemon Stadium is completely compatible with the game's other incarnations, allowing the gamer full access to every element, and every memory feature of the game he or she has come to love.

Any game that can incorporate an existing title into its hardware and software deserves a pat on the back for its pragmatism, but Pokemon Stadium does much better still by fleshing out a tried and tested game premise without reinventing the whole shebang. As the title suggests, the main game function in Pokemon Stadium is fighting. A key element to the Gameboy game, fighting in Pokemon is more of a strategic excercise than a violent one. Two monsters are pitted against each other, and the trainer (that's you) has to decide which moves will work best on his or her opponent. Think gladiators with cute cartoon faces.

For instance, you have a flying, fire-spewing dragon. Your opponent in this case it can either be the CPU or a friend has a tenacious shellfish that can chuck thunderbolts. The shellfish is immune to fire and the dragon can evade electricity. In order to defeat your opponent, you have to find each Pokemon's special powers and play it out like a game of chess. The concept works, and in this particular incarnation dressed up in delicious computer graphics it has more appeal than ever.

The only thing you don't get in Pokemon Stadium is the hide and seek adventure of finding Media Technolgy www.mediatechnology.com A remarkable repository for news interviews and editorials about digital content creation technology. Hard to imagine a better resource. rr 1 1 YOUR BUSINESS SOLUTION mm fflmmwWm Online shopping isn't a dot.calm buying experience IPC Universal 3 550 Intel Pentium III Processor at 550 MHz 10100 LAN Network Ready 64MB SDRAM 15" Monitor 8.4GB Hard Drive 40X (max) CD ROM Intel 3D AGP Graphics 56KV.90 Modem Choice of Microsoft Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows '98 KIIIIIIIIHJ I lMVA.i.iih found. Just under one in four stopped buying from the site involved, and six per cent also stopped patronizing the retailer's physical store, the study found. First-time buyers, which make up a growing number of online shoppers, are particularly sensitive, the study said.

While the average satisfied online consumer typically spent $460 US buying 10 items within the last year, the dissatisfied first-time buyer spent just $140 US on four online purchases, the study found. "The first online purchase experience is the moment of truth for consumers and retailers. It is the beginning of a brand connection," BCG senior vice-president Michael Silverstein said. "Unfortunately, too many consumers are finding that shopping online offers convenience fraught with compromise." The report, Winning the Online Consumer, is based on a survey of 12,000 consumers in the United States and Canada last fall. Some of the results varied significantly for Canadians, which made up 1,000 of the respondents, said Peter Stranger, a vice-president in the firm's Toronto office.

While 57 per cent of American Internet users have shopped online, only 43 per cent of Canadian Internet users had done so. The average amount spent by Canadian online shoppers was $150 Cdn, compared with $460 US per shopper in the U.S., he said. "Many of these factors are driven by the supply side. The online offering is currently not as advanced in Canada as in the U.S.," Stranger said. J.C.

Williams Group a Canadian market research firm with a focus on retailing, said the Boston group's findings mirrored some of its own. CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO Shopping dot.calm? Not! A recent study confirms what many techno-phobic consumers have long suspected: Shopping online is a frustrating experience. Bad Web-site designs, lousy delivery service and inadequate regard for consumers' security fears are just some of the problems online consumers reported to market researchers at the Boston Consulting Group. One of the most surprising results, the consulting firm said, was that more than one in four online purchase attempts ends in failure, a performance record that threatens to turn off some consumers permanently. "Retailers still have a long way to go to deliver the kind of service consumers expect online," David Pecaut, head of BCG's global e-commerce practice, said during a teleconference with reporters Tuesday to unveil the findings.

The Boston-based firm, which focuses on high-tech consulting including advising clients how to thrive in the Internet world, is one of several consulting companies that frequently issues research reports on the state of the electronic commerce market. Where previous efforts have focused on highlighting consumer demand for online shopping services, the research has now shifted to gauging the quality of the existing online offerings. In either case, the underlying message the consultants deliver is the same: Retailers need to spend more time and money on their Internet presence. "The stakes are high for online retailers who do not deliver," Pecaut warned. More than one in four consumers who suffered a failed purchase attempt stopped shopping online, the study ALSO INCLUDES Amplified Speakers Keyboard Mouse Philips Free Speech Corel WordPerfect Suite 8 90 Days Unlimited Internet Access from Look Communication i i i BC1-B-3-550-57 jSl for UPGRADE PKG.

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