Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 46

TV tt I D-a f- 1 The Anna The RavtawThs Tribunajha Herald The TTmaStar Sunday November 6 199 W1 ii 9 li oi' -ir- kjL I X' vfcfr hT '4 I If Net users face need Music -1 audiotousuaUy a secondary consider- said PF Magic co-founder and -l' Managing Director John ScuIL "What we bdeve to going to happen to there to goingtobe two centers There will be a total entertainment view where there -1 will be a blending of video games music and rock videos all in on propertyV Other labels inducting Warner Bnkhere have used a Uttleknown technology called CDG (compact dtoc plus grapics) to tell a musical story An audio Compact dtoc that uses CDG to able to be played on a CD player with normal quality If the disc to played on the 3DO machine (3DO machines can play audio CDs and photo CDs as well as games) tee machine accesses graphics pre-programmed onto the disc by the record tabeL by the JimiRendrix Experience to one of about 20 CDG it ties Still this method to one-way users play a game while listening to afavorite band or watching a graphkaUght show Despite big names getting in on the ground floor in tee evolution of the multimedia the quandary ctf making music a two-way experience has not yet been answered miter even if they aren't exactly aure what tee market wants i But ons innovative use the music in-dustry has used to move in on foe multi-media acene to for artists to add musical soundtracks ty video games not unlike movie soundtracks Thrash spedaltotj Soundgarden head- line star grunge bands whose music appears on Rash" Electzonlc smash hit motorcycle video game for the 3DO -system The bands appearing on "Road also have music videos packaged into foe game Another metal band White Zombie did tee soundtrack for tee bloody 3DO fighting game "Samurai Showdown" And Multimedia Gulch company PP Magic used sound company Interactive Audio of San ftancbco to create an orig- inal nine-track 40-minute soundtrack for ha upcoming 3DO pinball game "Pataank" Within to a rock video called "Torcano" created by Qiicago-based H-Gun Labi Since CD-ROM titles hold up to 660 me gahytea in disk space the ability to add large music tracks to a program to pos- sible There simply enough space on a game created for a cartridge-based system takes up so much apace teat USICIAN Thomas Dolby had it right when he pro- dieted music labels would dive into the pool of multi-media in record numbers even though Ihost don't know how to swim'- After aU foe industry has reinvented itself with a great success over the past decade from vinyl to cassettes compact dtoca and music videos the industry has been adept at changing wite the times Cracking foe arena of multimedia though haa proven a bit more difficult Re-gardkas of the vehicle used to convey sound listening to music or watching a musk: video to a predominately one-way experience But through CD-ROM musicians are trying to find tee proper way to convey a musical message using interactivity The first wave of musicians trying to tap into the CD-ROM market have had mixed results Getting high marks to Motown Records artist Stevie Wonder who recently hooked up with Magnet Interactive Studios to create a 3-D animated lead-in to one of his videos forhto upcoming album Pieces" Motown also says that ft to considering a companion CD-ROM for the New perspective comes with 'Super Punch I am still standing figuratively Actually I'm sort of in a fetal position holding my wrist and whining like a Jerk Punch Out" beat me down I couldn't stop playing Three hours disappeared frlday night as I labored pasf hw "W-SZiSTX to be crushed by Masked Muscle I think I have developed carpal pummel syndrome My girlfriend left me for the Mad Clown Bottom line: Super Punch Out provides 16 challenging entertaining and lncreaa- ingly crafty opponents You meanwhile' get a new-fangled perspective You see the fight through the body of fighter who to transparent except for hto green gtoyachd hands You can Jah1 lippereut hook guard duck and dodge You've also got command of a knockout punch which seems really neat until you get to the Masked Muscle who can ap- patently oniy be beaten by shutting off the elec- tricky in the house And I never even saw the toughest opponents There to one caveat: The game's characters are stereotypical Kickboxer Dragon Chan to an Aston whose comer man shouts wunMiuHai nf ft mall hijacked computer Merit-ties and maas e-mailinga last month offers a lesson in earn pater security end the power of the Internet A virulent e-mafl message "free money" being available to wdfiue mothers illegal shew Jewish organised estate gangs from Russia and homo- sexual performance artists out to 25000 people on the net from at least two The name that appeared as die author of qneof the maittngi was a completely innocent Texas AMI professor whose e-mail identity had been stolen another was generated Dram that of a former University of VWawmafai Miident- i "What is remarkable to tee degree in Which this does not happen" said "Virtual author Howard RheingokL "That's tee vulnerability of the The hacker may not have broken any laws the legal landscape to veiy murky with few pwwdewta- His hmwI tnfrmrtinn how wer Says Rhdngold to a against the commons" whereby a few rule-breakers an ruin tee common area enjoyed by alL He predicted that site administrators will better protect users from mass mailers but Said that users need to edudte themselves on the realities of the Net and protect their passwords and use a combination of lumbers and letters that be found in a dictionary (The Texas AMI professor had his last dame far a password) Computer experts say it is relatively easy tjo send e-mail fhxn another person's online address even without a password With more than 7 million people using' On-line services there are going to be' those Who dont follow tee rules said John Whalen executive vice president of mar- keting for Netcom a service provider whose subscribers were inundated with the hate faiL i "You're always going to have hackers frying to get Into the system Hackera $re smart and bored A lot of these people don't have a life or a Job" i i'-i i MoOre rmxrresuxuhpottcom I Interface Wretched excess can nowbe brought to you at the speed of light pie following to a press release teat we are making up: $5 Services have introduced a custom product which offers the fell text of the official 0 gimpeon court transcripts comprehensive hews coverage from 2300 source with an easy-to-use interface product designed for customers such ss network affiliates or newspapers or YThto product was crated in response to our suggestions and said Dawn Conway director of tee Jour- naliat segment of Business Information Services for foe done to padage the Simpson material in one idace in an easy-to-use format on a flat monthly fee -r- Jerry Knight knigbtjuxishpostcom 4 MERICAOr madehlfoto JTjL apparently i MERICA Online and foe Internet 1 into an obituary last week for tee first time' 1 Nicholas Bayard Cooley 14 of Vienna' Va teed of cystic fibrosis Oct 25 leaving behind this screen name Draco and a family that Hated cybersurfing as a aignifi- £ynt part of his life iv A search of commercial databases shows this item in The Washington Post to be one if the first times foe online community has the Khranto or Daughters of the American Revolution or other organizations teat fare often noted in obituaries "As he was getting into it he had many buy said Nicholas's father amesC Cooley BL Nicholaswouldplay a game like Dungeons and Dragons for hours When he Went to the hospital for treatment his companions would call for him pleading for his nelp in playing the games jj hi the last few weeks Nicholas became especially dose to a farmer in Illinois chat-Jinjg every night The former sent him an electronic image iof himself "He was tremendously proud of father said Nicholas was planning to reciprocate iwt became too ffl to advance that prtgect r-Robert Thomason teomasorfwificom i fefrfewtyi jtrbto ftosaws or wqMcfaflg s9w on AMf ftp TV HfesMnpton Jtotok Karen lnMSupor Punch Out" tha player facos launch including a direct-mail cam-' paign Although his is a totally biaseoph(imi PF Magic co-founder John Scull calls it a inter- active The first 3DO offering by PF Magic PsTsanktoa meshing of TaTaMr By PF Magic for VO MribBUB aha: CMKM 3-D animation fast game play and video and sound for 3D0 (pronounced Pa-Tonk) tries I album Artists Todd Rungren and Peter Gabriel also have dabbled in the CIR0M interne- -ten market with decent artistic reviews but no earth-shattering sales numbers Prince (or the artist who used to be called Prinre) and David Bowie both hk the market teto year wite interactive GD-KOM projects wite neither emerging with impressive results Both titles despite receiving praise for taking a chance on the interactive music market sold between 20000 and 30000 copies well below asks for a new music CD Rock group Heart also released a database that could access all of their songs which received mixed reviews Simply put foe multimeda market to one that companies especially big-time entertainment ones feel the need to in some unintelligible Asian tongue Bald Bull fhxn Istanbul haila from a Middle Eastern circus act Bob Charlie the black Jamaican dares you to follow his rythym Nintendo says the characters are caricatures not meant to be taken seriously Nintendo hopes to sell 500000 copies It wm spend $5 million to launch the gam including $35 million on marketing MattRicJUei Think of it as the intersection between Hansel and Gretel and "Myst" You control' Will a schoolboy whose father im disappeared who to courted by an imprisoned BrNhtMMiafarSNES btehlSMB Gama aha Mmaga princess and who must fight an array of creatures en route to saving the world But have no fear Will to armed with a flute It's a flute with a host of powers lacking it seems only the ability to carry a -tunei -r As Will you get help fhxn Gaia the guardian spirit of the earth and from Will's The game is appropriate for younger adventurers thanks to ite "big print" animation and Its helpftil instructions 1 The "Illusion" of Gaia promises 60 hounof game play in your pursuit to save the world Nintendo will spend $25 million on the containing tee software Jibe regional teiephone cOmpsny plans to expand the 'trial by delivering other educational and additional material to schools and evenhomeaaUS West offlddsald California Here I Come Screen savers offer fun little function for monitors tihcQ opponents as If ha or Mia were in the ringl to give the feeling of being in a 3-D pinball game uses kxuto at video dips and even haa a music video within the game Thp game itself is huge "PaTaank" takes up about 525 megabytes of space on the CD which allows it to offer high-quality sound and high-end graphics The actual game coda only took about 150 megs But with only three levels of game play "PaTaank" leaves a bit to be desired on the itifWwHy scale AD in all "PaTaank" to fast although choppy at times and fim But with its diz-rying look the game to reminiscent of a gmteics game Howard Bryant bum The (emergence of color monitors as the industry standard made burn-in less of a problem since multicolored images spread tight over a larger phosphor area And now dynamic Windows and Apple Desktop Inter-fuss use white background and black text' lighting most of tee screen and rarely leaving the same image on the screen for any length of time thereby diminishing the buro-in blues Abo cutting tee workload for acreeiv savers to the new Star hardware created to meet federal specifics: tiona for energy efficiency now a big-marketing point in sales These computer' systems employ power managers that put' the system in a "suspend mode" (the conw puter equivalent of a nap) when not in use saving energy and blanking tee monitor until a touch of a key or mouse awakens It essentially doing what screen savers do with fewer watts and no fun Sdiwibe does caution that phosphor bum altogether out of the picture Mo- nochrome monitors sie still vulnerable 8o are monitors that day after day display start-dardixed applications database programs in commercial use that return constantly to identical initial acraens Otherwise displaying the same image for wedis more than a thousand hours can still do IL "But as a gross generalisation" he says "screen savers are for fon and entertainment" So go figure this: The and entertain-' software to expected to reach $180 million in sales fay 1997 more than dou-' bUng tee $80 million It grossed in 1993 according to the International Data Corp Go to any computer super market and' find doiens of screen savers on foe ahdfi Already fob fell Berkeley Styatems has shipped to stores a new Simpsons Screen Saver and ks deluxe Complete After Dark Collection on CD-ROM lost week it released the X-Men Screen Saver that filb inactive screens wite Marvel super stam Ust month Microsoft released a new- edition of ksStern Chib screed saver aeries -and to promoting a new service that puts your personal photos into sefeen savers WASHNGTT0N POST The only teing fuxqr about today's super higb-resolution conqxiter monitors to the thinking of tee people totting In trout of them Many of us for instance still think those dever screen jKvers teat automat- icaliy pop up images of flying toasters or breaching humpback whales are somehow saving our endangered screens Error message: Most likely they Not that screen savers one of the hottest 'software niches foe past year or taro dont deliver on their promise They do exactly hem de- what they say they do most of them AS80OATH)PflES8 Gian Jansma of Thomas Brea- Mapa in kvina dbplaya tha Juat mlaaaad CP-ROM tftlad "Tha Cafifomia GaoFlndar from bahind a atack of 90 map hooka that contain tha aama InformaHoa Tha CD-ROM along with anotiiar program tMad "AkPhoto CD-ROM" mpmaant tha tataat mapping of tha atata aa wal aa an aarW photo atlaa of Loa Angalaa and Oranga County for tha paraonal wmiwntw Tha ninAiiW Mn mi mU iumIi fiwMMAniC tin CMmipWSws aav pmwiMMrew wvaia wvi www wa vwwwh am vssspimresa sso wawwa UghtfoUy so Just teat like practicalty everything in personal conqxiterdom nowadays tee screen savers' ratoon d'etre has' been recently deleted by discing technology ical advances "The biggest benefit that screen savers provide to that they are fon to look at" says Jim Scfawabe vice ixesideiit of the graphics business unit at NEC Technologies Inc a nujor player in the computer hardware industry Originally designed to prevent permanent phosphor damage that occurred When a single and unduuvging image accumulated too many on-acreen hours or went unat- tended too long screen savers solved the problem by temporarily replacing stagnant images with dynamic intermissions So when people left their computers on iroundthfrdock (said to be healthier for deUcate computer circuits than turning them off and on often) the screen saver's kick-in activity alone whether soaring atarecapes or swimming tropical fish spare the screen from an electronic tattooing That left a ghostlike image cm the screi still standard on automated teller machines at banks But according to many computer experts foe risk of phosphor burn in home PCs and even most officq computers to now especially for newer monitors In the pad when DOS ruled tee PC world its monochrome text displayed on a black background upped the odds of screen V'" i West to transmit BLOOMBBU BUSSCSS NEWS DENVER West Inc embarking on 'ks first experiment in delivering content over the phone knee will transmit a multimedia version of Shakespeare's to students in a Utah high achooL The trial to to begin in January at Vlew-mont High Schbol in Bountiftil Just outside Salt lake City Students win tap into one of the school's 30 personal computers linked with a server feaentiafly a foster larger computer built by Netftime Systems Inc an acjjimct profeasor and I can aee a lot of need for the aduk community to provide this kind of learning on a home baste" said Mike Hug' information highway program manager at West A faoon Jfanwrs ibnarrsroaolcom prJoet Garreau-gcmreauwMcom MH'Ujri Ban -s- 1- 1 (- -1 v- I ZlJ.