INSIDE GAMES & ENTERTAINMENT UPDATE
Volume 2, Issue 49

Published by:
The Word Warriors
23115 Broadmoor Court
Auburn, CA  95602

email
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COMPUTER, VIDEO & ON-LINE GAME NEWS

PUMPIN' PC PLAYABLES
With a new charter and a new outlook, 3DO is experiencing somewhat of a rebirth, thanks to their Studio 3D business division. This unit is now producing titles for the PC and they've just announced they're going to release original content titles, plus 3DO hit titles, for the PC platform this year. Ten such titles, as a matter of fact. The list includes such offerings as 3DO Games: Decathlon(TM), Battleforce(TM), BladeForce(TM), Captain Quazar(TM), Game Guru(TM) Game Enhancer, Killing Time(TM), SnowJob(TM), and Star Fighter(TM). Plus, the unit's first release will be a new golf sim that features John Daly, the British Open champ. All of these titles will run under Windows 95.

16-BIT CARTS CRUMBLE
Sales, or lack of same, force change. And so Acclaim Entertainment has decided to halt all production of 16-bit video game carts. This was, in part, due to a decline of some 40 percent in cart sales in 1996 as well as a disappointing 1995. This does NOT mean the company won't be addressing the video game market, although their stated development interests now rest in CD-ROM based titles. Watch  for Acclaim to definitely work on Nintendo Ultra-64 products which are, of course, cart-based. 

POWER PUMPED MECHWARRIOR2
As though the game didn't already have enough going for it! Activision has announced that they now have an enhanced version of their combat-smash-hit-action game MechWarrior(R) 2, totally optimized for ATI Technologies' 3D RAGE accelerator chip. Plus, Activision signed an OEM agreement with ATI that'll make the RAGE-compatible version of the game available with its RAGE chip and 3D XPRESSION graphics accelerator boards. If you have the board, you're going to have an ultra-realistic graphic treat. The ATI board offers 3D features, 2D acceleration as well as full-screen, full-motion MPEG video playback.

TOKYO TO HOST ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE EXHIBITION
Japan will host the Computer Entertainment Software Association in which there will be an exhibition of computer game software. This exhibition will take place from August 22 to 24 at the Tokyo International Fair Grounds in Ariake.
The program is aimed at general users, including children, students and families. With 650 booths the exhibits will include new software scheduled for release. The exhibition will have various attractions such as quiz shows and concerts.

KIDS GAIN NEW TITLES
For a company that started life as a simple paint program developer, Corel has climbed to heights that are dizzyingly successful. Corel is about to ship two new multimedia titles, one targeted for children ages six through 12, the other for younger folk three through seven years of age. The first new offering is Pandora's Box(TM), an animated adventure about Pandora and her curiosity, especially in regards to the beautiful box she has been told never to open. The title has 10 colorful pages with each page featuring more than 15 hot spot animations. Children will read, learn and interact with the characters as they hear the story line and engage in a variety of activities. The second title is Turn Around Turtle(TM) who must get to school but needs children to help him get ready. Here youngsters must navigate from room to room to help their shelled-friend, with each path offering a different ending and activities.

NEW TITLES IN CRASH COURSE
Seven new interactive multimedia software titles from the new Virtual MBA product series have been released from Educorp Multimedia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hariston Corporation. Developed by Educorp's HighText Interactive division, the new titles add to HighText Interactive's successful Crash Course product series and introduce the second title in the company's new Virtual MBA product series. Educorp Multimedia is a developer and publisher of interactive multimedia software for the adult consumer and higher education markets. Over 
1,700 CD-ROM multimedia titles have been distributed that can be used as independent self-study tools, or as supplements to course or professional work.

The new Crash Course titles include Algebra I, Geometry, Integral Calculus,
Introductory Physics, Precalculus and Statistics II. Joining the Virtual MBA
series is a multimedia course in Personal Finance. With these introductions,
HighText now offers a total of 10 adult learning products, including
existing Crash Course and Virtual MBA titles in Statistics, Differential
Calculus and Accounting Fundamentals. These titles are designed to offer interactive simulations and real world exercises to help users learn difficult subject matter quickly and easily with an SRP of $39.95.

KIPLING TO YOUR COMPUTER
Rudyard Kipling wrote a number of superb books. One of the most popular of all time is Jungle Book, with Mowgli, LaTee, Baloo and all of the other lovable characters. IBM Corporation has released this entertaining world with their new Jungle Book MOVIEGAME CD-ROM, designed for children ages five to nine. More than 100 minutes of feature-film footage from Disney's movie hit, including some clips that have never been seen before, are in this offering that provides children with the chance to imitate chimpanzees and wolves to progress through he game. Children must find King Louie's crown and restore order to the jungle. They use their voices to guide them through the jungle adventures for hours of interactive fun, with a microphone for voice recognition included in this package. With two levels of difficulty, children will be delighted with LaTee, the chimpanzee guide, and his human sidekick, Colonel Ilgworn. You'll need at least a 486/66 and a CD-ROM drive.

QUAKE, INTERNATIONALLY SPEAKING
One of the most anticipated releases for 1996 is id Software's QUAKE. Usually there is some time delay between the product roll-out in the good ol' U.S.A. and overseas distribution centers. No longer -- GT Interactive Software has decreed that they will launch the full version of the game at overseas retailers simultaneously with the id Software release of the shareware version to U.S. distributors. This is the first time id has actually distributed a shareware product under their own label. Plus, within one year after the shareware version has released, GT Interactive will publish a new QUAKE title for worldwide distribution. They also have the rights to publish 32- and 64-bit console versions as well. For those who have had their heads in a freezer for the last several months, QUAKE is a fast-paced, action title that'll offer true 3D environs, polygonal characters that are fully texture-mapped, plus new client-server technology to facilitate network and modem play. What's really got folk all a-buzz is that this game is going to feature new technology, something that has not occurred with an id title since they released DOOM back in 1993.

ENTERTAINING ENTRIES
Not long ago, HBO, Michael Nash and the Warner Music Group assembled a partnership whose goal was to produce super CD-ROM-based digital entertainments. That company, known as iNSCAPE, then increased the scope of its productions and became the interactive game publishing division within Time Warner as Warner Interactive. And, yes, the magic of E3 has produced news of major title debuts of 10 new offerings from iNSCAPE. All of these games feature real-time 3D action, hi-res 3D environments, cinematic cut sequences and real-time video and sound. Part of the line-up includes:

Assassin 2015, which finds you dropped into a futurist scenario where you become Jack Butcher. You are now a member of an elite group of government controlled assassins and, after a bungled attempt on the life of a top CEO, you find yourself the target of killing machines. The rescue helicopter awaits you on the roof of the towering skyscraper, but, er, you've got to get there first!

Drowned God is a role-playing adventure that has you involved in an alien conspiracy that's been in the works for some 50,000 years! You must navigate through four mysterious realms to uncover the information about the "true" origins of mankind. There are challenging puzzles and you must locate tarot cards and fit them into the Cryptowheel to locate powerful relics and links to controversial historical events. There's also an on-line component that links your gameplay to content situated on the WWW. The art effects are by none other than Greg Bolton, who worked on Peter Gabriel's famous Sledgehammer music video. This title will release in Q4 for Macintosh and Windows 95/3.1 machines.

For science-fiction gamers comes Ravage where you, the only surviving member of a small rebel force, finds you opposing the Necron. This is one, nasty, dimension-traveling vermin, who was able to enter our world when a government research program broke the barriers of the dimensions. New worlds were found, including Necron's, whose dimension converters locked onto our world enabling his powerful race to enter and try to dominate all. You must destroy the converters and close the Necron from future invasions. This will be a Windows 95 title.

Squeezils is, probably, the only flying squirrel sim you've ever seen or played. You must scamper through a real-time 3D adventure to collect and store as many nuts as you can within the forest. You must also empower magic fruits and berries, find secret portals that will transport you to exotic lands, to solve the land's ancient secret. Competition between squeezils is fierce, but non-cruel, as you find sacred relics to assist you with your quest. This title will release in Q4 for Macintosh and Windows 95 computers.

The Egyptian Jukebox where you'll try to unravel the puzzle of an eccentric millionaire's disappearance. To succeed, you must interpret the hidden meanings and connotations of objects, memories, songs and characters. This magic jukebox creates 3D worlds and you'll navigate through movies complete with narratives, plus the sounds and hit tunes of the 50's through the 70's. This title will release in Q4 for Macintosh and Windows 95 machines.

Two games previously announced will also be presented at E3. They include Devo Presents Adventures of the Smart Patrol, now set for an August 1966 release, and Where's Waldo? Exploring Geography, which will debut next month.

GET SNOOKERED
Now out and rolling about is Interplay's Virtual Snooker(TM) snooker game sim. Word is out that this sim is sooo realistic it could actually improve your own snooker game. Steve Davis, six-time world snooker champion, offers 30 minutes of video footage wherein he demos his winning techniques, offers tips for beginners and experts, and shows his historic 147 break. This sim has all the angles and all of the shots of the real game. You can walk around the table, zoom in, back away, and see a full view of the table from any angle. There's totally believable ball movement, friction cushion response that's acurrately calculated, and cue ball spin. You can also play the game over a network or via modem. A perfect score in the game is 147 and you earn the most points by sinking all of the colored balls. Worth one point are the red balls, black balls worth seven points, and the other colored balls are worth from two to seven points each. The strategies are important in your overall success. This game features video frame rates of up to 29 fps and is for PC CD-ROM machines.

EXECS ENJOY ENTERTAINMENTS
Most of us truly enjoy downloading the latest freeware and software games. Some are good, some are truly poor, and others end up being the next runaway game hits. One of the net's largest free software resources is Jumbo!, which may be located at http://www.jumbo.com. Jumbo! has released some eye-opening info that simply cements the belief that corporate execs also enjoy games--corporate sites accessed more than 800,000 games during Q1 of 1996 from this site. The leading downloaders included Lucent Technologies (formerly AT&T Bell Labs), Citicorp, Dun & Bradstreet, IBM and JP Morgan. The favorite download was a 3D chopper sim called TC Choplifter. This was followed by F-18 No-Fly Zone, Windows Pool, Star Trek and TC Bout. So, join the leading Fortune 500 execs and glom onto titles that they apparently believe are the best downloads since Navigator 2.01.

INTO I/O
You cannot play any game too well without the necessary Input/Output device. These controllers of your onscreen sprites and bytes, ranging from your keyboard to a joystick to trackpads, are all a major necessity for true game enjoyment. Microsoft understands this need as well. That is why the company has acquired Exos Incorporated. That company developed video game control devices with "force feedback" I/O devices such as the Microsoft SideWinder 3D Pro joystick. Lag time between the input device and screen response has always been a complaint from gamers, and now Microsoft intends for such to be totally negated. Also, with force feedback, you actually feel effects like gun recoils, explosions, and flight sim turbulence.

FRANCE PLANS TO JUMP INTO OCEAN
Who says England and France can't get along?  Not Ocean International
Ltd. the holding company for the interactive games headquartered in Manchester, England (Ocean International is the parent of San Jose-based Ocean of America developer), and Infogrames Entertainment SA, the French educational and entertainment software publisher. Just this last fiscal year, 1996, both of these guys generated worldwide sales in excess of $100 million.

If this holy union takes place, the merger will create the world's fifth largest publisher of interactive software worldwide and the largest CD-ROM and video game company in Europe. Infogrames Entertainment SA will become the holding company for the merged entities, with Infogrames Multimedia, Ocean Software, and Ocean of America among its operating subsidiaries. Not only that but Infogrames Entertainment will issue more than 400,000 new shares of stock, exchanging each new share for 22 outstanding shares of Ocean International.

HYBRID HURRAH
You are going to read more and more, and see more and more, about the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3) next month in Los Angeles than you probably care to—-however, what better way to learn about all of the new goodies heading your way? One company that plans a number of releases at E3 is Palladium Interactive. This company has three hybrid discs (meaning the same CD-ROM disc will run on Power Macintosh, Macintosh, Windows 95 or Windows 3.1 machines) they will debut at the show. The first is Nine Worlds, hosted by Patrick Stewart. This is a comprehensive, interactive tour of the solar system with more than 500 amazing photos, full-motion video, detailed computer animations, plus interviews that will uncover the secrets of the nine planets in our solar system. The second title is Family Gathering. This is a genealogy offering that will enable you to trace your family roots as well as create extremely detailed family histories. Then there's WISHBONE and the Amazing Odyssey, designed for youngsters ages 7 to 11. This title features the PBS canine star, a Jack Russell terrier, and follows him as he follows the Greek hero Odysseus and the Trojan War. All of these titles are also tied into a dedicated online site where updates can be obtained.

POPPING-OFF INTO CONTRACT WORK
There's a new division on the creative horizon, a new unit that will develop custom games, puzzles, and interactive advertising for agencies, WWW developers and interactive media publishers. The new unit comes from Pop Rocket, Inc., the publishers of Total Distortion, which will continue to work on creating new CD-ROM titles. Rocket Shop is the unit that will handle all contract work. You also ought to check out the Pop Rocket site, as an afterthought, where the latest in Macromedia's Shockwave technology can be viewed. Darned interesting stuff. Head over to http://www.poprocket.com/shockwave/ for an interesting gander at what these folk can do.

DISTRIBUTION IN STEREO
One of the up-and-coming technologies that is quickly being applied to digital entertainments is that of stereo eyeware. Yep, 3D, VR glasses. One of the leaders in that technology genre is NuVision who have been creating stereo 3D displays for some time. That company has decided to enter an exclusive, U.S. marketing agreement with VictorMaxx, with the latter company glomming onto NuVision's HSG01 stereo glasses, which carries a price tag of under $100. Fully compatible with Windows 95, the parallel-port connected glasses are totally compatible with SVGA video cards and existing color monitors. These glasses provide flicker-free images up to a 120 Hz screen refresh rate. VictorMaxx developers, markets and sells VR and 3D products, including their CyberMaxx(TM) 2.0 head-mounted display and VIR(R) One cordless, baseless game controller.

TOP O' THE TOP
The best-selling, number one Sony PlayStation(TM) title is NFL GameDay(TM). Even though the football season has long been over, the game continues to sell extraordinarily well. NFL GameDay has, consistently, placed in the top ten software sales charts since its release in November of last year. The game features 3D animation and a license with the NFL that enables use of team logos, uniforms and rendered stadiums, actual play stats and an up-to-date playbook. From Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), the title comes from the company's sports category which happens to be among the most popular for the PlayStation. More than 300,000 units have sold. Plus, the company's NHL(R) Face Off(TM) has sold more than 200,000 unites and NBA Shoot Out, which shipped in late March, also has strong sales. Mid-May is when the next sports sim, MLB(TM) Pennant Race(TM), is scheduled to ship.

FRITZ TO PSX
There's plenty of evil afoot in the sinister castle! As you play the world's coolest computer repair guru, Lance, you find yourself on a late-night fix-it call to the mysterious castle. Once the computers are reactivated, Lance learns of Dr. Neurosis' master plan, that being nothing less than complete domination of the world. Now you must be disposed of--by Fritz, a half-human, half-pet of the good doctor, because you know too much! You'll race through the twisted castle encountering such fine folk as Battle Moose, the evil Iris Sisters, and Vivi the Vamp. There's fully orchestrated digital sound and interactive animation that's truly extraordinary. And to think the folk at ReadySoft managed to do all of this work inhouse! The product is now released for the Sony PlayStation. Other platforms available include Macintosh, PC CD-ROM, Sega Saturn and standard 3DO system.

VR IN THE PRIVACY OF YOUR HOME
It was bound to happen, just a question of when. Vivid Productions, a Toronto-based virtual reality developer who has previously been designing virtual reality games exclusively for private installations and location-based entertainment facilities, has partnered with Intel to create a virtual reality game that literally puts the player in the middle of the action. If you were at the Computer Game Developers Conference held in Santa Clara, California, earlier this month you probably saw this kind of virtual reality game.

What is required is a multimedia Pentium PC, a video camera and video capture technology to translate the player's body movements into on-screen action. To play one of Vivid's games, users need to attach a home video camera to their PC. Intel's software-based video compression takes the place of a separate video capture board or, PCs with a standard video capture board and a video
camera can also be used to play the games. What is translated from the actual move of physically kicking toward the computer screen would appear on-screen as kicking an opponent. 

Manufacturer, Chromatic Research, will also be bundling titles with a board. In addition, other software developers will be able to license Vivid's API, which is compatible with the Windows 95 Direct X programming tools. Vivid has also been negotiating with Intel, which would like to purchase the API and distribute it free to developers.

Expected to ship early next year, Shark Bait, is an underwater adventure that takes place in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Players must uncover underwater treasure while avoiding sharks. The other game has a working title of Virtual Defender, and requires players to defend themselves in a virtual battle. Additional products in development include musical titles that let kids play various instruments in a virtual band. Turbo Kourier the first game to be released will be bundled with Intel motherboards that will include built-in video conferencing capabilities.Available in PCs by the 4Q'96, no SRP available.

SUPER SITE FOR CYBERIA2
Wasn't that long ago that folk were all a-buzz about Interplay's release of Cyberia. Now the developer of that smash-hit, Xatrix, is about to release the sequel and an even more fantastic adventure--Cyberia2: Resurrection. To that end, and with the help of Advanced Media Marketing, Xatrix Entertainment has developed a World Wide Web site specifically for this entertainment. You'll find some truly cool animations, plus interactive games you can play. There are a number of communications, threats, clues from characters on both sides of the battle, and the opportunity to free Zak Kingston from the clutches of his enemies. You'll experience the culture of the year 2027 and you can download the back story to Cyberia. You could also win Cyberia2 collectibles, such as T-shirts, game demos and strat guides. Visit the site at http://www.xatrix.com. When released, this title is for PC CD-ROM machines.

SOME FINANCIALS . . .

APPLE NOT HAPPY--NO MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT
Folks at Apple must be wearing black armbands these days. A record $740 million loss was reported in its 2Q'96 which spells out lay-offs that will more than double the number of folks getting pink slips that was previously expected. The loss  was $40 million more than officials had predicted last month to analysts. The $5.99-a-share loss compares with the year-earlier profit of $73 million, or 59 cents a share.

Those that weren't alarmed by the larger-than-expected loss were the analysts.  These folks expected Apple's CEO, Gilbert F. Amelio, to write off this quarter in anticipation of improvements. More than half of the quarterly loss, the $388 million, was directed to the write-down of inventory. This is in contrast to the former CEO, Michael Spindler, who grossly overstocked low-end Macintosh Performas during Christmas the previous year. Additionally, folks were under-whelmed with the PowerBook portable models that didn't include such necessary features as CD-ROM drives. The cherry on top of this stomach-aching mess was the lack of confidence from folks who held off on purchases due to the sour publicity that Apple received. 

Setting up triage in this hemorrhaging of Apple's finances is Dr. Amelio who must move quickly. Always healthy cash-wise, Apple's cash position staggered to $592 million at quarter's end, a sad comparison to the $1.9 billion that existed the same quarter the previous year. The debt of $655 million is now higher than the amount of cash that Apple has. 

Amelio said that Apple has been able to renew short-term loans with maturities in three to six months. And, Apple is also pursuing  additional financing alternatives. One of the analysts polled doesn't think there is a crisis coming up because of Apple's liquidity. Amelio said that he expects to restore Apple to profitability within 12 months. (We are counting on it!) 

IBM REPORTS ARE POSITIVE...KINDA SORTA
First quarter earnings from IBM indicate that the earnings were better than expected which raised its dividend 40 percent. This good news was lost when the stock plunged almost 9 percent due to concerns about tough issues that will be in upcoming quarters. 

Some of these issues are: The PC business out of Armonk, New York is to face sluggish sales in the U.S. corporate market, and its once robust computer chip division has experienced a sharp drop in revenue growth due to the drop in chip prices. Its computer-storage unit is facing price and revenue declines.  Another thorn in its side, IBM will see a loss in the foreign-currency translations, unlike last year in which IBM was rewarded with boosted earnings. 

When G. Richard Thoman, CFO, delivered a briefing to Wall Street analysts he stated that the current quarter's numbers will face the toughest comparison of the year against 1995's figures. Thoman said currency translations that saw an addition of 36 cents a share to net income in the period one year ago will cut profit by 25 cents this year. So folks, Big Blue saw its stock tumble $10.25 to close at $105.25 in NYSE.

Developer Dumps

TO THE MAX
With collaboration 'tween 3Dlabs(R) and Kinetix (if you read the previous issue of IG&EU, you'd know that Kinetix is Autodesk's new multimedia unit), the former now has available GLINT(R) optimized drivers for the latter's Heidi(TM). These drivers will enable seamless acceleration for the new 3D Studio MAX(TM) modeling and animation app. The drivers themselves control the GLINT silicon and take advantage of GLINT's rasterization power in their Delta(T)M 3D processor chips. These GLINT-optimized Heidi drivers are available at no cost to all GLINT board level customers, plus the drivers are in the standard 3D Studio MAX distribution. The GLINT 300SX implements 100 percent of the OpenGL(R) rendering ops including 32-bit color support, depth buffering and Gouraud shading.  The silicon pumps at rendering speeds of up to 300,000 polygons per second. GLINT Delta, a companion processor to GLINT chips, offloads 3D geometries into a hardwired 100 Mflop processor. This puppy can process 1 million vertices per second. For more info, check out the Kinetix WWW site at http://www.ktx.com.

3DO INTO POWER MACS
3DO continues to leverage their skill set by delving into areas hitherto not considered part of their initial charter. But that is good news, especially for the employees of the company, as 3DO broadens its technological base and goes after new markets. Now 3DO has released 3DO(R) MPEGXpress Model 2000. This is their second video product and offers real-time, MPEG-2 encoding for PCI-based Power Macs. This offering is based on IBM's MPEG-2 encoding and decoding chips and offers real-time preview capability. The product features component digital filtering, general purpose rescaling, as much as 40 megabit per second data rates, and video inputs. There's balanced XLR inputs, full digital audio, plus that all-important audio/video encoding synchronization without the need of additional hardware. You'll also find batch processing, frame accurate VTR control, and inverse Telecine support.There's even off-line QuickTime encoding support. For more info, check out 3DO's WWW site at http://www.3do.com/mpegxpress.

MAJOR TOOL UPGRADE
Authoring tools have been with us for just a few years. One of the first and leading CBT authoring tools is Authorware. Now a Macromedia title, the company has just released the next iteration of this creative interactive authoring tool. Now to Version 3.5, the upgrade applies to Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 3.1, Power Macintosh and Macintosh versions of the program. Plus, Shockwave(TM) has been added for streaming multimedia. With Shockwave, Authorware files may be streamed over intranets as well as the Internet and, through use of Afterburner(TM), Shockwave files can be compressed by more than 50 percent. Authorware 3.5 also comes with Director(R), xRes(TM), Extreme 3D(TM) plus sound-editing software. Authorware now offers native 32-bit speed, support for Macromedia Transition Extras(TM), and Windows 95 support. For interested parties, the pre-release version of Shockwave for Authorware plug-in for Netscape Navigator is available at http://www.macromedia.com.

LEADING 3D APP GETS EXTENSIONS
There are any number of market factors that result in any program, be such a game or a 3D creation app, to become a leader. Functionality, ease-of-use and learnability, and price. Ray Dream Inc., now a member of that awesome Fractal Design company, has such a product with their Ray Dream Studio(TM). To add even more functionality to that package, the company has shipped their first Macintosh(R) extension packs. They are the Professional Lens Pack and the 3D Fun Back. These puppies were created by RAYflect, a developer who specializes in the creation of extensions for Ray Dream Designer(TM) 4 and Ray Dream Studio. The Professional Lens Pack gives an assortment of camera and lens effects that are quite similar to the lenses and filters you'd find at a professional photographer's studio, such as CrossScreen, Depth of Field, Glow, Lens Flare, Nebula, Pulsator, Stars and VarioCross. These extensions may be applied to still images and animations. The 3D Fun Pack has two modules that automatically add 3D effects to the app's renderings. These are Anaglyphs and AutoStereograms, graphic images that have a stereo 3D effect when viewed through color-filtered eyeware. Plus you can create your own hidden 3D images with the AutoStereogram extension, which automatically converts any Ray Dream Designer 4 illustration into a Single Image Random Dot Stereogram (SIRDS). Or you can build a repetitive pattern stereogram that may be viewed on-screen or in print.

More Fun Stuff

3D MOVIE THEATRES DRAW BIG NUMBERS
Not all movie theatres are experiencing a decline thanks to the likes of Blockbuster. What is captivating audiences is the newest high-tech, giant-screen 3D motion picture and it is attended by record numbers in Southern California, Chicago and New Orleans. Reports out after the theatres' first 31-day run indicate an occupancy rate of between 90 and 95 percent over the week ends.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION ON THE WEB
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment's World Wide Web site, www.foxhome.com, takes folks on a journey through eight decades of film history. The Web site is built around the most comprehensive search engine found on the Web that can explore information on all of the 3,000+ films in Fox's catalogue. Visitors are provided with a choice of ways to customize individual queries and find information on any movie in Twentieth Century's film library.