San Francisco, CA (3/04/99) - Sybex Inc., one of the country's leading publishers of video and computer game strategy guides, announced today that it will publish an officially licensed "novelization" of Nintendo's best-selling Game Boy« title, PokΘmonÖ. Video game expert Jason R. Rich has been tapped to write the book. "Very few games have created a world wide phenomenon like PokΘmon," said Rich. "This novel will appeal to PokΘmon fans of all ages."

Scheduled for publication in March 1999, PokΘmon - Pathways to Adventure ($9.99) will be lavishly illustrated with full-color art featuring characters from the game. "While this retelling of PokΘmon in story form provides readers with the clues they need to find the best pathways through the game, as well as how to catch, train and fight PokΘmon, it can also be enjoyed completely on its own for the exciting adventure," said Roger Stewart, associate publisher at Sybex.

The book will be the second title in Sybex's new Pathways To Adventure series, which places characters from the hottest selling video and computer games into stories based on the games. "What makes this concept different from other licensed game novels is that, as someone reads the story, they'll discover valuable gameplay strategies and secrets that will actually help them become master trainers," explained author Jason Rich.

With consumers snapping up more than 300,000 copies of the PokΘmon game in its first two weeks of availability, it has become the fastest-selling portable game in American history. The PokΘmon game craze, centered on the collection, nurturing, training and interaction among 150 different small monsters with unique skills, first hit store shelves September 28th. Its arrival followed a 30-month period of fanatical popularity in Japan, where more than 12 million PokΘmon games have been sold.