Beyond Monochrome
When Atari debuted Battlezone back in 1980, its now kitschy wireframe interface introduced consumers to a revolutionary gaming advance: 3-D graphics. Today, Activision is set to release a PC update of the Atari arcade classic.
The story line flirts with hokey contrivances: a meteor with alien technology in tow lands in the Bering Strait, which sparks a universe-wide arms race, culminating in intergalactic battles. But with fully customizable tanks and nicely rendered terrain, the game looks awesome. It combines the best of first-person simulation – think MechWarrior – with real-time strategy, as found in titles like Command and Conquer. An onscreen radar lets you stare down enemy robots at the same time you control troops, and this synthesis of genres is a feature destined to be copied by other developers.
Although old-timers may feel nostalgia for the vector-drawn, black-and-green games of yore, the new Battlezone shows just how far videogame art and technology have progressed since the days when monochrome was all the rage.
Release: February. Activision: +1 (310) 255 2000.
Dinaverse
Poor Anne. In the new game Trespasser, she finds herself marooned on a familiar Lost World, forced to traverse jungles and mountains to escape hungry dinosaurs. Featuring AI that was developed to determine each animal's traits – including proclivity for fight or flight, sensitivity to pain, and curiosity – the title appears to be the most promising Jurassic Park spin-off to date.
Release: winter '98. DreamWorks Interactive: +1 (310) 234 7000.
Radical Management
The computer industry as a whole, Peter Drucker once told Wired, has never made a dime. In the new book The World According to Peter Drucker, Jack Beatty profiles the intellectual contrarian who invented management theory, chronicled the birth of the knowledge worker, and once advised Yogi Berra on the baseball manager's problem with "whores."
Release: January. The Free Press: +1 (212) 698 7000.
This article originally appeared in the February issue of Wired magazine.
To subscribe to Wired magazine, send email to subscriptions@wired.com, or call +1 (800) SO WIRED.
