Microsoft Releases Beta II of Windows 95 Game Software Developers Kit

Hot New Windows 95 Game Technology Now Broadly Supported by Hardware
Vendors

REDMOND, Wash. - July 27, 1995 - Building on the momentum already generated
within the game-developer community for the Microsoft Windows 95 operating
system as a game platform, Microsoft Corp. today announced the immediate
availability of the beta II release of the Windows 95 Game Software
Developers Kit (SDK), which includes new device drivers from eight major
third-party hardware vendors.

With release of beta II, Microsoft plans to deliver a final release of the
Windows 95 Game SDK in September, helping to increase the number of hot
new games using Windows 95-based game technology scheduled to be available
to consumers for the holidays. More than 1,200 game developers received
the initial version of the Game SDK in April.

"The release of beta II is an important milestone in our broad effort to
make Windows 95 a premier game platform," said Paul Osborne, director of
multimedia technology at Microsoft. "The inclusion of device drivers from
these hardware vendors is yet another indication of the enthusiastic
support we've seen across the board from the gaming community for Windows
95-based game technology."

The Windows 95 Game SDK contains tools, sample code, documentation and a
subsystem with new game application programming interfaces (APIs) that
make for exciting, high-performance game play under Windows 95, including
the following:

   * DirectDraw, for hardware-accelerated display graphics
   * DirectSound, for high-fidelity, low-latency sound effects
   * DirectPlay, for multiplayer connectivity
   * DirectInput, for digital joystick control

With today's announcement of the beta II SDK, eight hardware vendors
announced their support of Windows 95 game technology, including Aztech
Labs Inc., Chips and Technologies Inc., Cirrus Logic, ESS Technology,
MediaVision, S3 Inc., Tseng Labs, and Western Digital Corp.'s Multimedia
Products Unit. They join ATI Technologies Inc. and Creative Labs Inc. as
companies with device support in the Windows 95 beta II Game SDK. Device
support in the SDK now spans all display and audio devices supported in
the retail package for Windows 95.

"We're really excited about the Game SDK and what it represents for the
next generation of game software," said Keith Uhlin, director and general
manager of entertainment graphics at Cirrus Logic. "We've worked closely
with Microsoft to ensure we have great support for DirectDraw and
DirectSound, and we've optimized future chipsets to work even better with
the game APIs."

Game software developers using the SDK will see their games accelerated by
significant performance increases (such as a doubling of frame rates) on a
broad range of display, audio and input devices. Furthermore, these
developers will now be able to develop and test on a broad range of PC
configurations.

"This beta release of the Game SDK is a major step toward meeting our
objective of developing next-generation game titles," said Bob Lloyd,
chairman and CEO of Mindscape Inc. "We are developing a whole line of
games for Windows 95 this fall that will use the game APIs."

The Windows 95 Game SDK makes developing high-performance games for Windows
95 easier and faster than it was for the MS-DOS operating system by
providing game developers a standard set of system services that
previously they would have needed to implement and maintain themselves.
Using the Game SDK, game developers can now write to a standard set of
APIs, delivering high-performance game play to their customers across a
broad range of accelerated and unaccelerated PC-hardware configurations.
In addition, releasing Windows 95-based games will result in lower support
costs because Windows 95 will make installing and configuring games and
game peripherals dramatically easier. Currently, more than two dozen
leading game-industry companies have announced support of Windows 95 as a
game platform, with additional announcements and many first-time
demonstrations planned for the launch event for Windows 95 on Aug. 24 in
Redmond, Wash. Requests to become part of the Game SDK beta program should
be directed in e-mail to betareq@microsoft.com.

Today's announcement is the latest in a continuing series of moves by
Microsoft to bring outstanding multimedia and games support to users of
Windows. In recent months, Microsoft acquired RenderMorphics Ltd., an
industry leader in realtime 3-D PC graphics technology and the developer
of the Reality Lab 3-D realtime rendering library. Microsoft also recently
licensed software-based MPEG playback technology from Mediamatics for
revolutionary video playback performance and quality that was previously
only available with specialized hardware accelerators.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in
software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of
products and services for business and personal use, each designed with
the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take full
advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
 
 =========================================================
 From the 'New Product News' Electronic News Service on...
 AOL (Keyword = New Products) and Delphi (GO COMP PROD)
 =========================================================
 This information was processed from data provided by the
 company/author mentioned. For additional details, please
 contact them directly at the address/phone# indicated.
 Trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
 =========================================================
 All submissions for this service should be addressed to:
 BAKER ENTERPRISES,  20 Ferro Dr,  Sewell, NJ  08080  USA
 Email: rbakerpc@delphi.com  -or- RBakerPC (on AOL/Delphi)
 =========================================================
