3-D game company signs up distributor for Japan market.

3-D game company signs up distributor for Japan market

A Chatsworth electronics company plans this week to begin supplying the computer brains for its Hologram Time Traveler video game to a Japanese distributor, launching worldwide marketing of what may be the first three-dimensional arcade game.

The local supplier, called with Design in Mind International Inc., said it has received a letter of credit guaranteeing orders for its video-system optics packages worth $3 million - a big boost for a small company that did just $6 million in sales last year.

The buyer is giant Tokyo-based Sega Enterprises Ltd., perhaps the largest video-game wholesaler in the world.

The interative Hologram Time Traveler leads a player through an adventure where characters and scenes appear as holograms, to be manipulated by the player.

"It enables you to go through time zones, with wonderful movie-type special effects," said WDIM President Steven Zuloff. He said he spent about $1.2 million to film the characters and scenes. "We actually shot a live-action movie, with choices and decisions to be made by the player. It's never been done before."

A Torrance video-game operator agreed. "To my understanding, it's the first hologram-based video game," said Dale Moore, president of L.A. Games Inc., which owns and operates games at about 100 locations.

Although images appear in three dimensions, "You can put your hands right into them - and there's nothing there," said Moore, who viewed the product at the recent ACME video-game trade show in Las Vegas.

Technically, the kidnapped princess, villains and other characters are not produced with holograms, but with a complex optical technology patented by the Dentsu advertising firm headquartered in Japan, said WDIM Chief Financial Officer Barry R. Benjamin.

The game employs digital sound and images stored on laser disc. It was developed by Hologram Ventures, a joint venture between WDIM and Allen Design Group of Carlsbad, Calif.