BALDIES TAKE MANHATTAN.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 1996--

Dozens of Chrome Domes, Hairless Henchmen and the Follicilly-Challenged Invade New York to Introduce New Strategy

Computer Game

Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Center, Times Square and other vulnerable New York locations are bracing themselves for tomorrow's invasion of Baldies, the cute but ruthless little bald characters featured in the new multiplayer CD-ROM strategy computer game from Panasonic Interactive Media.

On Wednesday, December 11, a horde of human Baldies will take to the streets of New York to hand out Baldies t-shirts and demonstration disks with five sample levels of the game. While their digital counterparts in the game are often described as "devilish," "sadistic" and "completely disoriented" in their never-ending quest to vanquish their sworn enemies, the Hairies, these human Baldies want nothing more than to be friends with all the people they encounter on their adventures in New York.

"We had to promise to leave behind our usual arsenal of weapons, including the exploding cows, the flying goldfish and the skunk bombs," said one of the Baldies, who are indistinguishable except by the color of their overalls. "Our only mission in New York is to tell everyone we meet about how much fun it is to play our new game, especially if you install it on a computer network and play against your so-called friends."

The Baldies plan to start their journey on Wednesday at Grand Central Station at 8:00 a.m. to greet commuters on their way to work. They will travel to the New York Stock Exchange and the South Street Seaport during the morning, then they will say hello to the Wednesday matinee crowd at Times Square during lunch, and roam to Rockefeller Center to meet afternoon shoppers and skaters in the early afternoon.

The Baldies game is a real-time adventure that takes place in five different worlds -- Green, Winter, Egypt, Tourist and Hell--with 100 different levels of fast, funny and furious adventures against the enemy Hairies. Players work with Worker/Breeder, Scientist, Solider and Builder Baldies to develop and implement hilarious battle strategies to wipe out the cunning and ruthless Hairy population, such as dropping a Skunk Bomb onto the roof of an enemy house and watching them run outside into a field of land mines. When installed on a network, up to four players can compete against each other.

Baldies is available on CD-ROM for Windows 95 or DOS-based personal computers at leading software and computer games retailers. The suggested list price for Baldies is $44.95.

Panasonic Interactive Media (PIM) is a division of Matsushita Electric Corporation of America (MECA) dedicated to interactive content and content delivery systems. Based in Santa Clara, California, PIM delivers hardware and software products for many different interactive platforms including PC and Macintosh home computer systems. Its parent company, Matsushita Electric Corporation of America (MECA), is headquartered in Secaucus, NJ. Established in 1959, it is the principal North American subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (MEI) (NYSE: MC) of Osaka, Japan. Along with its subsidiaries and affiliates, MECA -- which markets products under the Panasonic, Technics and Quasar brands -- recorded sales of $7.3 billion in the fiscal year ended March 1996. Matsushita has 22 North American manufacturing sites in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and employs over 16,000 people here. MEI was a Worldwide Official Sponsor of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games.

CONTACT: Peter Binazeski

GCI Group

212/546-2089

email: [e-mail]

or

Sangita Verma

Panasonic Interactive Media

408/653-4074