DIGITAL L.A. : GAME BOY KEEPS ON GROWING.

Byline: David Bloom

In all the hoopla about next-generation gaming machines such as Sega's Dreamcast, Nintendo's 10-year-old Game Boy handheld machine keeps on finding fans - and lots of them.

In the United States alone this year, Nintendo sold 2.7 million Game Boy units after finally updating the technology last year with a color screen and more powerful processor. It even outsold the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64 consoles - combined - in May and June.

And as the father of two children and three Game Boys, I can speak to their enduring spell over the younger set and handy uses on long-distance drives or other boring downtimes.

Given the Game Boy's enduring popularity, a lot of new games have been flowing from developers, including some of the following worthy recent additions to the huge library of titles already out there:

Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (Nintendo): A color-only version of yet another arcade and NES fave, with pretty much all of the original arcade game intact, though on a much smaller screen. It also comes with some oddball additions, such as the ability to print out certificates, posters and the like on a Game Boy Printer. There's also a ``versus'' mode that lets you play against a pal over linking cables.

Chessmaster (Mindscape Interactive): Chess is making a comeback in a lot of schools, and here's a great way to help hone the talents of your own little grand champion (or a more mature one), either against a 16-level computer opponent or another human. With teaching and replay modes, a library of opening moves, timed chess and more. I'm a brutally bad chess player, but my young son found it a useful and challenging title, despite the lure of many glitzy alternatives.

Tarzan (Activision): A color-only adventure game based on the Disney animated hit film. I was knocked out by the great interstitial animations, and the game itself is somewhat similar to the excellent PlayStation and PC Tarzan titles. You can play one of four characters, fighting leopards, swimming with crocodiles and swinging on vines.

Klustar (Infogrames): A puzzle game that's sort of a Tetris without a top. Clusters of blocks come at you from left and right, and you snag them onto a central glob of squares. Complete a perfect square shape and it disappears from the glob. As with Tetris, it's a remarkably addictive time-waster with endless replayability.

Lucky Luke (Infogrames): A loping color-only sidescroller adventure with Luke cleaning up a Wild West just rotten with bad hombres. Pretty good graphics, but you'd better be quick on the draw, or you'll be staring up at your own tombstone.

Calendar

The Venice Interactive Community, which has been holding a regular series of fun and useful networking events in recent months, will try to outdo itself from 6 to 11 p.m. Wednesday with WebFest, which will be held at the Skirball Cultural Center at the intersection of Mulholland Drive and Sepulveda Boulevard.

The WebFest will feature a keynote speaker (their original choice canceled at the last minute, so we'll have to see who they come up with), presentations by a number of tech-related companies - Deloitte Touche, Futurestep, IBM, InXsys, Magnet, MixMe, PeopleLink, Proxicom, USI, US Web/CKS, Creative Assets, Etalent, WebToads - and a digital movie festival sponsored by MovieFlix.com. Plus lots of chances to meet people working in the digital age.

This should be a major shindig, with as many as 1,000 people showing up. Tickets are free for VIC members, $20 for non-members. RSVP at [phone], or go to the group's Web site at www.veniceinteractive.com.

Quote of the week

Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic Adventure, told trade publication Game Week: ``I have a long history of playing games but recently I haven't had the chance. Games aren't as interesting as they used to be. I think many of the older games were more fun than games today.''

Hope he feels better about Sonic Adventure, a truly terrific title that's the flagship product of the new Sega Dreamcast.