Dimension X's Java Animation Tool, Liquid Motion, Chosen by Excite to Promote Marimba's Castanet Channels; Excite Channel Guide Grabs Viewers with Liquid Motion -- Java Animation Tool of Choice.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 1996--Dimension X announced today that their industry-leading Java animation tool, Liquid Motion, was chosen by Excite to create the interactive animation on its Excite Channel Guide.

The Excite Channel Guide, built on the recently announced Marimba Castanet technology, showcases Java animations created using Liquid Motion that twist, whir, buzz, spin, roll, wave, flip and turn to attract viewers.

"We were pleased to discover how easy it was to create interactive Java animations for the Excite Channel Guide by taking advantage of the power and flexibility of Dimension X's Liquid Motion," said Joe Kraus, senior vice president of business development at Excite.

Excite Channel Guide gives users a central location to find all the Castanet channels available. Users can locate channels of interest by browsing a directory organized by subject, or use the search engine, Excite Search.

"We are excited about the opportunity to show the power and versatility of Liquid Motion, and honored to have it selected by Excite as the tool of choice to create interactive multimedia content for Castanet channels," said Karl Jacob, CEO of Dimension X.

Unlike static listings that provide only a sentence or paragraph description of the channel, the Excite Channel Guide delivers an animated review, enabling the user to preview the channel before selecting it. The multimedia previews were created using Liquid Motion, complete with movement and audio, and are action-packed, interactive and dynamic.

Marimba's revolutionary new Castanet technology enables the creation and deployment of full-scale applications across networks such as the Internet. Castanet represents the next generation of online publishing and applications with two-way transmission that has near-real-time software updates to and from the server and can simultaneously deploy applications and content updates to millions of people. To visually depict this concept, Marimba called on Dimension X to demonstrate how multimedia content can be efficiently delivered using Castanet.

"Dimension X's Java animation tools are in keeping with what we see as the future of Java multimedia," said Kim Polese, CEO and president of Marimba. "Liquid Motion's easy animation capabilities combined with Castanet's automated content delivery will provide the kind of Internet entertainment that Web publishers and advertisers have been dreaming of."

Liquid Motion is a powerful and flexible Java tool that allows easy incorporation of Java applets with sound and interactivity into Web sites and presentations. Information and ideas can be delivered in an animated and interactive format via the Intranet or Internet. Online multimedia presentations, Web advertising, financial data representation, personnel training, human resource information and corporate reports can be energized to make a lasting impression using Liquid Motion.

Completely coded in Java, the Liquid Motion open architecture provides a powerful and flexible base for programmers to rapidly extend the functionality of the product and develop custom behaviors, sound and image libraries, as well as integrate database applications. Liquid Motion provides an ever-expanding and powerful tool chest for programmers and an intuitive user interface for non-programmers.

Features include sprite and audio sequencing, motion path control, content management, support for interactive behavior functionality and the ability to create events for user interaction. Liquid Motion generates an animation script and an HTML file for quick and easy insertion into Web pages and takes advantage of all the features of the Java language, such as platform independence, object orientation and multi-threading.

Dimension X Channel

The Dimension X Channel will be featured as "Hot" viewing on the Castanet Tuner. Consumers can select from four "programs" to access the latest Java content creation tools, learn how to use them and access never-before-seen participative demonstrations. Artificial Life (A-Life), a genetic algorithm program created by Dimension X, illustrates the Castanet's Tuner and Transmitter frequent software-update feature and the two-way communication capabilities of the "back-channel."

A-Life gives users the opportunity to play genetic scientist and participate in the evolution of "alpha creatures." Users make their selection of characteristics they want to be emphasized in the gene pool to create and post their renditions of these 3D life forms. As each entry is made a new evolution model is communicated back to the transmitter, and all users have their version updated. It is essentially collaborative artificial selection.

As with all other emerging Castanet channels, the Dimension X Channel can be found on the Excite Channel Guide.

A prerelease version of the major new release of Liquid Motion will be available on Monday, Oct. 7 to download at http://www.dimensionx.com/products/lm.

Dimension X, founded March 1995, is the leader in providing Java-based platforms and tools for communicating ideas and concepts over the Internet. Liquid Motion, a 2D Java Animation tool, and Liquid Reality, a Java and VRML platform, provide a comprehensive solution for content delivery on the Internet.

CONTACT: Dimension X

Megan McFeely, 415/243-0900

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