Zombie Virtual Reality Entertainment Adds Spark to Microsoft's "Judgment Day" Halloween Event Its Windows 95- Compatible Titles, Ice & Fire and Locus, are Electrifying; Its Haunted House Offers High-Voltage Horror.

electrifying! That is, Zombie Virtual Reality Entertainment is electrifying the gaming community with its new CD-ROM titles, Locus and Ice & Fire. The savvy new multimedia software development company is participating in today's "Judgment Day" Halloween event hosted by Microsoft Corp. to demonstrate its thrilling new games created for Windows(R) 95. Both titles are being published by GT Interactive Software and will be available at retail outlets in November for an approximate street price of $49.95.

Zombie is led by two experts in virtual reality (VR) and scientific visualization, Joanna Alexander and Mark Long. Their mission, to create immersive entertainment experiences for the public, extends beyond their titles, as is evident by their elaborate haunted-house design. The high-voltage horror house is a spectacle of lights, generated by an eight-foot-high Tesla coil shooting lightning bolts in every direction. A life-size rubber zombie dominates the room, shaking and convulsing when zapped with electricity. The element of danger is real, and participants need to be escorted through the high-security laboratory.

"We are excited to be included in Microsoft's `Judgment Day' event and to show off Locus and Ice & Fire," said Mark Long, co-founder and vice-president of Zombie. "Using the Windows 95 game Software Development Kit (SDK), we were able to develop the titles more quickly and with faster game-play, superior graphics and better sound. And, with the AutoPlay capabilities in Windows 95, gamers can get to the action faster and easier."

"High-performance action games such as these work better on Windows 95," said Jason Robar, game technology evangelist at Microsoft Corp. "Along with an absence of installation or configuration problems, gamers also gain advanced features such as better resolution, high-fidelity sound and easier networking to make their experience more intense."

"Zombie's proactive development of Ice & Fire and Locus under Windows 95 demonstrates its intelligent approach to game creation," said Allan Blum, vice president of marketing at GT Interactive Software. "It's a bright company, and we expect Zombie's titles to enjoy great retail success."

Ice & Fire

Upon completing the haunting experience, attendees can sample Ice & Fire and Locus. Ice & Fire offers a thrilling mixture of fast-paced action, hidden dangers, cunning enemies, and strategic thinking. This futuristic game features real-time piloting and navigation set in a rich 3-D animated environment. Players embark on a perilous mission to rescue an inhabited asteroid that has been invaded by a bevy of evil Spherids. In a desperate attempt to protect the humans from these feared invaders, the asteroid was put into a deep freeze, leaving all things present immobile. Using careful calculations and quick responses, the players' mandate is to strategically unfreeze the crystals and protect the humans while destroying the enemies. Only the most heroic and courageous Star Patrol officers will succeed at this enormous task.

Ice & Fire is a first-person, cinema-style adventure designed in a non-linear fashion, allowing free movement between locations at the players' command. Gamers can move through fast-track mazes and the crystallized ruins of eight space stations to discover keys, switchers, logic bombs and the cryptic secrets needed to make the mission a success. The game was authored by Alexey Pajitnov and Vladimir Pokhilko, creators of the most popular video/computer game of all time-Tetris.

Locus

With Locus, players are in for a crash course in crushing, bashing and instant exhilaration. At light speed, they are plunged into colorful, curvaceous arenas to compete in a futuristic soccer-style game of skill and elimination. Zipping around in the arenas in their electromagnetic cybercycles, players must skillfully deposit the game balls into their opponents' goals before they are outscored by the competition. Any action possible is legal; aggressive behavior will prove victorious.

Locus features 13 wild levels and bonus secret rounds set in immersive 3-D environments. Players can choose to go head-to-head with one of the 12 computerized teams or compete against friends using its networked or modem capabilities. And for the ultimate virtual reality experience, Locus also supports all major consumer head-mounted displays (HMDs).

To show Microsoft's enthusiasm for Zombie's titles, Ice & Fire and Locus hav been included on the Windows 95 Game Sampler CD-ROM, featuring about a dozen SDK-based games from third-party publishers. The Sampler is positioned as an impulse-purchase, retailing for under $20.00.

Seattle-based Zombie Virtual Reality Entertainment was founded in 1994 by Joanna Alexander and Mark Long, both formerly with the David Sarnoff Research Center's Virtual Environment Center. They formed Zombie to apply their combined thirteen years' advanced virtual reality research and development expertise to the creation of immersive VR entertainment programs for the consumer market. Zombie's other principals are Nick Nicholas, former co-chief executive officer of Time Warner and former president of both HBO and Time, Inc. and Mike Tannen, president of Kinnevik Media, a Scandinavian satellite and cable company.

Headquartered in New York, GT Interactive Software is a leading global publisher of interactive entertainment, education and reference software titles. GT publishes its titles for IBM compatible and Macintosh computers as well as 32/64 bit gaming platforms. DOOM II, Mortal Kombat 3 and Just Me and My Dad are among GT's hottest titles. GT can be found on the World Wide Web, at www.gtinteractive.com. -0- All brands, products and service names mentioned are trademarks or registered service marks of their respective owners.

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