PowerVR's 3D Graphics Shake Up Gamers With Best-Selling Titles from id Software

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Las Vegas, NV, November 17, 1997 -- NEC Electronics Inc. and VideoLogic today announced that the QUAKE series of game titles from id Software will support the PowerVR 3D graphics acceleration technology through the OpenGL API.

Developed by NEC Electronics and VideoLogic in 1996, PowerVR's exceptional 3D graphics capabilities offer bilinear filtering, translucency and fast frame rates at resolutions up to 1024 x 768 pixels. The PowerVR architecture enhances PC-based 3D graphics software, providing gamers with superior game play, and a vivid, real-time 3D environment that gives an unprecedented sense of reality.

QUAKE, QUAKE II, and the QUAKE Mission Packs are the latest PC titles to provide the consumer with arcade-quality performance, affording one of the most visually realistic, fervently engaging gaming experiences available on the personal computer.

"By working with id Software on the hottest titles on the market, PowerVR is able to provide gamers with superior 3D graphics technology while delivering an extraordinary gaming experience," said Charles Bellfield, product marketing manager, multimedia strategic business unit, NEC Electronics.

id Software Titles

QUAKE II -- QUAKE II marks a revolutionary step in 3-D action gaming with enemies that execute sophisticated tactical maneuvers and absorb thunderous damage. Superb artwork, interactive environments and dramatic lighting effects enhance id's legendary in-your-face skull-crushing combat. With an enhanced version of the gaming engine, this war against alien aggressors offers complex missions and wicked multiplayer capabilities that allow more than 32 players to battle in a bloody Deathmatch via LAN or Internet. QUAKE II is slated for release in time for Christmas 1997.

QUAKE -- QUAKE allows players to explore, stalk and battle within six degrees of freedom. The game features id Software's trademark in-your-face lightning-fast action game play, intense weapons and monsters, amazing sound effects and mesmerizing environments for the most extreme battling experience possible on a computer. QUAKE has spawned a phenomenon of on-line QUAKE teams or "clans" who challenge each other in free-for all deathmatches.

QUAKE Mission Pack No. 1: Scourge of Armagon -- Scourge of Armagon lets gamers take their QUAKE experience to the next level of interactivity with some vicious new monsters and brutal weapons. Scurrying like scavengers, hordes of gremlins drop from the shadowed ceilings and overhangs to maul gamers. Armor-plated centroids with voracious appetites for body parts also prove to be a deadly force against players' heroic ways. After escaping execution by gremlins and centroids, players face the greatest wrath by challenging Armagon, a half-biological, half-machine creature. Published and developed by id Software in conjunction with Ritual Entertainment and distributed by Activision, Inc., the QUAKE Mission Pack No. 1 is available in stores now.

QUAKE Mission Pack No. 2: Dissolution of Eternity -- In Dissolution of Eternity, Executive produced and developed by id Software in conjunction with Rogue Entertainment, QUAKE, the evil leader with a thirst for universal dominance, has fashioned a world of chaos, pain and violence. Gamers must annihilate his minions through two hazardous episodes: Hell's Fortress, which depicts the darkest of ages, and The Corridors of Time, a historically warped environment set in a past gone horribly mad. Once gamers have navigated the slaughter-strewn 16 levels, they can jump into specially designed deathmatch levels or play an enhanced version of the hottest QUAKE game on the Internet -- Capture the Flag.

PowerVR with PCX2

PowerVR, from NEC and VideoLogic, is an advanced 3D graphics technology for personal computers, game consoles and arcade systems. The PowerVR-based PCX2 3D graphics accelerator provides users with outstanding performance, offering a sustained fill rate of 40 million pixels per second on an Intel Pentium Pro 200MHz PC.

PowerVR offers PC users outstanding 3D effects. These include hardware-accelerated realtime shadows, true exponential fogging, precise 32-bit Z buffer function (hidden surface removal), smooth shading and realistic translucency for water, fire and explosion effects.

On a PowerVR-equipped system, images appear clearly through bilinear filtering and games run at resolutions anywhere from 320 x 200 up to 1024 x 768 pixels using 16-, 24- or 32-bit color. Unlike competing 3D graphics processors, PCX2 does not require special cabling, but runs directly on a PCI bus at any resolution, and can operate in a windowed environment or full-screen. PCX2 is compatible with Direct3D, RenderWare, SurRender and the GLQuake engines, as well as PowerSGL Direct, PowerVR's native API.

More than 100 titles from the world's leading game developers have been developed for or ported to the PowerVR architecture, including industry sales leaders such as WipeOut, Tomb Raider, MDK, GLQuake and Hexen II.

Purchasing PowerVR

The PowerVR 3D graphics accelerator is available in the U.S. through PowerVR-enhanced systems, including Compaq Presario 8000 and Gateway 2000 Destination Big-Screen PC-TV, and add-in graphics cards from companies including Matrox Graphics, VideoLogic Multimedia Systems, NEC Home Electronics (Japan), Melco and I-O Data. PowerVR-equipped products can be purchased through retailers including Best Buy, CompUSA and Electronics Boutique.

VideoLogic, founded in 1985, is a leading international supplier of PC multimedia products. The company develops highly integrated advanced multimedia semiconductors, software and add-in multimedia PC cards, with distribution in more than 50 countries through OEMs, value added resellers, retail channels and directly from VideoLogic offices. The company has its corporate headquarters in the United Kingdom, its U.S. headquarters in San Bruno, Calif., and offices in Frankfurt, Germany. VideoLogic has development agreements with Compaq and NEC, and is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (FOOTSY:VDL).

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