http://www.hotwired.com/wired/updata.html (HotWired Trade Show Demo, 11/1995)
A year ago, the hottest name in the videogame industry was a precocious little Silicon Valley start-up called Rocket Science Games Inc. With a superstar roster of designers, software architects, Hollywood production wizards; a ton of front money; and a dazzling array of proprietary tools, Rocket Science was touted as a sure-fire winner in the competitive, US$6 billion, interactive home-entertainment industry even before its first titles hit the shelves for the Christmas season.
So, how did Rocket Science do in its 1994 début? "Not as well as we expected," concedes company spokesperson Anna Caldwell.
What went wrong? Well, for one thing, the company backed the wrong horse when it decided to focus on the Sega CD play platform, says Executive Vice President Peter Barrett, the valley Wunderkind around whom Rocket Science was formed.
"We didn't raise all this money and gather all this talent to make action games," explains Barrett. "But we felt our backers wanted to get some titles out on the market fast, and that seemed the best way to go."
However, the money people apparently weren't as rushed as the production team assumed they were. "They would've preferred that we slow down a bit and go for the Big Idea," admits Barrett. "So, now we're going for it."
And what's the Big Idea?
First off the board (although not for a year or so) will be Obsidian, a Myst-like exploration and idea game that requires more brainpower than shoot-'em-up hand-eye coordination. That will be followed by Brainspore, which Barrett promises will be a breakthrough in the horror-story genre.
The trend toward more literate games means that some projects well along the Rocket Science pipeline have had to be scrapped. "We saw some things at the Consumer Electronics Show very similar to our Rocket Boy and DarkRide, so we've put those on hold," says Caldwell. "But we still have Wing Nuts, a World War I dogfight game, in the works."
Can Rocket Science bounce back after its somewhat dismal début? Sure, says industry analyst Sean McGowan of New York-based Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co.
"The fact that they went Sega CD is a perfectly adequate rationale for disappointing sales: any game on a lousy platform is going to do badly, and everyone knows that Sega CD sucks. But I think they've learned some things, and they probably still have a year left to play. No real critical indicators have been passed, and if they have their money partners behind them, they may even have until '96. It's not a business that gives you five years to prove yourself."
According to Peter Barrett, the morale around Rocket Science remains high in the face of adversity. They're bringing in some hot game designers, and the company is collaborating with SGI on what promises to be some reasonably rad 3-D graphics.
"And our money people are still polite to us," sighs Barrett. "That's always a good sign."
- Burr Snider
[Original story in Wired 2.11, page 108.]
The president has left the building; repeat, the president has left the building. Jeff Apple, that is, former co-CEO of daVinci Time & Space. Apple made his exit last March in hot pursuit of two movie deals and a semi-secret, global multimedia project with futurist Alvin Toffler.
With daVinci's second-round strategic financing on track, and team management in place, Apple felt quite comfortable with the move. "Foremost, I wanted to resume my motion-picture career," he explained.
A producer by trade, Apple is certainly motivated to keep daVinci healthy in his absence - he's still a principle stockholder.
"I'm a person of ideas, lots of ideas," Apple recently elaborated. "And I'm focusing my energies on those."
[Original story in Wired 3.01, page 86.]
The Singaporean government is now online. The Young PAP (the youth wing of the ruling People's Action Party) now patrols every corner of the Internet, posting corrections to "misinformation" about Singaporean politics or culture. The government has also launched its first Web site, the Singapore InfoMap - a sort of antiseptic, interactive tourist brochure.
The ruling party has also firmly suggested that Singaporeans watch each other closely, reporting to the authorities anyone producing or engaging in pornographic, criminal, or antisocial behavior.
However, it seems even the minister of information and the arts, Brigadier General George Yeo, understands that the Net is designed to resist censorship. As one cyberpatrolman put it,
"The moment you behave self-righteously, no matter how logical your argument, your credibility is lost."
[Original story in Wired 1.4, page 51.]
Seems censorship isn't as bad as it could be in the great northern wide open (read: Canada). The Associated Press in mid-March reported that CadVision Development Corp., the largest Internet access provider in Calgary, Alberta, was censoring content available to all subscribers. AP got it wrong.
The controversy centered around DeathNet, a site providing info on how to commit suicide. CadVision, Calgary's biggest online proprietor, received complaints from schools afraid to get online because of offensive sites like DeathNet.
"CadVision will never disable full Internet access to our general usership," assured Geoffrey Shmigelsky, CadVision's president. "However, we must still provide protected access to our scholastic client base." To do so, the company has set up a separate, censored network for those who want it: a directorship of 12 qualified volunteers and educators evaluates content and votes on which sites to censor.
Another provider, Canada Connect Corp., also offers a specially filtered newsfeed channel for parents wishing to restrict the wanderings of young surfers. Neither company abbreviates full Internet access for those who wish to keep it.
[Original story in Wired 3.03, page 92.]
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