Computer Games

By day, Ron McKown is a mild-mannered technical manager at a Ventura County Internet service provider. By night, he becomes Golgotha, grandmaster warrior, sword-wielding slayer of monsters and protector of innocents in the city of Baja in the kingdom of Britannia. McKown's metamorphosis occurs in Ultima Online (http://www.ultimaonline.com), the Internet-based fantasy role-playing game from Electronic Arts subsidiary Origin Systems Inc.

It's Christmas 1996. Dozens of U.S. computer game makers, bogged down by soaring production costs, failed to finish their hottest titles before the holidays. A few products sold big. Yet most of retail's precious shelf space was crowded with hundreds of ho-hum products that generated a lukewarm buzz among shoppers. A year later, things look great. Fans are overwhelmed by a bounty of selections. Game makers excitedly release a stream of eagerly anticipated sequels.

When it comes to computer games, holiday time used to mean the 12 days of isolated game-play. Now you can share the experience with friends, loved ones, and strangers from France, with enhanced multi-player options letting you hook up modem-to-modem or via the Internet. With the exception of Riven and the kids titles, all of the CD-ROMs on the list have some sort of multi-player option. RIVEN, Cyan/Red Orb (PC/Mac).

Parents of computer game addicts, meet Thresh. And think twice before you snatch that joystick out of your child's hand again. Thresh, whose real name is Dennis Fong, is perhaps the world's first truly professional computer game player. He has an agent. He has endorsement deals. He has a Ferrari. He is also the marquee name in what is being billed as the Professional Gamers League, or PGL, a bold attempt to bring gaming into the ranks of professional sports.

The disgruntled, raincoat-clad man takes to the street, shotgun in hand. He shoots down police, pedestrians, a marching band, churchgoers. As men and women fall bleeding, the shooter mutters, "Going postal." This is no crime scene. It is a computer game, "Postal," where players can use the main character to shoot, maim, incinerate and otherwise snuff out innocent bystanders and law officers by the busload.

Former junk bond king Michael Milken has sold about one-third of his holding in troubled computer games company 7th Level, Variety magazine reported. Milken took advantage of a jump in 7th Level's stock price last week to sell 500,000 shares for about $1.7 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made late Friday, according to Variety's latest issue.

When members of Congress left Washington in droves earlier this month for their summer recess, federal employees could breath a sigh of relief: Their computer games were safe, for now. But when the lawmakers return in September, their agenda of weighty affairs of state will include whether to push forward with a proposed ban on computer games in every nook and cranny of the federal bureaucracy.

The Senate approved a measure requiring federal agencies to remove computer games from all government computers. The amendment to the Treasury and general government appropriations bill, which passed without objection, would also forbid the government to buy any new computers that have games already installed. "The taxpayers don't need to be paying the salaries of people who are playing games while on official time," said Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-N.C.), who sponsored the amendment.

Two years ago, visitors to the giant Electronic Entertainment Expo could hardly escape the constant boasts that this game or that game was destined to be "the next Myst," the subdued, surrealistic adventure that became the first true mega-hit of computer gaming. This year, though, no one made that claim. Not even the folks actually producing the next Myst, a sequel called Riven. In fact, they take minor offense at the label, preferring to call their endeavor "the first Riven." Whatever.

Ignite Inc., the troubled computer game maker previously known as Graphix Zone, said Wednesday its stock will no longer be listed on the Nasdaq stock market. The small Irvine-based company will be delisted after today. Investors may be able to trade shares on Nasdaq's over-the-counter bulletin board or in the National Quotation Bureau "pink sheets," but Ignite said it could make no assurances that will be possible. The company's shares had traded as high as $8.