Virtual War Sony, Sega Fire Opening Shots In Battle Over Dominance Of Video-Game Industry

In the wake of the Windows 95 and Michael Jackson “HIStory” hoopla, the next few months will bring another blizzard of techno-hype. In the past two weeks, Sony and Sega, two consumer electronics giants, have started battling for control of the $5 billion video-game industry.

What is at stake? The hearts, minds and allowances of more than 30 million game players, about half of them 18 or younger. After all, the Christmas shopping season isn’t far off.

Sony, in its first major leap into the competitive video-game business, introduced its Playstation hardware and software on Saturday. Not coincidentally, Sega announced the nationwide availability of its advanced game console, the Sega Saturn, on Sept. 2. The companies plan to spend more than $100 million in advertising and promotion, so for the next few months their ads are going to be hard to miss.

The Sony Playstation console costs $299 without any games or $349 with its Ridge Racer car-racing game. The Playstation is a new 32-bit video game platform (or format), as is the Sega Saturn. The games are not in the familiar old plastic cartridges but are supplied on disks similar to CDs.

Even though the disks look alike, they cannot be played on the competitor’s system. Like the older games, the 32-bit generation hooks up to a television set and is operated with a multbutton control pad connected to a plastic console.

They offer more lifelike characters, dazzling colors, sound as good as that of a music CD and more realistic backgrounds. When a player kicks opponents on the screen, they grunt and grimace. Or if a player speeds around a race track and loses control, the crash looks like a network instant replay.

After being zapped by laser beams, exploding spaceships rain down in showers of glittery fragments. This is light-years from the black-and-white Pong table-tennis game introduced almost 20 years ago.

And it’s a computer technology leap even Microsoft’s founder, Bill Gates, would envy. His Windows 95 is the equivalent of an attempt to move home PCs to a 32-bit operating system from 16. Unlike Windows 95, which makes computers easier to use, the effect of 32-bit technology is to make video games harder, and more challenging, to play. Pong just won’t do anymore.

Sony Playstation games cost around $50 each. A dozen are available now, and another dozen are due by the end of October. One of those that game enthusiasts have been awaiting is Mortal Kombat 3, a home version of an arcade blockbuster, which will be available exclusively on the Sony system until April 1996.

A currently sought-after title is Battle Arena Toshinden, a martial-arts game.

Parent alert: After last year’s Senate hearings on video-game violence, the industry has begun a voluntary rating system for all games: Digital Pictures’ Night Trap, for example, is now labeled for “mature” players, ages 17 or older. It contains “realistic violence,” the label notes.

The 32-bit Sega Saturn costs $399 with Virtua Fighter, its arcade classic. Eight games are available now at about $50 each, with another 10 due by the end of September. As with the Playstation, fighting games are hot: Virtua Fighter 2, is scheduled for December introduction.

If the electronics companies’ commercials are effective, millions of Americans will get the urge to replace their present game systems with 32-bit technology. Two million-plus game players have already done so in Japan.

Many local video stores will rent the new 32-bit systems, and a test drive is well worth the cost, usually $5 to $10.

What happens to the piles of older 16-bit Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo cartridges scattered around the house? Many toy and software stores are now offering trade-ins. You can take in your rarely played games and get a credit toward a brand-new system that, if history is any guide, could itself be obsolete in four years.

The going rate is around $10 a cartridge, $35 a console.

Sega and Nintendo are still releasing a few 16-bit cartridges for the faithful (or for those parents who do not want to spend $500 for new game hardware and software). One of the most interesting new Genesis titles is Comix Zone, released in July, which is not the usual kick, slash and burn game. Its players become young artists trapped inside their own comic-book creations. Of course, they have to fight their way back home. The graphics are highly detailed.

Nintendo’s ode to 16-bit games, Killer Instinct, came out Aug. 30. It’s a home version of the popular arcade game. Donkey Kong Country 2, a sequel to Nintendo’s largest selling video game (7.5 million copies), is scheduled to go on sale Dec. 4.

Nintendo also unveiled Virtual Boy ($179) in August, an unusual self-contained game system rather than one that must be connected to a television set. Players peer through binoculartype openings into a three-dimensional world with black backgrounds and red images. The Galactic Pinball cartridge for Virtual Boy offers a bizarre but intriguing overhead perspective.

Some game reviewers liked the technology but said the price was too high. There are only five games available, but Blockbuster Video has reported strong rentals, at about $10, for the Virtual Boy systems. Definitely try before you buy.