Intel Takes Aim At Video-Game Market

Intel Corp. is preparing an assault on the $15 billion home video-game market, using the powerful weapon of hardware standards.

Currently, developers must write one version of a game for arcades, a second for Nintendo’s home console and a third for Sega’s.

Adopting the same strategy it used to dominate the personal computer market, Intel is bidding to convince developers to write to a common platform - Intel’s.

On Monday, the Santa Clara, Calif., company plans to release a hardware specification, based on its Pentium II chip, that will meld the designs of coin-operated arcade games and high-end multimedia PCs. In essence, that means developers could produce games simultaneously for each.