Network Bytes: Intel aims for games standard

In its latest bid for world hardware domination, Intel Corp plans to go after the specialist games companies and last week introduced a hardware specification based on the Pentium II in an effort to turn it into a single standard to which all games developers will write. According to a report in the San Jose Mercury News, the aim is to tackle the problem that games developers may want to write four versions of their games - one for arcades, and one each for Sega, Nintendo and Sony consoles.

What makes the idea a little less than convincing is that the customer for games for a $150 64-bit Nintendo console is hardly the same person as the owner of a fully-featured $3,000 multimedia machine - and as long as games for consoles remain enticing, there will be many more of the former.

The specification includes 266MHz or 233MHz Pentium II with 16Mb, a fast graphics board and Windows95 or Windows NT. Intel expects it to cost $2,000 by the middle of 1998. ComputerWire