Intel Corp has announced the Open Arcade Architecture Forum to promote use of the personal computer-based arcade games specification it announced in April (CI No 3,150). The Forum is an industry association of 60 members that will promote development of arcade systems based on the Pentium II processor. The Forum will encourage the development of hardware and software for open arcade systems through proactive market development efforts, said Claude Leglise, vice president of the Content Group at Intel. This will help ensure systems and software compatibility, while delivering arcade-game performance equaling or exceeding proprietary systems. The Open Arcade Architecture specification was announced by Intel in April at the Computer Games Developers Conference in Santa Clara, California. The specification is based on the Pentium II with MMX, the Accelerated Graphics Port and high-performance 3D graphics accelerators. The Architecture now supports dual processor-based arcade systems to enable faster and richer games as well as provide additional processing power for networking, video and voice conferencing, Intel said. Founding members of the Open Arcade Architecture Forum include technology and platform providers Immersion Corp, 3Name3D, Eidos Interative Inc, Gremlin Interactive plc, GT Interactive, Namco Ltd, Rage Games Ltd; hardware developers 3Dfx Interactive, ATI Research Inc, Evans & Sutherland, Nvidia Corp, Rendition Inc, VideoLogic Ltd and Quantum3D. The Forum’s first meeting is scheduled for August 26 in Santa Clara, California.
