Silicon Graphics Inc’s growing enthusiasm for the fun-and-games end of the business – its machines were the behind-the-scenes stars of the Jurassic Park movie – has now taken the company into partnership with the video games market leader Nintendo Co. The two signed a development and licensing agreement to create a generation of virtual reality video games systems that enable players to step inside real-time, three-dimensional worlds. Project Reality will use a version of the Multimedia Engine, a chip-set consisting of a 64-bit MIPS Technologies Inc RISC microprocessor, graphics co-processor and application-specific parts. Nintendo will pay Silicon Graphics royalties for use of the technology. Silicon Graphics’s Indy desktop computer provides an authoring system for current Nintendo developers wanting to create applications for Project Reality. The product will be in arcades in 1994 and be available for home use by late 1995 – with a target price of under $250. Nintendo reckons the work with Silicon Graphics will enable it to skip a generation and go straight to true 64-bit, three-dimensional video entertainment. Anticipation of the joint announcement caused the shares of Interactive Multiplayer designer 3DO Co to slump by $4 to $26 late on Friday.
