3DO Europe Ltd has unveiled Meridian 59, its first on-line game, although its adoption in the UK could be hampered because local phone calls are not free. To alleviate the problem we are in the process of talking to Internet service providers at the moment so players don’t restrict their on-line time, the company said. We don’t want players watching the clock and worrying about their phone bill because this would ruin the essence of the game. 3DO said the service providers are very keen to set up some kind of payment structure so gamers don’t restrict the length of play and discussions are going on at the moment. Further details are expected before the game is launched in October. The game is essentially text-based with a three-dimensional graphics interface and features quizzes and quests for the player and this means the player could be on-line for some time. Another feature of the game lets users sign onto the game and when they log off and return they can keep the same character for future games. The game has been developed for 3DO by a company called Archetype Inc. It is different from other on-line games because it can support thousands of users playing simultaneously across the Internet, said 3DO. The beta version is up and running now and players can log on via 3DO’s Web site. It currently has around 150 players on-line at any one time.
