Microsoft DirectX Team and 75 Vendors Set Stage for Holiday Season At Meltdown ’96 Event

Microsoft PressPass – Microsoft DirectX Team and 75 Vendors Set Stage for Holiday Season At Meltdown ’96 Even

More Than 250 Hardware and Software Developers Convene for Compatibility Testing Of DirectX Games and Hardware Products

REDMOND, Wash. – Aug. 21, 1996 – To deliver on the promise of a DirectX
™
holiday season, Microsoft Corp. this week has gathered leading hardware and software developers to participate in Meltdown ’96, an intense week of round-robin testing and debugging. The results of this session will allow participating companies to meet the deadline of providing customers with a broad spectrum of DirectX-enabled products this holiday season.

“Meltdown is part of our continuing effort to work closely with the developer community,”
said Ty Graham, DirectX hardware evangelist for Microsoft.
“The DirectX SDK shipped on time to meet the deadlines for the holiday selling season, and Meltdown is the final checkpoint.”

Meltdown ’96 is a weeklong compatibility testing event for games running on the Microsoft® Windows® 95 operating system. The goal of the event is to test game software and hardware to make sure that everything works in combination and that consumers benefit from a true plug-and-play experience. Meltdown ’96 features:

  • More than 75 companies represented at this annual event

  • Fourfold increase in participation over Meltdown ’95

  • Over 100 games tested

  • 50 hardware systems and add-in cards tested

“Holiday 96 will be the second year that consumers will really benefit from the adoption of DirectX,”
said John Latta, president of 4th Wave.
“With regard to other API platforms, DirectX is the volume leader and helps set the standard for both developer and user expectations in entertainment software.”

The Meltdown events also include testing and educational seminars on Direct3D
™, DirectX, DirectX on the Windows NT® operating system version 4.0 and multiplayer DirectPlay
™
support. The event is also set up to obtain important vendor feedback for the final version of DirectX 3, due to be released in September.

Meltdown ’96 participants include the following companies:

  • !REALITY

  • 3D Labs

  • 3DFX Interactive Inc.

  • Accolade Inc.

  • Acer Advanced Labs Inc.

  • Alliance Semiconductor

  • Alps Electric Ltd.

  • Alps Interactive

  • AMD

  • ATI Technologies Inc.

  • Mitsubishi

  • NEC Electronics Inc.

  • NEC Technologies Inc.

  • NeoMagic Corp.

  • Number Nine Visual Technology Corp.

  • NVIDIA Corp.

  • Oak Technology Inc.

  • OPTi Inc.

  • Orchid Technology

  • Origin/Electronic Arts

  • OT Sports

  • Packard Bell

  • Pepper’s Ghost

  • Philips Semiconductor

  • Protozoa

  • Providenza & Boekelheide

  • Radical Entertainment

  • Reality Simulation Systems Inc.

  • Rendition Inc.

  • S-MOS

  • S3 Inc.

  • Sega Entertainment Inc.

  • Sierra On-Line

  • STB Systems Inc.

  • Texas Instruments Inc.

  • Trident Microsystems Inc.

  • Trilobyte

  • Tseng Labs Inc.

  • VeriTest Inc.

  • Viacom Newmedia

  • Videologic

  • WizBANG!

  • Xing Technology Corp.

  • Yamaha Systems Technology

  • Zombie

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft, DirectX, Windows, Direct3D, Windows NT and DirectPlay are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

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