REDMOND Wash., June 23 -- Acclaim Entertainment Inc., a leading interactive software company, and video game giant Nintendo announced Thursday they will jointly develop a 64-bit video game system.
New York-based Acclaim also unveiled the firstValiant Comics title for the Nintendo Ultra 64 game system.
Acclaim's first 64-bit game, 'Turok: Dinosaur Hunter,' is scheduled for introduction when the Nintendo Ultra 64 is launched in the fall of 1995.
Nintendo's 64-bit home video game system, now under development at Silicon Graphics Inc., will have a suggested retail price of around $250, the company said.
Nintendo is wagering the new game system will give it an increased share of the $6 billion video gaming business.
Sega and 3DO are Nintendo's chief competitors in the video game industry, with Sega having grabbed significant market share in the last two years.
Howard Lincoln, Nintendo of America chairman, announced the Acclaim agreement in a speech at the opening of the summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.
'Acclaim continues to shine among interactive entertainment companies and we are excited about expanding our relationship to include Nintendo Ultra,' Lincoln told the semi-annual gathering of the electronics industry.
'Turok: Dinosaur Hunter' is the first video game developed since Acclaim entered into an agreement to purchase Voyager Communications, publishers of Valiant Comics.
'We are excited to join with Nintendo to develop what we anticipate will be some of the most advanced software titles to hit the market,' Acclaim President Robert Holmes said. 'By linking Acclaim's digital actor motion capture technology with the sophisticated capabilities of Nintendo's Ultra 64 system, we plan to bring interactive entertainment to new heights.'
Acclaim is publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange and had net sales of $116 million for the second quarter ending Feb. 28. The independent entertainment publisher is currently building its first motion picture studio at a new 65,000-square-foot headquarters in Glen Cove, N.Y.
Redmond, Wash.-based Nintendo of America Inc., is investing in a 70, 000-square-foot booth at the Chicago show. The display points to the future of video games highlighting Nintendo's line-up of 16-bit video games and giving updates on the status of the company's next-generation, 64-bit, 3-D Nintendo Ultra 64, which was previously code named Project Reality.
