It's a DVD. No, it's a game console
Toshiba, Motorola, Samsung, and Raite Optoelectronics (pronounced "Rite") have announced plans to manufacture DVD movie players with a new technology called NUON that will enable them to play games.
Developed by Silicon Valley-based VM Labs, NUON (which was previously known as Merlin and Project X) is a technology that adds interactivity to digital products. As VM Labs and its partners demonstrated at this month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, it does much more than play games.
A language of their own
VM Labs spokespeople have long befuddled the video game-covering press by using a different lexicon of terms than other game companies. Sony and Nintendo talk about megahertz and polygons; VM Labs people have generally spoken about MIPS (millions of instructions per second), flares, and Caviar Voxel non-polygonal 3D graphics. Whereas Sega spokespeople are practically bursting at the seams to talk about benchmarks, VM Labs people refuse to define their technology by benchmarks.
Talking technology with VM Labs people is so frustrating that you sometimes expect to have an aneurysm on the spot. Ulcer-causing or not, they do have a point. NUON is a versatile technology that addresses gaming, among other tasks.
Motorola, for instance, has incorporated NUON with Power PC technology (which Motorola refers to as "DigitalDNA") into its Streamaster Mustang series of set-top boxes to add Internet access and movie viewing options.
"NUON allowed us to accept things like MP3 as they come into the market with a software solution," says Motorola media systems division director of strategic alliances Roger Kozlowski. "It also gave us maximum flexibility in getting services to consumers by giving us programmable architecture."
Used in conjunction with NUON-enhanced movie discs, VM Labs technology also provides consumers with a powerful viewing interface that offers new options such as changing camera angles. It also enables users to access extra features such as games and scripts that might otherwise require a computer.
Most importantly, according to Kozlowski, NUON brings consumers this power and versatility at an affordable price. "Compared to other solutions, the cost of NUON does not appreciatively add to the price of the final deck. If you want interactive DVD, NUON offers the most cost effective solution. We are not targeting the loss-leader DVD market."
"NUON does two things: it expands DVD capability and it makes programmable architecture available to consumer OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers)."
It would appear that adding NUON technology to DVD decks does not drive up the cost. In April, Taiwan-based Raite Optoelectronics is releasing the RDP-741 NUON-enhanced DVD player for the fairly standard price of $299. (It should be noted that the "loss leader" units that Kozlowski alluded to sell for as low as $179.) Samsung's first NUON player, the N2000, a higher-end unit, will retail for $499.
As a gaming platform
As a gaming platform, NUON's performance seems fairly competitive with the current generation of consoles. Legendary Atari designer Jeff Minter has designed a NUON version of the arcade classic Tempest that is fast, furious, and visually stunning, but does not necessarily appear to be out of reach for current PlayStation technology.
Additional games that have been announced include Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective and Dracula Unleashed - two early full-motion video games that appeared on the PC market in the early 1990s as multimedia became a household word; Myst, the biggest-selling CD-ROM game of all time; Merlin Karting, a Mario Kart-esque racing game; and an interactive version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
It should be noted that NYKO Technologies and other peripheral companies that are generally associated with gaming have announced plans to make joysticks and other game peripherals for NUON-enhanced DVD players.
If VM Labs was somehow hoping to compete against Sony and Nintendo with its NUON technology, the company has made a mistake. Consumers looking for the latest and greatest video game-playing equipment are unlikely to be excited by hardware that functions as well as the current PlayStation and plays games like Myst and Dracula Unleashed. This, however, does not seem to be VM Labs' goal. The purpose of NUON seems to be giving movie enthusiasts a chance to do more than watch movies; and judged by this standard, NUON may well measure up.