Gamers

Fourth down and seven. Patrick Blair's Indianapolis Colts are losing, 13-8, with just two minutes left in the game. Thirteen-year-old Patrick, at the controls of an Xbox at an Electronics Boutique store yesterday, tells his friend and competitor, Colby Giacubeno, "I'm going up the gut, I'm telling you right now." Colby, also 13, replies, "I'm sending everybody." Patrick passes the ball, Colby intercepts and runs it back for a touchdown. "See ya! See ya!" Colby taunts as one of his Atlanta Falcons sprints down the field.

How good is Doom 3? After an intense, if not quite comprehensive, shootout on my PC, I must say that id Software has made the scariest game ever - but it's not a revolution in game play. The game starts off much like Half-Life as you arrive at a Mars research lab and make your way to a command post to get an assignment. At this point, there's a clear sense of, well, impending doom. You soon receive your first mission: Retrieve a scientist who has wandered off. Armed at first with nothing but your fists, and later a flashlight and pistol, you make your way into the shadowy depths of the base.

If Hollywood can do it, why not Silicon Valley?Taking a cue from the movie industry, computer game makers are looking to cash in with a raft of sequels this holiday season. Two of the first to hit your local CompUSA are Microsoft's "Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings" and Westwood Studios' "Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun.""The Age of Kings" picks up where its best-selling 1997 predecessor left off -- at the fall of the Roman Empire -- and sweeps through the next 1,000 years of history. Released last month, the sequel has shot to the top of the software best seller charts (yes, there are such things)

As 16 pairs of players worked their well-developed video-game muscles and dozens of already-vanquished competitors whooped and hollered around them, Marshon Floyd leaned over to an onlooker and shouted, "This is the real Sunday football right here!" It sure looked that way. If the fact that the local NFL team was off yesterday bothered any of the nearly 350 participants in the Baltimore Madden Challenge qualifier, none of them showed it. They packed into a tent set up at the Inner Harbor and kept it packed from the first matches just after 10 a.m. until the championship game, which ended just before 6 p.m. To get as good at the Madden '06 video game (released last month to the usual retail-store chaos)

CLEVELAND -- Eddie Murray hasn't said whether he wants to play next year and the Orioles haven't assessed their needs for 1997. But all things being equal, manager Davey Johnson would like to have Murray back. Johnson loves his presence in the clubhouse."He's always offering encouragement to everybody on the ballclub," said Johnson. "He's a gamer, a battler. I can't say enough good about him."I knew Eddie from Los Angeles, and I knew, even if he didn't hit anything, that he could help us by his presence on the ballclub.

Here's what college student Paul Oliver can't do so well: Count backward or recite the alphabet in reverse, and he's not so good at getting the linear progression of things. He couldn't put a comic strip in order if its panels were mixed up, for example. That's what he found out from a psychological test pinpointing his learning disorders. Here's what he can do really well: Write computer game programs and get others excited about doing the same. At 24, Oliver's passion for gaming has grabbed the attention of Microsoft, which chose him to be among a handful of student partners in the Mid-Atlantic, and paid his way to a Seattle convention this week.

Electronic Arts has reached preliminary settlement with the consumer protection law firm Hagens Berman, who filed suit against the company for violating antitrust and consumer protection laws in making its popular football video games. The settlement has not been approved by U.S District Court, but if it is confirmed as it stands, a $27 million fund would be set up to pay out purchasers of EA's football games since 2005. According to a press release by Hagens Berman, the suit was originally filed in 2008.

It's easy to forget that consoles aren't the only game in town. Sales of games for video consoles such as the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube hit $5.8 billion last year. But PC games raked in a respectable $1.2 billion with much less fanfare than their console counterparts. Now a handful of companies are hoping they can boost computer game sales by adopting a new way for PC gamers to buy and play their favorite games. Call it the all-you-can-eat buffet model. These companies are banking that gamers, instead of driving to a store, browsing through crowded shelves and maybe purchasing one $50 PC game, will subscribe to what is essentially an online streaming service.

This is the year Mac gamers bid farewell to the ghosts of Christmases past.In holiday seasons gone by, their choices consisted mostly of poorly ported PC hits. But so many first-rate titles for Macs have appeared in recent months that the challenge is deciding which to buy.Topping many lists will be Aspyr's Mac version of EA Sports' "Madden NFL 2000." While this game has existed for years for the PC platform and stand-alone game systems like Sony's PlayStation, this is the first time you can play it on your Mac.In fact, the arrival of "Madden" ends a long drought during which no major sports simulations were released for the Mac. If the game sells well -- and I predict it will -- we should see more EA sports titles migrating.

Baltimore's music scene has rarely been more high profile. In the past few years, local music has been praised in magazines, released on high-profile record labels and played on radio stations here and abroad. Now, a song from Baltimore-based rocker Elise Major is featured on a new video game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Released this week, the application, "Tap Tap Revenge 3" is modeled after franchises such as "Guitar Hero." Gamers touch the screen with their fingers to play along with notes and chords in the song.