Sega

Sega to get Microsoft softwareThe Microsoft Corp. will reportedly supply portions of the basic software for controlling the new video game machine to be introduced late this year by Sega Enterprises.The agreement to contribute to an operating system for Sega could represent a big stride beyond personal computing for Microsoft.Crop Genetics plans swapCrop Genetics International said yesterday that it will seek to exchange shares of common stock for up to 1 million shares of its outstanding convertible preferred stock.

You're at the controls of one of the Army's most modern tanks and the battle is heating up. Electronic equipment detects an enemy artillery unit taking aim from its position 2,000 meters off to the left and an attack helicopter, armed with deadly air-to-ground missiles, moving in fast.The situation calls for split-second decisions and your response can be the difference between being blown to bits or living to fight another day.Fortunately, it's only simulation. The action is taking place inside a building, but it is so real that in 1991 fighter pilots and tank crews used such simulators to hone their fighting skills before going off to battle in the Persian Gulf war.But now, Martin Marietta Corp.

If you own a Dreamcast game console, you now know what it feels like to be an orphan. Although the machine is a superb piece of technology with a healthy supply of entertaining games, Sega found that it couldn't compete in the hardware business with Sony, with Nintendo and - by the end of this year - with Microsoft. So Sega pulled the plug on Dreamcast last week, declaring that henceforth, it would concentrate on developing games for its former competitors and newcomers to the market. Fans of Sonic the Hedgehog - Sega's most popular game character - don't have to worry.

WASHINGTON -- The sorority girl is primping in front of the bathroom mirror.She is wearing a white shortie nightgown and nothing else.Her hair is very blond.The tiles of the bathroom are white and gleaming.Three black monster men crash into the bathroom.The sorority girl screams.There is loud, pulsing music.The black monster men wrestle the blond sorority girl into submission.One black monster man carries a metal hook that drains blood.The music is very loud.The black monster men have already murdered several other semi-nude sorority girls.

The Xbox has its first bona fide hit of the year in Panzer Dragoon Orta. Sega's new shooter is an update of the classic but little-played game for the defunct Sega Saturn. Few played it because hardly anyone owned a Saturn. Panzer Dragoon Orta ($49; rated for ages 13 and up) plops you on a dragon in a world dominated by an evil empire. Pursued by the empire's sinister agents (yes, there are Star Wars influences), you do battle from the back of your dragon. Orta has a laser pistol, and your steed has a lock-on missile attack that you use by holding down the fire button and dragging the targeting reticle over your flying enemies.

Although a strike might soon stop the major-league baseball season, there are different ways to keep the action going. Kids can continue to watch their favorite players hit, catch and throw through video games.Baseball video games continue to add features and improve their three-dimensional graphics.Some games let you see diving catches in the outfield. Others let you match wits with the help of 1993 statistics.For Super Nintendo, the favorite baseball game among kids appears to be Super Bases Loaded 2. It features top 3-D graphics and different camera angles for following the ball.

In the Mojave Desert in California, near Death Valley National Monument, is a 12-bed hostel with an additional room for a family that may be reserved. Bicycling is popular in the area, and this hostel rents bicycles. Members of Hosteling International-American Youth Hostels may stay overnight for $12; $15 for nonmembers. Death Valley Hostel, P.O. Box 277, Johannesburg, Calif. 93528; (619) 374-2323.Forty miles from Yosemite National Park, on the campus of Columbia College in Sonora, is a 36-bed hostel with family rooms, laundry facilities and a recreation room.

The platform wars have begun . . . again. Hold on to your wallets.The first-ever Electronic Entertainment Expo -- or E3, the loud and lively convention that helped kill the summer Consumer Electronics Show -- this month conveniently provided the battleground for the initial skirmishes in what would be another expensive test of wills among video-game companies.New-kid-on-the-block Sony made the most noise by challenging top dogs Sega and Nintendo while virtually ignoring 3DO and the Atari Jaguar.

Thieves used bolt cutters to cut through a fence surrounding a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. parking lot and stole $400 worth of copper wire between 3:30 p.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday, county police said.A company manager at the lot in the 100 block of Dover Road reported the theft Tuesday. Police said the thieves stole seven rolls of copper wire from three trucks.BGE crews drove off in the trucks before they could be checked for evidence, police said. The manager told police the theft was the second of its kind within a week.

KYOTO, Japan -- Pity the poor monopolist. Nintendo Corp.'s lucrative reign at the pinnacle of the video-game industry was marked by ruthless treatment of retailers, outside game writers and, many parents complained, consumers.Though the company has emerged from a pile of antitrust and restraint-of-trade suits virtually unscathed, its spectacular rise by 1990 to near-total domination of the industry won it grudging admiration but few friends.In Washington, the company's haughty behavior caused it to bear the brunt of anti-Japanese trade sentiment, especially when in early 1992 it tried to purchase a controlling interest in the Seattle Mariners baseball team, which it later reduced to a minority share to fend off criticism.