Sega

Music and movies aren't the only things being pirated and distributed over the Internet these days. Video games also are big targets. Sega of America said last week that it has shut down 60 Web sites and 125 auctions trafficking in pirated video games played on Sega's Dreamcast console. Software pirating has existed for as long as software has been around. What's new is the unprecedented ease brought by the Internet for pirating and distributing software, leading to a crop of new applications such as DivX, which can be used to copy movies.

PoliceWestminster: A resident of Wimert Avenue told police Thursday that a television, videocassette recorder and Sega Genesis game were stolen from her home. Loss and damage were estimated at $405.

Is it live or is it Dreamcast?That's the question video gamers will be asking themselves when they see the eye-popping, 3-D animations on Sega's new Dreamcast console. Launched Thursday, it's the most hotly anticipated and elaborately hyped home game machine in years.If you haven't heard of Dreamcast, chances are you soon will. Sega, the No. 3 video game maker in the United States, has kicked off an aggressive $100 million advertising blitz in an in-your-face bid to win back gamers from rivals Sony and Nintendo -- pumping more than 900 commercials onto cable music channel MTV alone.

Sega executives had been predicting about $41 million in sales during the first 24 hours that the company's new Dreamcast equipment and games were available. Turns out they were shy by more than half -- first-day sales reached almost $97 million.The one-time industry leader is hoping that the new product, despite some initial glitches, will help bring it back from the brink of extinction. In 1995 Sega replaced its popular Genesis system with the Saturn version, which bombed. The Tokyo-based Sega is now a distant third to Sony Play Station and Nintendo 64 with about 1 percent of the $7 billion video game market.

When you consider that video games, for better or worse, are as popular with their constituency - children to adults in their 40s - as movies and television, the prospect of a next-generation gaming machine can be an exciting and worrisome thing. PlayStation and Nintendo 64 game systems are plugged into TVs in more than 20 million U.S. homes and the number is expected to double next year. How will Sega's Dreamcast, due here in the fall, change things? PlayStation and N64 blew rival Sega Saturn away last year, dividing the U.S. market 60 (Sony)

Rob Gibson is one of six photographers in the nation practicing wet plate collodion, the photographic process popular through the late 1860s that used cyanide and other dangerous chemicals to create glass plate negatives, positives and tintypes.Gibson, of Rochester, N.Y., will demonstrate the trade from 1: 30 p.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow in back of Peterson Hall at Western Maryland College. In case of inclement weather, the exhibition will be moved to the college's Art Studio on Uniontown Road.

Video games have evolved to become a staple in the entertainment industry, and the success of Sony and Nintendo has created a feeding frenzy among peripheral producers. InterAct Accessories Inc., a Hunt Valley company that describes itself as parasitic, is taking the biggest bites.Run by its founder and president, Todd S. Hays, the 7-year-old company makes accessories such as joysticks and controllers for Playstation, Nintendo 64 and Sega game consoles. The company describes its products with such phrases as "infinite health and endless ammo" and "giant fire buttons you can pound on!"

ATLANTA - It's a make-or-break year for Nintendo, Sony and Sega.Nintendo of America is hoping its Nintendo 64 gaming device will finally beat the Sony PlayStation. Even though Nintendo 64 was the Tickle Me Elmo of Christmas '96, it has remained stuck in second place. And No. 3 Sega is trying to leapfrog both of them with a new video game player due out next year.As the big three fought it out at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Atlanta last week, personal computer and online games were being left in the dust by their video game cousins.

TOKYO -- In a stunning retreat, Sega Enterprises Ltd., the company that gave wings to the high-flying video-game business with the success of its Sega Genesis console, announced yesterday that it was pulling its Sega Saturn console from the U.S. market in the face of stiff competition from Sony and Nintendo.The company said it would write off $450 million to cover losses at its U.S. subsidiary, Sega of America Inc., and on investment securities and a software venture, as well as for the disposal of inventory.

TOKYO -- Sega Enterprises Ltd. shares rose 5 percent yesterday after a Japanese newspaper said the game-maker will develop a next-generation home video-game player with Microsoft Corp.A Sega spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny the report. She said her company has been in talks with Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, "to explore the possibility of tie-ups." She declined to elaborate.Officials at Microsoft weren't immediately available to comment.The Nihon Keizai newspaper said Sega and Microsoft will likely sign an agreement in October to jointly manufacture and sell 128-bit game players that will be 10 times more powerful than Saturn, Sega's current top-of-the line machine.