Best known as the developer of the popular golf simulator Links, Access also publishes a prestigous line of interactive mystery adventures including as Under a Killing Moon and The Pandora Directive. Links LS 98 supports internet play, which prompted Access to lauch the LinksTour98 web site to help players find one another.

Activision is the parent company of Infocom. Their greatest fame arises from the hit Mechwarrior series, based in the Battletech universe of FASA games. New release Battlezone, a cutting-edge 3D update of the old vector-grid arcade classic, innovatively combines features of the first-person shooter and realtime strategy genres.

Blizzard rose to prominance with Macintosh games, but gained real fame with their Warcraft series of real-time strategy games. Diablo is a cutting-edge role playing game which introduces internet play to the genre. Their newest release, Starcraft, is a real-time conquest game with internet support.

British game developers distributed under the EA umbrella, Bullfrog has an impressive roster of titles. Dungeon Keeper turns the old dungeon-crawl genre on its head; players assume the role of an evil dungeon master and get to custom design their own dungeons complete with traps and monsters to keep out all those troublesome adventurers. The Syndicate Wars series are real-time espionage/assassination shooters with elaborate missions and campaign features. Magic Carpet II is the sequel to the original Magic Carpet, one of the first real-time 3D games.

The computer gaming division of Steven Spielberg's entertainment conglomerate has already amassed an impressive catalog of technically creative titles. The Neverhood updates the point-and-click adventure genre with eye-popping claymation video and a mischievous sense of humor. Chaos Island: The Lost World is a real-time strategy where players control a team of scientists trapped on an island full of prehistoric perils. The upcoming Trespasser: Jurassic Park is a first-person adventure that promises revolutionary 3D-modelled dinosaurs.

Makers of Doom, the best-selling game that popularized the first-person 3D shooter genre by adding true multiplayer capability over networks. The Quake series introduced true 3D environments and better AI.

Another tentacle of Bill Gates' empire. Titles include Age of Empires, a real-time strategy/conquest that allows player to control the vast empires of ancient history, Close Combat, a real-time action/strategy that simulates World War II infantry action, and Microsoft Flight Simulator. Microsoft Golf 1998 leads the list of hot upcoming releases.

Makers of the original real-time strategy/conquest game, Dune II, and the best-selling Command & Conquer series. Upcoming release Dune 2000 is the highly-anticipated sequel to Dune II. They have also broken into the first-person role-playing genre with Blade Runner, a real-time 3D adventure based on the classic film.