This is turning out to be the year of the upgrade for many computer gamers, thanks to the arrival of blockbuster game titles such as Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, on its way to retail shelves after a year's worth of delays.
Doom 3, released this month, has ushered in a new level of realism for computer gaming graphics, incorporating elaborate, quick-moving monsters, ominous shadows, and clouds of smoke and red fog designed to immerse gamers in a shoot-'em-up fest.
Doom 3 takes place on a Martian base overrun by demonic monsters.
(AP Photo/ Courtesy Id Software via Activision)
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_____Musgrove Live at 3 p.m._____
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Tuesday, Aug. 24, 3 p.m. ET, Washington Post staff writer Mike Musgrove discusses the release of new videogames, including Doom 3 and Half-Life 2.
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But gamers playing with yesteryear's computer might not be able to see all the fine details its creators worked in, because smoke and light effects consume a lot of computing power. Play the $55 Doom 3 on a cheap-o computer and you'll either have to do without its best graphic effects or watch the game turn into a jerky slide show whenever a gaggle of fireball-throwing demons shows up.
It has been years since a new game caused systems to creak and strain so much; Id Software Inc., the company behind Doom, has a long history of nudging gamers into either upgrading or buying new systems altogether.
"We don't mind pushing people a little bit to upgrade," Todd Hollenshead, Id's chief executive, wrote in an e-mail. "If you've got the content or the 'killer app,' then you're in the best position to push the envelope."
Makers of high-end machines catering to hard-core gamers say sales increased between 10 and 20 percent in the days before and after Doom 3's release.
"It's just been awesome," said Rahul Sood, founder and president of Voodoo PC, a small computer company based in Canada.
Though the average price for a new PC has dipped below $1,000, the system Miami-based computer maker Alienware Corp. suggests for Doom 3 players starts at $2,997.
Some gamers who don't want to spend that kind of money instead splurge for a new graphics card, the component that converts computer-generated images into pictures to be displayed on a monitor. High-end cards from companies such as the Canadian ATI Technologies Inc. can process more than 8 billion picture elements a second as they attempt to make the lighting effects in games like Doom 3 look as real as possible -- the best cards cost around $500. Rival Nvidia Corp. has an ongoing special offer in which buyers of its advanced graphics cards can get a free copy of Doom 3 with their purchase.
"No one needs to buy a new graphics card if there's no content to run with them," said Andy Thompson, director of advanced technology marketing at ATI.
New card sales helped boost net income at ATI to $48.6 million in the quarter ended May 31, up from $15 million in the same quarter a year before; the company also cited sales for its technology in cell phones, the Nintendo GameCube and digital televisions.
David Kushner, author of a book about the Doom series, joked that there should be a statue of its lead programmer, John Carmack, "outside every graphics card company on the planet."
Half-Life 2 is also generating demand for high-end computers and equipment. The double dose of hotly anticipated games comes at a time when computer gaming has been in a lull, eclipsed by games designed for play on specialized machines such as Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2 or Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox. PC games make up about one-fifth of the $6 billion video-game industry, a percentage that analysts say has been slipping in recent years.
But the PlayStation 2, the most popular console, is approaching the fourth anniversary of its U.S. release, and Sony has indicated that it doesn't plan to rush its follow-up to the market. Analysts such as Vince Broady, co-founder of gamer Web site GameSpot, say that pause creates an opportunity for computer game companies to win back players looking for a new thrill.
