Madshrimps Forum Madness - AMD Teams Up With Atari To Deliver 64-Bit Firepower

AMD64 technology powers first 64-bit game available on retail shelves

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sep 21, 2004 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Today, AMD (AMD) announces the first 64-bit game optimized for AMD Athlon(TM) 64 processor-based systems, "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury," is available now on retail shelves. "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury," published by Atari and designed on AMD64 technology, includes specific 64-bit enhancements that enable a richer and more immersive gaming experience. The power of the AMD64 platform has opened the door for game developers to truly capture the imagination and creativity of artists and industry visionaries.

"With the launch of the AMD Athlon 64 family of processors one year ago, AMD set in motion an unstoppable transition to pervasive, 64-bit, realistic gaming and cinematic computing," said Patrick Moorhead, vice president of global marketing, AMD's Computation Products Group. "Gamers need to personally witness 64-bit Shadow Ops: Red Mercury to believe how incredible this new experience is on AMD64 processor-based gaming systems. Desktop and mobile customers who have prepared for the future by investing in AMD64 technology now have an exclusive opportunity to experience the next level of gaming."

With the one-two punch of AMD64 processors and "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury," gamers will notice larger and more detailed areas to explore, breakthrough artificial intelligence (AI), and never-before-seen textures that compel players to gawk in amazement.

"AMD Athlon 64 technology is revolutionizing game design and, given the tremendous power and freedom AMD64 offers to our game designers, we are able to create scenes, physics, artificial intelligence, map sizes and graphics detail that we only dreamed of on 32-bit platforms," said Wim Stocks, executive vice president, sales and marketing at Atari. "Using 32-bit code alone, we were unable to offer THX 5.1 acoustic sound with every level of detail enabled and still maintain a playable game; with AMD64 64-bit technology we can now do that and much more."

With time to market being one of the most critical issues facing game developers, Atari leveraged the power of the AMD64 platform to help reduce the development cycle for "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury" from months to weeks. The significant timesavings enabled by 64-bit processing provided Atari a competitive edge in bringing this next-generation game to market.

After purchasing "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury," gamers can immediately take advantage of the game by installing a public trial version of Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Pro x86 Edition on an AMD64 platform and installing relevant 64-bit drivers.

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