Point of Origin: Vol. III, No. 31

Happy New Year - and welcome to Vol. III of Point of Origin. This year starts similar to the last... with Strike Commander, two Ultima titles and Privateer in development. 1993 is the year that these games all finally make it out, though, so things should get more interesting. In other major news, Origin has now moved to the new building and is apparently dealing with a touchy new network setup.

A very special thanks to Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum for making this resource available and to Electronic Arts for sending them to him in the first place!

• Return to Vegas has a report from COMDEX: "On the other side of the kiosk, ORIGIN FX really opened some eyes, among them those of EA President Larry Probst (check out 'Misc.' in this issue). FX is one of those products that's expected to have a slow and steady build. This was the first time many buyers and distributors got a chance to see it, and they seemed particularly taken with both the ingenuity of some of the modules as well as the original music. Screen Saver Scott Russo did a bang-up job of putting FX through its paces."
• Hype and Schmooze Roundup has a review of ORIGIN FX: "Larry Shannon reviewed ORIGIN FX for the New York Times, calling it 'the hog of screen savers (in terms of size),' but well worth it."
• Misc. has an amusing story that touches on everything from Origin's financial problems to just how interested they are in selling the screensaver: "EA Pres. Larry Probst is reportedly so intrigued by our new ORIGIN/FX Screen Saver that he had his secretary hunt down Fred and order him to Fed-Ex a copy to Larry's personal attention the other deay. Fred noted while he was up at EASM last week that EA employees were running MicroSoft's stock scren saver or one of a few other basic varieties, but nobody up there had O/FX up on their screens! He vowed to get the two MIS groups to address this at once to make sure that O/FX is put on every EA employee screen worldwide that has the necessary hardware configuration. Fred reportedly also offered EA Chief Financial Officer Stan McKee a bargain-priced 'site license' for this product for somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million (a figure which, coincidentally, about equals ORIGIN's potential revenue shortfall this fiscal year due to late shipping products). Stan is said to have declined the fee, but Fred said it was negotiable."
• And finally, In the Library reports that Wing Commander: Freedom Flight has been added to Origin's collection!

Point of Origin
Vol. III, No. 31 - January 29, 1992 Contents The Bottom Line
Bugged Out
State of the LAN
Help Wanted
Dear Point Man
Ticker
Return to Vegas
Hype and Schmooze Roundup
Misc.
In the Library
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