With all the hoopla over interactive video, WinG, the Windows 95 Game SDK, MUDs, VRML, and the like, we tend to forget about game- pioneers Nintendo and Sega. Since it's launching in November, 1994, Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country game has sold 7.4 million copies, helping Nintendo to gain a 54 percent market share in the 16-bit game world. Sega, meanwhile, slipped from 60 percent in February, 1994 to 47 percent in February 1995.
Rights to the Objective-C programming language have been acquired by NeXT Computer. Originally developed by Stepstone, Objective-C is a C-based object-oriented language. Stepstone will continue to market its implementation. In addition to continuing support of Objective-C in its NextStep development environment, NeXT will submit the language to standards bodies, including ANSI.
The once highflying but recently struggling Wang Laboratories has been given new life by a $90 million infusion from Microsoft. Precipating the investment was 1993 suit by Wang claiming patent ownership of OLE technology. With the settlement, Microsoft gets a 10 percent stake in Wang, along with access to Wang's document imaging and work-flow management technology for inclusion in Windows-related software.