FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
K2 Interactive's Verbal Commander Receives 1997 RASPY Award
June 3, 1997 (Tulsa, OK) - K2 Interactive, LLC received the first annual
1997 RASPY (Racing Auto Simulation Product of the Year) Award from
International Video Gamers Association (IVGA) for its speech recognition
hardware product, Verbal Commander. A number of peripheral ***
products, including graphics accelerators, 3D video cards, 3D goggles
and virtual reality headgear were considered for the award. K2 was
notified last week by IVGA President, Don Wilshe. IVGA members tested
Verbal Commander with racing sim games such as NASCAR 2 and Indycar 2
throughout the year in Internet racing competitions. Verbal Commander
was also listed in IVGA's "Unofficial Nascar 2 Manual" as a
supplementary voice input device.
The feedback from IVGA members has been extremely positive for K2
Interactive. According to Don Wilshe, Verbal Commander allowed IVGA
racers to keep their hands on the wheel, issue verbal commands to the
pit boss in advance of pitting, change screen views and track their
progress against other drivers. The company solicited IVGA member
feedback of Verbal Commander 1.2 and plans to implement a number of the
suggestions in its upcoming version of Verbal Commander 2.0, which it
will announce in mid-summer.
K2 plans to leverage off this award by contacting several software game
developers for future bundling opportunities with Verbal Commander 2.0.
While there are a number of software speech recognition products
targeting the dictation and computer navigation markets, K2's Verbal
Commander presents the first real opportunity for game developers to
successfully incorporate speech recognition into upcoming games. K2
also foresees speech recognition taking on a greater role in the ***
industry as gamers seek out more interaction and realism, as evidenced
by the explosion in online ***.
Verbal Commander is the first speech recognition product designed
specifically for PC games. It includes an 8-bit ISA circuit board,
noise-canceling headset, cable and adapter plug, software and user's
manual. Verbal Commander enables the user to replace up to 20 keyboard
commands, such as "change tires," "lap counter," and "tire temperature"
with verbal commands. Verbal Commander can work with virtually any DOS
or Windows 95 game, in any language and with any IBM-compatible
computer. It is available through several US retail chain stores,
including Electronics Boutique, Software City and J & R Computer World,
and is now being introduced internationally via distributors.
K2 Interactive Contact: Ed Conn
www.k2i.com Partner
(918) 496-4300 x234
(918) 496-4084 Fax
IVGA Contact: Don Wilshe
www.ivga.com President
(941) 339-1621
