Garners Support From Top Developers: Accolade, Bungie, GT Interactive's Epic
                MegaGames/Digital Extremes and Fox Interactive

    ATLANTA, ELECTRONIC ENTERTAINMENT EXPO (E3), May 27 /PRNewswire/ --
Creative Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREAF), the leading provider of multimedia
hardware for the PC, today announced that more leading developers have signed
up to support Creative's Environmental Audio Extensions - the latest
applications programming interface (API) which allows developers to optimize
their newest games to use the features in Creative's next-generation
Environmental Audio Platform.  The Environmental Audio Extensions developer's
kit was successfully launched at Creative's annual developer's conference,
Creativity '98, in Silicon Valley and London, England, and at the Computer
Game Developer's Conference earlier this month.
    Environmental Audio goes beyond just positioning 3D audio around the user
to actually modeling environments in real time that can include special
effects such as reverb, echo, room size, underwater effects and much more.
Environmental Audio promises to deliver a realistic, fully immersive
experience that encompasses the user.  Creative is taking a "systems approach"
to delivering a complete experience with its Environmental Audio Platform that
includes key hardware and software components.  These key components are
comprised of multi-channel, multi-speaker hardware systems including; the
upcoming Sound Blaster(R) Live!, PCWorks FourPointSurround(TM) speaker system,
DeskTop Theater 5.1 speaker system, and the Environmental Audio Extensions
used for optimizing new interactive games and entertainment titles.
Environmental Audio technology also enhances legacy audio contents.
    "The feedback from developers on our approach to making Environmental
Audio Extensions open and accessible to all has been highly enthusiastic,"
said George Thorn, director of developer relations at Creative.  "We are
getting tremendous support from the development community.  This is a great
opportunity for developers to add impressive Environmental Audio effects to
games and entertainment titles and thereby providing far more compelling
content with 3D audio realism to consumers."

            Environmental Audio Extensions
    Environmental Audio Extensions (EAX) are property sets that extend
Microsoft DirectSound and DirectSound 3D.  With EAX, Creative has provided
developers with a versatile, easy-to-use and industry-compliant API tool to
create the highly-immersive experience of Environmental Audio in new games,
and to enhance the audio effects in current games and applications.
    EAX will be ported to host-based software solutions that take advantage of
the Sound Blaster PCI family of audio cards that support four-speaker output.
All EAX-based games and applications software will be optimized to run in
Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 5.0, and will be experienced best with
the powerful audio accelerator, the EMU10K, incorporated in Creative's
upcoming Sound Blaster Live! audio solutions.
    Based on E-mu Systems' patented audio technologies, the EMU10K1 is the
first audio processor capable of 1,000 MIPS of raw processing power with the
capability of channeling many and varied audio sources while adding special
effects like reverb, echo, acoustic properties, doppler and much more in real
time.  This flexibility and versatility allows the EMU10K1 processor to
simulate real-world, audio environments in real time - like battle scenes
taking place in a cave; the sound of footsteps coming up from behind in a dark
tunnel; underwater chase scenes; full orchestras playing in a stadium or a
string quartet playing in a small theater.

    Environmental Audio Enhances Legacy Content
    Utilizing the power of the EMU10K1 audio processor included in the
upcoming Sound Blaster Live! audio solutions, Environmental Audio also
enhances existing titles with pre-rendered environments called "presets."
Environmental Audio presets allow the user to automatically apply an
environment to existing games, music CD, MIDI music, or other titles for a
customized, truly immersive audio experience.  For example, a user can listen
to a music CD as though it were being played in a large stadium, a small hall,
or on a hill side; or a gamer can experience a game taking place in a cave, a
canyon, or in an arena.  These presets will be a standard part of all upcoming
Sound Blaster Live! audio solutions.

    Support From Top Developers
    Creative is currently working with top developers like Accolade, Bungie,
GT Interactive's Epic Games, Fox Interactive and other leading developers to
develop games that utilize EAX.  GT Interactive's Epic MegaGames and Digital
Extremes will be shipping its eagerly-anticipated action game, Unreal, with
support for EAX.  Bungie Software is shipping the sequel to the strategy game
of the year for '97, Myth II, with support for EAX.  Accolade and Fox
Interactive are currently working on support for EAX in soon to be released
titles.

    About Creative Technology Ltd
    Creative's Sound Blaster, long synonymous with PC audio, is evolving to
encompass new industry-standard development platforms and powerful new
technology.  Creative is continuing to drive development of truly innovative
software titles that leverage this cutting-edge hardware platform while taking
full advantage of the Windows architecture. Upcoming new audio products from
Creative are based on revolutionary silicon developed by the Joint E-
mu/Creative Technology Center.  These new solutions will be the basis for a
family of future audio accelerators for Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT.
    Creative Technology Ltd develops, manufactures and markets a wide array of
advanced multimedia solutions for the PC, entertainment, education, music and
productivity tools markets.  Creative's products are marketed through the OEM,
Systems Integrator and retail channels under a variety of trademarks,
including the "Blaster" family name.  Sound Blaster(R) has become the
multimedia industry's de facto audio standard.  Sound Blaster is an audio
platform consisting of a sound card or chipset, software drivers and bundled
software applications that enable PCs to produce high quality audio.
Creative's corporate headquarters and primary manufacturing facilities are
based in Singapore, with sales, distribution and research and development
being carried out through an extensive, global network of subsidiaries located
in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

    Sound Blaster is a registered trademark of Creative Technology Ltd. in the
U. S. and other countries.  All other product names mentioned herein are
trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognized as such.
    For information on Creative's entire product line and new technology visit
the company's Web site, http://www.soundblaster.com.

                 Developers on Creative's Environmental Audio

   FOX INTERACTIVE / REBELLION STUDIOS:
   "We're excited about Creative's approach to delivering a whole new 3D
   audio experience with Environmental Audio," said Scott Markus, vice
   president of Fox Interactive.  "They have made it so easy that our
   development teams like Rebellion Studios are already working with
   Creative's Environmental Audio EXtensions to DirectSound 3D.  This is
   allowing our game designers to create the best interactive 3D audio
   environments for our games."

   GT INTERACTIVE / Epic MegaGames and Digital Extremes:
   "The ability to generate true-to-life audio experiences with environmental
   audio adds a higher degree of intensity to Unreal," said Mark Rein, vice
   president of Epic MegaGames.  "We're glad to see Creative taking the lead
   and making it easy to incorporate support for this exciting new audio
   experience, and, making it more accessible through the DirectSound APIs.
   We are amazed at how easy it was to include support for Environmental
   Audio effects that make playing Unreal a phenomenal experience."

   BUNGIE:
   "Adding support for the Environmental Audio EXtensions was a breeze," said
   Jason Regier, technical lead on development for Myth II.  "After maybe
   half an hour of work, we added reverb to our 3D sounds in Myth II.  The
   results are fantastic and will really add to the ambiance of our indoor
   levels."

   ACCOLADE:
   "Creative's Environmental Audio demo's are great!," said Matt Powers,
   producer at Accolade.  "We're excited about adding support in our upcoming
   title, Slave Zero.  We'll be able to add cool effects in real time and
   realistic environment changes that combined with our support for 3D
   Blaster Voodoo2 will make Slave Zero a totally intense gaming experience."

Link to this page: