Diamond Shines Up to CDGC

Diamond Multimedia today made three substantial announcements at the Computer Games Development Conference in Long Beach, California, on Tuesday.

The first is that the 12MB version of Diamond's Voodoo 2-based Monster 3D II is shipping this week and will retail for about US$300. The 3D II will include the full versions of Monster Truck Madness 2, Battlezone, and Incoming, as well as a game demo CD with other products.

"This 12MB configuration adds even more depth to our award-winning Monster 3D product line," said Scott Vouri, vice president and general manager of Diamond Multimedia's core graphics business unit. "Hard-core gamers should appreciate the added four megabytes of texture memory when more 3D games capable of taking advantage of it are released later this year."

Another anticipated product of Diamond that is now shipping is the Monster Sound MX200, the newest in Diamond's lineup of audio accelerators. The Monster Sound MX200 features "true" positional 3D sound, 64-voice wave-table synthesizer, independent four-speaker support, Aureal A3D and DirectSound 3D acceleration, a PCI-bus, and a digital joystick port. The Monster Sound MX200 will retail for about $150.

"Beginning with the blueprint for the original Monster Sound, Diamond Multimedia has been committed to turning PC audio into an extraordinary listening experience that's on par with high-voltage 3D graphics," said David Watkins, vice president and general manager of the Multimedia Division at Diamond Multimedia. "With its leading-edge audio features, Diamond expects the Monster Sound MX200 to become the top choice for PC gamers who want a powerful PCI-based audio accelerator that can deliver everything from true positional 3D audio effects, to heavily orchestrated soundtracks and powerful MIDI, to awesome systems acceleration."

Rounding out the lineup of news sees the announced availability of the Stealth II G460, an AGP 2X-based graphics accelerator based on Intel's 740 2D/3D chipset and 8MB of SDRAM. The estimated retail price will be $130, not including an introductory $30 mail-in rebate program.

"Diamond's goal for the Stealth II G460 is to provide advanced 3D and 2D graphics to the mainstream PC consumer at an affordable price," said Diamond's Scott Vouri. "With the combination of Diamond's engineering expertise and Intel's new graphics technology, today's PC consumers will get a top-quality solution that can handle the latest power-hungry games and 3D business applications."