WarGames Hit With Marburg Virus

As if playing a new strategy game like MGM Interactive's WarGames wasn't enough of a challenge, it appears that gamers have more than enemy artillery to worry about. After being tipped off by several readers about a virus in the game, GameSpot News used several antivirus programs and eventually found a virus in the electronic registry executable that gamers would use to register WarGames over the Internet.

Located on the CD on ereg\reg32.exe, the elusive Marburg is coded to infect Windows 95-based systems. If you have a standard virus scanner, the Marburg will delete antivirus program databases, which are used to specifically detect the virus.

Marburg is so elusive that out of the four antivirus scanners we used, only Command AntiVirus for CIH, ANXIETY, and MARBURG found the virus.

If you own the game and have registered electronically, you probably already have the virus. It will infect both Windows and System directories. The virus will execute within three months after the initial infection and will display random white circles with red Xs inside.

When contacted, MGM confirmed that the full retail version of the software carries the Marburg virus and asks all owners of WarGames not to register electronically. Gamers can still safely play the game, but by registering electronically, gamers will infect their PCs with the virus.

MGM has records of all WarGames owners who have already registered electronically and will be informing them of the virus.

What does MGM plan to do about the problem? Blake Thomas, senior vice president of marketing at MGM Home Entertainment/Interactive, told GameSpot News Tuesday that it will begin by releasing a statement and FAQ file about the Marburg virus on its Web site. It will also release the statement and FAQ to newsgroups and the media. MGM says it will establish a special support phone line to assist affected gamers.

In addition, Thomas said MGM will soon release a virus-free disk to gamers whose systems were infected - along with a special version of Norton Anti-Virus that will disinfect systems that have the bug. The disinfectant will be available on the company's WarGames Web site by this Friday.