Nuon
Encyclopedia
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...
. In addition to viewing DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s, one can play 3D video games and use enhanced DVD navigational tools such as zoom and smooth scanning of DVD playback. One could also play CDs while the Nuon graphics processor generates synchronized graphics on the screen. There were plans to provide Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
access capability in the next generation of Nuon-equipped DVD players.
Nuon as DVD format
The Nuon platform was primarily marketed as an expanded DVD format. A large majority of Nuon players that were sold in fact resembled typical consumer DVD players with the only noticeable difference being a Nuon logo. Nuon players offered a number of features that were not available on other DVD players when playing standard DVD-formatted titles. These included very smooth forward and reverse functionality and the ability to smoothly zoom in and out of sections of the video image. In addition, Nuon provided a software platform to DVD authors to provide interactive software like features to their titles.Nuon as gaming platform
Nuon originally started off as "Project X," and was featured in Electronic Gaming MonthlyElectronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...
s 1999 Video Game Buyer's Guide. One of the Nuon's main software developers was Jeff Minter
Jeff Minter
Jeff 'Yak' Minter is a British computer/video game designer and programmer. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and his recent works include Neon , a non-game music visualization program that has been built into the Xbox 360 console, and the video games Space Giraffe , and Space Invaders...
, who created a version of Tempest entitled Tempest 3000
Tempest 3000
Tempest 3000 is a remake of the Tempest arcade game and a sequel to Tempest 2000, written by Jeff Minter for Nuon.-Gameplay:Tempest 3000 includes all of the enhancements from Tempest 2000 plus additional web designs, webs that move and reform, a greater game role for the jump control, a missile...
for the system, and the built-in VLM-2
Virtual Light Machine
The Virtual Light Machine is a light synthesizer developed by Jeff Minter in 1990. It was installed into a number of electronics, including the Atari Jaguar CD and Nuon DVD players....
audio visualizer.
Hardware models
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
DVD-N501 and DVD-N2000 models, they also released several models in other parts of the world: DVD-N504 (Europe), DVD N505 (Europe), and DVD-N591 (Korea); a Toshiba
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
SD-2300 DVD player; and two RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
models, the DRC300N and DRC480N. The Nuon was also used in Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
's Streamaster 5000 "Digital DNA" set-top box. However the format has appeared to have died off. As of November 2004, there are no Nuon-enabled DVD players shipping and no new Nuon software titles.
Peripherals and accessories
Peripherals for Nuon-enhanced DVD players included the following:- LogitechLogitechLogitech International S.A. is a global provider of personal peripherals for computers and other digital platforms headquartered in Romanel-sur-Morges, Switzerland. The company develops and markets products like peripheral devices for PCs, including keyboards, mice, microphones, game controllers...
Gamepad - Pro-elite controller
- AirPlay wireless controller
- Stealth controller
- Warrior Digital-D pad
- controller extension cable
- port replicator to move the Nuon ports to anywhere desired
Sale to Genesis Microchip
NUON was created by VM LabsVM Labs
VM Labs was the company behind the Nuon technology which was used in several DVD players from Samsung, Toshiba, & RCA and the "Streamaster" IP set-top box from Motorola...
whose assets were sold to Genesis Microchip in April 2002.
Released movies
Only four DVD releases utilized NUON technology:- Planet of the ApesPlanet of the Apes (2001 film)Planet of the Apes is a 2001 American science fiction film, based on Pierre Boulle's novel and a remake of the 1968 film of the same name. Tim Burton directed the film, which stars Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, and Estella Warren. It tells the...
- The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension
- BedazzledBedazzled (2000 film)Bedazzled is a 2000 film remake of the 1967 film Bedazzled , originally written by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, which was itself a comic retelling of the Faust legend...
- Dr. Dolittle 2Dr. Dolittle 2Dr. Dolittle 2 is a 2001 American comedy film, and the theatrical sequel to the 1998 film Dr. Dolittle. The continuing tale of the doctor who can talk to the animals—this time, it's Dolittle versus Darwin when the animals launch a labor strike to protect their forest from unscrupulous human...
Released games
Eight games were released for the NUON:- Tempest 3000Tempest 3000Tempest 3000 is a remake of the Tempest arcade game and a sequel to Tempest 2000, written by Jeff Minter for Nuon.-Gameplay:Tempest 3000 includes all of the enhancements from Tempest 2000 plus additional web designs, webs that move and reform, a greater game role for the jump control, a missile...
- Freefall 3050 A.D.
- Merlin Racing
- Space Invaders X.L.Space Invadersis an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
- Iron Soldier 3Iron Soldier 3Iron Soldier 3 is an action game developed by Eclipse Software Design for the PlayStation console and Nuon DVD players that was released in 2000...
(later recalled due to incompatibility with some players) - Ballistic (only available with Samsung players)
- The Next Tetris (only available with Toshiba players)
- Crayon Shin Chan 3 (Korean-only release)
Unreleased games
- aMaze
- Atari's Greatest Hits
- Battleship: Surface Thunder
- Boggle
- Breakout
- BugdomBugdomBugdom is a third-person, action, platform computer game developed by Pangea Software for the Macintosh and was included with the iMac DV 2000 and later iBook models, as well as the PC by Gathering of Developers, and later Ideas From the Deep following the acquiring of Gathering via Take-Two...
- Bust-A-Move 4
- Dragon's LairDragon's LairDragon's Lair is a laserdisc video game published by Cinematronics in 1983. It featured animation created by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth....
- Dragon's Lair II: Time WarpDragon's Lair II: Time WarpDragon's Lair II: Time Warp is a 1991 laserdisc video game by Don Bluth. It is regarded as the first "true" sequel to Dragon's Lair. It takes place years after the timeline of the original Dragon's Lair. Dirk has married Daphne, and the marriage has produced several children...
- The Game of LifeThe Game of LifeThe Game of Life, also known simply as LIFE, is a board game originally created in 1860 by Milton Bradley, as The Checkered Game of Life . The Game of Life was America's first popular parlor game...
- Hoyle Card Games
- Jeopardy
- Knockout KingsKnockout KingsKnockout Kings is a series of boxing games that were produced by EA Sports for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Color and GameCube yearly between 1998 and 2003....
- Madden NFL FootballMadden NFLMadden NFL is an American football video game series developed by Electronic Arts Tiburon for EA Sports. The game series is named after Pro Football Hall of Famer John Madden, a well-known former Super Bowl-winning coach of the Oakland Raiders and color commentator...
- MonopolyMonopoly (game)Marvin Gardens, the leading yellow property on the board shown, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was said to be introduced by Charles Todd and passed on when his home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and thence to Parker...
- MystMystMyst is a graphic adventure video game designed and directed by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller. It was developed by Cyan , a Spokane, Washington––based studio, and published and distributed by Brøderbund. The Millers began working on Myst in and released it for the Mac OS computer on September...
- Native II
- Need For Speed II
- New Scrabble
- Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
- PongPongPong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
- RC de Go!
- Risk 2
- RivenRivenRiven is a puzzle adventure game and the sequel to Myst. Developed by Cyan Worlds, it was initially published by Brøderbund. Riven was distributed on five compact discs and released on October 29, 1997, in North America; it was later released on a single DVD-ROM, with improved audio and a...
- Shanghai: Mahjongg Essentials
- Sorry!
- Space AceSpace AceSpace Ace is a laserdisc video game produced by Don Bluth Studios, Cinematronics, and Advanced Microcomputer Systems...
- Speedball 2100
- Spider-Man
- Star Trek: Invasion
- Tiger Woods PGA Golf
- Wheel of Fortune
- Yahtzee
- zCards
Collections and samplers
- Interactive Sampler (three different versions)
- NUON Games + Demos (collection from NUON-Dome)
- NUON-Dome PhillyClassic 5 Demo Disc (giveaway collection)
Homebrew development
During late 2001, VM Labs released a homebrewHomebrew (video games)
Homebrew is a term frequently applied to video games or other software produced by consumers to target proprietary hardware platforms not typically user-programmable or that use proprietary storage methods...
SDK
Software development kit
A software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
which allowed people to be able to program apps/games for their NUON system. Only the Samsung DVD-N501/DVDN504/DVDN505 and RCA DRC300N/DRC480N can load homebrew games. The Samsung DVDN-2000 and the Toshiba cannot. The RCA DRC300N and RCA DRC480N cannot play commercial NUON games..
Homebrew releases
Several homebrew titles have been created for or ported to NUON. They are not commercially available and require the user to burn the material to a NUON-compatible CD-R.- Ambient Monsters
- Atari / C64Commodore 64The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
Video Game Music Player - Atari 800 Emulator
- Atari 2600 PacMan (hacked version of VLM's Chomp)
- BOMB
- BreakoutBreakout cloneA Breakout clone is a sub-class of the "bat-and-ball" genre introduced with the Magnavox Odyssey's Tennis and Atari's Pong...
- Chomp (sample game included with the second NUON SDKSoftware development kitA software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
) - Decaying Orbit (port of the Yaroze game)
- Doom (port of the sharewareSharewareThe term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
edition) - PacMan - Tournament Edition (hacked version of VLM's Chomp)
- SameGameSameGameis a computer puzzle game featuring tile removal originally released under the name Chain Shot! in 1985 by Kuniaki Moribe . It has since been ported to numerous computer platforms.-History:...
- Colors - SameGame - Shapes
- Sheshell's Sea Adventure
- Snake
- Synth Demo
- Yaroze Classics (features Katapila, Invs & BreakDown)
External links
- http://www.nuon-dome.com/
- http://www.vmlabs.de/ NUON Alumni Page
- http://www.nuon-eternal.8m.com/