Epic Games Announces 3rd Round Winners in the “$1,000,000 NVIDIA Make Something Unreal” Contest

Aspiring 3D Programmers, Artists and Game Designers Cash in On More Than $150,000 Prizes in Multi-Round Competition Based on Epic’s Unreal Engine and Editor Technologies

RALEIGH, NC─AUGUST 5, 2004─Epic Games, the leading developer of cutting-edge 3D technology and games, today announced the winners in the third round of the “$1,000,000 NVIDIA Make Something Unreal” mod-making contest.   The multi-round competition, sponsored by NVIDIA Corporation, Atari Inc, AMD, Alias, Cooler Master and Digital Extremes, continues to attract talent from around the world, with 52 mod-making teams collecting more than $150,000 in cash and prizes in an exciting third-round of entries.   The year-long contest, which challenges aspiring 3D programmers and artists to put their artistic affinity to work to create game modifications (mods) and game levels using the Unreal game engine and editor - a free tool included with Epic’s best-selling Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004 PC games – has attracted over one thousand entries to date and is set to conclude later this fall. 

“We knew if we put the Unreal editor in the hands of gamers that they would do amazing things with it,” said Mark Rein, vice president at Epic Games.  “The level of creativity, depth and skill that we’ve seen coming out of the community as a result of this contest has been just incredible.”

The winning entries across the 11 featured categories in the third round include:

Best first-person shooter (FPS) – “Red Orchestra”

Best non-FPS – “Alien Swarm”

Best Level – “CTF-CBP2-Pistola”

Best Level with Original Contest – “DM-CPB2-KillyBilly Barn”

Best Mutator – “Unreal4Ever MSU Edition”

Best Model – “MonstAr”

Best Voice Pack (or Audio Modification) – “Alien Swarm”

Best Vehicle – “Clone Bandits”

Best Tool – “Ushock”

Best Game Type – “Jailbreak 2004”

Best Use of Karma Physics – “Unwheel”

A complete list of winners and their winning mods from all three rounds of the $1,000,000 Make Something Unreal Contest” can be accessed from the official contest website located at www.makesomethingunreal.com.

The contest, which kicked off last year, has paid out more than $500,000 in prizes to date, with winners receiving cash and high-performance PCs in each round.   Each of the PCs are equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce™ 6800 GT graphics processor, NVIDIA nForce™2-based motherboards with Dolby® Digital audio output provided by Abit and the AMD Athlon 64 processor.  The grand prize contest winner, to be announced later this year, will also receive an Unreal Engine commercial license, valued at $350,000 for which they’ll have the opportunity to use in bringing their creation to market. 

“We dreamed up the $1,000,000 NVIDIA Make Something Unreal” contest with Epic as a way to reward a growing community of gamers that are helping to spark the evolution of 3D entertainment,” added Bill Rehbock, NVIDIA’s director of content development.  “The quality and sophistication of these winning mods represent the amazing things creative minds can do when given the opportunity to experiment with the latest software tools and graphics hardware technologies.”

About Epic Games

Epic Games Inc., based in Raleigh, North Carolina, and established in 1991, is a leading developer of cutting-edge computer and video games and 3D engine technology.  The company is best known as the creator of the hit series of PC 3D action games Unreal and Unreal Tournament.  The award-winning games have each sold more than one million copies.  Unreal technology has been used to create more than 70 games; among them are the 2002 console game of the year Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell™ (on PC and console platforms), PC Gamer magazine’s 2000 PC Game of the Year Deus Ex, America’s Army from the US Army and Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone from EA Games.  Prior to their 3D success, Epic Games was will known for the hit shareware games Jill of the Jungle, Jazz the Jackrabbit and Epic Pinball.  Additional information can be obtained at the Company’s website located at www.epicgames.com.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA Corporation is a market leader in visual computing technology dedicated to creating products that enhance the interactive experience on consumer and professional computing platforms. Its graphics and communications processors have broad market reach and are incorporated into a wide variety of computing platforms, including consumer PCs, enterprise PCs, notebook PCs, professional workstations, handhelds, and video game consoles. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and employs more than 1,900 people worldwide.  For more information, visit the Company’s Web site at www.nvidia.com.

About Atari

New York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) develops interactive games for all platforms and is one of the largest third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S.  The Company’s 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre-defining games such as Driver™, Enter the Matrix™, Neverwinter Nights™, Stuntman™, Test Drive®, Unreal® Tournament 2003, and Unreal® Championship; and mass-market and children’s games such as Backyard Sports™, Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues™ and Dora the Explorer™, Civilization®, Dragon Ball Z® and RollerCoaster Tycoon®.  Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext 5257), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe.  For more information, visit www.atari.com.

About Alias

As the world's leading innovator of 3D graphics technology, Alias develops award-winning software, custom development and training solutions for the film and video, games, web, interactive media, industrial design, education and visualization markets. In 2003, the company was awarded an Oscar® for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its development of Maya software, the professional 3D animation and effects package. Alias also offers a powerful range of services for new to advanced users in the most demanding environments. Learning Tools and training, support, and professional services help meet rigorous production deadlines. Entertainment customers include: Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., CNN, Core Design Limited, Digital Domain, Disney, Electronic Arts, Industrial Light & Magic, Factor 5 LLC, Midway Games, Nintendo, Pacific Data Images (PDI), Pixar, Sega, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Square Co., Ltd., Warner Feature Animation and Weta Ltd.

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