Rapidly Developing Online Information

In previous years at this time, he could only wait for the game magazines to go on sale at the end of the month, or go to the newsstand and flip through those weeklies that had been thumbed until they were ragged.

The webpage finished loading completely.

The bold headline at the very top entered his eyes.

"N64 priced at 199 US dollars; the game industry welcomes a three-way standoff."

"Square's four-disc RPG shocks the whole venue."

There was not much text, and no images.

Tommy leaned closer to the screen, reading those brief news flashes word by word, sentence by sentence.

The two or three hundred words Paul had typed were, in Tommy's eyes, far more exciting than any lengthy discourse.

Tommy grabbed the cordless phone on the desk and pressed a string of numbers he knew by heart.

The phone rang seven or eight times before it was answered, and Josh's muffled mumbling came from the other end.

"What time is it, man? There's a macroeconomics midterm tomorrow morning."

"Forget economics." Tommy clamped the phone between his shoulder and his ear, both hands still refreshing the page on the keyboard. "N64 is only 199 US dollars. Nintendo's new console."

The receiver was quiet for two seconds, then came the dull thump of a bed frame.

"Are you drunk, or are you dreaming?" Josh's voice had cleared up quite a bit.

"Silicon Valley Online's E3 express column. The on-site reporter uploaded it half an hour ago." Tommy dragged the webpage downward. "And there's something even more exciting. Square made Final Fantasy VI into a four-disc set."

"Four discs? Did they stuff a Hollywood movie into the game?"

Josh cursed on the other end. "Free? That crappy 3DO game still charges me more than a dozen US dollars in monthly