Press Release: 1997-02-06: America Online Fights Back Using SegaSoft's Web

This is an unaltered copy of a press release, for use as a primary source on Sega Retro. Please do not edit the contents below. Language: English Original source: www.bloomberg.com (archived)

February 6, 1997, 1:17 PM UTC


Vengeance; Netizens Continue to Avenge Themselves to Win Contest to Trash AOL's Site


REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 6, 1997--Scores of web surfers and AOL members venting their anger and vying to win $1,000 using SegaSoft's Web Vengeance to "destroy" AOL's website have prompted a speedy response from AOL: the beleagured online service quickly installed "defense" software from SegaSoft's website. To acknowledge AOL's quick response to the attacks, SegaSoft announced that it is prepared to award AOL with a $1,000 check of its own.
    
Web Vengeance, available for free in beta at www.segasoft.com, lets users blow off steam by trashing websites with bullets, rotten tomatoes and eggs (on their desktops -- no real damage is done). Last week, SegaSoft invited frustrated netizens to submit their most creative destructions of AOL's home page to win $1,000.
    
"We were impressed and amused that someone at AOL was quick on the draw and downloaded the Web Vengeance defense packs.  While attacks on their home page are blocked by cookie sheets and bulletproof vests, it's still possible to aim and fire a fast egg to get past them -- and the rest of their pages are vulnerable," said Gary Griffiths, president and COO, SegaSoft. Continued Griffiths, "I applaud AOL for their good natured sense
of humor."

The Contest Must Go On

    The $1,000-Trash-AOL-award will go to the most creative attack on the AOL site using Web Vengeance destruction packs.  A screen capture image of each trashing must be uploaded to the Web Vengeance Hall of Shame at www.segasoft.com by midnight P.S.T. February 7, 1997.
   
SegaSoft's "Hall of Shame," a no-admission on-line gallery, is a planned Louvre Museum of defaced web pages.  Users are encouraged to upload their masterpieces for the enjoyment of the public, Internet and alternative communities, not to mention the dough.
    
"Web Vengeance is a five-minute desktop distraction that lets people respond to the `World Wide Wait' and the billboard commute on the information highway," said Griffiths.  "This is the equivalent of a drive-by egging -- and nobody gets hurt."
   
To deploy Web Vengeance, users must have a computer running Windows 95, equipped with any standard web browser and Direct X, which may be downloaded free from the SegaSoft site.

About SegaSoft
 
SegaSoft was founded in 1995 and develops interactive software and content for PC's and the Internet.  SegaSoft is a joint venture of CSK International Headquarters, Inc. and Sega of America, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of the $4 billion Sega Enterprises Ltd., a global leader in interactive digital entertainment media.  SegaSoft is headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., where it employs 130.  For additional information you can visit SegaSoft's World Wide Web site at http://www.segasoft.com .