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MEDIA ALERT: AUGUST 18, 2000

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EXCLUSIVE CRIMSON SKIES PRE-ORDER PROGRAMS NOW UNDERWAY

Microsoft today announced exclusive pre-order programs with Electronics Boutique and Babbage's-Software, Etc. for its widely anticipated action/adventure game, Crimson Skies. Crimson Skies combines the heart-pumping action of air combat with the swashbuckling feel of an Errol Flynn adventure movie. The game hits retail shelves in late September.

By pre-ordering Crimson Skies at store locations, or online at EB World (http://www.ebworld.com)  or Gamestop (http://www.gamestop.com), gamers will receive either a mini-strategy guide (for pre-orders from Electronics Boutique) or the Crimson Skies "spicy air tales" novella, Pirates Gold (for pre-orders from Babbages's-Software, Etc.).

The mini-strategy guide, by Sybex, gives players all the ins-and-outs of the first five missions of the game. With the strategy guide, gamers will discover where to find cool Easter eggs for their personalized scrap book, how to tackle all the daredevil "danger flying" zones, and hints-and-tips on how to achieve all the varied mission objectives, from wing walking across a British Bomber to taking out a super-secret submersible aircraft carrier.

Pirates Gold tells the story of Nathan Zachary, the hero of Crimson Skies - a gentleman pirate, master thief and scourge of the skies. Before he led the notorious Fortune Hunters, he was a young fighter pilot in the Great War, and the novella focuses on these early years. His capture and imprisonment, stolen treasure, and a mysterious stranger make for page-turning excitement!

In Crimson Skies players fly fast and low in a game reminiscent of a classic Hollywood tale, where dastardly enemies menace, evil plots abound, and a bevy of femme fatales awaits. As the handsome and daring air pirate Nathan Zachary, players take to skies filled with treacherous privateers, tricked-out fighter planes and giant aircraft-carrier zeppelins. Amid an ever-changing political landscape, Zachary and his notorious band of air pirates, the Fortune Hunters, have become the free agents in a fight for control of the skies.

The game transports players to an alternate-reality 1937. The United States has been struck by the crushing blows of the Great Depression, the Great War and Prohibition, resulting in mounting isolationism. The once-budding road and railway system has been destroyed, leaving the skies as the only means of transport and commerce. Militias in the North, South, East and West have formed rival independent nations in a fight for air supremacy. It is an era where swing may be king but pilots rule, a world where the guns are bigger, the planes faster and the adventures more daring -- the world of Crimson Skies.

For more information on the game, go to the official Crimson Skies Web site at:

http://www.microsoft.com/games/crimsonskies/ 

Or visit any of the game's informative fan sites:

http://www.crimsonskies.org 

http://www.RedSkullLegion.com 

http://crimson.sim-arena.com/ 

http://www.furballmag.com/cs 

http://www.combatfs.com/home/index.php?page=reviews/crimsonskies/index

http://web.wtez.net/j/r/jr55099/public/csky

http://www.tisd.net/~bumpurcs/