Family Friendly value-priced computer game maker eGames said it entered into new bank agreement with Fleet to pay off outstanding balance owed over 22 months. Langhorne, Pa., game maker said agreement also provided that, despite its defaults under loan documents that previously provided company with $2 million secured line of credit, bank wouldn’t enforce its rights and remedies under those loan documents as long as eGames remained in compliance with terms of new agreement. Under new deal, remaining outstanding balance owed under credit facility will be repaid in monthly installments with interest at prime plus 3%. EGames also issued warrants to bank for purchase of 750,000 shares of company’s common stock exercisable until Oct. 31, 2006, at exercise price of 9? per share.

Acclaim Sports starts shipping its first title for GameCube -- All-Star Baseball 2002 -- later this week at $49.99. Title was developed by Glen Cove, N.Y., game maker Acclaim Entertainment’s Acclaim Studios Austin under license from Major League Baseball Properties and Major League Baseball Players Assn. Acclaim said it planned to ship 4 other GameCube titles through holiday season -- Crazy Taxi, Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2, NFL QB Club 2002, XG3 Extreme G Racing.

Special treat for Star Wars fans comes Fri., said distributor 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Tues. On Nov. 9, owners of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace DVD will be able to use disc’s PC link to see previews of forthcoming Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. Preview is locked on DVD and needs PC connection to Internet to unlock it for viewing. Studio said preview was different from trailers in theaters, with never-before-seen footage.

Soundmax SPX audio technology is available to Xbox videogame developers through Microsoft Xbox tools and middleware program, Analog Devices announced Tues. Technology already is available for developers of titles for PC and PlayStation 2. Soundmax SPX is said to reproduce realistic sound effects that change in real time in direct response to player’s input.

Ubi Soft Entertainment opened ubi.com videogaming portal aimed at casual and hardcore gamers. Paris-based game maker said site at start was open only to N. American and French gamers, but it “will eventually spread to other countries.” Ubi.com Managing Dir. Gilles Langourieux said company believed “it is crucial for gaming companies to have strong ties with their customers and we believe ubi.com will bring us closer to the PC fan base.” He said company planned extend site “to console gamers later in the year.” Site is using new technology, company said. On community front, Ubi Soft licensed forum technology to make it easy for players to post their comments and ideas online; it also is using new proprietary matchmaking application that’s fully integrated directly into all supported Ubi Soft games. Among Ubi PC multiplayer games supported at site are Conflict Zone, Conquest Frontier Wars, IL-2 Sturmovik, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Rogue Spear: Black Thorn. Company said: “As the next generation of console-based networks evolve, ubi.com anticipates supporting them as well.” Ubi Soft said site also would be destination for massively multiplayer online games starting with Shadowbane, subscription-based, role-playing strategy game expected to be released in first half 2002. Company said it would start closed beta test of latter game early this month “with hundreds of users and gradually increase that number to thousands as game development progresses.”

Move by Harman International (HI) to expand its car OEM business to 65% of revenue over next 5 years will be done in “a careful, conservative, very well-prepared way,” Exec. Chmn. Sidney Harman said at N.Y. news conference after our Mon. deadline. News conference came only hours after annual HI investor/analyst conference at which it said key to expansion of car OEM business would be company’s Media Oriented System Transport (MOST) fiber networking bus technology that Harman projected could be installed in as many as one million vehicles by 2006. Harman/Becker automotive division is first supplier of MOST-based navigation and multimedia systems, which already is being used by BMW in its new 7 Series automobiles and will be implemented soon in new vehicles from Audi, Mercedes Benz, Porsche. Harman/Becker developed MOST in conjunction with Audi, BMW, Daimler-Chrysler and Oasis Silicon Systems, and technology now is supported by 17 international car makers and more than 50 key component suppliers, HI said.

Matsushita Battery Industrial said it had produced cumulative total of 100 billion dry cells, 83% of which were manganese batteries, rest alkalines. About 40% were produced in Japan, company said.

Universal Display cancelled resale of 2.5 million shares of common, citing market conditions. Sellers included: Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co., 186,114 (1.1% of total being sold); Pine Ridge Financial, 1.8 million; and Strong River Investments, 1.8 million. Latter 2 include 226,330 shares each of Series C and D stock convertible at $12.70. Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) developer, which recently signed licensing agreements with Motorola and Samsung, had 17 million of common outstanding as of Sept. 17.

Although digital still camera (DSC) category was among strongest in U.S. at start of this year, economic woes, exacerbated by Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, have started to affect category’s growth. NPD Intelect Analyst Thomas Edwards told us Mon. that while category had been growing “exponentially,” same economic troubles that had hit overall CE industry in last few months had started to have effect on DSCs as well. Because there’s concern over economy, he said, “people are buying what they need. They're not buying what they want” -- and DSCs are “still a want” for most consumers.

Id Software and Activision announced availability of Doom for GBA. T-rated (Teen) title started shipping at $39.99. It was developed by Id and David A. Palmer Productions.