Toronto, Ontario. TransGaming Technologies, the Canadian Dream Team dedicated to opening the Linux(tm) operating system to the computer/video gaming world, was awarded top place in the University of Toronto Innovations Foundation 2001 Innovations Challenge at a recent awards ceremony. With prize packages that include equity investments, the competition is held to encourage the development of high tech and biotech business ideas and recognizes innovative technology companies that have demonstrated the Most Promising Businesses and Most Promising Technologies.
"We want to be a catalyst to ignite companies like TransGaming. They impressed us as a winner for the long haul", commented Dr. George Adams, President and CEO of the Innovations Foundation. "TransGaming's technological acumen to bring product to shelf in eight short weeks, its marketing vision, strong management team and business model were defining elements for their selection."
Awarded Most Promising Business, TransGaming Technologies is the developer of WineX, a software solution that allows gamers to run Windows-based games on Linux. "TransGaming is the only company in the world, to the best of our knowledge, that can do what we do," explains Vikas Gupta, President & Chief Operating Officer of TransGaming Technologies.
"Our portability technology, pioneered by CEO & CTO Gavriel State, in collaboration with the Wine community, allows games and business software applications, originally designed for a specific platform, to function seamlessly and transparently on Linux. At this time we are rapidly developing unique and proprietary solutions that will enable us to offer a broader range of cross platform compatibility. WineX, TransGaming's core technology layer, serves as the foundation for porting games from PC to other platforms," states Gupta.
In its short history, TransGaming has accomplished much with a demonstrable track record of success:
In 2001, TransGaming Technologies licensed the world's top selling game, Electronic Arts' The Sims(tm), and shipped an optimized Linux version just eight weeks later.
To date, TransGaming has relationships in place with companies such as Electronic Arts, the world's premier game developer; MandrakeSoft, the world's largest retail Linux distributor; and MacroVision, the world's most-used PC copy protection provider.
While The Sims(tm) is bundled with the Mandrake Linux Gaming Edition, TransGaming's portability technology and subscription services also allow users to play many other popular Windows games that include in part, Diablo 2, Half Life Counter-Strike, Sacrifice and Baldur's Gate.
The Sims(tm) Mandrake Linux Gaming Edition is now available in Canada at EB Canada, Compusmart and Compucentre; in the U.S. at Best Buy, CompUSA, Hastings Books, and MicroCenter, and at PC World (UK).
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Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Mandrake and the Mandrake logo are trademarks of MandrakeSoft. TransGaming and WineX are trademarks of TransGaming Technologies. The Sims(tm) (c) 2001 Electronic Arts Inc. Electronic Arts, The Sims(tm) , SimCity, EA GAMES, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All rights reserved. EA GAMES(tm) and Maxis(tm) are Electronic Arts brands. All other trademarks and copyrights are owned by their respective companies.