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It's More Than A Game For Acclaim Entertainment

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Whether you want to pal around with the Simpsons, fight crime with winged crusader Batman or go a few rounds with a fierce WWF wrestler, Acclaim Entertainment designs the video and arcade games for you. The company publishes entertainment software and designs peripherals for Nintendo and Sega hardware systems, Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, PCs, CD-ROM software, arcade games and comic books.

Acclaim's network enables software design as well as interoffice tasks and communication with its international sites in Paris and Munich. The company also has offices in Canada, California, Texas, Utah and New York. All sites are connected by a frame relay network, which allows transmission of e-mail and documents, as well as the sharing and transfer of its software code.

When software developers send near-final code to Acclaim's headquarters in Glen Cove, N.Y., for debugging, the code can be downloaded over the network, according to Paul Dippel, Acclaim's network coordinator. Acclaim uses a separate Fast Ethernet network for the creation of beta and demonstration copies of its products. The software developer sends the code to be burned onto CD. "We needed a separate network to transfer a lot of data," Dippel explains. "We sometimes have to burn 100 copies of one game until it's bug-free."

Dippel names the integration of e-mail to remote sites as one of the greatest challenges he faces. Software developers "need to incorporate their networks into ours," he says. "We're managing the unknown since the network is something that they designed and built." Managing cross-platform issues, such as document sharing between employees with PCs and Macintoshes, also ranks high among its challenges.

A Cisco Systems Catalyst 5000 links the individual department network segments while permitting communication among staffers. Compaq Computer Corp. ProLiant 4500 servers are utilized for e-mail, printer and document sharing. Asantˇ Technologies 2072 Ethernet hubs, located in wiring closets, distribute data to individual workstations to be evaluated and tested.

Service provider WorldCom manages the frame relay network, which makes up the WAN. Dippel plans for Acclaim to handle its own WAN network eventually.

Most employees have Internet access for informational purposes. Retailers and buyers can find out details on products and accessories by surfing Acclaim's Web site, and there are plans to install an internal Web server. Employees would then access human resources and personal paperwork on the Net site.

Acclaim also uses an electronic data interchange system that allows connectivity to 25 retail customers nationwide, such as Toys 'R Us. Retailers electronically place and acknowledge orders through this system, according to Dippel. "Their computers call ours and ordering and othe r tasks are all done without a person calling up the company," he says.