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Apple to bid for PlayStation emulator outfit?

Someone's rumoured to be after Connectix, and Apple might be good fit

A predator is stalking Virtual Game Station developer Connectix, according to West Coast sources -- but is it Apple, Sony or somebody else? The veteran software developer rolled out its latest show-stealing product at MacWorld earlier this month (see earlier story), and although the Virtual Game Station is just the kind of thing to send a console manufacturer over the top, so far Sony hasn't sued, and Connectix is confident that the product is legally clean. It allows PlayStation games to be run on G3 Macs, PowerBooks and iMacs. Connectix also produces Virtual PC, a Pentium MMX emulator for the Mac. Sony's certainly interested in Virtual Game Station, but probably more from the point of view of checking it out legally than owning it. Connectix recommends G3s as the optimum machines to run it on, and Connectix president Roy MacDonald points out that Sony sells the equivalent of the G3 installed base in PlayStations every two months. At $49.99 retail, Connectix isn't going to make huge bundles out of G3 owners, and although there's apparently a Windows version of the Virtual Game Station in the works, there's no ETA as yet (and, since so many PlayStation games are also available in native PC format, not too much point to it either). Apple, however, might be interested in Connectix for the emulation technology -- the combination of being able to run Windows and PlayStation software might just strike Steve Jobs as a potential killer. Ah, but does Connectix want to be bought? ® Register factoid: Connectix's expertise in emulation technology derives from its SpeedDoubler product, which contained a faster version of the 68K emulator built into all PowerPC-based Macs to enable them to run original Mac applications. And where did Connectix get its 68K emulation expertise? Ex-Apple staffers who worked on Apple's own emulator...

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