PS2 speak
Taito is due to release a speech recognition system and a companion game, Greatest Striker, for the Sony PlayStation 2 in Japan today. The triangular Taito Speech Recognition System, which attaches to a headset and microphone, plugs into a USB serial communications port. A compatible Mah Jong game is expected to follow next week.

Sega up
Sega, the Japanese games giant, received a boost last week when it signed an agreement to develop games for the next generation of Motorola mobile phones. The first phone, to be launched next year, will feature one game, a block puzzle game called Borkov. Consumers will be able to upload other games written in the Java language. The Motorola iDEN handsets also have built-in pagers and two-way radios, and are sold in the US and Canada. See www.motorola.com/iden

Star stories
SMAC fans - people who play Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - can now buy the first of three novels based on the strategy game. They have been written in house by Firaxis's Mike Ely and published by Pocket Books in the US. "Centauri Dawn takes us into the world of Alpha Centauri as the Unity survivors struggle to rebuild human civilization on this strange and mysterious alien world." The next two books, Journey to Centauri and Centauri: Arrival, can be downloaded free from the Firaxis website at www.firaxis.com/smac/story.cfm.

Online games
Netgames UK, has launched an unmetered internet service aimed at online games players, especially fans of Half-Life, Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament. The service, run by Cable and Wireless, uses an 0800 number, and will cost £25 per month from January 1. Until then, the company is running a free beta test service for people who want to try it first.