KEY POINTS:
LAS VEGAS, Nevada - A Microsoft online puzzle game launched this week is promising to send the winner on a rocket ride into orbit around the Earth.
The Washington-based software giant has teamed with computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices to promote the new Vista operating system with Vanishing Point, a "large-scale online and offline collaborative puzzle game."
Microsoft is to launch the home version of Vista in US on January 30. The home version also is expected to be launched in Australia in January.
The companies used the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as a venue yesterday to reveal prizes including Microsoft Zune MP3 players, Xbox 360 video game consoles, Vista-based computers, and a sub-orbital space ride.
A Nasa-trained astronaut will take the winner just beyond the Earth's atmosphere for "the ultimate vista" courtesy of Rocketplane Limited, Microsoft said.
The puzzle game challenged players worldwide to decipher clues from "spectacular events at various locations" beginning yesterday at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, according to Microsoft.
A taunting video interspersed with numbers, symbols, equations and the hint "it's all about time" was projected onto dancing fountains in front of the casino after dark.
Players have established online forums and wikis -- web pages that visitors can modify - devoted to the game, the companies said.
Microsoft has created the website vanishingpointgame.com to provide rules, videos of clues, a "count down" and other information.
- AFP
