Game Wars

Microsoft unveils its X-box, made to take on PlayStation. Get ready for a new battle of the consoles

It's the sort of place where you expect great machines to be built--a cramped, windowless room where keyboard wires and screen cables coil round cups of stale coffee. A handful of X-shaped boxes in brushed metal, each polished to perfection for a punishing 15 hours, lie on workbenches in varying states of completion. The team of six engineers putting them together has gone four days with less than four hours' sleep each night. There's a maniacal tinge to their humor. Bald-pated Drew Angeloff has taken to teasing his colleagues with the blue flame of his soldering equipment. "Help!" one screams. "A...

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