But here's the killer part: the Nuon doubles as an MPEG-2 decoder -- the very core of the DVD player, the tech that allows it to play DVD movies. That means you will be able to run games and watch DVDs on the same deck. VM Labs hopes that if you buy a DVD player by next year, you will pay a little bit more to get one with a Nuon inside. Think of the possibilities! The immense popularity of the digital videodisc format just two years after its birth suggests that the DVD movie player is destined to become, like the CD player and VCR, a standard household entertainment appliance.

VM Labs, which plans to make its money not by manufacturing any products but from software royalties, says it has deals in place with consumer-electronics manufacturers to get Nuon/DVD players out in time for Christmas. It's a risk. 3DO tried to make a console once, but it flopped because of high price and lack of support from other gamemakers. 3DO's failure convinced the industry that stealing thunder from the Japanese console giants can't be done. But VM Labs' approach -- reach the mass market by riding the coattails of a nongaming device that people want to buy anyway -- could be magic. And if the Nuon/DVD player costs only marginally more than a regular DVD player, as VM Labs claims, consumers may give it a try. "This is their way of creating an installed base without any major marketing efforts or brand awareness," says Christian Svensson, editor of MCV, a video-game trade magazine. "It's a very sneaky, devious, brilliant way to do it." Chris Charla, editor of Next Generation, agrees. "They'll be able to get these things into a lot of homes," he says. "But the real question is, What will the games be like?"

Indeed, will there be any games? Will developers commit to creating stuff for an unproven new market? Jeff Minter, a developer considered a god among gamers, is working on Nuon versions of his arcade hit Tempest and on Virtual Light Machine, which combines psychedelic visuals with any music CD (Ever seen a laser light show?). An early version of the upcoming Tempest 3000 looks pretty cool: it features a sort of 3-D spider web in space that players scale to avoid objects hurtling toward them. It plays more like an arcade game than a cutting-edge console title, but for a casual gamer, that's not a bad thing. "Most of the major software publishers are looking at [Nuon] very carefully," says David Cole, an analyst with DFC Intelligence.

Once Nuon can claim a large installed base, Cole adds, the software will follow. And it won't be just games, VM Labs says, but titles like Blues Clues and Barbie Fashion Designer and digital encyclopedias. "VM Labs will deny they're competing with [the consoles] and say they're hitting a broader market," Svensson says. "That's partially true, partially spin." Until consumers have a chance to try out the goods for themselves, it's all spin.