Microsoft's Vista launch promoted with space ride prize

LAS VEGAS: A Microsoft online puzzle game launched this week promises to send the winner on a rocket ride into orbit around the Earth.   

The Redmond, Washington-based software giant 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 on January 30.   

The companies used the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as a venue on Monday 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 Inc., Microsoft said.   

The puzzle game challenged players worldwide to decipher clues from "spectacular events at various locations" beginning on Monday at the Bellagio Casino here, 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 created the website www.vanishingpointgame.com to provide rules, videos of clues, a "count down" and other information.