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You know those cool Philip flatscreen TVs with "ambilight"? The ones with the glowing backsides that color match on screen scenery to provide simpatico mood lighting? Well, Introversion Software recently announced plans to integrate a new line of game controllers using that same "sensory surround experience" technology, called amBX.

Introversion Software Ltd. is teaming up with Philips to produce an amBX version of the Introversion game, DEFCON. The company also hopes to amBX-enable their two previous critically acclaimed titles: Darwinia and Uplink.

Created by Philips, amBX is the latest in ambient intelligence technology designed to bring the game world into the immediate present of the gamer's living room. There are a variety of PC components doing double duty as high tech, interactive lava lamps -- game controllers with tactical feedback, throbbing PC monitors, surround sound speakers, etc. --- suited to making games that much more immersive. Developers are now hard at work creating hardware that can control the light, color, sound and even air flow of your surroundings. Introversion developers will work with a range of amBX PC Gaming Peripherals products including LED color-controlled lighting, rumble peripherals and desktop fans, which can be strategically placed around the player's room.

"In all honesty we were initially a bit skeptical about amBX – a lot of peripherals have been released on the PC that have added very little to the experience" remarked Mark Morris, Managing Director of Introversion, "but we recently visited the AmBX team in person and sat in their demo room, and the stuff they showed us just blew us away. The potential for this technology is enormous; we have only begun to scratch the surface, and there is undoubtedly a lot of exciting further experimentation we can do to maximize the gaming experience."

DEFCON is the latest offering from indie-developers, Introversion, which enjoyed a successful launch in September 2006. DEFCON is an online multiplayer strategy game simulating global thermonuclear war. The game, inspired by the 1983 cult-classic film Wargames, superbly evokes the tension, paranoia and suspicion surrounding the Cold War era.

"amBX and DEFCON are ideally suited to each other," commented Chris Delay, Lead Developer at Introversion. "With our third game DEFCON we spent a huge amount of time trying to create the atmosphere of being buried deep within an underground bunker, slowly ending the world in the last war that will ever be fought. amBX is ideally suited to enhancing that atmosphere, taking it out of the confines of what's right in front of you on-screen, and expanding it into your whole room."

Combining DEFCON with amBX is said to bring the whole messy scenario of nuclear war direct to the player's real life personal space. Flashes of blinding white light and gentle rumbles indicate when your missiles have hit home, while a spine-chilling rush of air announces the raining down of fallout on millions of innocents. Meanwhile the dread of realization approaches as the lights fade, the music slows, and your population withers. DEFCON amBX is a harrowing experience that hopes to ensure you're never so blasé about thermonuclear global war again.