Dreamcast game spreads virus

A Japanese-language version of a Sega Dreamcast role-playing game has become infected with a computer virus. The game, Atelier Marie, includes a screensaver which is infected with the highly damaging Kriz virus. Although the Dreamcast itself is left unscathed by this, anyone loading the screensaver onto their PC from the game's CD-ROM will be in for an unpleasant surprise, when the virus activates on Christmas Day.

Kriz will erase the CMOS setup and attempt to corrupt a computer's BIOS chip in a similar way to the CIH (aka Chernobyl) virus. This effectively paralyses the entire computer, and forces a user to replace the BIOS chip.