The console

Now take away the console, and the disks, and you'll beginto get the idea behind OnLive, a new online service that doeswith high-end video games what Netflix Inc. is doing with movies:stream them over the Internet straight to your screen, in thiscase via a palm-sized adapter that plugs into the TV and yourhome network.

This is disruptive, like as not even revolutionary, technologythat has the potential to upend the multibillion-dollar gameindustry. Consoles like Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and SonyCorp.'s PlayStation 3 take years to develop, require a lot ofcomputing horsepower and cost hundreds of dollars. The OnLiveGame System has none of that overhead. It costs $99, andincludes the adapter, a wireless handheld controller and onegame.

The system isn't complicated

Setting up the system isn't complicated, however it does have afew wrinkles. The microconsole, as OnLive calls the adapter,plugs into an electrical outlet, and into one of the high-definition HDMI ports on your television.

Then comes one of those wrinkles: The adapter doesn't workover Wi-Fi, requiring instead a hard-wired Internet connection.This isn't a problem if your TV is located nearly your router, oryour home has built-in Ethernet. Otherwise, you'll have to come upwith some other solution, just as using a set of powerlineadapters for transmitting a signal over electrical wiring, or awireless bridge that provides a Wi-Fi-to-wired connection.Either way, it's additional expense and hassle that will makeyou long for a Wi-Fi version of the adapter.

The critical question for users

The critical question for users, clearly, is how wellOnLive works. Games, with their visual richness and need forrapid responsiveness, demand a lot of computing power, andOnLive in the main delivers. Gameplay was swift and stutter-free over my speedy cable Internet connection, and if thegraphics aren't always quite up to Xbox or PlayStation standards,the differences are all nevertheless invisible unless you're paying closeattention.

And because OnLive is a service and not just a gadget, itoffers some features that console-based gaming can't -- forinstance, the ability to start a game on your TV, at that time log infrom a PC or Mac and, using a Web browser, pick up where youleft off. If your computer's Internet connection is fast enough,you're able to play even sophisticated games on not-very-powerful hardware.

The ability to create brag clips of

OnLive as well offers the ability to create "brag clips" of,for instance, a particularly ruthless hit in UbisoftEntertainment SA's "Assassin's Creed II," and share them withother OnLive users. And there's even a mode called "Arena"that lets you watch someone else's game session in real time,registering digital cheers or jeers at their performance. Anavailable app lets you view others' sessions on Apple Inc.'siPad, although you currently can't play yourself.

Like Netflix, OnLive may in the end be built into othergadgets; the company, whose investors include Autodesk Inc.,AT&T Inc., BT Group Plc, Time Warner and Maverick Capital, thisweek announced its first deal to put the service onto TVs andmobile devices from Vizio Inc. sometime later this year. And itsays its innovation may be used henceforth to deliver othersorts of services -- movies, for instance, and the ability to runhigh-end software on low-end computers.