:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: Volume 2, Issue 4 JAGUAR EXPLORER ONLINE December 18, 1998 :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: :: :: JAGUAR ............. News, Reviews, & Solutions ............. JAGUAR :: :: EXPLORER ........... For the Online Jaguar .......... EXPLORER :: :: ONLINE ................ Community ............... ONLINE :: :: :: :: Published and Copyright (c) 1998 by White Space Publishers :: :: All Rights Reserved :: :: """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" :: :: Publisher Emeritus Plus .................... Michael Lindsay :: :: Publisher Emeritus .............................. Travis Guy :: :: Editor/Publisher ............................ Clay Halliwell :: :: Lynx Editor .................................... Carl Forhan :: :: Genie Uploader .............................. Clay Halliwell :: :: CompuServe Uploader ......................... Richard Turner :: :: America Online Uploader ....................... Lonnie Smith :: :: FidoNet Uploader ................................ Troy Cheek :: :: :: :: Contributors: :: :: (voluntary and otherwise) :: :: """"""""""""""""""""""""" :: :: Richard Turner, Jeff Minter, Doug Engel, :: :: Fard Muhammad, Jeremy Wilburne :: :: :: :: Telecommunicated to you via: :: :: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" :: :: GEnie: ST/JAGUAR RT Library 15 :: :: AOL: VIDEO GAMES FORUM Hints, Tips and Tricks II Library :: :: CompuServe: ATARIGAMING and VIDGAME Forums :: :: FidoNet: ATARI_ST and VID_GAME Echoes :: :: :: :: World Wide Web: http://www.atarihq.com/jeo/ :: :: :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Table of Contents * From the Editor ......................................... Happy New Year! * 1998 End of Year Survey ..................... Hello? Is anyone out there? * JEO Trivia Challenge IV: The Questions ............... Strain Your Brain. * Jaguar Tackboard .................. Newsletters, Message Boards, Mailing Lists, FAQs, Codes, Development List, Mail Order Directory. * CyberChatter .......................................... Overheard Online. * BattleSphere News ..................................... 4Play Marches On. * Llatest from Llamaland ........................................ Yak yaks. * The Yank's Guide to Yak Speak ................................. Baaaaaah. * State of the Lynx .............................. The Little Cat Purrs On. * Interview: James Garvin .................................. Oh I say, OMC! * Five Years of 64-bit Goodness .................... The Jag Turns Classic. * Shareholder Memories ............................ First-Hand Foolishness. * JEO Trivia Challenge IV: The Answers .............................. D'Oh! * Shutdown ............................ Around the world and up your block. --==--==--==--==-- || From the Editor || By: Clay Halliwell \__// earl.halliwell@dyess.af.mil ------------------------------------------------------------------ I'm one of those people who always skips the "From the Editor" section of any magazine. I'm urging you not to skip this section this month though, as there are rather a lot of froody tidbits below. Read on! This is so cool. When I initially took ownership of JEO (nee AEO) my target was four issues a year. Last year I missed that mark by one, and with the huge gap between the first two issues of this year, it looked like I was going to miss it again. But thanks to some last-minute scrambling, an intriguing article idea, an unexpected item, and an unusually verbose interview subject, JEO Volume 2, Issue 4 is a reality. Woo-hoo! Amongst all this, I've been going through some personal upheavals. First of all, my email address has changed from halliwee@dyess.af.mil to earl. halliwell@dyess.af.mil. So be sure to update your address books! The second, more dire change is that I hit thirty years of age last month. Oh, the horror. If things keep up like this, I may have to eventually start acting my age... nahh! Something else we all love (grin) had a birthday this November. The Jaguar hit its five-year mark. Happy semi-decade, you old cat you! Be sure to read Fard's tribute in this issue. Wait, that's not all! Computer Shopper also celebrated a birthday this month. The December 1998 issue of Computer Shopper is their 20th Anniversary Issue, and to commemorate the occasion, they have a few "looking back"-type articles, plus a handful of "Flashback" sidebars. Guess how many times Atari is mentioned? Okay, time's up: There is exactly ONE reference to Atari in the entire 550-page issue. At least it was a positive one... the introduction of the Atari 800 is listed as one of the Top 20 Events of the Last 20 Years. Such snubbing would be bad enough, but they take it to the point of factual errors-- In an article on portable computing, they cite the HP 95LX as, "a pioneer that put the then-dominant operating system, MS-DOS, in a pocket-size package." This unit came out in 1991. As any diehard Atarian knows, the Atari Portfolio (which the 95LX highly resembles) came out in 1989, two years before the 95LX. Aaarrrggghhh... Okay, enough ranting. I bet you're wondering about BattleSphere, right? Well, it's still not out yet. Since the completion announcement a couple of months ago, 4Play has gone into deep stealth mode. An inquiry by myself to Scott Le Grand was greeted with a terse, "Yes, I have been quiet. I cannot say anything more at this point." (hope you don't mind me quoting that, Scott!). So, something mysterious is going on over there at 4Play. Speaking of 4Play, Stephanie Wukovitz has a new website: . Yes, it's yet another webcam site. Drop by and bear witness to the awesome Towel Dance! Speaking of Steph (and still speaking of 4Play), the BattleSphere soundtrack petition is currently towering at 158 requests! If you still haven't signed up, and want your very own CD of some of the best music for one of the best games on the Jag, drop by . JTS may no longer be among the living. Their web site seems on the verge of going down, no-one is answering the phones, and their stock was taken off AMEX a few months ago. There haven't been any official announcements yet, but I'm betting it's only a matter of time... For those of you wondering when VM Labs would bite the bullet and pick an official name for Project X... well, they went and did it. It's "NUON". You heard me right... "NUON". As in, "NEON but with a typo". Or, "NOUN misspelled". Or, "NEW-YAWN". Yech. Along with the new name comes a new logo, a goofy piece of work which I've been referring to as the "Nuon Noodle". Check out the embedded circle-and-slash "NOT" symbol embedded in the logo. How anyone ever approved this logo is beyond me. The JEO website issue archive is still missing a few issues of Atari Explorer Online, specifically AEO 1.12, AEO 2.2, AEO News Bulletins #2 & #3, and possibly a few issues at the end of Volume 3 (last issue, 3.12, is for October). If you have any of these issues, please email JEO a copy! Also on the JEO website, the links section now has a pointer to an aerial view of Atari's old HQ at 1196 Borregas Ave. Thanks to Microsoft's TerraServer for the image. Battle-Girl is one of the best shoot-em-ups ever. Never heard of it? Don't be surprised-- this little gem of a game is a Macintosh exclusive. I was exposed to it a while back on a friend's system, and instantly knew that it would be perfect for the Jaguar. Now, I'm not normally one of those people that goes around whining, "Gee I wish they would port [fillintheblank] to the Jag!" As it turns out, the guys over at Ultra/United (the developers of B-G) are big Jaguar fans. In interviews, they describe Battle-Girl as a cross between Tempest 2000, Sinistar, Robotron, Defender, and the VLM (it seems to have a touch of Star Castle in it too). It's all vector-graphic based and runs in 256-color mode, so it would absolutely FLY on the Jag. I sent Ultra/United an e-mail on the possibility of porting B-G, and this is what they said: Hey Clay, Yeah, I'm a big Atari fan! T2K is the game that got me back into videogames and was most influential for battle-girl. A Jag port would be possible I think. The biggest issue first off is: do the tools compile C++? The executable is 5.6 Mb, but there's no sound or graphics compression(!). The music is almost 5 Mb itself, tho. I think JagCD redbook might be more appropriate or reorchestrating the MOD-type music files to contain fewer samples. I think the Jag could handle the graphics, but all the computation is floating point, so you might have to change that. It would still be quite a lot of work. Keep the faith! Scott So there you have it. And now you know why I pester James Garvin about B-G in his interview in this issue. Drop by the Ultra/United website for more info. After I got over my initial excitement over the thought of Battle-Girl on the Jaguar, I realized that there are really quite a lot of cool games on the Mac just begging to be ported. Something that plagued the Jag throughout its lifespan was that the many PC ports were perceived as stale and outdated by the time they landed on the Jag. On the other hand, the Mac market offers a plethora of quality titles that are little known outside the Mac community. Since the Mac market is so much smaller, these Mac-only games tend to be written by dedicated hackers who squeeze great graphics AND gameplay out of their systems. Just like the better games on the Jag, eh? Since Mac game publishers tend to be very small companies or even just individuals, the process of licensing conversions is considerably simplified. The end result is a proven game concept, ported with little legal overhead, that seems brand-new to most gamers. Atari may have missed the boat on this conversion cornucopia, but it's not too late for the Jag's burgeoning second childhood. Amateur Jag developers, start checking out those Mac game sites! Joachim Vance, JEO's stalwart mailing list maintainer, seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. So, sadly, you will no longer be able to have fresh copies of JEO delivered direct to your mailbox. Joachim, I will avenge you! Included in the ZIPped edition of this issue is an image of the NUON Noodle, a thumbnail screenshot from Battle-Girl (lots of full-rez screenshots at the Ultra/United site), and a friendly holiday warning from M.A.D.D. --==--==--==--==-- || 1998 End of Year Survey || By: Clay Halliwell \__// earl.halliwell@dyess.af.mil ----------------------------------------------------------------- What's this? Not another survey! Okay, originally this survey only had one question-- "Do you read JEO?". I basically wanted to know how many people out there were benefiting from the dozens of hours of work that I put into each issue of Jaguar Explorer Online. But then I figured, if I'm going to trouble people to send an entire email message, I may as well take advantage of the opportunity to do a little intelligence-gathering on the behalf of the Jaguar community. So, if you're reading this, PLEASE take the two minutes or so to respond to the questions below. If there's a question you don't know the answer to (or don't care to answer), feel free to skip it. If you know a Jaguar-owning friend without e-mail access, submit a survey for him too. Send responses to "earl.halliwell@dyess.af.mil", with the subject "JEO SURVEY". Results will be tallied and published in the next issue of JEO. (paste survey into your email message, then fill in the answers) JAGUAR EXPLORER ONLINE 1998 END OF YEAR SURVEY ---------------------------------------------- 1. What is your age? 2. What is your gender? 3. Do you still play your Jaguar? 4. Is the Jaguar your primary game console? 5. Do you own the Jaguar CD attachment? 6. How many Jag cartridges do you own (approximately is okay)? 7. How many Jag CDs do you own (soundtracks don't count)? 8. How many of the post-Atari Telegames releases have you bought? 9. What is the most you would be willing to pay for a new Jaguar game (in US dollars; round to nearest 10)? 10. Would you be willing to modify your Jaguar in some way (or have it modified) to play new, user-written games? 11. What are your absolute favorite Jaguar games (three max)? 12. How long have you owned your Jaguar? 13. Were you an Atari enthusiast before getting your Jag? 14. What JEO sections do you like most? 15. What JEO sections do you like least? 16. What would you like to see JEO do to be even better? 17. What ONE game on any other platform (PC or console) would you like to see ported to the Jag? Try to pick something the Jag could do well. Thanks for participating in the survey! --==--==--==--==-- || JEO Trivia Challenge IV: The Questions || By: Carl Forhan \__// forhan@millcomm.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What was the name of the unreleased device that would allow a 2600 player to "control games with his mind"? 2. What is the most recent copyright year of any 7800 game? 3. What games have versions that exist on the 2600, 5200, 7800, and Lynx? 4. An official Atari 7800 light gun was never released, but what light gun was fully compatible with the 7800? 5. Name the only light gun game for the 2600. 6. Name the companies that published both 2600 games and board games. 7. Name a CD that contains a game playable on an Atari home console- based system *besides* the Jaguar CD unit. 8. Complete this phrase from an Atari ad: "Lynx Eats _____ Lunch." 9. What was the unreleased 32-bit console in development at Atari? 10. What was the "ticker symbol" used by Atari in the stock market prior to the merger with JTS? BONUS QUESTION: Name three games for any Atari cartridge-based console that included entire, separate *games* as easter eggs. Identify the easter egg games as well. --==--==--==--==-- || Jaguar Tackboard || Confirmed information about Atari's Jaguar \__// Compiled from online and official sources ----------------------------------------------------------------- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Jaguar Message Boards =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Anyone with web browsing capability can join in on the discussions on several web-based Jaguar message boards out there on the net. Note that, due to the rapid message turnover and instant-update nature of these boards, they have a tendency to burn through topics in a matter of days instead of weeks (or hours instead of days). Just point your browser to: Jaguar Interactive II (hosted by Atari Gaming Headquarters) Atari Times Boardroom (hosted by The Atari Times) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Jaguar Chat =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Anyone with web browsing capability who wants to chat in real-time with their fellow Jaguar enthusiasts, but has no access to IRC, should take advantage of this Jag chat page: JFPN's Jaguar Chat =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Jaguar FAQ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Robert Jung maintains the Jaguar FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file, a continually updated list of Jaguar specs and facts. The Jaguar FAQ is posted to rec.games.video.atari on Usenet around the first of every month, and can also be found at . =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Jaguar Cheats and Codes =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Clay "No Handle" Halliwell maintains the Atari Jaguar Game Cheats and Codes FAQ. It's available by e-mail request or from Atari Gaming Headquarters . Lonnie "The Mage" Smith maintains the Concise Compendium of Frequently Asked Codes, Moves, and Cheats (FACMAC). It's available via FTP from , or from . =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// JEO Development List =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The following list of game titles has been confirmed to the best of JEO's ability as of publication. Entries in the "S"tatus column reflect any "u"pdates, "n"ew titles, or "?"uestionable listings since the last JEO list. Entries in the "M"edia column reflect whether the title is "C"D-ROM or "J"aguar Server/BJL (blank entries indicate cartridge software). "NEW" indicates titles released since the last issue of JEO. ETA dates are dates that have been provided by the developer or publisher. //// Titles in Development or Limbo S M Title ETA Developer Publisher " " """"" """ """"""""" """"""""" n C Assassin, The 1999 OMC Games OMC Games BattleSphere 1999 4Play 4Play J Bong+ 1999 ? Just Claws Software ? Deathwatch ? Data Design J Gorf 2000 ? Krunch Software ? Hyper Force ? C-West J Jagmania (PacMania clone) ? Matthias Domin J Jagmarble (Marble Madness clone) ? Matthias Domin J JagTris (Tetris clone) ? Bastian Schick n J Legion Force ? Force Design J Painter ? Sinister Protector 1999 Carl Forhan/Bethesda ? Skyhammer ? Rebellion ? C Soulstar ? Core Design Ltd. ? Space War 2000 ? Atari //// Current Software Releases M Title Rated Developer Publisher " """"" """"" """"""""" """"""""" AirCars 5 MidNite ICD Alien vs. Predator 9 Rebellion Atari Atari Karts 6 Miracle Design Atari Attack of the Mutant Penguins 6 Sunrise Games Ltd. Atari C Baldies 6 Creative Edge Atari C Battlemorph 10 Attention to Detail Atari C Blue Lightning 6 Attention to Detail Atari C BrainDead 13 5 ReadySoft ReadySoft Breakout 2000 7 MP Games Telegames Brutal Sports Football 6 Millennium/Teque Telegames Bubsy 5 Imagitec Design Atari Cannon Fodder 8 Virgin Interactive C-West Checkered Flag 4 Rebellion Atari Club Drive 5 Atari Atari Crescent Galaxy 3 Atari Atari Cybermorph 7 Attention to Detail Atari Defender 2000 8 Llamasoft Atari Doom 8 id Software Atari Double Dragon V 4 Williams Enter. Williams C Dragon's Lair 5 ReadySoft ReadySoft Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story 6 Virgin Interactive Atari Evolution: Dino Dudes 6 Imagitec Design Atari Fever Pitch Soccer 6 U.S. Gold Atari Fight For Life 6 Atari Atari Flashback 7 Tiertex Ltd. U.S. Gold Flip Out! 6 Gorilla Systems Atari C Highlander I 8 Lore Design Ltd. Atari Hover Strike 5 Atari Atari C Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands 7 Atari Atari Iron Soldier 9 Eclipse Atari C Iron Soldier 2 CD 10 Eclipse Telegames Iron Soldier 2 10 Eclipse Telegames I-War 4 Imagitec Design Atari Kasumi Ninja 5 Hand Made Software Atari Missile Command 3D 8 Virtuality Atari C Myst 9 Atari Atari NBA Jam: Tournament Edition 9 High Voltage Atari Pinball Fantasies 6 Spider Soft C-West Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure 8 Imagitec Design Atari Power Drive Rally 7 Rage Software TWI C Primal Rage 7 Probe TWI Raiden 6 Imagitec Design Atari Rayman 10 UBI Soft UBI Soft Ruiner 6 High Voltage Atari Sensible Soccer 6 Williams Brothers Telegames C Space Ace 3 ReadySoft ReadySoft Super Burnout 7 Shen Atari Supercross 3D 5 Tiertex Ltd. Atari Syndicate 7 Bullfrog Ocean Tempest 2000 10 Llamasoft Atari Theme Park 6 Bullfrog Ocean Towers II 7 JV Enterprises Telegames Troy Aikman NFL Football 6 Telegames Williams Ultra Vortek 8 Beyond Games Atari Val d'Isere Skiing & Snowboarding 7 Virtual Studio Atari C Vid Grid 6 High Voltage Atari C VLM 9 Llamasoft Atari White Men Can't Jump 6 High Voltage Atari Wolfenstein 3D 7 id Software Atari C World Tour Racing 6 Teque London Ltd. Telegames Worms 9 Team 17 Telegames Zero 5 7 Caspian Software Telegames Zool 2 7 Gremlin Graphics Atari Zoop 6 Viacom Atari Total Carts 51 Total CDs 14 (counting VLM) Total Combined 65 Pts Stars JEO Ratings """ """"" """"""""""" 10 ***** THE ULTIMATE - Flawless, beautiful, deviously addictive. 9 ****+ EXCELLENT - Something to throw in the face of N64-heads. 8 **** SMEGGIN' GREAT - Something to kick on the shoes of N64-heads. 7 ***+ DARN GOOD - Plays as good as it looks. 6 *** DECENT - Plays better than it looks (or vice versa). 5 **+ TIME KILLER - If there's nothing else to do, you play this. 4 ** INEPT - The programmer's first Jag game? 3 *+ INCOMPETENT - The programmer's first game ever? 2 * UNPUBLISHABLE - Heaven help us! 1 + INCONCEIVABLE BAD - ...but someone conceived it. Too bad. 0 - EXECRABLE - This is an April Fool's joke, right? //// Current Hardware/Firmware Releases Item Manufacturer """"" """""""""""" Jaguar 64 Atari Jaguar 64 CD-ROM Drive Atari 3-button PowerPad Atari 6-button ProController Atari Team Tap Atari Jag-Link Atari Memory Track Atari Jaguar System Test Cartridge Atari Composite Cable Atari S-Video Cable Atari Stereo Audio Interface (proto) Atari VoiceModem (proto) Atari/Phylon Controller Extension Cable Best Electronics CatBox ICD/Black Cat Design Lap Cat/Lap Cat Pro joystick Ben Aein Jaguar Extreme Joystick Dark Knight Games (modded Gravis Blackhawk) Jaguar Server devkit Roine Stenberg (Istari Software) Behind Jaggy Lines devkit Bastian Schick =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// JEO Mail Order Directory 1.3 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The following list of vendors carrying Jaguar software/hardware has been confirmed to the best of JEO's ability. Please e-mail JEO for additions/ corrections. //// B&C ComputerVisions Mail 1725 De La Cruz Blvd #7 Santa Clara, CA 95050-3011 Voice 408-986-9960 (Tue-Fri, 10am-6pm) Fax 408-986-9968 Email Web //// Best Electronics - UPDATED Mail 2021 The Alameda, Suite 290 San Jose, CA 95126-1127 Voice 408-243-6950 Email Web //// Bits of Fun Mail PO Box 12345 San Luis Obispo, CA Phone 800-FUN-JAGS Email Web //// Buy-Rite Video Games Voice 919-850-9473 Fax 919-872-7561 Email Web //// Demand Systems Voice 805-482-7900 Orders 800-593-0059 Fax 805-484-3745 805-987-1998 Email Web //// Dentec Computer Products Mail 465 Milner Ave #3 Scarborough, Ontario M1B 2K4 Canada Voice 416-292-2996 Fax 416-292-4075 416-292-248 Email Web //// Flashback Video Games Mail 2284 Kresge Drive Amherst, OH 44001 Voice 216-960-1622 Fax 216-960-1663 Email Web //// GameMasters Mail 14393 E. 14th Street, Suite 208 San Leandro, CA 94577 Voice 510-483-4263 Email Web //// Game Pedler Voice 801-273-0787 (ask for Internet Sales) Fax 801-273-1357 Email Web //// Games To Go Mail 7632 Lyndale Avenue So. Richfield, MN 55423 Voice 612-798-5879 Fax 612-869-5925 Email (orders) (info) Web //// Hardysoft Mail 24 Lawnside Drive Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 Orders 609-883-1083 Fax 609-538-8674 Email Web //// Multimedia 1.0 - NEW Mail 18 Saint Mark's Place New York City, NY 10003 Voice 212-539-1039 Fax 212-539-1645 Email Web //// O'Shea, Ltd. Mail 330 West 47th Street #203 Kansas City, MO 64112 Voice 816-531-1177 Fax 816-531-6569 Email Web //// STeve's Computer Technologies Mail 405 Main Street Woodland, CA 95695 Voice 916-661-3328 Fax 916-661-1201 Email Web //// Telegames Mail P.O. Box 901 Lancaster, Texas 75146 Voice 972-228-0690 Orders 972-224-7200 Fax 972-228-0693 Email Web //// United Game Source Mail 232 East Eau Gallie Blvd Indian Harbour Beach, FL 32937 Orders 800-564-1458 Fax 407-777-3940 Email Web //// Video Game Advantage Mail 6861 Anthony Lane Parma Heights, OH 44130 Orders 216-843-8815 (24-hr answering machine) Email Web //// Video Game Liquidators Mail 4058 Tujunga Ave, #B Studio City, CA 91604 Orders 818-505-1666 (9am-5pm PST) 888-944-4263 (toll free) Fax 818-505-1686 Email Web //// The Video Games Source - NEW Mail Salzbruecker Str. 36 21335 Lueneburg - Germany Orders +(49) 4131-406278 Fax +(49) 4131-406278 Email Web =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Announcements and Press Releases =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// New Jag Games Contacts: James Garvin omc@io.com Sandro Sarang sandro@omcgames.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OMC GAMES DIVISION TO RELEASE "THE ASSASSIN" FOR THE ATARI JAGUAR 64-BIT GAME CONSOLE AUSTIN, TX, October 21, 1998 -- OMC Games Division announced that they will begin production of "The Assassin", which was previously to be released on the Atari 8-bit, for the Atari Jaguar CD game console. With the upgrade in hardware, "The Assassin" will allow for more spectacular effects and a higher level of graphical and audio intensity. With James Garvin moving to Japan, unforeseen problems arose in the development of the Atari 8-bit version. "I was having some major difficulties getting the antiquated RF system of the Atari 8-bit to work with Japanese coaxial connections as well as technical problems that resulted during my travels from the U.S. Needless to say, I had to make some difficult decisions," stated James Garvin, owner of OMC Games Division. Though, the change in platforms has not extinguished efforts to bring to life an Atari 8-bit version. "There will be an Atari 8-bit version, but it will most likely have to wait until I get back to the States." "The Assassin" is the prequel to "Orb Of Bengazi" which is based on the upcoming futuristic cyberpunk world of "Blood City", a role playing system to also be released 3rd Quarter 1999. This action/RPG features Chicago detective, Michael Steele, as he searches for the murders of his brother, but what he finds is a tangled web of intrigue and death which takes him all over the world. For those looking forward to "Orb Of Bengazi", this game should not be missed. "The Assassin" will be released under the Hellified Games label of OMC, with the project headed by James Garvin, and music composed by up-and- coming musician, Arthur Lauritsen. OMC Publishing is also planning to release a soundtrack sometime around the release of the game. More news and screenshots will become available over the next couple of months. OMC Games Division is a sole proprietorship based in Austin, Texas and publisher of HieroGraphix Game Journal. Other game titles under development include "Age Of Darkness" and "Orb Of Bengazi". 1998 OMC Games Div. //// Doom Revisited [from the Jaguar's Domain web site ] Group Game Project ------------------------------------------------------------------------ UPDATE: The mailing list may be found at www.onelist.com. The list name is 'jaguar'. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Proposal for a Group Game: [] Based on Jaguar Doom source code obtained by Carl Forhan from id Software under license. [] Possibility of licensing an official Doom sequel from id Software, but may be easier (from a licensing/publishing perspective) to use source combined with new graphics, audio, and levels. [] Work items (in order of priority): 1. Fix networking 2. Develop game theme 3. Create new levels 4. Improve code performance 5. Add new code for new AI, traps, switches, etc. 6. Create new graphics (enemies, weapons, textures, backgrounds etc.) 7. Create new audio 8. Double screen resolution 9. Anything else [] Work will be done on a volunteer basis. However, approved contributors should expect to receive a discount on the final product. [] Communication will be in the form of a mailing list and perhaps a web page. All contributors who are approved into the project shall keep all project-related information confidential, as with any non- disclosure agreement. No sense in spoiling the game for everybody or dragging private matters into the public eye. Failure to respect this may result in the person's removal from the project. [] Please do not bother id Software. If this project is taken to completion, we will have the opportunity to properly thank them at that time for their help. If it doesn't make it, then there's no point in bothering them now. [] Development will be done using the original PC Doom only, to ensure eventual compatibility with the Jaguar version. DeeP97 is the preferred Doom editor; a group order for this product will be placed soon. [] Team opportunities: Level Team - Create entirely new levels consistent with the theme. Music Team - Create multiple-voice compositions, MIDI and MOD formats. Audio Team - Create/obtain royalty-free audio samples in WAV format. Graphics Team - Create/obtain royalty-free graphics and animations. Code Team - Fix networking, enhance game engine, new AI, powerups, etc. Test Team - Test game betas. Appropriate Jag hardware required. Web Team - Maintain web pages. Provide outlet for progress reports, sample graphics/audio, etc. Note that there will likely be a Team Leader for each team (if enough people are involved to warrant such a position) who will be responsible for integrating all the various pieces from their team together in a coherent fashion. [] Project Leader: Carl Forhan will be the Project Leader for this effort. He may be reached at forhan@millcomm.com or on the web at: [] Proposed theme: Breeders universe as created and copyrighted by Carl Forhan. In a nutshell, it's a Terran marines vs. intelligent bugs set in deep space in a territorial conflict. More details on the Breeders universe to follow, but for now, refer to following URL: [] Parting thoughts: We all know there's very little money to be had in a new Jaguar game; that's why I won't even pretend to have the ability to pay people to participate. However, this is also a great opportunity to build on one of the Jag's finest games and keep the console alive for another year or more. This project would also allow people to get some experience working on a console game without having to be responsible for everything in the game. Sincerely, Carl Forhan //// If Atari Was Still Around, They'd Sue! JAGUAR GAMING CORPORATION Listing: OTC Electronic Bulletin Board Symbol: JAGG FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Vancouver, B.C. April 8, 1998 - Jaguar Gaming Corporation (OTC - JAGG) is pleased to announce it has completed its corporate reorganization plan. The plan includes a name change to Jaguar Gaming Corporation, a consolidation on a 5 for 1 basis of the Company stock, a 504 filing and the appointment of Douglas Waugh, Robert Sim, Jon Hafezi and Malcolm Burke to the Board of Directors. Mr. Waugh and Mr. Sim bring numerous years of gaming industry experience to the Company, including ownership of International Gaming Consultants as well as their association with Thunderbird Gaming Inc. Mr. Hafezi, founder of Pars Gaming International, has extensive background in developing electronic gaming equipment including the introduction of multi game touch screen technology to the industry. Mr. Burke brings a wealth of venture capital financing and gaming industry experience from his association with Sky Games Inc. and Interactive Entertainment Limited. Jaguar Gaming Corporation has completed the acquisition of Integrated Systems Design LLC (ISD) of Fort Mill, South Carolina in exchange for 600,000 treasury shares. ISD, founded in early 1997 by Mr. Hafezi and a group of engineers, designs and develops gaming software and electronic gaming hardware. Jaguar Gaming Corporation has also completed the acquisition of Phoenix Gaming Technologies Inc. (Phoenix) of Regina, Saskatchewan in exchange for 470,000 treasury shares of the Company. Phoenix has exclusive distribution rights for Unidesa electronic gaming equipment in Canada. Unidesa is one of the world's largest gaming machine manufacturers with annual volumes in excess of 60,000 units; 1997 revenues in excess of $800 million U.S.; and a total staff of 3,600 persons. Since acquiring the Unidesa distribution rights, Phoenix has sold and installed machines and upgrade conversion kits to two Canadian casinos and is currently short listed on proposals involving a potential of 4,000 additional machines. Unidesa equipment fully complies with all Canadian provincial gaming equipment regulations. The Canadian electronic gaming machine market is expanding rapidly and currently includes approximately 60,000 machines installed across all ten provinces. On behalf of the Board of Directors Douglas Waugh President Contact: Jaguar Gaming Corporation Phone: 1-877-718-5500 Web: http://www.jaguargaming.com //// Just Say Nuon For Immediate Release October 27, 1998 VM LABS REVEALS "NUON" AS HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED OFFICIAL NAME OF PROJECT X NUON(tm) to Define Convergence of Video and Interactivity in Tomorrow's Home Entertainment Center Los Altos, CA -- VM Labs today unveiled the long-awaited official name and logo for its interactive digital video entertainment standard, until now code-named "Project X." The new moniker, NUON, represents a powerful and flexible technology that will transform digital video products such as DVD players, digital satellite receivers and digital set-top boxes into versatile interactive multimedia centers allowing consumers to enjoy games, interactive software and other flexible applications all on the same platform. "The name NUON reflects the wide-reaching power of a technology capable of introducing millions of consumers to interactive entertainment through their television sets" said Richard Miller, CEO of VM Labs. Like a proud parent, VM Labs has taken a great deal of time and care to select the name NUON. As the company labored to come up with an appropriate name for their cutting edge technology, many word combinations were tested, including those relating to media processing, video games, unparalleled speed and graphics, enriched audio and digital content. Ultimately it was decided that no pre-existing word or combination of words could do justice to the technology, therefore an entirely new word was required. VM Labs enlisted the help of Lexicon, a world renowned branding firm which developed such well known names as Pentium, Powerbook and Deskjet, to create a name that would become synonymous with the advanced technology. Focus groups found an immediate affinity to NUON, suggesting that the name reflected something entirely new, powerful and futuristic. The important task of developing a logo to complement such a dynamic name was assigned to The Beeline Group in Newark, California, renowned for their work with Hewlett Packard, Nike; and top companies in the videogame industry. The logo was conceived from an early demonstration of the technology's power and capabilities. A sample of real-time raytracing showed a wavy body of water which would reflect the image and light source from a series of spheres. The logo became a fusion of these strong graphic elements, which also abstractly represents the name NUON. "Consumers will come to recognize and look for the NUON logo on home electronics hardware and software as an assurance they are getting the advanced level of interactivity and digital video convergence only NUON will provide," explains Greg LaBrec, Vice President of Marketing for VM Labs. "The logo will appear as an icon on the front of enhanced hardware, as well as on packaging, software, and traditional advertising media." The NUON technology will add unprecedented programmable processing power to digital consumer electronics devices, providing an advanced interactive software platform for the living room. In addition to unsurpassed interactivity, the architecture provides the raw horsepower to decode digital video and audio, while delivering advanced trick modes and an enhanced user interface. This highly parallel and scaleable processor is capable of executing in excess of 1.5 billion instructions per second. The first products are expected to be available in 1999. VM Labs, founded in 1994, opened new company headquarters today to accommodate a rapidly growing number of employees. The new building is located at 520 San Antonio Road, Mt. View, CA 94040. The company represents a winning business plan by licensing the NUON technology to leading partners in the semiconductor, manufacturing and software development industries. Licensing partners are pioneers of a new interactive digital video standard that analysts predict will replace the current analog method in the next five to ten years. To download artwork, please visit the NUON Website at www.nuon-tech.com # # # Contact: BENDER, GOLDMAN & HELPER Jenny Rosas, Ext. 277 310/473-4147 jenny_rosas@bgh.com Linda Thurmond 510/653-3010 lthurmond@earthlink.net //// Toad Domain Up For Grabs Toad Computers is no longer in the Atari business, we're sad to say. Lack of supply of products has forced us out of the business, and we've moved on to other things. We have not supported Atari products since late 1996. We still have a great deal of fond memories of and affection for the Atari community, however, and want to make sure that our Internet domain names are carried forward by an avid Atari enthusiast. So, we're contacting you first. First, take a look at the site. www.ataricentral.com/www.atari.net are POPULAR sites with a LOT of traffic. - 150MB/day traffic - 9,271 Requests Per Day (average) - 8,686 Distinct Hosts served since December 1 - See the stats yourself at http://www.ataricentral.com/stats The site, and the domain names ataricentral.com and atari.net, are being auctioned at Ebay. The auction closes in 3 days. Whoever has the highest bid at the end of the auction will walk away with one of the most visited Atari Internet sites, ever. Bids are starting at $132.50. You can bid on the sites by visiting: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=46202978 ** What do you get? ** Atari.net, Ataricentral.com transferred to your company or personal name. You also get complete access to all files associated with both sites (about 50Mb of product graphics, etc.) You can also continue to host either or both sites at ToadNet, our new venture, which has become one of the leading Internet providers in the Washington, DC area. We're looking forward to seeing the Atari vision carried forth, well into the future. Sincerely, David Troy Toad Computers, Inc. ====================================================================== Jag News Mail List is a Service of Toad Computers, Inc. (800) 448-8623 Subscribe: send email 'subscribe jagnews' to majordomo@lists.toad.net Unsubscribe: send email 'unsubscribe jagnews' to majordomo@lists.toad.net Questions: send email to info@toad.net! //// Toad Domain: The Plot Thickens From: David Troy Subject: Problem with eBay Auction Date: Wednesday, December 09, 1998 As I think you all know, EBAY has been having major technical difficulties over the last week with their cgi servers. This caused some of you to be unable to bid during the last hour of the auction last night for Ataricentral.com, which truly stunted the results. I myself was unable to get through to check the auction's status during the last hour, and ebays' message boards have been swamped with complaints about the cgi servers. I'm the first to say something like this should be conducted fair and square and that in an auction environment, the highest bidder wins when the gavel goes down. However, what happened last night is tantamount to having thugs gag and bag interested bidders, thus stunting the sale price. Obviously this is not your fault, and I apologize if this affected you negatively. I asked EBAY for an extension of the auction and have received no response. So, I have decided to relist the auction, as is, for an additional THREE DAYS ONLY to allow those of you who are interested to continue to bid. The current winning bid is held by ffisher1 at $790.10. To beat Mr. Fisher's winning bid, I will need to see at least two bids above $900 -- the bidding on the new listing starts at $900. Mr. Fisher does deserve some consideration in this case, since he did win the auction, regardless of the problems ebay may have had. I hope that you find this an acceptable and fair solution, and hope you understand the unenviable predicament that ebay has put me in. The new listing is: Sincerely, David Troy Toad Computers, Inc. //// JTS vs AMEX [This is an item which really should have appeared last issue, but unfortunately escaped my notice. From the SEC Edgar site . -- Ed.] ACCESSION NUMBER: 0001047469-98-022647 CONFORMED SUBMISSION TYPE: 8-K PUBLIC DOCUMENT COUNT: 1 CONFORMED PERIOD OF REPORT: 19980511 ITEM INFORMATION: FILED AS OF DATE: 19980602 SROS: NASD FILER: COMPANY DATA: COMPANY CONFORMED NAME: JTS CORP CENTRAL INDEX KEY: 0000941167 STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION: COMPUTER STORAGE DEVICES [3572] IRS NUMBER: 770364572 FISCAL YEAR END: 0202 FILING VALUES: FORM TYPE: 8-K SEC ACT: SEC FILE NUMBER: 001-14442 FILM NUMBER: 98641282 BUSINESS ADDRESS: STREET 1: 166 BAYPOINTE PARKWAY CITY: SAN JOSE STATE: CA ZIP: 95134 BUSINESS PHONE: 4084681800 FORMER COMPANY: FORMER CONFORMED NAME: JT STORAGE INC DATE OF NAME CHANGE: 19960508 8-K 1 8-K ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 ---------------- FORM 8-K CURRENT REPORT Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Date of report (date of earliest event reported): May 11, 1998 JTS CORPORATION (Exact name of Company as specified in its charter) Commission File Number 0-21085 Delaware 77-0364572 -------- ---------- (State of Jurisdiction) (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) 166 Baypointe Parkway, San Jose, CA 95134 (Address of principal executive offices and zip code) Company's telephone number, including area code: (408) 468-1800 Not Applicable (Former name or former address, if changed since last report) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ITEM 5. OTHER EVENTS JTS Corporation (the "Company") announced on May 11, 1998 that it is consenting to the removal of its Common Stock and 5 1/4% Debentures from The American Stock Exchange, Inc. ("AMEX"). This action became necessary because the Company no longer fully satisfies all of the guidelines of the AMEX for continued listing. The AMEX has advised that the last day for trading of the Company's securities on the AMEX will be Friday, May 22, 1998. SIGNATURES Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized. Date: June 2, 1998 JTS CORPORATION By: /s/ JOSEPH A. PREZIOSO ---------------------------------- Joseph A. Prezioso Chief Financial Officer and Secretary (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Worms, IS2: The Second Run =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= When Telegames published the Worms and Iron Soldier 2 cartridges, they only produced a limited production run, which sold out quickly. For the last few months rumors have been flying about a second production run, and that Telegames is just waiting to collect enough pre-orders to justify another run. I contacted Telegames to confirm this. This is what they said: What you state is correct. We had hoped that the remaining orders would come in by now so we could have the products by Christmas, but that is becoming doubtful due to the lack of response. It appears that too many enthusiasts are complaining that they can't buy the product, but they won't step up to pre- order it. They want to wait until they are available and then they will buy. A classic Catch-22. Regards Telegames It's simple, folks-- Show Telegames we're still interested and pre-order now. We may yet get those few remaining unpublished games! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// New Cheats and Codes =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Super Burnout Thanks to Super Burnout programmer Elysee Ade (via Fred Moreau). Display Version Number: While turning on the Jaguar, hold A+B+C. --==--==--==--==-- || CyberChatter || Random topics about the Jaguar \__// Compiled from online public discussion areas ----------------------------------------------------------------- This month's special guest quotee is Andrew Seed, formerly of Imagitec. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Saturn T2K =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Re: Tempest X for PSX vs T2K... Author: Andrew Seed Email: andrew.seed4@virgin.net Date: 1998/12/08 Forums: rec.games.video.atari I used to work for Imagitec Design (even wrote a couple of Jag games) and Imagitec did the PC conversion, a Saturn conversion was started with the intention of showing it to Atari and giving them a "cheap" game. They decided to give it to another company (was it Interplay?) and asked for source to the Saturn version. They were kindly told what they could do with that idea 8-). Basically it was an enhanced version of the PC (not as good as the original Jag version) and had the music from the Tempest 2000 CD. I believe Jeff Minter would have been proud, but... All the best =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Dino Toons =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Author: Andrew Seed Email: andrew.seed4@virgin.net Date: 1998/10/30 Forums: alt.atari-jaguar.discussion When I was finishing Dino Dudes (as Jag was being launched) somebody had been working on Tiny Toons. Atari had good Quality control - if anybody didn't like a feature they would persuade the Tramiels it was bad (apparently easy) and then it HAD to be changed, but the games which Imagitec worked on, Atari tested to destruction. Andrew Seed Dave Homenuck Jr. wrote in message ... > >>beetleguise@webtv.net wrote in message ><15351-3637EC1B-64@newsd-154.iap.bryant.webtv.net>... >>what happened?? >>this looked so great! >>i still have the screen shots for this game. >>was it produced?jaguar was showing this at the same time as avp. > > >I'm sure somebody here will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe >that this game was done twice, but didn't get past Atari's >notorious(ly odd) quality control. > >Considering that stuff like Checkered Flag flew through this same >QC, it was either a terrible game, or some genius at Atari decided >not to release it. > >Dave =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Re: tiny toons Author: Andrew Seed Email: andrew.seed4@virgin.net Date: 1998/10/30 Forums: alt.atari-jaguar.discussion After I finished Bubsy, Atari asked Imagitec if they were interested in doing Tiny Toons (I believe I would have been doing it) but after checking how much memory was required for map blocksets, it was discovered that we could have a map, some music, but no sprites or program unless we could increase the size of RAM - not feasible. Andrew Seed beetleguise@webtv.net wrote in message <15351-3637EC1B-64@newsd-154.iap.bryant.webtv.net>... what happened?? this looked so great! i still have the screen shots for this game. was it produced? jaguar was showing this at the same time as avp. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Re: PAL Jaguar carts on US Jaguar ? Author: Andrew Seed Email: andrew.seed4@virgin.net Date: 1998/09/18 Forums: rec.games.video.atari Yeah carts work on any system - Atari had the good sense to ensure that games worked on any machine. Note some early games such as Evolution: Dino Dudes had two versions - one for the NTSC market and then a global version. All the best Andrew Seed er'gain hobby wrote in message <36021068.77BA81A5@singnet.com.sg>... >Anybody knows whether a PAL Format Jaguar can be play >on a USA Jaguar system ? > >thanks =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Making Jag CDs =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Jaguar Interactive II Re: WHAT IS THE SECRET TO MAKE CD FOR JAG ?? Posted by JustClaws X (134.171.69.199) on November 26, 1998 at 23:44:32: In Reply to: WHAT IS THE SECRET TO MAKE CD FOR JAG ?? posted by fred on November 26, 1998 at 10:11:26: Hi. >what is the format of the cd for jaguar? > is it CD XA or cd-i or other ? > what is the book ?(yellow , red , white ?) It is basically RAW format, similar to CD-Plus format. The official term for the nearest format is ORANGE book. (Really!) > with my cd recorder can I make cd for jaguar ? You could probably bit-copy one, but the chances of it working are small because the lead-in and lead-out times, format of bytes, etc., is dependent not just on the data, but also on the CD-recorder. (Really!) Creating a new CD for Jaguar requires more:- a) A Jaguar devkit b) A Jaguar CD devkit add-on (Butch chip) That includes an Atari Falcon with H/D, CD emulator c) An in-depth knowledge of the format Atari required Finally, to publish the CD for mass-market Jag-CD's:- d) An encrypted track which check-sums the rest of the disk using a PGP like format, just like a cart... The chances of Hasbro having that are also debatable. ********** HOWEVER... ********** You CAN create CD's for Jaguar, quite easily, if they're not Jaguar games- they can be Audio or CD+G. I'd love to see somebody make a CD+G version of the Battlesphere soundtrack, or a compilation of other audio tracks, maybe 'speeches' from the JagFest, and put that on CD+G. You can encode in (16 colour) images into the CD+G, and every Jaguar owner can then hear the presentation, read text, see images, all courtesy of the CD+G (Karaoke CD) format CD's. No programming required, just a CD+G creation tool! Richard. (JustClaws X) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Sounds Like Phase Zero =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Re: Legality of holding a publicly known name for a game title Author: Scott LeGrand Email: varelse@best.com Date: 1998/11/12 Forums: comp.games.development.industry I remember NovaLogic. These are the guys that came over to the Atari booth at WCES 95 and started harassing the demo crew there showing a 20 fps height field engine running on the jaguar. Later on, the president came over to our kiosk and started talking about what a lousy job the demo crew had done with their engine and that he could code a much better one. I imagine he spread his message of cheer and goodwill to all the other jaguar developers as well, but I wasn't there to see him dance the rest of his happy height field jig. Sounds like they're trying to drop pianos on you to shut you up, but of course, you'll need to talk to a real lawyer rather than a bunch of us useless coders. Perhaps what you really need to do is ship a product called Force Recon tomorrow before they get anything to market and then scream bloody murder about trademark infringement. But again, alas it looks like lawyer time for you. All of the above is groundless opinion of my own. Scott =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Shadow Squadron =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Re: Shadow Squadron vs. Battlesphere Author: Scott LeGrand Email: varelse@best.com Date: 1998/11/14 Forums: rec.games.video.atari Shadow Squadron is as cool as Darklight Conflict, its PC spiritual brother. Both have the best capitol ships I've ever seen in space battle games and both are unappreciated budget titles. I got more enjoyment out of each of these games than I got out of Colony Wars and Wing Commander Prophecy. What I really wish is that I could get my hands on an import of the Saturn's Shadow Squadron sequel if indeed it ever shipped. In comparison to BattleSphere: well, their capitol ships are better, but we're not mission-based, we look better graphically, we have multiple play modes, and we network. SS is cool though and I think the only reason it isn't cooler is that the 32X died before they could make a sequel. Scott =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Atari, We Hardly Knew Ye =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Jaguar Interactive II The TRUE meaning of Atari, from a Japanese Dictionary Posted by RayDream (csp-co6-51.ix.netcom.com) on December 13, 1998 at 15:55:35 ------ Here's exactly what it says in two different Japanese dictionaries I have in my house: There are two different forms of atari, one with an accent mark over the first 'a' and one without. ------ tari || neighborhood; vicinity; near; -no tari ni || in the neighborhood of; near; about; tari kam wazu || regardless of the people present. ------ And the most likely meaning: atari || success; hit; atari doshi || fruitfull (successful) year; atari fuda || price-number ticket; atari hazure || hit or miss; success or failure; atari o t¢ru || to make a hit. ------ I think that should clear up what the meaning of Atari is, don't you? RayDream =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Lost Games =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Jaguar Interactive II Re: Other Lost Games Posted by Mark Stingray Santora (pool050-max9.ds19-ca- us.dialup.earthlink.net) on December 12, 1998 at 09:07:29: In Reply to: Other Lost Games posted by Jeff on December 11, 1998 at 15:19:42: >I was looking through some old Gamepros, specifically the 2/94 issue. >It was the issue that announced the 5 Accolade games that were to be >made for Jaguar. Atari had licensed 5 of the Accolade games and was working on several of them. I believe they were Bubsy (released) Hardball (cart) (never completed) Jack Nicalus Cyber Golf (CD) (never completed) Brett Hull Hockey (Cart/CD) (completed but never released) I forget the last one. Sorry. >They also listed some other games that were on the way, such as >Nigel Mansell's World Championship from Gremlin, Never completed. >Battle Chess from Interplay, Licensed by Atari but never worked on. >Jimmy Connors Tennis from UBI Soft. Unknown. >None of these 3 games are mentioned in the Jaguar FAQ, or on the >Lost Games page. And I don't remember ever hearing anything about >them again. It was from their news section and not a rumors section, >so I believe there must be at least some truth to the fact that these >games were in the works at one point. Does anybody know anything >about these games? That's what I know. -Mark --==--==--==--==-- || BattleSphere News || By: Doug Engel \__// thunderbird@sprynet.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// BattleSphere Update =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= [From Doug Engel's Thunderbird's Garage home page . Note that this Update really should have appeared in last month's JEO, but somehow slipped between the cracks. Oops! --Ed.] //// 10/15/1998 NEWS FLASH! BattleSphere Has been Approved for Encryption by Hasbro!!! I know it's been forever since I updated this page, but things really took a turn for the worse for us since Hasbro Interactive bought out Atari Corp. and things literally ground to a screeching halt, just as we finished the game. Thanks to the tireless efforts of many of our fans, and help from some of the most unlikely of sources, we have finally been approved for encryption, which is the first step on the way to manufacturing cartridges! Encryption, for those of you who do not know, is the security that prevents unauthorized companies from making games for a system without paying royalties to the system manufacturer. When you boot your console, the system decodes the encrypted game and then runs it. Since only the system maker has the key (a sort of "password"), only they can encrypt a game for their console. The old Atari 2600 had no encryption whatsoever, and eventually there were dozens of companies producing games for the console, which cut deeply into Atari's game sales, and ultimately brought about the crash of the console market in the early 80's. When Hasbro bought Atari, they filed away all of the encryption tools and moved on to other projects. Until they approved BattleSphere's encryption, we could not do anything at all. Our hands were tied. In the meantime, we could only sit back and wait for approval. Believe us, we were as impatient and frustrated as our fans, but we had to be patient and wait for the slow wheels of progress to turn. Now that we have the approval to proceed, the next step is to put our cartridges into production. Hopefully, this will not be a long and complicated process. We do not know how long this will take, because this time of year the chip foundries are working on production runs for Christmas, and who knows when they will be able to produce our ROMs. At least now it's not a matter of "if", but rather "when" the next hurdle is crossed. and that's a great feeling. Many of you offered to petition Hasbro (among other things), but we felt that the time was not right for letter-writing-campaigns and such. Our contacts with the management at Hasbro were tenuous at best, and we didn't want to risk becoming a nuisance. We want to thank everyone for their patience, and following our request for restraint. While waiting for word, we've moved on to other projects and had the opportunity to tweak our game in minor ways, to make sure it was just perfect. Meanwhile, the break in the action has provided 4Play with the opportunity to search for some funding for a version of BattleSphere for the PC or some other console. With rave reviews, such as Next-Generation's BattleSphere Preview, we think we have a winner of a game on our hands, and it will only be a matter of time before opportunity comes knocking on our door. Many of you were able to see and play BattleSphere for yourselves at the World of Atari show in Las Vegas, and even meet Scott and Steph. The Show was a great success, and we appreciate all of the great things everyone had to say about us after playing. We appreciate the kind words! --==--==--==--==-- || Llatest from Llamaland || By: Jeff "Yak" Minter \__// net.yak@yak.net ----------------------------------------------------------------- [All of the following postings are taken from Jeff Minter's web page, Yak's Zoo . Check it out, and see what else Jeff has yakked up lately.] //// 1 Nov 1998 Well, here I am again, lazy sod that I am, even I thought I'd better get around to another update. Winter, or at the very least late autumn, has most definitely arrived in Wales; the last couple of weeks have seen a deal of high winds and moisture descending from on high, and many villages in low-lying areas have been subject to flooding - it's at times like this that one is profoundly pleased that one lives up on a hill. (And speaking of hills, didn't Damon do well today? But more about that later). Of course, bad weather outside means that you're much more inclined to sit indoors, snug in front of the monitor, playing games and banging out the old code. Accordingly, Tempest is coming together quite nicely now - I reckon that within the next week or two I should have just about all of Classic Tempest running and playable on X, looking a bit nicer than the original, of course! I have to admit something: I have actually been using C for some things. Yes, I know that's a heathen thing to the True Assembler Hacker, but hey, it is useful for banging up some outer-level stuff I have to admit, and I needed to make my stuff more C-friendly in order to be able to take advantage of some of the other X library functions, so while I was about it I used the dread lingo to knock up a few odds and sods, like a Web editor [that's Tempest webs, not WWW webs --Ed.] and a really rather spiffy chill- out mode, in which some of the params governing a particularly trippy display are brought out to the joystick, ideal for relaxation after a day coding - slap on the old chill-out mode, bung on some nice choons, and have a good old fiddle with one's joystick, llovely :-). Thanks to my snoot new Web editor and Web compression routines, I now have the 16 "classic" Webs in there, and the beginnings of a nice transition sequence between Webs running. The Webs compress down really small, so there will be a gazillion of them in the final game - 'specially as the web editor makes it easy and fun to bash out new Webs, much unlike all the fossicking around with a biro and a pad of graphie that I used to do when making T2K on the Jaggy. Way back at the beginning of the year I wrote an X demo that had some nice vector-text that could rez up and blow apart in a number of interesting and froody ways. Since shortly I will need to have cool exploding messages and pulsating, throbbing, zooming bonus points flying around, I'm resurrecting that code (well, actually, I am re-writing it - I realised it would be much more efficient to have the blowing-up-stuff directly embedded in the core of my linedraw routine, since it only takes a few bytes. Actually the new mode is not only more efficient, it's better - it will work on any polyline, there is an extra param of "explodedness", and a longword that, judiciously filled, allows one to create a glowing multiplicity of cool explosion styles - kewlitude incarnate). Right now I am working on levelsequencing - the stuff that determines the structure of a level, what kinds of enemies come out and how frequently, that kinda stuff. Once this is done I shall be able to belt out levels like there is no tomorrow, and actually start to have a game going on here :-). Tempest purists will be pleased to note the return of the Embryos - the little dots that used to swirl about down at the bottom of a level, indicating enemies as-yet unlanded on the Web edge. Looking down to see how many Embryos were left would give you a good idea how much of the level was left, and by watching them detach from the swarm and move towards the Web edge, you could anticipate their landing and send a few shots down to greet them :-). Somehow the Embryos got left out from T2K (it sure is nice to have the original game to study this time around - thanks be to MAME!). My Embryos are drawn using translucent, antialiased disks (natch), and when they swarm at the bottom of the Web it looks like a flowing, corpuscular ribbon of energy - kewls. As they get launched, they flare up brightly and move towards the Web edge. When they get there at the moment, it crashes and I get a register dump - there is a wee bug-ette in there that I must nobble, but once that is done I should have level sequencing happening, whoopee :-) Well, enough work stuff. The onset of winter does not seem to bother my beasties much - Flossie has a better jumper than any human, anyway, so any cold windy weather bothers her pretty little head not one iota. I did notice, though, that whenever Alastair went off on one of his peregrinations (usually ending with me kicking him out of the pinball room), Flossie, left behind in her field, would get quite agitated at his absence, and run around the field, bleating vigorously for him. Since I figured that she won't go far from wherever he goes, and they can't get out on the road anyway, only into my other fields, I might as well just open the gate of their field and let them wander around together at will. They seem to enjoy this a lot more, and it is kinda cool to be wandering out in the grounds, maybe having a bit of a ponder about some bug or tricky routine, and to be interrupted by a loud bleat and importuned by a large sheep for a skritch and a Digestive biccie :-). Of course, it also means that the other day I was interrupted by not one but two bleats coming from the pinball room - Alastair came in to visit and Flossie tagged right along too! Vindy is continuing to become larger and, like a true British dog, looks forward to going down the pub at nights, to the extent that as soon as I switch off the computer (or the monitor, I should say - I never switch off my computer) she is waiting, usually with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth in a manner that makes her look completely stupid, by the front door, ready to go out down the pub. She gets most put out on darts nights, when she is not allowed down the pub, on account of she is just too demented and would interfere with the game hehe... My only disappointment with Vindy is that she doesn't like curry! I try to give her the specially-treated, bio-hazard-strength etch-proof containers that my takeaway Vindaloo comes in to lick out, and she takes one sniff, then backs off, sneezing and giving me the kind of look that says "are you totally, completely insane, you demented human" ? Oh well... maybe I should start her out on a tikka and work upwards. Mind you, it's probably a good thing for the state of my carpets that she doesn't eat Vindaloo, given the powerful sphincter-loosening properties of that particular curry... Speaking of Vindy and my local, there have been cool things happening down the pub of late - they are getting wired! The other day they took the plunge and finally bought a system, partly for themselves to use and have some fun with, but also because soon my local is going to become a proper cyberpub, and have a system available in the bar for denizens to use to access the Internet or to have a good old game of some classic coin-op (again, thanks be to MAME). Mine hosts are new to the wonderful world of Windoze 98 (heh) but learning fast, and in my capacity as the guy in the village who knows vaguely where to click, I've been helping them out from time to time. We set up their email a couple of weeks ago, and to demonstrate mail with attachments, I sent them a copy of a program which usually gets sent to me by somebody once every month or so (like that Post Office advert, "I saw this and I thought of you" [or ewe, in this case]). You've probably seen it - it's a little desktop sheep that wanders around, falls off your windows, sneezes, bleats, dives flaming across the screen into a bath of water, kinda thang. Anyway, I duly showed them how to save off the attachment into a folder, and then how to launch the sheep, but unfortunately I didn't make it clear how to turn them off... Anyway, one evening they were showing the system to some folks in the pub, and thought it would be cool to run the sheep, which went fine... except that they didn't know how to turn them off! And every time they tried... they actually created another sheep, until in the end their system was completely overrun with bleating sheep! They tried to call me to ask me how to get rid of their rapidly-multiplying flock, but unfortunately I happened to be out with some mates that night, and eventually they had to power down to regain their machine from the rampaging herd. Suffice to say that next time I was in there I explained properly how to kill a sheep (now I bet that's something you never thought you'd read on this page!). We should have their Web page up and running soon - when it's ready I'll bung up a link, be sure and go and pay them a virtual visit, and have a virtual pint of llovely unchilled proper British ale :-) Well, today after a wait of 5 weeks, the Grand Prix championship finally got sorted. I cooked myself my usual Sunday afternoon Grand Prix feast (usually something like roast turkey, some spuds and some peas and a can of beer) and settled down to watch the action for the last time this season. And, much though many may dislike the German dude, one can't help but feel a bit sorry for him this time around. Having some stupid technical glitch stall the engine at start and therefore be demoted from pole to last is pisser enough, but to come back from that, drive like a mad thing and claw your way back up into third, only to get put out by an exploding rear tire must be a complete bastard. Mind you, not to take it away from Hakkers, who drove an excellent race and richly deserved to win, and who probably would have won anyway even if Schui had performed the miracle and reeled him in, given that all he had to do was come second to win the championship. Ol' Hakkers even actually looked chuffed when he won, miracles will never cease! I expect that even now he's working on a well-deserved hangover for tomorrow. It's been a good season, and I'll miss my Sunday afternoon ritual; oh well, just have to play GP on my Ninty during the winter, I suppose. I thought Damon did well, too, finishing in a very creditable 4th position, and earning himself 6th in the Championship and Jordan a respectable placing in the Constructors' Championship - something that seemed extremely unlikely in the early stages of the season. Let's hope he and Jordan can keep it up next season! Mind you, I thought that Ralf was a bit pissy when he was interviewed after he went out with an exploding engine - complaining that Damon didn't let his big brother pass with any degree of alacrity when he was behind him. Come on, the two are rivals from way back, and Schui has publicly dissed Damon before now, so no way was he going to let him off easily - and it's not like it was mere delaying tactics out of spite anyway, since at the time Damon was concentrating on trying to get past Villeneuve, anyway. Put a sock in it Ralph, Jordan don't need the likes of you anyway, and your brother is quite capable of standing up for himself! Oh well, I could witter on for ages here, but it's Sunday, so I'd better get this little lot uploaded and get ready to take Vindy down the pub. Before I go, I shall shove in one final pic - the view from out of my living room window, which explains more than any words I could possibly write just how nice it is to be back in Wales at last :-) Until next time, I'll cya... //// 7 Nov 1998 Back in the early '90s, when the SNES was new and amazing and could only be had from Japanese importers, I was at a computer show and I picked up one of the new systems. I decided to buy a couple of games with it, and, being as the place I bought it from did not have the canonical Super Mario World game, I picked up Pilot Wings (which I thought would be cool as it used a lot of the then-amazing Mode7 display mode) and a racing game I hadn't heard of, but which looked quite good from the screenshots: F-Zero. Later that night, myself and a couple of mates retired to the old hotel room, to indulge in the customary Arcturan Narco-Weed and check out the new goodies. First in was Pilot Wings; I still remember being blown away by the scaling and rotation as the title zoomed onto the screen. Back then, hardware rotation was a rarity, and a source of great wonderment to all who beheld it, myself included. We had fun, working out what the various Japanese options in the game meant, and flying around in various contraptions, the way you do in Pilot Wings. After a while, we decided to check out "the other game", fully expecting that it would probably not be as good, and that we would soon be switching back to Pilot Wings. We were dead wrong. Although by modern standards F-Zero looks sparse in the extreme, back then it was awesome - the Mode7 track that rotated smoothly underneath the player ship was jaw-dropping stuff; but what really hooked us was the gameplay. It was so smooth and playable - beautifully responsive controls, interesting track layouts, challenging opponents you could really get to love to hate... ISTR that we went out to get a burger at about 11pm, went and ate it in a churchyard in Hammersmith (and probably had a bit more of the ol' Narco-Weed), and then trundled back upstairs to F-Zero and the waiting Blue Ship. I believe we finally ended that session at around 5am (although my thumb went to sleep some time earlier). This set the pattern for many, many nights to come. Just to give you some idea of how addicted me and the lads got to F-Zero: that summer, we all went on holiday down to the South of France. And, so that our addiction not be compromised, we took along with us a PAL telly, my SNES, and the cartridge, and then, when we should have been out enjoying the French-stylee ambiance of an evening, we sat around in the apartment, drinking wine and playing F-Zero, F-Zero, F-Zero. We played until we were all Master Mode adepts and then we played some more, going to shave a few hundredths off the best lap times. Of course, the years passed, and along came other systems and games; Wipeout came out on the 'Station, obviously inspired by good old F-Zero but taking the graphics way further than the poor old SNES could ever dream of (if one can refer to Nintendo hardware dreaming, anyway). But there was always a goodly portion of the Yakly circulatory organ which harboured warm feelings towards the Blue Ship, the Pink Chicken, Mute City, Port Town, and accidentally flying off the track and ending up off in the background graphics somewhere, a column of greasy black smoke marking the position of the wreckage. In fact, in recent years, F-Zero has been my In-Flight SNES Game of Choice on the little seat-back displays they have. Age may mean that what once were revolutionary graphics now appear to be pants, but the gameplay remains excellent. When the N64 was announced, I hoped and prayed, deep down in my favourite organs, that the new system would be host to a new and improved version of F-Zero. And so it turned out, although we had to wait ages for it - it was months after launch before we even saw any screenshots of it, and years before the game finally emerged in Japan; then of course the customary wait while they release it in the US (and having to endure reading how much fun the Yankers are having with it on the Net) until, finally, on Saturday I walked into Woolworth's in Carmarthen and made my customary beeline for the videogame section... and there it was, all new and shrink-wrapped and inviting, the hallowed words sanctifying the package: F-Zero X. I immediately and without hesitation plied the Yakly plastic and, pausing only to scarf down a meat and potato pastie, headed for home with the firm intention of spending the remainder of the day planted firmly upon my arse, playing the game until my eyes bled. I plugged in the cartridge with a degree of trepidation... would I be spoiled now by having played the likes of Wipeout XL? Would the new game be as great as I remembered the old one to be, or would it suffer from Crappy Sequel Syndrome? Was I about to enjoy a new and joyous communion with the spirit of F-Zero, or would I soon be casting aside the Ninty joystick and reaching for WOXL on my 'Station? I settled down in front of the telly, cradled the Ninty 'stick in my mitts, told the dog to piss off trying to lick me while I was playing videogames, and pressed the Start button... Several hours later, the dog was mightily annoyed with me, since an endless succession of doggie toys dropped into my lap as entreaties to enter Doggy Play Mode had gone unheeded, my arse cheeks were feeling sore and mightily abused from being relentlessly sat on for way too long, and the thumb on my right hand had long ago ceased to register any sensations. I need not have worried. F-Zero X is truly touched by the hand of Miyamoto. It is demonstrably, totally the same game as the old classic, just way, way better. After a lot of soul-searching, I have to humbly admit that Wipeout XL has been de-throned in the palace of my racing-game affections. As of now, F-Zero X is the new king. So, what's it like, and why is it so good? First off, the bad news: graphically, it's fairly sparse. Just the track in front of you, the other racers and your ship, some trackside structures, and a few, distant bits of scenery and texture planes denoting the ground or sea. I have seen the game being criticized roundly on the net for the graphical sparseness. Sure, the game is not as detailed in the surrounding scenery as WOXL was; but IMO that's a shortcoming that I regard as less than trivial. Firstly, it gives the game the same stripped-down, abstract feel as original F-Zero, no bad thing. Secondly, and most importantly, it has allowed the designers to keep the framerate at a rock 50FPS throughout - very important in a game which moves this fast. And boy, does it move fast... jeezus... kick in the boosters a few times and my God, the track unrolls in front of you at a truly staggering rate... I have never known any racing game, in coin-op or the home, that gives the sheer sense of speed-rush that F0X does. When you read the game info and learn that the ships max out at 1300KPH, it seems a bit unrealistic... until you play the damn thing. Jeez, you're moving, and no mistake. Believe me, you are not going to have time to worry that the backdrops aren't as detailed as WOXL. If you even tried to look around to admire the scenery, you would end up very, very dead, very, very quickly. Just keep your eyes on the road and try to remember to breathe... Equally impressive is the field of opponents - 30 in all, including you. And yes, you can be in the middle of them all and the framerate doesn't budge from 50FPS. And, of course, as they should be, they are all complete bastards who think nothing of shoving you off one of the many bits of dangerous track with no restraining edges, or having a go at you when your shield's a bit down and causing you to blow up, the rotten smeggers. Of course you can use the attack modes to dish out a bit of the same to them... In any game which moves as fast, and is as challenging as this, the controls have to be nigh on perfect - and thankfully, they are. Ships are responsive to the tiniest deflection of the controller, allowing you to accurately steer your way through a giant herd of other racers at speeds that border on the ludicrous. To give you some idea of the sheer speed of the game - I was playing one game, lying in 17th place, jammed on a boost and hit a pad in the road at the same time, and in the space of one second I had cut through the pack and was out in front. (Schuey may think he is good passing 11 cars in 2 laps last GP, but he's got nothing on the ol' Mighty Gazelle). Of course, I then got a case of the speed-wobbles in the halfpipe and flew out of the track and off into oblivion, but I sure had fun doing it. There's always next time... and there will be many next times... The game consists of five Leagues of six tracks each; when you first get it, three Leagues (Jack, Queen and King Leagues) are available, and a choice of six cars. Beat these Leagues in Easy (something that a seasoned SNES F-Zero player will manage without a problem at the first sitting) and a new lot of six cars become available. Beat the Leagues again in Normal mode, and six more cars become available, along with a new league, Joker League. Beat that in Normal mode, and any one league in Expert, and you get six more cars. Finally, beat all four leagues in Expert mode (pretty hard - I have come very close a few times but as yet, no cigar) and you get the final lot of six cars for a total of thirty; a new league, the X-League, that features algo generated tracks that are different each time you play; and access to Master difficulty mode. In addition, there are time trial modes (which are quite cool, featuring up to 3 ghosts on the track at once), practice modes, a combat mode where you have to smash up all the other racers, and - hallelujah! a multi-player mode for up to four players; a multi-player mode, my God, where the frame rate doesn't go to hell via Basingstoke like in many games, too. I haven't had a serious go at this yet, but I expect it will receive a proper caning next time the lads come up and visit. Especially since I emailed one of them yesterday informing him of the joyous release, and he duly sped out to obtain his own copy, and is even now bashing his Ninty and swearing he'll kick my arse all around Mute City next time we meet. We'll see. The Mighty Gazelle takes no prisoners :-) There are a few gameplay changes from the original game, but the designers have made modifications tastefully and sensibly (Yak glares with a baleful eye in the virtual direction of the creators of Tempest X) and the resultant changes in strategy serve to make the game even more exciting. Combat now plays a more major part than in the original, although not to the extent of implementing full-on, weapon-based combat like in WOXL. F0X combat is more physical - there is a spin-attack, which I don't use really, because it slows down the ship too much for my taste; and my own favourites, the bump-left and bump-right attack, which, judiciously deployed, can send an irritating rival flying to a well-deserved doom off the edge of the track, or smash him into a wall with sufficient force to finish him off. The game even thoughtfully points out to you in the melee of racers the chap who is closest to you in points for the Championship, so you can single him out for your special hostile attentions :-). Banging him off the track means that he will get zero points for the race, which considerably enhances your own championship chances. (I wonder if Schuey had a hand in the design of this game? ;-) Of course, all the other drivers are only too happy to use the same tactics on you... The other significant change is to the availability of Boost. In the original game, you earned one Boost for each lap completed, so you could use one per lap, or save them all up for a mad dash to the finish. In F0X, after the first lap, you can have unlimited Boosts... but each boost takes a chunk out of your Shield energy. Using multiple boosts you can accelerate to speeds that are quite clearly seriously deranged... but if you go for it too hard, the slightest touch of the edge of the track, or another player having a go at you, and it's explode-into-lots-of-ikkle-polygons time. This makes for some seriously tense racing... you need to boost to catch the leaders, but you gotta drive really accurately... at 1300KPH... to make it safe to the next recharge point (and in the recharge points you BOOST LIKE CRAZY cuz it's effectively free). The use of Boost can lead to some amazing finishes... I have been lying in sixth and hit the energy zone, nailed a boost and inside a fraction of a second robbed the leader who was just about to cross the line of his victory hehe... (and I've had the same thing happen to me, the bastards, the buggers). The tracks are fairly short... or at least they seem quite short, but then again, you are going at stupid velocity... but the track topography is a far cry from the flat plains of the original game. Loops and corkscrews abound, and the more interesting tracks contain cylinders that you race along (and which it is possible to boost up and away from, if you're not careful), tubes and halfpipes that it is also possible to misjudge and end up flying right out of, especially if you're boosting like a demented thing. Imagine going down a bobsled run, except that you've got a bloody massive jet engine in full reheat strapped to your arse. Amazing. And there are plenty of tracks... 24 in the main Leagues, and 6 algo ones in the X-league that are different each time, so effectively unlimited tracks. Just like in the original, the first time you play some of the tracks in Expert you think it'll be impossible to get in first, but the more you play the more you learn the track, and you start putting in good laps, colliding with the sides less, outmaneuvering the pack, getting to know the best place to use your boosts... then the game really starts to flow and you settle into the Zone, and you can get totally off on the sheer speed and lovely framerate and precision challenge of it all... yum yum yum yum yum. Audio-wize, although not in the class of WOXL (this is a cart, not a CD) the tunes aren't that bad - I was pleased to hear a couple of reworkings of some of the original F-Zero tunes on some tracks. The music is more rock than the techno which has become the customary accompaniment to future- racers, and some of the tunes even manage to have a distinctly Iron Maiden- y quality. Don't be put off, even if you hate metal - the tunes suit the game quite well, really. In-game sounds are simple but effective - the sound of the crafts' engines, the clonk as some bastard attempts to do you hurtage, the scream of your pilot as you get it wrong and plummet into oblivion, kinda thang. Bottom line: F-Zero X is a lovely, lovely videogame, and I want to shag it. Bring it home and ram it in your slot. And if you remember all the good times you used to have in Port Blue and Silence, you will enjoy returning after many years' absence. It's like coming home :-). So... what can I say after all that ranting? Well, I have to retract what I said about Vindy last time - on Monday, I had my customary curry, and, sated, laid the plate aside, secure in the knowledge that Vindy would not touch it, given that she did not like curry. But, to my amazement, I saw her sniff the plate... out came the unfeasibly- large tongue for an exploratory lick... and, instead of recoiling or running off to drink copious amounts from the bowl of the lavvy (another delightful canine habit) she got right down to it, and licked the plate clean, so clean in fact that I wondered if I would even have to wash it! Hehe... The same thing happened with Friday's curry plate, so I know it's not just a flush in the pan. Vindy really likes vindaloo! Excellent! T3K continues to come along nicely too - Flippers, Fuseballs and Pulsars are all apparent upon the Web now, and the level sequencer is working to the extent where you can launch all the Embryos for a level and it will launch and hatch Embryos at a rate commensurate to the level until they are all gone. Interestingly, I dug up an old interview with Theurer talking about old Tempest, and in it he states that "the more of an enemy you shoot, the more of that type come out". This is quite cool, since it means you can't just nail your scariest enemies at the start of the level, because that will engender more. You might have to leave them awhile and avoid them, or risk being overrun with what you fear the most... I will make my sequencer do the same kind of thing, and see how it plays. Working on the enemies has inspired me to make more additions to my already overstuffed vector core... objects can now own a CLUT and do endpoint colour loads out of that - although everything is in 32-bit, having a local CLUT for an object is quite handy, since you can munge the CLUT in all the trad ways and get nice cycling and pulsing happening within an object much more easily than having to traverse the whole vectorlist and change all the absolute colour loads. The vector stuff looks really yummy... 'specially nice having intensity-interpolation between endpoints, means enemies can have vectors that taper off into nothingness, looks like beams of light coming out of the edge of the enemy... yummy yummy. And, since I moved the shatter stuff inboard into vector core, now when you blow them up they break up into a cloud of tumbling vector-debris. Cool. Now I'll be going for finishing off the first few enemies' behaviour routines, getting the level sequencer to initiate level transitions automatically, and getting player deaths happening. At that point there will be something that actually plays in a game-like manner and I will prolly spend a week or two getting the initial balance of gameplay right... the most crucial thing of all... and then I can just get into adding all the 3K extras and goodies, of which there will be precisely one f*ckload :-) Oh, I love being a videogame designer. I love being a videogame player, too. Ain't life grand sometimes? Until next time, goodbye from Flossie, Alastair, Vindy (true curry-hound!) and... the Mighty Gazelle! --==--==--==--==-- || The Yank's Guide to Yak Speak || By: Clay (JEO) Halliwell and Richard (JustClaws) Turner \__// earl.halliwell@dyess.af.mil, JustClaws@Bowes.Co.Uk ----------------------------------------------------------------- //// Divided We Stand An anonymous wit once described America and England as "two countries divided by a single language". Ask most Brits about the subject, and they'll tell you we Yanks don't speak English, we speak American. They're right, you know. Before widespread electronic communication made the Earth a whole lot smaller, the world's two strongholds of English had well over a hundred years to mutate the language in their own unique ways. Fortunately, the two dialects are still convergent enough that conversation across the pond is rarely difficult, and it helps that most of us are aware of the more prominent differences. We all know, for example, that when a lorry crosses the Atlantic it becomes a truck, that a lift might rise up to become an elevator, a fag is something you smoke, and when your sexy neighbor invites you to "knock her up" sometime, you shouldn't get all excited. Where English and American diverge most wildly is in the area of slang. This is unsurprising, but can make informal speech fairly impenetrable to a foreign reader. As longtime readers of Jeff Minters' "Llatest from Llamaland" know, Jeff revels in littering his prose with all manner of Britticisms which leave us Yanks scratching our heads. He also likes to mix in the odd ten-dollar word to confuse everybody else ("ungulate", anyone?). So, as a public service to Jaguar enthusiasts on both sides of the pond (though mostly the American side), Richard Turner and myself got together to provide this guide (also thanks to Margaret Middleton for the definition of "Ghu"). But don't think of it purely as a glossary of Yak-Speak. Since easily half the Jag's library was programmed by Brits, and the Jag itself was designed by a British company, the American Jaguarian would be well advised to acquaint himself with our sister vernacular. //// On Abbreviations Before we launch into the Guide proper, a short dissertation on British and American abbreviation habits. This may come in handy for decoding Yak-terms which aren't listed below. In a nutshell, Americans like acronyms, while Brits favor diminutives. This sometimes has the effect of making British informal speech sound like baby talk, and American informal speech sound like a computer manual. British: "I was keen to watch some footy and play some ninty on my new froody telly." American: "I tried hooking my old NES to my TV via my VCR, but it was FUBARed." //// And Now, the Main Event... THE YANK'S GUIDE TO YAK SPEAK Alastair (n) - One of Yak's goats. Formerly male, now eunuch status. beastie (n) - Any type of furry mammal, up to and including Yak himself. Biro (n) - Popular brand of pen in England; general term for cheap pen. biscuit, digestive (n) - A sweetmeal biscuit, perfect with tea (and with cheese) much favored by humans and other mammals. bloke (n) - An unremarkable person, almost always male. boanthrope (n) - Cow-Man (or Bull-Man). A composite of "bovine" (cow/bull) and "anthropos" (man). bog-roll (n) - Toilet paper. As in, "I need a bog-roll for my bung-hole!" bogs (n) - Toilets, or marshy place, sometimes both at once. bolshy (adj) - Stroppy, argumentative, uncooperative in the extreme. bugger-all (n) - Nothing, or so little as to make no difference. As in, "I know bugger-all about curry." bugger off (v) - To geographically dislocate from one's current coordinates. As in, "He was here, but he buggered off!" Somewhat disrespectful or disdainful. bumf (n) - Unnecessary (sometimes unwanted) literature and articles related to a given subject. As in, "He's got loads of bumf about that." butcher's (v) - To take a look at something, perhaps without confidence. As in, "I thought I'd better have a butcher's anyway" cashpoint (n) - Bank cash machine, ATM, "hole in the wall". caution (n) - A bit of a joker, unbelievable. As in, "He's a caution, that goat" cheek (n) - Impertinence, nerve, presumption. chips (n) - French fries. choons (n) - Music; derivation of tunes. chuffed (adj) - Very pleased, delighted, as in, "I was chuffed to bits". curry (n) - Ummm, this one is rather long. Brent Thompson, who is highly knowledgeable on the subject and has lived in India, writes: "The term curry itself isn't really used in India, except as a term appropriated by the British to generically categorize a large set of different soup/stew preparations ubiquitous in India and nearly always containing ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, chile, and oil (except in com- munities which eat neither onion nor garlic, of course) and which must have seemed all the same to the British, being all yellow/red, oily, spicy/aromatic, and too pungent to taste anyway" In the west, curry is now usually characterized by the type of curries popularized by restaurants. David Smith (maintainer of the Curry House FAQ) defines a restaurant curry as: "A dish made with dried and fresh spices cooked in oil with a sauce made from pureed onions, garlic and ginger. The variety of spices used can be extensive but the commonest are chili, cumin, coriander and turmeric. Other common ingredients are yoghurt, cream and ground nuts." dosh (n) - Money, implication being furthermore, that it's to spend. dusted (v) - Finished, as in, "It's all done and dusted now." emu (n) - A computer or videogame emulator (MAME, XL-It!, etc...). faff (v) - Mess about, failing to conclude matters quickly and decisively. flat (n) - Apartment, usually implying that it's not very big. Flossie (n) - Yak's sheep, the Prettiest Sheep in the World. Present in Defender 2000 via a cheat code. Floyd, Pink (n) - The Yak's musical conglomerate of preference. FOAF (n) - Friend Of A Friend. footy (n) - Football, known to Americans as soccer (unfortunately). fossick (v) - Tinker, as in, "I fossicked around with it all day, but still couldn't get it to work." froody (adj) - Neat, cool, and fun. FUR (n) - Frame Update Rate. Yak Speak for "Frames Per Second". gaff (n) - Home, or place of residence. ghosht (n) - Mutton curry. For obvious reasons, Yak eschews ghosht. Ghu (n) - The generic fannish deity. Particularly invoked when you don't want to sound too serious about your swearing. git (n) - Annoying or irritating person; friendly insult, "You git". gnus (n) - Events of public interest which have occurred in the current or near-current time frame. As in, "No gnus is good gnus". gobsmackingly (adj) - Unbelievable, such that your draw drops in the same way as it does after a severe impact to it. grilf (n) - A female human who follows you around, lets you buy stuff for her, and might occasionally let you touch her. grok (v) - Understand. As in, "Do you grok what I'm telling you?" From the Robert A. Heinlein novel, "Stranger in a Strange Land". holiday (n) - A vacation. As in, "I really need to take a holiday." hols (n) - The holidays (real holidays, not the fake vacation-holidays). Jaggy (n) - The world's first 64-bit gaming console. jammy (n) - Lucky, sometimes cool. As in, "There is also scope for pulling off some totally ludicrous jammy survivals." jiggery-pokery (n) - Something akin to magic, some clever actions. knackered (adj) - Not just tired, but completely worn out. As in, "Let me sit down a minute, I'm knackered". Knackers is also a slang term for testicles, and a "knacker's yard" is a slaughterhouse for horses. Thus, a worn-out horse is knackered, without hope. korma (n) - A fairly mild, creamy curry; a "beginner's" curry. lavvy - Lavatory, aka "the bathroom". As in, "After a caustic curry I need to nip off to the lavvy". lager (n) - English word for German/Norwegian beer. In England, beer is most DEFINITELY not the same thing- lager is held in less esteem than beer, and the best is imported. lilo (n) - A (usually) inflatable bed, often to be found on beaches. loo (n) - Toilet. See "lavvy". Minter, Jeff (n) - Yak has sometimes been known to respond to this name. naan (n) - Indian bread. Goes well with curry. nick (v) - Steal, as in, "He nicked my idea." nip (v) - Visit, but the emphasis being on speed and short duration. Ninty (n) - Either the Nintendo Entertainment System, or the Nintendo 64. nobble (v) - Sabotage, usually in some devious way, derived from the use of the term in horse-racing, where a horse is drugged. oik (n) - Git, stupid person, always derogatory. pants (n) - Worthless, of no value. As in, "The 32X was absolute pants." pappadom (n) - A crunchy, deep-fried, disk-shaped accompaniment to most Indian meals, in particular curries; light and fragile. penty (n) - An Intel Pentium-based computer. peregrination (n) - Wandering, traveling. phal (n) - A corrosive biohazard, or the hottest of the known curries. You decide. Rumored to be Indian for "fatal". poxy (adj) - An object or person held in great disdain. Derived from the historical term, "the pox". prat (n) - A person of great stupidity, usually harmless, makes errors. Prettiest Sheep in the World, The (n) - See "Flossie". quaff (v) - The oral ingestion of a comestible liquid. As in, "Don't quaff and drive". Red Ship, The (n) - Yak's car when he was living in the States. JEO Data Collection Central Command was unable to determine exactly what type of car it was. We're pretty sure it was red though. ship (n) - Slang for "car". skritch (n) - Scratch, particularly where most wanted, e.g. ears and nose. slated (v) - Unforgivingly criticized, similar to slammed or panned. smeg (n) - Verbal exclamation derived from the Brit telly show "Red Dwarf". As in, "What the smeg is going on here?!" Based on the word "smegma" (look it up). snoot (adj) - Snooty means posh, perhaps meaning superior. solicitor (n) - Lawyer, aka The Lowest Life Form On Earth. Speccy (n) - The Sinclair Spectrum. starfish, chocolate (n) - The egress terminus of the mammalian digestive tract. The chocolate starfish hates curry vindaloo. starkers (adj) - Sans both under- and outergarments. Nekkid. telly (n) - A squarish plastic artifact with a cathode ray tube and speakers mounted in its front face. Uses mysterious internal components to convert electrical signals into images and sounds for entertainment purposes. tikka masala (n) - Yet another type of curry. tindaloo (n) - Type of curry. Basically a very hot tikka masala. Toilet (n) - The Atari Jaguar CD attachment, so named for its undeniable facimilitude to the great porcelain temple. Not an insult! trot, on the (adv) - Consecutively. As in, "He fell for that trick three times on the trot". ungulate (n) - Any hoofed mammal. vindaloo (n) - Fairly common, very hot curry; one step down from Phal. Vindy (n) - Yak's dog, a young Border Collie. wanker (n) - Jerk, idiot. Term of disrespect and insult. As in, "Leonard is such a wanker." whiffy (adj) - Stinking, also applied to things of poor quality. witter (v) - Ramble, but with a particular tendency towards complaint As in, "He wittered on about it for ages." wonga (n) - Money, implication being it is to spend. Yak - A shaggy, goaty-smelling biped (suspected to be human). Likes to write videogames and psychedelic lightshows (or best of all, videogames that ARE psychedelic lightshows), eat curry, listen to Pink Floyd, smoke narco-weed, and skritch Flossie. Sometimes answers to the name "Jeff Minter". X - The embedded multimedia processor now unfortunately known as NUON. --==--==--==--==-- || State of the Lynx || By: Carl Forhan \__// forhan@millcomm.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- //// Preface Dec 4, 1998 Is the handheld market taking off again? The GameBoy has been the uncontested ruler of this arena for several years, but now we have a Color GameBoy, game.com, and even a Neo-Geo handheld. Rather ironic that the Lynx could still compete with these handhelds and was made waaay back in '89. Nevertheless, the grass-roots support for the Lynx lumbers onward; see for yourself... //// Web Lynx Bastian Schick is one of the most valued contributors in the hobby support of the Lynx, and his accomplishments demonstrate this -- the BLL developer cart, T-tris, and SIMIS are just some of his efforts. What you may not know is all the work he's put into improving the cc65 C compiler for the developer community, or that he was able to learn how to defeat the Lynx encryption. Check out Bastian's projects and tools online at: //// Game Updates I know, a bunch of you are still patiently awaiting the arrival of SFX. Please bear with me as I resolve the manufacturing difficulties of getting this cart produced, and thank you for the tremendous support for this cart. Bastian recently revealed that the SIMIS cart supports game downloads (into Lynx RAM) at the main menu! This hidden feature effectively turns your SIMIS cart into a developer cart as well, you just need a hand-made serial cable to download the code. Bastian also hinted that another game is hidden in SIMIS somewhere... Ponx is effectively COMPLETE at this point! After many months of avoiding the game, I finally buckled down and finished writing the code to enable intro screens, title music, and more hardware effects on this rather enjoyable game. Look for publication details on this cart AFTER I get SFX out of the way. Links to all the above may be found at The Lynx Domain: //// Ye Olde Rumor Mill Telegames is still in the early analysis phase with regards to Hyperdrome. Once the game has been tested sufficiently and the documentation either located or written, then expect to see some official support for the release of this game... my guess is mid-'99. What if I told you, you could play new levels on an existing Lynx game AND even design new levels yourself AND download them to that same Lynx cart that's been sitting on your shelf for several years? Would you believe me? Signing off, Carl Forhan --==--==--==--==-- || Interview: James Garvin || By: Clay Halliwell \__// earl.halliwell@dyess.af.mil ----------------------------------------------------------------- Recently a company by the name of OMC Games announced a new game, "The Assassin" for release on the Atari Jaguar. Now, we've seen more than our share of fake product announcements for the Jag in recent years, so I tracked down OMC owner/founder James Garvin to find out if OMC is for real. It looks good folks... very good. [JEO] Who is James Garvin? [James Garvin] Hmmm... I was born in Louisville, KY, the bastard son of a... well, maybe not. I'm 27, a writer, programmer, avid game player, and currently I run OMC Games while going for my BA in Computer Engineering at the University Of Texas. No small feat. I think the company has suffered because of it, as well as my projects. I got a chance to travel to Japan recently to work on VLSI chips and so that's where my current base of operations is. The company is still in the same place though, but I'll be spending the next year here in Sendai which is both a curse and blessing at the same time. At least I get to be with my girlfriend. I've been programming since 1982. Picked up TI BASIC on a TI 99/4A. Heh, heh. Those were good days. Eventually moved up to Atari BASIC and Commodore BASIC. Then someone told me that in order to be a serious programmer I had to learn Assembly. I dabbled with it a little, but I took my cue at really learning from some of the great games I played way back then and the guys who wrote them, such as Alternate Reality (Philip Price), Wizard's Crown and The Eternal Dagger (Paul Murray), and Ultima (Richard Garriot). I've since had a chance to interact with these guys in some way and I admit that like most idols they didn't live up to my expectations, but I owe them my respect because they inspired me to go for the big game. Since '85 I've had some interesting adventures with assembly language, but it's been worth the ride. Recently, I've been questing to learn as many programming languages as possible. I live by the game, so to speak. I own more than half of all the game systems ever released and have taken a habit to studying the market like an analyst. That's where I got the idea for HieroGraphix. I think I've made more enemies than anything else, but that's okay. The truth is a beautiful thing. I look at games from a programming standpoint, and I've come to have a lot of respect to those who really spend the time to program a good game. Programming is everything, as well as vision. I've always been a fan of Atari, and it stung me pretty bad that the company was run into the ground. I've met or spoken to almost all of my heroes over the years and met some people who've put together some great stuff. Though, I've never made a huge name for myself. It's strange that it's worked out that way. If someone ever took away games, I wouldn't have anything left. Heh, heh. It's funny that my girlfriend totally hates games. Well... except Tetris. [JEO] What is the HieroGraphix Game Journal? [JG] HieroGraphix is a video game publication put together by OMC Games. I'll admit that it's history hasn't been the most glorious as far as video game magazines are concerned, but at least we try to present a different view of the industry. HieroGraphix covers just about every system ever released (2600, GameBoy, Saturn, Playstation, Jaguar, PC, Mac, etc.), though there isn't always an article on every system, but we don't leave out news just because it's on a system that's old or no longer mainstream. I usually release about 2 or 3 issues a year, but after last year's fiasco with my distributor, I'm not too thrilled about doing it again. Been sticking to doing reviews and special features for the web site. [JEO] What does OMC Games do? [JG] That's a good question. I think that will be defined over the next year or so. Currently, we publish. Mostly small periodicals, but we're moving into games and such. There are currently two games on the roster, The Assassin, and Age Of Darkness. Both for the Atari Jaguar. Eventually I'm planning to do stuff for the Sega Dreamcast. Orb Of Bengazi might be released for that system, but I'm still not sure yet. OMC is also the medium for which I can express myself without going through the HUGE companies who require you to fill out too many forms and force you to compromise your own vision. Eventually, I hope to help others reach that same plane. Let's face it, it's hard to get anything published these days, so OMC will be an avenue for others to test out their talents and such and get things released. Maybe it's too broad of a vision, but it's something I feel strongly about. [JEO] What type of game will "The Assassin" be? [JG] The Assassin is really a testing of the Age Of Darkness engine, and the prequel to Orb Of Bengazi. I've thought of it as a tribute to the action greats John Woo, Chow Yun Fat, and Bruce Willis. I've designed a lot of the stunts and action sequences with them in mind, though the main character is more like a Bruce Willis character and a little Chow Yun Fat mixed in for good measure. It will be awesome if I can get slow motion to work. It's 2D bird's-eye with about a 3 to 5 degree angle to give it a semi-3D look. I used just about every button on the pad (ProController recommended) and we're planning on adding a lot of gameplay elements such as changing weather, time of day, getting tired, special moves which can be used to perform stunts and such. It will be possible to use multiple guns, dive over tables, jump off buildings, etc. Not to mention some extremely cool gameplay elements that I'm keeping under wraps at the moment. I think a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised. The game is set in the year 2147 in a world which is basically the world as we know it except orcs, elves, goblins, sprites, dwarves, dragons, vampires, etc. are meshed into everyday life. The genre is specifically cyberpunk. Picture JFK as an elf, or Martin Luther King as an orc. It's based in the role playing world we put together entitled "Blood City" which I'm hoping will be released simultaneously with The Assassin. If all goes well I'm even going to attempt to do city movement, via vehicles, in polygons. I figure I could put together some pretty interesting car chases and provide a more interesting view of the various cities I have planned. You will also be able to purchase vehicles and weapons, as well as take missions or cases. If I had to describe it, I'd say that The Assassin is more of an RPG/Mystery/Action game. The action takes place in real-time, and there will be a MAJOR storyline underneath that. There are subplots and extra cases you can take for cash and personal satisfaction. It's an RPG, which means you get experience and go up levels, also there are skills and you can pick and mix them from the beginning (as you will see in the demo), and acquire new skills as you progress through the game. We're even working on adding an extremely difficult case that, if solved, could earn a lucky person $500 and a free copy of Age Of Darkness. I'll add more details on the day of release. I can't leave out the fact that the game is not for kids. It's dark, depressing, violent, and extremely ruthless. Not much different than games released these days, but the adult content (language, nudity, etc.) is pretty high. We've tried hard to capture the real essence of cyberpunk. I'm almost positive the ESRB will give it the highest rating in the book, and I wouldn't settle for anything less. The basic storyline is pretty simple. You take the role of Michael Steele, a human Chicago detective, who goes to Austin, TX to investigate the death of his brother. During his investigation he finds out his brother was murdered and so he tracks down his brother's killer and murders him in cold blood. He gets caught and sent to jail, where he goes to trial, and the game starts there. This is the short version, but I'm sure you get the idea. The story gets pretty complex, and you find out a number of things, which set the stage for Bengazi. Heh, heh. I apologize for being long-winded. There's just a lot to the game. [JEO] When did you decide to develop a game for the Jaguar, and why? [JG] I actually had no plans on bringing it to the Jaguar. It was originally an Atari 8-bit exclusive, but after I arrived in Japan, I found that my 800XL wouldn't work here. I was more than irritated at that, and I had to spend a number of days apologizing to my girlfriend for being an ass. At that point I couldn't let all of our hard work go to waste, so since I had also brought some Jaguar development materials with me, I thought it would be more productive to just do a Jaguar version and wait until I got back to the States before I finished the 8-bit version. I think gamers will benefit from this transition as we can add a bit more "color" to it than was originally planned. [JEO] What was the trouble getting your 8-bit to work? [JG] You know, I'm not really sure. I'm guessing it's voltage, because the Sendai area is 100 V, 50Hz. The computer comes on, but I can't get a display. I've even tried it on a couple of different TVs, but no luck. Of course, it may also be the NTSC-J they use here in Japan. I find it interesting that the switch box is considered an antenna by the TV or VCR it's connected to. So while it's connected, we can pick up channels we normally wouldn't be able to. This is quite different than in the States. This means, that while it's connected, there's a conflict between the video signals, and the stronger on is the local TV channels so it just blocks out the 8-bit video signal. This is also speculation. The technician who helped me try to solve the problem came to the same conclusions so it's one, the other, or a combination of the two. Either way, the bottom line is... it doesn't work. [JEO] Do you have any experience with game development? [JG] On a large scale, I'd say no. I worked on a game back in '86 for the Atari 8-bit called "St. Lauril's Castle". It was a pretty impressive piece of work, but it was a semi-text adventure type game (RPG elements, but no actual graphics), and I couldn't get Electronic Arts or Datasoft to pick it up. Decided to give it up. I think that's about the closest anyone here has gotten. The Assassin is OMC's first major game project. [JEO] Who is the team working on The Assassin? [JG] Currently, there are four of us. Two programmers, a musician, and one technician. * I'm the lead programmer, and another guy works on doing other things, but he's still a bit wet behind the ears so I'll keep his name anonymous a little while longer. Heh, heh. I also wrote the story, script, and have done most of the graphics. * Sandro Sarang, the technician, handles pressing CDs and getting programs to work with the CD dev kit. Sandro also handles any problems we have with dev kits and such. He's not really an assembly programmer, so I try to keep him away from writing too much code. He's been getting his hands into doing graphics, and may take up writing some cases. * Arthur Lauritsen is the musician and this is his first project. He's good, and I think he'll do a good job. He was quite happy when I told him he'd be using redbook audio instead of converting code on the 800XL. We're going to have a few [samples of his work] on the OMC site in a couple of weeks. We're going to most likely be adding another programmer and a writer to the ranks sometime soon. Heh, heh. Of course, I still don't have that artist... [JEO] How did you obtain your Jaguar devkit? [JG] You know, my journey towards getting a dev kit has been a long and hard-fought one. And experiences such as that can ruin a person's perspective on the whole industry. So everything I've gotten so far has been from various places and cost quite a bit of money. Including B&C, some people who I vowed I'd keep undercover, and I got my BJL from Scott Walters. A pretty cool guy, I must say. [JEO] What are the projected tech specs for The Assassin? [JG] The Assassin is going to be mostly 320x240 resolution, with the exception of the option screen which will be 640x480. Both resolutions will be in 16-bit color using straight RGB instead of the CRY color system. I haven't decided whether or not this is a bad thing or not, yet. Sprites are currently at 256 color, but may change depending on the situation. I'm shooting for about 30 FPS or something close. I think 60 FPS is virtually impossible with the number of things going on especially during combat. I'm using strictly GPU/DSP code which is quite fast, so there shouldn't be any complaints about us not utilizing the processors to the fullest. I would like to get the parallel processing working, but it takes some serious timing to get it to work properly. We're still experimenting, but to be honest, I'd be happy with 30 FPS. The game will be on CD and I'm working with Hasbro now to make sure that encryption issues won't be a problem in the future. There won't be any FMV, so we're going to use the CD for nothing but game. Therefore it will be impossible for the game to be crammed into a cartridge, unlike Iron Soldier 2. Heh, heh, heh. [JEO] It sounds like The Assassin is basically going to be a scrolling, tile-graphics based game with sprite, which the Jag excels at. What are all these other things going on that will slow it down to 30FPS? [JG] Constantly moving blocks of code with a lot of jumps back and forth from main memory to GPU RAM, special effects in which the sprite is modified (such as lighting effects, translucencies), constantly keeping track of NPCs on the screen, character and background animations, and all the extra things like weather, the clock (which is displayed on the screen), collisions, etc. I haven't tested all of these things at this point, so my actual speed may be better than I realize, but I figure it would be better to start with something reasonable and if I get better results then we'll all be happier. [JEO] Will the use of RGB color let you do colored lighting effects? [JG] As I've seen so far, yes. Of course, when it comes to the polygons, I'll use CRY mode. The shading is much better. [JEO] By all accounts the JagCD was almost impossible to develop for, even for fully supported, licensed developers. What drove you to taking the CD route? Are you confident CD development won't cause you any major problems? [JG] The real problem with CD is that it doesn't use a file system so you actually have to seek the disk like you were looking for a song, then checksum the data to make sure you got the right stuff. It's a lot of trial and error. That's why I have Sandro spending most of his time working on that area. I knew about that headache before I even got started. Also, Atari had a couple of tools that help in "padding" the tracks with the right information, so you don't necessarily have to remember all of the details that goes with adding files to your file pool. It may be tough, but I don't think impossible. The reason why I went for CD is so I didn't have to worry about limiting the vision I had for the games. I really needed storage, and a cartridge just wasn't going to give me enough, even at 6 MB. When each city eats up 1MB by itself, you can use it up fairly fast. Not to mention the there is only 128 bytes of EEPROM space for storing game data. Definitely not enough for an RPG. Heh, heh. Currently, The Assassin character file is 7,168 bytes (7k). I heard that Atari was working on something larger, but I haven't been able to dig up anything on it, so I'll just assume it doesn't exist. Sure, the argument is you can compress graphics and sounds to take up quite a bit less space, but then you have to worry about uncompacting the files, and when you uncompact sounds you lose a little bit of the quality. Small quibbles, but I don't want to worry about them. And you still have to worry about that 6 MB (most of the times less) of total space. When you think about a CD having in excess of 600 MB it seems like the obvious choice if you have a HUGE game in mind. I think I could do a Super NES quality RPG in 6 megs, but a Jaguar quality one will require quite a bit more. [JEO] In your talks with Hasbro, what sort of impression have you gotten about their attitude toward the Jaguar? [JG] That's a tough question, because I've been getting a bunch of mixed signals since we began talking at this year's E3 show. But one thing has been consistent... they only want to support current hardware: Playstation, N64, and PC. On the other hand, there have been a couple of people on the inside who have helped me out and I believe they set up someone specifically to deal with my case, so I owe them something for that. I get the impression they view the Jaguar as a bad coat of paint on the new house they just bought. It would take too much work to repaint the whole house, and it stands out too much to forget about, so they just have to live with it even though it drives them crazy. They tolerate me, as they do the rest of us, but I intend to get my games released, so they'll have me in their lap until then. [JEO] When are you projecting The Assassin to be released? [JG] At the moment we're projecting 3rd quarter '99. This may be a bit optimistic, but considering the amount of time I'll have to work on it and the number of programmers involved, I think we might be able to make it. Either way, it should make it sometime next year. [JEO] One last question: What does "OMC" stand for? [JG] Heh, heh, heh. The dreaded question. Well, if you can track down a man by the name of Dilip K. Silva, he'll be more than happy to tell you, or you can wait another 20 years when I turn 50. [JEO] Okay, I'll bite: Who's Dilip K. Silva? And what happens in 20 years? [JG] (grin) Dilip K. Silva was the co-founder of OMC back in 1990, but he moved on to get his degree in Radio, Television, Film (RTF), got married, etc. We had this thing that if someone was to ask him what it meant, he would tell, but he was the only one who would since he was the one who thought up the name to begin with. I haven't seen him in a number of years, so if you find him be sure to tell him I said, "hello" and I've got the $20 I borrowed from him. I figure if OMC is still hanging around when I turn 50, I'd just rename the company to what it stands for (O***** M**** C*****), because I'd hate to die and no one knew what it meant. Decided I'd make a party out of it. Though it would be cool for a cruel joke to leave something dangling after I'm gone. Besides, I'll be old enough to where I wouldn't care anyway. [JEO] Is it: Oberon Meets Cthulu? [JG] Heh, heh. That's probably the best one I've heard so far. But the asterisks don't necessarily represent the number of characters in the name. Heh, heh. Besides, OMC Games Division sounds much better than what it actually stands for. [JEO] I notice your website is composed on a Mac. Do you have a Mac? And if so, have you ever played the game Battle-Girl? [JG] Yeah, I use a Mac for virtually all my computer work. I even packed her (Sherry, a.k.a. the Mac) halfway across the globe. I've heard of Battle Girl and I thought the screen shots looked cool. I was quite impressed especially considering it was a Mac game. Though, I never thought of porting it over. That would be a cool idea. I'll have to check on that. I've spied some games which were Mac exclusives that I think might make good Jaguar ports... [JEO] Thanks for the all info, James! [JG] Honestly, I didn't think I had that much to say. Heh, heh. Perhaps I had too much time on my hands. I normally dislike these kinds of things, but I kind of like this one. I guess because it helped me straighten out some points I'd been mulling over for the past week or so. Talk to you later. James Garvin OMC Games --==--==--==--==-- || Five Years of 64-bit Goodness || By: Fard Muhammad \__// ultimate-atarian@rocketmail.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- November 4th, 1998. Today is the 5th Anniversary of the Jaguar 64-bit system. They said it couldn't be done... "Atari? Releasing a _64_ bit system? Impossible. Didn't they die after the Lynx bombed?" However, in one final punch to the video game market, Atari decided that if it were to go down, they were going down with a bang. That bang was to come in the form of the Jaguar64. It was rumored to be released on November 4, 1993. However, the "bang" turned out to be the sound of Atari shooting itself in the foot, as the system never really caught on with the masses- mainly due to lackadaisical marketing and horrible 3rd-party support. But, a weird phenomenon occurred in the gaming community. A small group of people who actually liked the Jaguar began to band together and fight for their beloved dying system. It was this community that convinced 3rd-party developers like Telegames and 4Play to continue building Jaguar games long after the JTS merger in 1996. Now, we celebrate the 5th Anniversary of the 64-bit behemoth. We can honestly say that for a system that's supposed to be dead, it's having a pretty good afterlife. Atari may be gone (for now...) but their last system has drawn together a community that strives for the best in entertainment. As we now wait for future games like BattleSphere and Protector to give us new reasons to continue support for the Jag, we should take a moment to consider the probabilities of all of us being here today still talking about the Jaguar as if it were released a year ago. They are quite small. We are very fortunate. Happy 5th Anniversary, everybody. May the Jaguar growl for five years more (at least ;) In respect for the 5th Anniversary, the Realm is now closed for reconstruction. See what's in its place at: === Fard Muhammad "The Ultimate ATARIAN" Chairman of Redemption IIT Student All around good guy ;) --==--==--==--==-- || Shareholder Memories || By: Jeremy Wilburne \__// jwilburne@csus.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------- [This article originally appeared on Robert Jung's Atari Archive site . Reprinted with permission.] As a former shareholder, I attended the 1993, 1994, and 1995 Annual Shareholder's Meetings at Atari Corp., not to mention the last Atari "Media Day" event in 1995 under the direction of Ted Hoff (at that time, I was working with John Marcotte on the ill fated Jaguar's Edge magazine -- my reviews of Pitfall were never published...). So here are some of the things that stand out in my mind: //// 1993 The Jaguar was first introduced to us shareholders. At that time, the case was gray, and IBM had just finished the final version of the plastic case mold the day before the meeting. I got to play the prototype version of Cybermorph. The Time Warner rep, wearing probably a $2000+ suit, had three lackeys attending with him. He complained that the female Skylar character (she had a different name) wasn't nude, so it wouldn't be selling well to the teenage market. John Skruch showed off the prototype version of Crescent Galaxy, and in that, Trevor McFur was visible inside the ship. It was very cartoony, and his spacecraft was the Atari Jaguar machine itself, with his head and torso sticking out of the top of the ship. I believe they were doing that for the Lynx character in the game as well, but they didn't show that. And if I'm not confusing years, Atari also showed off a prototype of Tempest 2000, but the only level finished at the time was the flat surface level, not the regular circular levels. I suggested to Sam Tramiel in front of everyone that Atari pull the old Coleco strategy from the early 80s in coming out with a 3DO licensed emulator for the Jag, thereby stealing users away from that system like Coleco did with their 2600 emulator for the Colecovision. He didn't know about that. //// 1994 I pestered Sam Tramiel to license the Jaguar to Japanese manufacturers in Japan for a pre-emptive strike in the home market of Sega, Nintendo and Sony before they could bring out their game systems. I mentioned NEC and Namco as viable candidates, but he sluffed off my recommendation to the rest of the shareholders, saying that they were relying on the Japanese trading company Itachu (who had a strategic alliance with Time-Warner) to pump up the Jaguar in Japan. I said that Sega was having problems with the design of the Saturn and they might enjoy the Jag, but it didn't register with him. I also mentioned JVC as a good candidate since they were making the Genesis/Sega CD compatible machine known as the X-Eye at the time, and plus they were a registered third party developer for the Jag. This didn't dawn on him. When I mentioned that Atari should port all the classic Atari Games arcade games to the Jaguar like they had done with the Lynx, he followed with the statement that Atari Games had not had a decent arcade hit in a long time. The truth was that Atari Corp. flaked out on back royalties owed to Atari Games over the various conversions to the Lynx system, thus they couldn't port any more titles until payment was made. This was in the shareholder's annual report. Atari Corp. finally issued non-voting common stock which they valued at $8 a share (when it was less than about $4 on the open market at the time) to Atari Games Corp. as a settlement, and Time-Warner forced Atari Games to settle for this. Do you get the feeling that Sam Tramiel was a complete idiot? :) You might want to know that in this same year, after I pitched the idea to Sam Tramiel that Atari court Namco to use the Jag in arcade machines and become a home licensee, J. Patton was sent over to Japan to show Namco the machine firsthand and its capabilities. J. Patton even told me this personally at the Sacramento Atari Expo. The other highlight of the shareholders meeting was the wrath that Sam Tramiel received by this old lady who was a shareholder and this hippie over the gore in Kasumi Ninja. They said Atari should make non-violent videogames. Sam, unabashed, said that was stupid. I agreed with him on that, though. //// 1995 More Sam Tramiel idiocy. He boasted that Atari was ready to release the Jaguar II, with better graphics, more RAM, and a quad-speed CD-ROM to counter the popularity of the Sony Playstation. Of course, it never happened. Sometime between this annual meeting and the last Atari Media Day in November 1995, Atari hung up the first prototype model of the "Midsummer" chipset Motorola manufactured for the Jag II. It was hung up in the lobby of the company with all the various awards Atari had earned from the Consumer Electronics Show over the years. I believe the plaque said the chips had been finished in June. Second of all, Sam defended his position of lowering the price of the Jaguar console in the face of angry shareholders. He said it was the same gimmick he and his dad pulled at Commodore in the early 80s with the Commodore 64, which didn't come with a disk drive but relied on cartridges. The logic was lowering the Jaguar's price would entice people to buy the CD-ROM, just like lowering the price of the Commodore 64 enticed people to buy the 1541 disk drive. The thing that got me was that Sam never understood that the computer and video game markets were different and that the "lowest price" did not work in video games. Oh, one other thing, regarding the Lynx. Back in 1990, Bob Brodie, who held the publicity job before Don Thomas at Atari, came to my computer users group to talk about Atari. Bob mentioned that he tried convincing the Atari programmers to convert the Atari ST game Midi Maze over to the Lynx, since it was so hot at the time as the pioneer of networked video games. The programmers thought it was a stupid idea. Four years later, the game surfaced as Faceball 2000 on the NES, SNES, GameBoy, Game Gear, and Genesis. :) --==--==--==--==-- || JEO Trivia Challenge IV: The Answers || By: Carl Forhan \__// forhan@millcomm.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What was the name of the unreleased device that would allow a 2600 player to "control games with his mind"? MindLink 2. What is the most recent copyright year of any 7800 game? 1990. Almost ten titles were released that year. 3. What games have versions that exist on the 2600, 5200, 7800, and Lynx? Asteroids, Ms. Pac-Man, Joust 4. An official Atari 7800 light gun was never released, but what light gun was fully compatible with the 7800? XEGS 5. Name the only light gun game for the 2600. Sentinel 6. Name the companies that published both 2600 games and board games. Parker Bros., Milton Bradley, Avalon Hill, Mattel 7. Name a CD that contains a game playable on an Atari home console- based system *besides* the Jaguar CD unit. "Stella Gets a New Brain", for the Starpath Supercharger (an Atari 2600 peripheral). 8. Complete this phrase from an Atari ad: "Lynx Eats _____ Lunch." "Boy's". As in the Nintendo GameBoy. 9. What was the unreleased 32-bit console in development at Atari? Panther. 10. What was the "ticker symbol" used by Atari in the stock market prior to the merger with JTS? ATC BONUS QUESTION: Name three games for any Atari cartridge-based console that included entire, separate *games* as easter eggs. Identify the easter egg games as well. Defender 2000 (Jaguar) - Plazma Pong Rayman (Jaguar) - Ray Breakout Electrocop (Lynx) - Asteroids, Breakout Slime World (Lynx) - Pop the Zits BattleZone 2000 (Lynx) - "Real" BattleZone 2000 --==--==--==--==-- || || Shutdown ....................... Power off, * + #, EOL, Game Over \__// ----------------------------------------------------------------- Buzzword Index: Buzzword Occurrences HTTP 44 Texture 2 Bug 3 Network 4 Hasbro 8 BattleSphere 15 CD 54 Useless Fact O' The Month: The only two Jag games with "Super" in the title are also the only two Jag motorcycle racing games. Merry Christmas and Happy Fraggin' New Year! Your Editor Clay Halliwell --==--==--==--==-- (This issue printed on recycled photons) --==--==--==--==-- It's a 64-bit Kiss. --==--==--==--==-- The Atari Jaguar: You know... for kids! --==--==--==--==-- Where do you want to play Atari today? --==--==--==--==-- Jaguar Explorer Online Magazine is a seasonal publication covering the Atari Jaguar community. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted at the beginning of the article, to registered Atari user groups and not for profit publications under the following terms only: articles must remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of each article reprinted. Other reprints granted upon approval of request. Send requests to . No issue of Jaguar Explorer Online Magazine may be included on any commercial media, nor uploaded or transmitted to any commercial online service, in whole or in part, by any agent or means, without the expressed consent or permission from the Editor or Publisher of Jaguar Explorer Online Magazine. Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. All material herein is believed accurate at the time of publishing. We are the chorus, we hope you like our show. We know you're rooting for us, but now we have to go. --==--==--==--==-- Atari, 400/800, XL/XE, 2600, 5200, 7800, ST, TT, Mega ST, STe, Mega STe, Atari Falcon030, Atari Lynx, ComLynx, Atari Panther, Atari Jaguar, AtariTel, Pong, and the Atari Fuji Symbol are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Hasbro Interactive, Inc. All other trademarks and identifying marks mentioned in this issue belong to their respective owners. --==--==--==--==-- Jaguar Explorer Online Magazine "Your Source for Jaguar News" Copyright (c) 1998, White Space Publishers ****** ** ** ** ** **** ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: J E O :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: Volume 2, Issue 4 JAGUAR EXPLORER ONLINE December 18, 1998 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::