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Jaguar Explorer Online Volume 5 Issue 1
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Volume 5, Issue 1 JAGUAR EXPLORER ONLINE November 31, 2001 ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: ::
:: JAGUAR ............. News, Reviews, & Solutions ............. JAGUAR ::
:: EXPLORER ........... For the Online Jaguar .......... EXPLORER ::
:: ONLINE ................ Community ............... ONLINE ::
:: ::
:: Published and Copyright (c) 2001 by White Space Publishers ::
:: All Rights Reserved ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: Publisher Emeritus Plus .................... Michael Lindsay ::
:: Publisher Emeritus .............................. Travis Guy ::
:: Editor/Publisher ............................ Clay Halliwell ::
:: Lynx Editor .................................... Carl Forhan ::
:: JEO Mailing List Maintainer .................. Joachim Vance ::
:: CompuServe Uploader ......................... Richard Turner ::
:: America Online Uploader ....................... Lonnie Smith ::
:: FidoNet Uploader ................................ Troy Cheek ::
:: ::
:: Contributors: ::
:: (voluntary and otherwise) ::
:: """"""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: Fard Muhammad, Carl Forhan, Jeff Minter, ::
:: Dan Loosen, Micah Rowe, Clint Thompson, Kevin Mosley, ::
:: Randy Femrite, Ted Rusniak, and Lars Hannig ::
:: ::
:: Telecommunicated to you via: ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: 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/ ::
:: ::
:: E-Mail Request address: JEO-request@maximized.com ::
:: ::
:: To subscribe to JEO, send e-mail to the request address, ::
:: with the following line (no subject): ::
:: ::
:: subscribe JEO ::
:: ::
:: Your request will be automatically processed and your e-mail ::
:: address will be subscribed to the list. To unsubscribe from ::
:: the JEO list, send the following: ::
:: ::
:: unsubscribe JEO ::
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:: to the same request address, making sure you send it from ::
:: the same address you subscribed from. ::
:: ::
:: Subscription problems requiring human assistance can be sent ::
:: to JEO-help@maximized.com. Thanks to Maximized Software for ::
:: hosting the JEO list. ::
:: ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Table of Contents
* From the Editor ............................ Atari through the Millennia.
* JEO Millennia Survey ......................................... Sound Off!
* Jaguar Tackboard .................. Newsletters, Message Boards, Mailing
Lists, FAQs, Codes, Development
List, Mail Order Directory.
* CyberChatter .......................................... Overheard Online.
* Get Your Particle Laser ............................... Words to Game By.
* Llatest from Llamaland ........................................ Yak yaks.
* JagFest 2001: The Aftermath ........ The Fest that made Milwaukee Famous.
* Euro-JagFest 2001: Die Nachmahd ................... JagFest takes Europe.
* Shutdown ............................ Around the world and up your block.
--==--==--==--==--
|| From the Editor
|| By: Clay Halliwell
\__// clay.h@att.net
------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the first JEO of the new millenium (yes, it started in 2001,
don't argue). As I write this, I'm preparing to plan my roadtrip up to
Milwaukee to partake in JagFest 2001: Beyond Tempest. And just because it's
been a whole year since the last JEO, don't think I've been idle, or
forgotten about my trusty Jag. I've been working on a little project, one
which I'll hopefully have an early sample of as a door prize at the Fest.
eBay craziness of the year: A prototype Lynx Alien vs Predator card went for
$898. Eegah!
Ben Heckendorn, creator of the VCSp mentioned last issue, has continued to
slave away at making the best portable 2600 ever. Check out his latest
creations.
Atari 2600 VCS Portables Site: http://www.classicgaming.com/vcsp/
This last year, Greg George's The Atari Times site has transformed itself from
a sedate archive for past Atari Times issues into one of the most frequently
updated Atari sites on the web, offering reviews and articles for all Atari
consoles. There's some good info on the Atari computer line as well, but the
focus is clearly on console gaming.
The Atari Times: http://www.geocities.com/greggeorge/
Atari, under their new Infogrames ownership, made a big splash (ahem) at E3
with their Atari Bottled Water booth (and booth babe). Full review here...
GamesFirst!: http://www.gamesfirst.com/articles/shawn/atari/atari.htm
Photos here:
http://thetechzone.com/display.asp?i=42&p=7
http://www.3drealms.com/caught/e301_3.html
Good news regarding the lost DejaNews archive reported last issue. All of
Deja.com's assets have been acquired by Google.com. They've put the full
archive (back to 1981!) back online, fully searchable. Now go re-read some of
those old posts from when Tempest 2000 first came out!
Google Groups: http://groups.google.com
Back when the Atari 7800 was designed, there was a planned peripheral called
the High Score Cartridge that would retain the high scores in all your games.
The High Score Cartridge was never released, but nine of the initial 7800
releases still included code to support it. Now, thanks to Curt Vendel
(www.atari-history.com), the High Score Cartridge finally exists.
High Score Cart: http://www.atari-history.com/videogames/7800/hsc/hsc.html
A bit of weirdness via Kevin Manne... a Japanese Jaguar!
Check out these pictures:
http://www.sokoban.org/okiyasu/nuon/hard/PICF0065.JPG
http://www.sokoban.org/okiyasu/nuon/hard/PICF0066.JPG
http://www.sokoban.org/okiyasu/nuon/hard/PICF0067.JPG
http://www.sokoban.org/okiyasu/nuon/hard/PICF0068.JPG
Apparently it's actually a 500-in-1 NES clone.
And this year's second-weirdest non-Jag sighting:
http://www.websprinter.com/The_CyberMorph.htm
Oh yeah, and the Jaguar encryption backdoor was found. Now on to the survey!
--==--==--==--==--
|| JEO Millennia Survey
|| By: Clay Halliwell
\__// clay.h@att.net
------------------------------------------------------------------
As JEO enters the twenty-first century, I put to you, the readers, these
questions three:
1. What, in no particular order, are your three favorite Jaguar games?
2. Is anyone out there still getting JEO exclusively from CompuServe,
AOL, FidoNet, or the JEO mailing list?
3. I'm considering ditching the 80-column plaintext format and going
with a prettier HTML layout. Yea or Nea?
Email your responses to clay.h@att.net. Thanks!
--==--==--==--==--
|| 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)
http://www.atarihq.com/interactive/
Atari Times BOREDroom
http://venus.beseen.com/boardroom/c/17653/Date
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 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:
Atari Times Chat Room
http://mercury.beseen.com/chat/rooms/l/18756/Login.html
JFPN's Jaguar Chat
http://www.classicgaming.com/jfpn/chat.html
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Atari News Mailing List
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subscribe to the AtariNews/Songbird Yahoo Groups list. To get on this list
and stay up-to-date on all the latest Atari-related announcements, visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atari
Songbird Productions has created this moderated list dedicated to the support
of Atari platforms and properties, from the 2600, to the Lynx, the Jaguar, and
all the way up to modern renovations of timeless classics. Songbird will also
post specials and catalog updates periodically to this list as well.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Jaguar FAQ
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Robert Jung (rjung@netcom.com) 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 http://www.digiserve.com/eescape/
atari/FAQ_-_Jaguar.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Jaguar Cheats and Codes
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Clay "No Handle" Halliwell (clay.h@att.net) maintains the Atari Jaguar Game
Cheats and Codes FAQ. It's available by e-mail request or from Atari Gaming
Headquarters (http://www.atarihq.com/jaglynx/jag/jagcheat.txt).
Lonnie "The Mage" Smith (themage1@aol.com) maintains the Concise Compendium
of Frequently Asked Codes, Moves, and Cheats (FACMAC). It's available via
FTP from users.aol.com:/TheMage1/jaguar, or from http://users.aol.com/
TheMage1/jaguar/jagcodes.txt.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 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"UGS/Jaguar 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
" " """"" """ """"""""" """""""""
Arkanna ? Storm Works
C Age of Darkness ? OMC Games
C Assassin, The ? OMC Games
J Bong+ 1999 ? Just Claws Software
? Deathwatch ? Data Design
J Jagmania (PacMania clone) ? Matthias Domin
J Jagmarble (Marble Madness clone) ? Matthias Domin
J JagTris (Tetris clone) ? Bastian Schick
J *NEXT* ? Force Design
J Painter ? Sinister
n Protector: Special Edition 2002 Songbird Songbird
? C Soulstar ? Core Design Ltd.
Total Carnage ? Handmade Software
Virtual VCS ? Temp. Sanity Designs
//// 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
BattleSphere 10 4Play ScatoLOGIC
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
Hyper Force 6 Visual Impact Songbird
Iron Soldier 9 Eclipse Atari
C Iron Soldier 2 CD 10 Eclipse Telegames
Iron Soldier 2 9 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
C Myst Demo 5 Atari Atari
NBA Jam: Tournament Edition 9 High Voltage Atari
Pinball Fantasies 6 Spider Soft C-West
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure 7 Imagitec Design Atari
Power Drive Rally 7 Rage Software TWI
C Primal Rage 7 Probe TWI
Protector 7 Bethesda/Songbird Songbird
Raiden 6 Imagitec Design Atari
Rayman 10 UBI Soft UBI Soft
Ruiner 6 High Voltage Atari
Sensible Soccer 6 Williams Brothers Telegames
Skyhammer 9 Rebellion Songbird
Soccer Kid 7 Krisalis Songbird
C Space Ace 3 ReadySoft ReadySoft
Space War 2000 NEW Atari B&C
Super Burnout 7 Shen Atari
Supercross 3D 5 Tiertex Ltd. Atari
Syndicate 7 Bullfrog Ocean
System Test Cartridge 5 Atari Atari
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 Virtual Light Machine 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 57
Total CDs 15 (counting VLM)
Grand Total 72
Pts Stars JEO Ratings
""" """"" """""""""""
10 ***** THE ULTIMATE - Flawless, beautiful, 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 Releases and Prototypes
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
Jaguar Demo Kiosk Atari
Composite Cable Atari
S-Video Cable Atari
Stereo Audio Interface (proto) Atari
VoiceModem (proto) Atari/Phylon
VR Headset (proto) Atari/Virtuality
Controller Extension Cable Best Electronics
CatBox ICD/Black Cat Design
Boomerang controller Matt (Poland)
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
Jaguar Unmodified Game Server ScatoLOGIC
Rapid Fire Controller Songbird
Rotary Controller JediJeff
Jaguar JAMMA Joystick GOAT
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// JEO Mail Order Directory
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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 myatari2@juno.com
Web http://www.myatari.com
//// Best Electronics
Mail 2021 The Alameda, Suite 290
San Jose, CA 95126-1127
Voice 408-243-6950
Email bestelec@concentric.net
Web http://www.best-electronics-ca.com
//// Dentec Distribution
Mail 465 Milner Ave #3
Scarborough, Ontario M1B 2K4 Canada
Voice 416-292-2996
Fax 416-292-4075
416-292-248
Email sales@dentec.com
Web http://www.dentec.com
//// GameMasters
Mail 14393 E. 14th Street, Suite 208
San Leandro, CA 94577
Voice 510-483-4263
Email mchaddon@game-masters.com
Web http://www.game-masters.com
//// GOAT Store
Email thegoat@goatstore.com
support@goatstore.com
Web http://www.goatstore.com
//// Multimedia 1.0
Mail 18 Saint Mark's Place
New York City, NY 10003
Voice 212-539-1039
Fax 212-539-1645
Email sales@multimedia1.com
Web http://www.multimedia1.com
//// O'Shea, Ltd.
Mail 330 West 47th Street #203
Kansas City, MO 64112
Voice 816-531-1177
Fax 816-531-6569
Email billh@oshealtd.com
Web http://www.oshealtd.com
//// Songbird Productions
Mail 1736 Chippewa Drive NW
Rochester, MN 55901
Email songbird@atari.net
Web http://songbird.atari.net
//// Telegames
Mail P.O. Box 901
Lancaster, Texas 75146
Voice 972-228-0690
Orders 972-224-7200
Fax 972-228-0693
Email sales@telegames.com
Web http://www.telegames.com
//// United Game Source
Mail 232 East Eau Gallie Blvd
Indian Harbour Beach, FL 32937
Orders 800-564-1458
Fax 407-777-3940
Email unitedgame@aol.com
Web http://www.unitedgame.com
//// Video 61 & Atari Sales
Mail 22735 Congo St NE
Stacy, MN 55079
Voice 651-462-2500
Email video61@webtv.net
Web http://www.angelfire.com/mn/video61/
//// 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 vglq@vglq.com
Web http://www.vglq.com
//// Video Game Source
Mail Salzbruecker Str. 36
21335 Lueneburg - Germany
Orders +(49) 4131-406278
Fax +(49) 4131-406278
Email sales@atarihq.de
Web http://www.atarihq.de
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Announcements and Press Releases
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Index
01 Jan 01 - JagFest 2001 Tickets Now on Sale
08 Jan 01 - Lynx Distant Lands Preview
05 Feb 01 - Jaguar and Lynx encryption released by CGE
26 Feb 01 - JagFest 2001: Beyond Tempest Sponsors Announced
27 Apr 01 - JagFest Updates Galore
30 May 01 - Songbird End of School Special
08 Jun 01 - Protos-a-Plenty at JagFest 2001!
11 Jun 01 - JagFest 2001 Update
27 Jun 01 - Make Plans for JagFest 2001!
29 Jun 01 - Atari Zone Fanzine Format Change
30 Jun 01 - Classic Gaming News From Icwhen.Com
25 Jul 01 - Songbird Gears Up for Expo, Announces JagFree CD
01 Aug 01 - JagFest 2002 Planning Has Begun
04 Aug 01 - JagFest 2001 Profits Donated to Boy Scouts
27 Sep 01 - Atari News Update
04 Oct 01 - Limited-Edition Cybervirus At CinciClassic
25 Oct 01 - "Early Bird" Atari Sale at Songbird!
09 Nov 01 - Goat Store Announces "Santa's Special"
20 Nov 01 - Limited Edition CyberVirus Limited Leftovers
//// JAGFEST 2001 TICKETS NOW ON SALE
January 1, 2001
The GOAT Store, an online store specializing in the support of classic video
games, has begun selling tickets for JagFest 2K1 being held in Milwaukee, WI
on June 30, 2001.
"We have already had a great response to the event when we announced the
date," stated Gary Heil of the GOAT Store, "And now we are gearing up on what
will certainly be one of the most exciting Jaguar events ever!"
The event promises Atari fans that they will be able to enjoy the Atari
Jaguar, as well as celebrate a glorious past through many classic systems
through tournaments, displays, one-of-a-kind offers and many other special
events soon to be announced.
We are working very hard right now to expand JagFest even more then it already
is, said Dan Loosen of the GOAT Store. We already have many surprises on the
horizon that will be announced in the near future.
A ticket to JagFest will entitle the ticketholder to admission to the event,
an official JagFest 2K1 Program and the ability to sign up for tournaments.
Admission for the event is only $8.00 for those who pre-registers before June
1, 2001 and $10.00 for tickets after that point.
Information about ordering tickets can be found at the Official JagFest 2K1:
Beyond Tempest Web site at the GOAT Store (http://www.goatstore.com). Dan
Loosen can be reached at loosen@goatstore.com and Gary Heil can be reached at
heil@goatstore.com for more information.
//// LYNX DISTANT LANDS PREVIEW
January 8, 2001
Due to popular request, I have uploaded a preview of the upcoming overhead
fantasy RPG for the Atari Lynx on the Songbird homepage. I know ever since the
announcement of the "Guardians: Storms Over Doria" game many years ago, Atari
fans have been anxious for this genre to make an appearance on the Lynx.
Chris Vick is the lead programmer, and the demos he's turned in so far have
been spectacular. Watch this space and the Songbird pages for progress reports
on this game!
--
Carl Forhan
Songbird Productions
http://songbird.atari.net
//// JAGUAR AND LYNX ENCRYPTION RELEASED BY CGE
February 5, 2001
In case you haven't heard this INCREDIBLE news, the major Atari fans running
CGE have managed to locate and release the official Lynx encryption tools,
along with a 'universal ROM header' for the Jaguar. Stop by their site to read
all about it!
http://www.cgexpo.com
Carl Forhan
Songbird Productions
http://songbird.atari.net
//// JAGFEST 2001: BEYOND TEMPEST SPONSORS ANNOUNCED
February 26, 2000
The GOAT Store (http://www.goatstore.com/), an online store specializing in
the support of classic video games today announced the blockbuster line up of
sponsors for this year's JagFest 2K1: Beyond Tempest event. The fifth annual
event is being held June 30, 2001, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
"We are extremely pleased with the organizations that have decided to support
this year's JagFest," stated Gary Heil of the GOAT Store. "These organizations
represent a large portion of the vast support that the Jaguar system and its
fans still receive. We are proud to be able to have them working with us."
Many of the organizations involved with the sponsorship of JagFest 2K1: Beyond
Tempest are also going to be sponsoring the events most intense competitions.
According to the GOAT Store, tournament plans have not been finalized at this
point, but prize contributions are already totaling over $600 dollars worth of
merchandise.
The following list of organizations (listed alphabetically) will be sponsoring
this year's event:
Atari Video Club
The Atari Video Club (AVC) has been a major supporter of every JagFest to
date. Atari Video Club writes the annual Atari JagFest Fanzine and is
currently working on the "Beyond Tempest" edition. The organizations founder,
Dan Iacovelli, will be attending this year's event to promote the Fanzine. The
organization will also be running its own competition at the event.
The Atari Video Club's website may be found at http://avconline.atari.org
Good Deal Games
Good Deal Games is the host of a Web site featuring video game music,
cartoons, audio interviews, trivia, classic video game advertisements and
more. Good Deal Games has also recently released two Sega CD games: "Bug
Blasters: The Exterminators" and "Star Strike". The company is headed up by a
group of individuals so devoted to gaming that every cent of profit that Good
Deal Games has earned is used to make the company grow.
Good Deal Games' website may be found at http://www.gooddealgames.com
Llamasoft
Jeff Minter single-handedly masterminded the games "Tempest 2000," "Defender
2000" and the recently released "Tempest 3000". He single-handedly made the
Jaguar into a force by creating "Tempest 2000," following it up with another
game that gave a nod to the video games of old, "Defender 2000." While
"Defender 2000" wasn't as well received as "Tempest 2000", they are both
considered some of the best games for the Jaguar. "Tempest 3000" was recently
released by Llamasoft for NUON Enhanced DVD players.
The Llamasoft website may be found at http://www.magicnet.net/~yak/
Protom Multimedia
Protom Multimedia are the creators of new and exciting online and offline
multimedia programs. Currently, the company is directing their focus toward
business oriented programs. The company is run by gaming enthusiasts with an
avid interest in the Atari Jaguar, and they felt it would be an honor to help
JagFest 2K1: Beyond Tempest grow.
Protom Multimedia's Web site may be found at http://www.protom-multimedia.com
ScatoLOGIC
ScatoLOGIC is the company behind the release of "BattleSphere" for the Jaguar.
Since BattleSphere's release, it has become the most sought after Jaguar game.
Hidden inside BattleSphere is the key to the Jaguar Unmodified Game Server
(JUGS). The Jaguar Unmodified Game Server is a way to play exciting new Jaguar
games on your Jaguar without having to convert your existing system.
The ScatoLOGIC website may be found at http://www.scatologic.com
Songbird Productions
Songbird Productions, the most prolific Atari Jaguar developer in recent
years, will be on hand at JagFest 2K1: Beyond Tempest. Carl Forhan established
Songbird Productions a few years ago as an outlet to publish the Lynx games he
wrote. Who could have known that soon thereafter Songbird Productions would
have published four impressive Jaguar titles as well as countless quality Lynx
games?
The Songbird Productions website may be found at http://songbird.atari.net
Telegames
The first company that refused to give up on the Jaguar released six titles
for the system after Atari had pulled the plug. Those games, "Zero 5,"
"Breakout 2000," "Iron Soldier 2," "World Tour Racing," "Towers 2" and "Worms"
are known among Jaguar fans as many of the best titles for the system.
Telegames also released "Brutal Sports Football," which has become a cult
classic on the Jaguar, and "International Sensible Soccer," as well as
countless games for other classic video game systems.
The Telegames website may be found at http://www.telegames.com
For general information regarding JagFest 2K1, ticket information and contact
information please visit the Official JagFest 2K1: Beyond Tempest Web site at
the GOAT Store (http://www.goatstore.com). Dan Loosen can be reached at
loosen@goatstore.com and Gary Heil can be reached at heil@goatstore.com for
additional information.
//// JAGFEST UPDATES GALORE
April 27, 2001
This is Dan from the GOAT Store (http://www.goatstore.com/) I've been really
out of it between two jobs and trying to set up all the details for JagFest
2K1, but here is a quick rundown of what has been announced. If you would
like any more details about JagFest 2K1, just visit the GOAT Store!
Protector SE to feature picture of JagFest 2K1 Attendees
--------------------------------------------------------
Songbird Productions, in conjunction with the GOAT Store unveiled plans to
offer a special limited edition run of the Atari Jaguar game Protector to the
attendees of JagFest 2K1: Beyond Tempest. The new version will contain the
original intense space shooter, but will feature a group photograph of
everyone that attends JagFest 2K1 in the credits section of the game as well
as gameplay tweaks and other special features.
JagFest To Give Over $700 Dollars In Prizes
-------------------------------------------
The GOAT Store today announced that sponsors for Atari Jaguar Festival 2K1:
Beyond Tempest have donated over $700 dollars worth of merchandise to be given
away at the event. The donated merchandise will be given out as tournament
and door prizes. The largest prize donations were received from Llamasoft and
Telegames.
Be on the lookout for more announcements about JagFest in the next few weeks!
Also, if you are interested in helping distribute flyers in the southeastern
Wisconsin or northern Illinois areas, please contact me at
loosen@goatstore.com
Hope to see you at the 'Fest!
//// SONGBIRD END OF SCHOOL SPECIAL
May 30, 2001
Mention "June Bug" with your order placed or postmarked by June 7, 2001,
and you qualify for one of the following discounts:
$ 5 off your order of $15.00-$49.95
$10 off your order of $50.00-99.95
$15 off your order of $100.00 or more
Shipping is not included in your order total when determining your
applicable discount. Cannot be combined with other specials. Limited to in-
stock items only. No rainchecks. Songbird may end this promotion without
prior notice.
CHAMP RALLY AND SFX BACK IN STOCK
At long last, the incredibly popular new Atari Lynx release Championship
Rally is back in stock at Songbird! Not only that, but Songbird has an
exciting announcement to make: Champ Rally supports up to 4 players, not
only 2 as listed in the manual. This means you and three friends can all
link up and race head-to-head with Champ Rally!
Also, the first-ever Songbird Lynx cartridge, SFX, is back in stock in
limited quantities. Get this extremely rare cart today!
SCREWDRIVERS GALORE
One of Songbird's newest items and hottest sellers is the Nintendo/Sega
Security Screwdriver Set. This set includes many hard-to-find security
bits, including a couple that will open NES/SNES/Sega game systems and
cartridges. It retails for $29.95. Check out http://songbird.atari.net for
pictures and complete details.
COLLECTABLE CARTS?
Starting immediately, all Songbird-produced Lynx cartridges will be in the
new flat black style featured with Champ Rally. That means the older green
carts are going the way of the dodo. A few existing carts on hand are the
older style, but once they're gone, they're gone.
PROTECTOR SE
A newly updated version of the hit Jaguar game Protector is coming soon
from Songbird. Check out all the details and new features on
http://songbird.atari.net .
LYNX/PC SERIAL CABLE OUT OF STOCK
This handbuilt item will be out of stock until Songbird can find a new
supplier. It will probably take several months.
SUMMER SCHEDULE
Look for the Songbird booth at the following summer events:
JagFest 2001 - June 30
Classic Gaming Expo 2001 - August 11-12
See you there!
Carl Forhan
Songbird Productions
http://songbird.atari.net
//// PROTOS-A-PLENTY AT JAGFEST 2001!
June 8, 2001
Check out this AMAZING list of rare/proto games and collections that will
be shown at JagFest2K1 on June 30th in Milwaukee, WI. Make plans to attend
JagFest today!
Atari Jaguar Festival 2K1: Beyond Tempest
http://www.goatstore.com
Official List of Rare Items Appearing at this years Festival as of 6/7/01
==========================================================================
Atari Jaguar
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jaguar Test Cartridge Jaguar CD Test CD
Jaguar Voice Modem Blue/Grey Controller
Jaguar VR System Atari Launches Jaguar CD
Alien Vs. Predator (pre-release demo) Arena Football
Brett Hull Hockey Cart Brett Hull Hockey CD
Phase Zero Protector SE
Slam Racer Thea Realm Fighters
Total Carnage Virtual VCS
Zero 5 (pre-release demo) Hard Shell Rental Case
Atari Lynx
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Howard Board Dev.kit Alien Vs. Predator
Cybervirus Crystal Mines II: BT (pre-release)
Eye of the Beholder Lode Runner
Loopz Marlboro Go!
Road Riot 4WD Ultravore
Atari 7800
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Almost every released game!
Atari 5200
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beamrider
Atari 2600
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ram It River Raid II
(hundreds of other titles!)
Atari XE Computer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beamrider Superman III (proto)
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neon Store Sign Griffey's Winning Run (Store demo)
Killer Instinct (In-Store demo) NCAA Basketball (Store demo)
Hard Shell Rental Case
Nintendo Entertainment System
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
JAMMA Joystick (GOAT Store proto) Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.)
Tengen Tetris
Sega Saturn
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Castlevania X (import) Radiant Silvergun (import)
3DO
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lost Eden
Carl Forhan
Songbird Productions
http://songbird.atari.net
//// JAGFEST 2001 UPDATE
June 11, 2001
Hey Everyone,
Another JagFest 2K1 update everyone might be interested in...
06/11/01 - JagFest 2K1 To Host Huge Display Of Classic Gaming History
The GOAT Store today announced that JagFest 2K1 would feature a special
section titled the "Museum of Home Video Gaming and Classic Computers." The
Museum, which is an amazing display showcasing some of the rare and unusual
video game developments of the past is being put together by Martin
Goldberg, a freelancer for the extremely popular Web site
ClassicGaming.Com.
"It is going to be an incredible addition to the Festival." Dan Loosen of
the GOAT Store said. "JagFest will truly cover every aspect of classic
gaming. The current plan is for the museum is to put items on display for
visitors to see, learn about and play. Each display will contain a small
description and history of the items in the display. Not all items on
display will be playable.
"No matter what," he continued, "it is going to be both fun and informative
for every JagFest 2K1: Beyond Tempest attendee."
An entire list of the items that will be displayed in the museum may be
found at the GOAT Store (http://www.goatstore.com/)
We have also updated the list of Rarities that will be at the event. If
you plan on attending and have anything ultra-rare or unreleased, please
drop me an email so I may add your items to the list!
See you at the 'Fest!
dan
http://www.goatstore.com/
//// MAKE PLANS FOR JAGFEST 2001!
June 27, 2001
Make plans to attend JagFest 2001 on June 30th in Milwaukee, WI, today!
Songbird is going to bring a TON of new/rare games for sale as well as
quite a few reasonably-priced used games. Plus, the protos that will at
this show will be AMAZING to say the least. Thea Realm Fighters, Brett Hull
Hockey, Arena Football, and many rare/unreleased games for other systems
like the NES, Lynx, and so on.
Are you ready for the BattleSphere network?
Are you ready for the mutant horde that is Protector SE?
Can you take on three of your buddies and emerge victorious in Lynx
Championship Rally?
What special, unannounced surprise(s) will be at the Songbird table this
weekend?
Attend JagFest 2001, and find out!
Carl Forhan
Songbird Productions
//// ATARI ZONE FANZINE FORMAT CHANGE
June 29, 2001
On June 29th, 2001 Atari Video Club/Jaguar Community United (AVC/JCU) has
announced that starting with Vol.12 #1 of The Atari Zone Fanzine (which
will be available in June 2002), the fanzines will be available in PDF
format and it will also be available on-line at the club's website.
This will also end the e-zine since the fanzine will be taking its place.
(Vol.4 n.6 will be the final e-zine). For those who still want the regular
print version, don't worry. Daniel Iacovelli, AVC/JCU chairperson & editor
of The Atari Zone Fanzine, has stated that he will still continue the
normal subscription basis for those who want the print version sent to
their home. He also stated that PDF versions would be available on-line bi-
monthly just like the print version. Also he did state that the Fest issue
will only be available by request and will be in black and white (this
might change though).
Daniel M. Iacovelli
AVC/JCU chairperson
editor of the Atari Zone fanzine
AVC Online: http://avconline.atari.org
//// CLASSIC GAMING NEWS FROM ICWHEN.COM
June 30, 2001
Of special note in the classic gaming community from www.ICWhen.com:
-- Classic Gaming Expo is creeping up fast. Make sure you check it out and
attend in Vegas if you can. A lot of classic gaming personalities attend
this show. It's a wonderful opportunity to view early prototypes, ask the
insiders insider questions and get great buys on collectibles as well as
new releases. Visit www.cgexpo.com for more information.
-- The illustrious Jerry Jessop has put a very rare Atari 2700 prototype up
for auction on eBay. Here's a chance to own an authentic classic gaming
artifact. For information about this piece or to actually bid on this item,
visit: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1249640557.
There's just under 4 days left to bid. You may have found this auction
already if you have ICWhen's eBay Navigator bookmarked in your browser. The
URL is: http://www.icwhen.com/ebay_nav.html.
-- Infogrames is imminently poised to release Atari "Anniversary Edition"
for the Dreamcast and the PC. The product is great, but..., well read my
comments here: http://www.icwhen.com/news/2001-06-
30%20Atari%20Anniversary%20Edition.html
-- If you own a Nokia 8260 cell phone, you may or may not know that you can
send custom ringtones and group graphics to it virtually free. I've
assembled classic gaming related tones and graphics as well as a way to
easily transmit them to your phone. (If you want, I'll even make a custom
graphic of your company logo, school name, etc.) Visit
http://www.icwhen.com/nokia8260/index.html for more information.
-- VM Labs has just unveiled an e-store on their site. Go there now and
order Space Invaders XL for the new NUON enhanced interactive DVD players
on the market. Best Buy has two models in stock now; the Toshiba SD-2300
and the Samsung N-501. Both are very cool. Visit the official NUON web site
for more information at www.nuon.tv.
To all those stateside, have a great 4th!
Best Wishes,
-- Donald A. Thomas, Jr.
curator@icwhen.com
http://www.icwhen.com
ICQ: 14183819 - YAHOO!: DATJ
FAX: (815) 366-2336
//// SONGBIRD GEARS UP FOR EXPO, ANNOUNCES JAGFREE CD
July 25, 2001
For immediate release:
ROCHESTER, MN -- Long-time Atari Jaguar and Lynx supporter Songbird
Productions recently unveiled plans to make a splash at the next Classic
Gaming Expo to be held in Las Vegas, NV, on August 11th and 12th.
"I want this year to be the most fun ever for Lynx and Jaguar fans,"
commented Carl Forhan, owner of Songbird. "That's why Songbird has expanded
to a double booth at the show. We need to make more room for lots of new
product as well as something really cool: a mini-museum for rare/prototype
Lynx and Jaguar items. You can expect to see some developer hardware,
unreleased games, and more at the Songbird booth this year."
Featured games at the show will include Championship Rally(tm), the
exciting new four-player overhead racer for the Lynx, and Protector(tm) SE,
the highly-anticipated sequel to the fan-favorite Protector which was
released for the Jaguar in late 1999. Protector SE contains new graphics,
music, level designs, and gameplay enhancements, plus one particularly
intriguing new feature: JagFree CD(tm) bypass support.
Carl commented, "JagFree CD bypass support means that Protector SE will be
able to play brand new, unencrypted Jaguar CD games released in the future.
By moving to the CD medium, an aspiring publisher can release games on a
smaller budget and at a user-friendly price point." Carl also described
plans to eventually release the JagFree CD code into the public domain, to
encourage other developers to include the same support in any future game
or stand-alone cartridge. Protector SE is slated for a late fall 2001
release.
Songbird Productions is the premier developer and publisher for the Atari
Lynx and Jaguar. To keep up to date with the latest news at Songbird
Productions, be sure to visit the company web site at
http://songbird.atari.net. For more information on CGE, please visit
http://www.cgexpo.com.
Championship Rally and JagFree CD are trademarks of Songbird Productions.
Protector is a trademark of Bethesda Softworks. All rights reserved. This
message may be reprinted in its entirety.
//// JAGFEST 2002 PLANNING HAS BEGUN
August 1, 2001
First, I have learned that JagFest 2k2 is being planned for St. Louis, MO.
Second, I have also learned that this fest will be a 2-day event.
Tentative dates are July 12-13, 2002.
For more information go to the following sites:
http://www.omcgames.com/
http://www.ataritimes.com/
http://www.geocities.com/atarivideoclub/Fest2001/fest2k1.html
James Garvin of OMC games is also taking down names of possible attendees
for JagFest 2k2. If you think you can make it for a St. Louis fest, e-mail
James at OMC@omcgames.com, subject "JagFest 2002" (also don't forget to
attend the JagFest 2002 planning chats every Thursday night at Atari Times
chat at 8pm EST).
BTW, while visiting AVC's JagFest site be sure to enter AVC's Beat the
Champ competition (details can be found at AVC's fest site)
Dan Iacovelli
//// JAGFEST 2001 PROFITS DONATED TO BOY SCOUTS
August 4, 2001
The GOAT Store, LLC today announced that all of the proceeds from the Atari
Jaguar Festival have been donated to the Milwaukee County Council Boy
Scouts of America.
"The Boy Scouts were nice enough to allow us to use their facilities," Gary
Heil of the GOAT Store said. "Because of their support, we were able to
hold an extremely successful event. I am privileged to present to the Boy
Scouts this donation on behalf of the entire Jaguar Community."
Atari Jaguar Festival 2K1: Beyond Tempest was held in the Milwaukee County
Boy Scout Service Center's PieperPower Center on June 30, 2001. The event
set a record in attendance.
"I was glad that everything worked out for everyone involved," stated David
Loosen, who accepted the check on behalf of the Boy Scouts. "I would like
to thank everyone that was involved for this generous donation."
The GOAT Store, LLC declined to state exactly how large the donation was.
For more information, visit the GOAT Store, LLC Web site at
http://www.goatstore.com/
Gary Heil can be reached at heil@goatstore.com.
//// ATARI NEWS UPDATE
September 27, 2001
THE FUJI LIVES ON...
Infogrames is keeping the Atari name and classic Fuji symbol alive... look
for more products to display this cherished brand in the future.
http://www.infogrames.com
JI2 PROBLEMS ON ATARIHQ
The Atari fan-favorite message board, Jaguar Interactive 2, has been out of
commission for almost a week. The editors are trying desperately to get
things running again. If you are an expert on CGI scripts and/or bulletin
boards and would like to help, please send an email to editor@atarihq.com.
In the meantime, please do not bombard them with questions on the status of
JI2. Just check back every now and then on the web to see if the board is
operational.
While JI2 is out, how about posting at one of these message boards instead:
http://www.ataricentral.com
http://www.ataritimes.com
PROGRESS REPORT ON NEW PRODUCTS
Songbird is diligently coding away on two new products: Protector SE for
the Jaguar, and CyberVirus for the Lynx. Hopefully one of these will be
available in time for Christmas, but it naturally is very slow-paced
working on these games in one's spare time. Stay tuned to the Songbird web
page for updates on these games, and watch for new screen shots and
playtester previews coming soon!
http://songbird.atari.net
//// LIMITED-EDITION CYBERVIRUS AT CINCI-CLASSIC
October 4, 2001
For immediate release:
ROCHESTER, MN -- Songbird Productions recently announced its support for
the upcoming CinciClassic gaming event with the news that a limited edition
version of CyberVirus would be available at the show.
Only 20 units of this limited edition game will be made. The game will
include eight missions, at least two of which will not appear in the future
general release of CyberVirus. Both the cartridge label and opening screens
will indicate this is the special CinciClassic version.
"I've been making good progress on the CyberVirus source code just in the
last month or so," noted Carl Forhan, founder of Songbird. "Then I found
out that CinciClassic was on for this year, and the timing seemed perfect
to support the show and get a fully playable sneak preview of the game out
there to Lynx fans.
Craig Maloney, co-organizer for the event, commented, "We were very excited
to showcase a pre-release version of Protector for the Atari Jaguar in
1999, and this year we are thrilled that Songbird is offering a
CinciClassic special edition of CyberVirus for the Atari Lynx."
CinciClassic will be held in Cincinnati, OH, on November 9-11. For all the
details on the event, please visit http://www.cinciclassic.com.
Songbird Productions is the premier developer and publisher for the Atari
Lynx and Jaguar. To keep up to date with the latest news at Songbird
Productions, be sure to visit the company web site at
http://songbird.atari.net.
CyberVirus is a trademark of Songbird Productions. All rights reserved.
This message may be reprinted in its entirety.
//// "EARLY BIRD" ATARI SALE AT SONGBIRD!
October 25, 2001
Start your Christmas shopping early, and complete your collections for your
cherished Atari systems!
Just mention "EARLY BIRD" with your order to receive these fantastic
discounts. Special pricing good for orders sent via PayPal or postmarked on
or before November 7, 2001, and only while items in stock. Please send an
email to songbird@atari.net prior to placing an order to ensure
availability.
* * * JAGUAR SPECIALS * * *
Hyper Force
Protector
Soccer Kid
Buy 1 of the above for $70, 2 for $130, or all 3 for $180. You save almost
$45 when you buy all three!
Baldies CD
Cannon Fodder
Fight For Life
Myst CD
Pitfall
Ruiner Pinball
Supercross 3D
Val d'Isere Skiing & Snowboarding
White Men Can't Jump (with Team Tap)
Zoop
Buy 1 of the above for $18, 2 for $16 each, or 3+ for only $14 each. WOW!!
Jaguar A/V Cables
Jaguar Controller
Buy either of the above items for only $10 each with your order of $50 or
more.
* * * LYNX SPECIALS * * *
Lexis
Ponx
Remnant
Buy 1 of the above for $37, 2 for $70, or all 3 for $100. You save almost
$20 when you buy all three!
Buy any Lynx game regularly priced at $9.95 for only $5!
* * * MISCELLANEOUS SPECIALS * * *
Pair of N64 controller extension cables only $6!
Shrinkwrapped VHS Omega Code movie only $9!
Nintendo / Sega Security Screwdriver Set only $20!
Check out the Songbird web page at http://songbird.atari.net for a complete
list of all merchandise in stock, including the incredibly popular
Championship Rally for the Lynx and Skyhammer for the Jaguar! Lynx SFX also
back in stock for a limited time only.
Songbird reserves the right to terminate this offer at any time without
prior notice.
Carl Forhan
Songbird Productions
http://songbird.atari.net
//// GOAT STORE ANNOUNCES "SANTA'S SPECIAL"
November 9, 2001
GOAT Store, LLC Announces "Santa's Special"
The GOAT Store, LLC (www.goatstore.com) today announced that they are
running a holiday sale, called "Santa's Special" that will run through
December 8, 2001. "Santa's Special" will feature price reductions for many
of the GOAT Store, LLC's most popular products.
Included in this special is a price drop on the GOAT Store, LLC's popular
JAMMA Joystick line-up.
"While we have stopped producing Jaguar JAMMA Joysticks," stated Dan
Loosen, "We will be permanently dropping the prices of the Jaguar JAMMA
Joystick LX by $5.00 after the holiday season. Of course, if you want one
for the holiday season you can get an additional $5.00 off!"
The GOAT Store, LLC is also willing to gift wrap items and confirm delivery
before December 25th for a small fee during this special. Information on
using these special services is available on the GOAT Store, LLC's Order
Form.
To view everything included in this sale, visit the GOAT Store, LLC's Web
site at www.goatstore.com and click on "Santa's Special."
If you haven't stopped by recently, also check out the GOAT Store, LLC and
Marty "Retro Rogue" Goldman's competition to name an exciting new
midwestern classic gaming event in Milwaukee, WI. If your idea is used
as the event's name, you'll win a prize package worth over $70.00 dollars!
For more information, Dan Loosen can be reached at loosen@goatstore.com and
Gary Heil can be reached at heil@goatstore.com.
//// LIMITED EDITION CYBERVIRUS LIMITED LEFTOVERS
November 20, 2001
The CinciClassic show has come and gone, and it turns out Songbird has a
few copies of the Limited Edition CyberVirus for the Atari Lynx left over.
Rather than auction them all off one at a time, I've decided to make them
available directly to a few quick-responding Lynx fans.
Remember that only 25 of these were made, and over half are gone. So what I
will do is offer them first come, first serve until they run out. Price is
$49.95 plus $5 USA shipping, or $8 international.
So email me ASAP at songbird@atari.net, or forhan@yahoo.com.
Thanks!
Carl Forhan
Songbird Productions
--==--==--==--==--
|| CyberChatter
|| Random topics about the Jaguar
\__// Compiled from online public discussion areas
-----------------------------------------------------------------
//// Index of Topics
Whither JI2
Encryption
Protector SE
Jaguar CDs
SpaceWar 2000
BattleSphere
Speedster II
VM Labs
Prototypes
Miscellaneous
Codes
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Whither JI2
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Forum Comments
Author: Keita (AGH) (editor@atarihq.com)
Date: October 18, 2001 at 22:38:19
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
Thanks for everyone's comments regarding JI2. Let me start off by
mentioning what I like about JI2 and why I was a big fan of it long before
we began hosting this message board.
1) It's the granddaddy of them all. It began in 1994 on Sven's Redsun
server (home of the most popular Jaguar page at the time) and was far and
away the most popular hang-out off the bat -- far more traffic than even
rec.games.video.atari. Everyone loved Sven; he was a great fellow and only
created it for the benefit of all Jaggies.
2) No ego by the board owner (Sven). He was more than happy to add links
for any and all Jaguar sites at the very top of the message board. This
goes against almost every ego-driven webmaster who only uses the message
board to direct traffic to their main site.
3) Home of the most devout Jaguar fans. Wes, Kevin, Fard, Doug, Scott,
Stef, Mark Rathwell, Les, Stingray, Robert Jung, Hyperturtle, Chad, Steve
"Customer Service" Scavone, Curtis Hepworth, Thomas Rodman (god bless his
soul), Greg Roth, cudaman, Jagman, J. Smith... the list is long. What makes
a message board successful are the people who participate in it. Given that
a great many people from back in the Redsun days still visit JI2 is
testament to not only the loyalty to Atari and the Jaguar, but the
timelessness of the board format.
4) The design, layout and simplicity of it all. Like it or hate it, it's
fast, the design mimics the "look and feel" of the Jaguar, and it was never
broke so there wasn't a need to fix the board. It's debatable whether a
typical thread format or the current JI2 format is better.. but you know
what? It's not like JI2 gets thousands of posts like alt.binaries.*
groups.... so for the number of posts it gets, I think it's more than
effective.
Ken Baum took over in early 1996 when Christian moved onto greener
pastures. He dutifully maintained it, and again, everyone liked him. When
the magicalfox server that was hosting JI at the time was going away, he
approached me about the possibility of AtariHQ hosting JI2. Les and I
considered it an honor to house a board that we frequented and enjoyed.
A somewhat related note:
========================
While I understand why people try and promote their own websites and try to
bring people over to their own message boards, I can't help but wonder if
some of those people care more about their own site's traffic rather than
the well being of the Jaguar community as a whole. I'm not here trying to
preserve JI2 as the preeminent Jaguar message board -- far from it. But it
seems to me that quite a bit of people have recently begun hawking their
own forum. Let's face it... the Jag community is not big enough for
multiple forums.
You probably noticed that when we began hosting JI2 in early 1997, that we
named it JI2, because we wanted to pay a tribute to the original people
behind the board. We also kept the links layout at the top. Anyone with a
Jag site who wants their page linked, a simple e-mail to us has them up
there within a few days. Just as JI2 was to go live on our server, Les and
I played around with various other bulletin board software as well as CGI
scripts, but in the end we wanted to preserve the look and feel of the
original -- provide people with a nostalgic feel while also making it a
place that everyone can call "home" So while I understand that nobody can
(or should) prevent sites from wanting to dominate all aspects of classic
gamedom, I think we have an excellent thing going. There are enough niches
out there still left to be filled -- perhaps people should concentrate on
those areas instead of trying to piece together a UBB site and attempting
to drag us longtime Jaggies away from JI2.
Sorry for getting a bit worked up, but I started feeling nostalgic as I
began writing this message.... it's sure got quite a history, doesn't it?
:) Anyhow, this site is here simply to let all of us Jag fans get together
and share our thoughts and experiences, so obviously we care about what
people have to say. Anytime there's a consensus on an issue, Les and I do
what we can to accommodate everyone's wishes. After all, that's what all JI
hosters have done in the past, and will continue to do in the future.
Cheers,
- Keita
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Encryption
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Jaguar & Lynx Encryption found!
Author: Classic Gaming Expo (info@cgexpo.com)
Date: January 27, 2001 at 02:25:34
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
Yes, you read that correctly!
Classic Gaming Expo is thrilled to be able to remove these important
hurdles from Jaguar and Lynx game development and production.
Stop by the cgexpo web-site and help yourself: http://www.cgexpo.com
Don't forget to register for the show while you're there!
Best Wishes,
John, Sean, Joe, & Tom
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Encryption discovery story
Author: Glenn Bruner (glenn_b18@yahoo.com)
Date: January 27, 2001 at 17:21:59
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
Well, not much of a story to tell. Before I joined the Air Force in
1984...oh wait a minute, not my
life story!
I'm from Silicon Valley and still have a friend from high school who I have
keep an eye out for stuff in surplus shops. He found an obscure 88meg
SyQuest cartridge for me recently. It took me a little while to find a
SyQuest drive to read it on. I only had a 44meg drive. I managed to find
one on eBay for $14 (200Meg drive). Well, I used an old Centris 660AV
Macintosh running MagicMac to read the disk. Talk about a round about way
to read a ST disk. But my 1040STFM doesn't do SCSI and this was a method I
used to read some SyQuest disks that were pulled out of Atari's dumpsters
when they closed down in '96.
After careful picking through of the files on the disk I found a file
called TYPEAB.XXX. Didn't think much of it. Open it up with a hex editor. I
noticed something very familiar about the file. I've looked at enough
Jaguar cart images with a hex editor trying to hack the ROM encryption code
several years ago. Since I have an Alpine board now, I fired it up and did
the test that I described in the README file. I was amazed at the results I
got.
I didn't mention this in the README because I didn't expect people to
really care how it was found. Boy have I been wrong!! The interesting thing
about the file name mentioned above is TYPE AB. Universal blood donor type!
Pretty sneaky cover name for a file.
Told John Hardie about it and that's when he mentioned that Lynx Encryption
was also found. He asked me if we could announce this on the CG Expo page.
I agreed since it would get more exposure that way.
That's it. Just glad I was able to give a fine contribution to the Jaguar
community.
Glenn Bruner
glenn_b18@yahoo.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: NOT THE ENCRYPTION KEY!!! EVERYONE READ AND UNDERSTAND!
Author: Thunderbird
Date: January 28, 2001 at 06:56:44
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>So this is the real deal, the original encryption key!!!!!
No, this is NOT the "key".
We don't know for sure WHAT it is, but Glenn and I agree that it's most
likely something like this:
What it is would be more like a file that someone encrypted using the real
key which passed the validation test on bootup. This file is very small,
and just so happens that if you tack an unencrypted ROM image onto the end
of it that the validation code never looks at that code because it thinks
the file is much smaller. So, the validation passes, and the validation
code tells the system that the cart is good, and the Jag starts running the
cart at the normal address (the place where you put the ROM image).
Once again, this is NOT the "key". Think of it more like a "back door".
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: NOT THE ENCRYPTION KEY!!! EVERYONE READ AND UNDERSTAND!
Author: Glenn Bruner (glenn_b18@yahoo.com)
Date: January 29, 2001 at 16:18:19:
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>>>So does this mean that encrypting a Jag CD game is still nearly
>>>impossible?
>>Yup. The method for "encrypting" JagCDs is different from the cart
>>method.
>Why couldn't this 8K "Jagcrypt code" be used to bypass validation for
>the CDs as well?
Cartridge verification and CD verification are two different monsters.
Even though CD uses the same encryption algorithms, it uses randomly
selected blocks of the CD (that could range anywhere between 128k to 1Meg
in size) to perform the verification on. Typically, the last track of the
CD is used to store the encrypted hash of the CD (understand its a 32bit
size hash codes in a table).
Atari required developers to have their CD tracks section off using some
sort of 4 byte repeatable message that's 64 bytes long (i.e.
DEADDEADDEAD....). This identifies to the verification code a block of
information to perform a hash check on. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but
this is the way I understand it.
Glenn Bruner
glenn_b18@yahoo.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Jaguar CD
Author: Carl (forhan@yahoo.com)
Date: March 06, 2001 at 10:01:57
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>I read somewhere that the information required to make Jaguar
>CD's (Encryption Keys) was lost, and thus no-one can make CD's
>to run on ALL Jag's any more.
>Was this encryption key something that Atari Sent developers
>AFTER they went gold. Somehow based on the CRC of the DISC or
>something??
>It's just if the Developers had the software to create their OWN
>encryption keys, then the software house "Eclipse" will probably
>still have this software (in the attic or something).
>Although incredibly busy they are very amicable blokes, and if
>they have it would share it.
Marc/Eclipse never had access to the CD encryption key -- Marc has told me
this directly in the past. However, Songbird is planning on releasing a CD
Bypass cartridge later this year, which will allow current and aspiring
Jaguar developers the option of publishing new games on CD media.
Some "Underground" developers have already verified they can make new CDs
in this fashion that work on consumer Jaguars.
Carl Forhan
Songbird Productions
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Jaguar CD
Author: Carl (forhan@yahoo.com)
Date: March 06, 2001 at 12:45:28
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>Am I correct in thinking that one key from one DISC is useless on
>another disc? That somehow the encryption key is related to the
>content of the DISC?
Correct.
>It would be good if you could incorporate the code into ANOTHER
>cart, like the next run of BattleSphere or something. I would be
>more prepared to pay XXX dollars for a game, than a cart that does
>nothing EXCEPT let me play CD's that MAY or MAYNOT come along.
That's certainly something to consider, but rest assured the plan is to
wait until one or more CD games are available before offering the CD Bypass
cart for sale.
>Strange that the technique for making these Keys has been lost.
>What was the last ever Jag CD to be mastered? IS2? That wasn't too
>many years ago was it (1997?)
IS2 and WTR would have been last, but I'm not sure when they were encrypted
relative to when they were published. For example, I don't recall any
mention of Telegames inside either product, which indicates they licensed
the games in their already-encrypted form.
Carl
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Jaguar CD
Author: Carl (forhan@yahoo.com)
Date: March 06, 2001 at 11:57:59
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>You should put some kind of planning announcement on your web
>page. We need some more Jag CDs. This sounds great.
I will definitely post more about the CD Bypass project as everything firms
up. Right now, it's still in the early design phase and there is no
scheduled release date. I just wanted to give Jaguar fans something else to
look forward to, and to let aspiring hobby developers know there will be a
"cheap dev kit" solution down the road. :-)
Carl
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Protector SE
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: BJL support in Prot SE!
Author: Carl
Date: November 27, 2001 at 07:39:37
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
It's official, both 8-bit and 4-bit support for BJL have been implemented
in Prot SE! This cart is rapidly becoming a one-stop shopping device for
hobby gamers and developers. :)
More progress soon, and I promise I'll upload some screens of the new
graphics as well!
Carl
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: BJL support in Prot SE!
Author: Carl
Date: November 27, 2001 at 08:42:13
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>So...I'm a bit confused about BJL...Is it different from JUGS
>in loading up games? Can PhaseZero be loaded with the BJL support
>for example?
BJL and JUGS are each unique protocols for uploading games to Jaguar RAM.
They accomplish essentially the same thing, but obviously to utilize JUGS
at this time you need BattleSphere, and to utilize BJL you need a Jaguar
unit with a hacked boot ROM.
Phase Zero is incompatible with JUGS, BJL or JagFree CD, because Phase Zero
must run from the cartridge memory range. That means the only way to play
Phase Zero is to make your own EPROM cart or burn it on a flash ROM cart.
>Sounds great! Now just include all the titles promised but never
>given for the Jag and we'll all be happy! ;)
Sure, no problem. :)
Carl
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: BJL support in Prot SE! Another question!
Author Carl
Date: November 27, 2001 at 10:45:34
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>Erm...which 'few formatting steps'? I hope you aren't trying to
>create a new file format :)
No. I'm reusing the only supported format on the Jag CD.
>Can you stream >2MB files off the CD? That would be worth
>something, then you'd have no problems with RAM space.
That will be up to the developer. The Jag only has 2MB RAM, but there is no
reason why a new game couldn't be made with multi-load features.
>And mine has funds reserved for it ;-)
Great!
Carl
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: BJL support in Prot SE! Another question!
Author: Carl
Date: November 27, 2001 at 09:22:01
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>ok I'm pretty sure I already know the answer to this, but here's
>to hoping; Will the Jag have to be hooked up to a PC with the BJL
>support, like JUGS, or will we be able to plop in a cd-r with the
>rom files on it and load the BJL/JUGS compatible games without a
>cable or close proximity to a PC (Wat I feel to be the fatal flaw
>with JUGS/BJL)? I want load and go games on my solitary Jag, if I
>have to use a PC, IMHO, I might as well play PC games...not that
>this would stop me from getting the game, especially with the
>Jagfree cd, but otherwise the BJL is just a mere curiosity to me
>just like JUGS turned out to be. Cool to have in there, but too
>much trouble for the average video game session...
That's an excellent question, and I agree with your sentiment. Ironically,
I do have a Jag hooked up to my PC, but that's because I'm a developer: I'm
changing code and I need to see immediate results on the target system. But
you're correct, the casual or even diehard Jaguar fan probably doesn't have
a lot of desire to keep his Jag attached to a nearby PC, have to boot up
both and spend a few minutes just to get a game loaded, etc.
A download protocol like BJL is thus better suited to the hobby developer,
who is looking for a low-cost means of developing on a real Jag. It can
also be used simply to test/play RAM-only games (JagTris, Painter, etc.),
but as you indicate, a number of people would find it bothersome at best to
play Jag games this way.
That's where JagFree CD comes in. JagFree CD will allow both developers and
players to create or buy CDRs of games previously only available as
BJL/JUGS downloads. Most (perhaps all?) BJL/JUGS games can be loaded from
CDR using JagFree CD with _zero_ code changes: just run the game binary
through a few formatting steps, burn your CDR, and you're ready to play! No
PC hookup required.
And hopefully, opening up the CDR option for games will inspire other hobby
developers to enhance existing BJL/JUGS game demos, or even develop new
games altogether. CDRs are a cheap and readily-available media for new Jag
games.
Look for Prot SE in early 2002!
Carl
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Prot SE update
Author Carl
Date: December 06, 2001 at 05:13:40
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
As promised, I've uploaded some screens from the new game as well as
updated the progress chart. Significant milestones have just been achieved
in the last 3-4 days on JagFree CD, BJL support, and the new larger serial
EEPROM for saving data (2048 bytes vs. the normal 128 bytes found in most
Jag carts -- this will allow up to 15 CD-based games to occupy their own
128-byte slot for game saves). All three have been critical hurdles to
overcome before the game could have all the new features enabled.
Once I finish testing the new version of JagFree CD code, I will start
polishing off the new level layouts a few at a time.
You should see some of the new graphics I'm NOT showing you. This game
rocks!!! :)
BTW, I would love to have one or two more playtesters. You need to own an
Alpine or flash cart for testing. I do also have two flash carts available
for purchase at this time, please email me for details.
Thanks,
Carl
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: More Prot SE progress!
Author: Carl
Date: December 12, 2001 at 08:01:06
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
Updated the Prot SE progress report online once again... I'm FINALLY taking
a crack at the level layouts, and by the New Year I plan on having all 40
levels revamped for your gaming pleasure. BJL is completely implemented and
a quick test has demonstrated success. JagFree CD is coming together
nicely, I think I may at long last have the solution I need to ensure all
future CDs (whether unencrypted "lost" games or newly developed hobby
games) will boot properly.
I've also got the 2048 byte serial EEPROM installed on my Alpine dev board,
and reading/writing it is proceeding smoothly. So hopefully new CD software
can take advantage of this storage space as needed.
Long live the Jaguar!
Carl
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: protector
Author: Carl (forhan@yahoo.com)
Date: June 18, 2001 at 08:45:59
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>the first songbird release is your typical defender clone, quite
>faithful to the original, of course spiced up with rendered images
>and layered backgrounds. graphicwise this game surprised me; yes
>its quite sparse but well done in its own right, the rendering is
>sharp, the game is fast and the explosions and some other effects
>like the hyperjump look nice (note: why we havent seen any trans-
>parent explosions on jag yet?) the biggest plus on the game is its
>flawless playbility, but on the other hand its pretty simple and
>fairly short: i beat it on the first day in easy and medium, on the
>second day in hard. i was quite confused because the box says 40+
>waves, actually the game ends after 21 levels/waves. maybe im con-
>fused by the waves/level terms but anyway....
>finally a solid 7/10 rating
Thanks for the comments on Protector. You can consider yourself an above-
average player, since you beat the entire game in two days. I still get emails
from many Jag fans who can't get past more than 5 or 6 levels on any setting!
As far as number of waves are concerned, there are 41:
10 Easy
15 Medium
25 Hard
1 Insane
Each wave is unique -- wave 5 on Easy is NOT the same as wave 5 on Hard, for
example. Some bosses and graphics only appear in one or two of the three
difficulty levels. Hope this clears up the number of waves question.
Carl
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Jaguar CDs
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: JagCube update...
Author: Glenn
Date: December 19, 2001 at 05:40:21
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>When you say 'burn' it's kinda generic...what CD formats (other
>than JagCD) is ProtSE going to support?
Only the existing Jag CD format. Once you develop the tracks needed for the
CD, burning them onto CD is not that difficult. It's a matter of following
Atari's recommendations in CD track layout (described in the developers
manual) and using the MAKETRK.EXE program to convert RAW binary files into
track files with the header and tailer added to the file.
I use the DOS based CDRECORD.EXE program to write the Jag CD format tracks
with. I use a Sony CDU-920S, 2x speed SCSI CDR, for my Jaguar CD burner.
Here's the command line I use with the program to write the first session
(a single audio track):
cdrecord dev=2,6,0 speed=2 -pad -multi -audio blank.wav
Then I have all my tracks for the second session ordered by name and burn
the second session (boot track first):
cdrecord dev=2,6,0 speed=2 -pad -audio Track*.raw
With the Sony burner I use, I have to add a single word (two zero bytes) to
the beginning of my tracks to have proper alignment. For some weird reason
(and some CD burners are like this; some aren't) if I don't do this, then
my data isn't word or longword aligned and nothing works.
> Unless you're going to support ISO9660 (nicest option but most
>time-consuming to implement)
Yes this is, because it would require a completely new CDBIOS to be written
to support such a format.
> you'll have to have a CD that would be able to boot if it was
>encrypted... i.e. a true JagCD game. This is not quite the same as
>burning your .abs file onto a CD and having it run...could you
>clarify this please?
The cartridge will take care of getting around the encryption. It's
basically going to install the CDBIOS, read the TOC (table of contents),
and load the first track from the second session to the memory location
indicated in the boot track.
It's then up to your code from there to take care of the rest. Just like
Atari required of developers writing CD games. Except in this instance,
encryption is bypassed.
You will probably still want to do the partition markers that Atari suggest
to separate your data on tracks (16 longwords of a repeating longword; i.e.
'ATRI', 'DEAD', 'CODE', 'DATA', 'T001', etc). This way you can load a track
and then perform searches in the track buffer to find the data you need.
I hope I clarified things for you. The Jaguar CD format is confusing to
deal with at first. But if you sit down and extract some CD tracks from
working CD's and analyze the data, you can begin to understand.
Unfortunately, to do this on a PC is hard. The data on a Jag CD is in
Motorola byte ordered format (high byte then low byte) and PC audio
extraction using WAV file is in Intel byte ordered format. If you can
extract into AIF format, then everything will come out correctly. Make sure
when you extract you do it at 44.1kHz, 16bit, stereo. Anything different,
and the data is corrupted!
Regards,
Glenn
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: how did they do the jag CDs on PC?
Author: Thunderbird
Date: November 09, 2001 at 17:52:52
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>I am technically curious, is it possible now to read & burn
>Jaguar compatible CDs on the PC. I see Songbird is releasing a
>CD protection bypass which says to me someone is reading and
>writing Jaguar CDs --not on a Jaguar.
The Jaguar CD has no problem reading data written by a CD writer on a PC.
That's how games were prototyped. The CD is a "first generation" of the
game data.
JagCD's use AUDIO tracks to hold their data and AUDIO tracks are much more
difficult for a drive to read accurately. A missing bit here or there never
makes a difference to the sound quality, as it is filtered by the audio
playback and amplifiers. And there is limited error correction in the CD
reading process.
If you use a CD reader to copy a JagCD, then you get an audio copy of the
CD and any errors that were read in the audio copy process are faithfully
reproduced on the "second Generation" duplicate. The audio data now
contains all the read errors from the copy process.
The duplicated CD might run somewhat when you play it on a JagCD, depending
on the quality of your drive, the burner, the disk itself, and the
condition of the original. Some people have had success copying games, but
a lot of people get copies that lock up or fail to work properly.
So, if you burn new material onto a CD, the JagCD will be able to read it
just fine. So, get out that Jag Dev System and write some code. Burn your
CD and (when encryption is bypassed) play it!
Remember... First-generation copies don't have all the errors of a second-
generation copy!
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: how did they do the jag CDs on PC?
Author: Glenn Bruner (glenn_b18@yahoo.com)
Date: November 09, 2001 at 20:17:09
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
To continue with what T-bird said (which what he says is very true and to
the point).
To further explain about the Jag CD Format. It is based on an audio
standard called red book and orange book. Red book is the standard for
audio CD format and orange book is the standard for multi-session.
Your standard audio CD is done in a single session format. It can contain
up to 99 tracks in that single session with a maximum of 74 minutes on a
standard CD. Each sector contains 2352 bytes of data and doesn't use an
elaborate error correction scheme that is found on CDROM (hence the problem
with getting an exact copy).
Atari picked the audio format for the Jaguar to gain more room on each CD.
It helps when trying to play the "numbers game" that happens in video game
system advertising.
Atari laid out the format to where the first session will contain a minimum
of one track (audio only). This track could be as small as 4 seconds of
blank audio. And it could contain some more audio tracks. But for the most
part they always used a single track.
The second session is where the game data, boot code, game code, in game
music, etc is laid out. The first track of the second session is the boot
code that is loaded by the CD BIOS. This code is typically intended to load
the game and handle any other functions. More game code, graphics, music,
etc can be placed after this boot track.
Now the last track of the last session is the track that was made by Atari.
This is an encrypted hash code table that is used by the CD BIOS to confirm
that this is a authentic Atari Jaguar CD. From what I remember when I
talked with people about this, the CD BIOS picks three random tracks to do
this verification on. An error in reading a tracks contents to do this
verification can throw the process off. I heard stories of the hell Atari
went through to create CD masters that passed their quality control tests.
I don't know how sensitive this CD verification system is and how much bit
error it can tolerate, if any.
Now, I've probably told you more that you cared to know but I just like to
make sure you have the whole picture.
Now to burn a CD for the Jaguar. You first create WAV or AIFF audio of the
various tracks that will be burned (depending if you are using a PC or MAC
for the job). You then write the first session, close it, and leave the CD
open. The next session you write the remaining tracks (laying them out in
the proper order - boot track first). Close the session. Doesn't matter if
you close the CD or not.
I hope between T-bird and me, we've made it clear.
Below is a link to a page that has some of the tools used by Atari to make
CD tracks and a brief breakdown of the Table Of Contents (TOC) that is
found on every CD.
Glenn Bruner
glenn_b18@yahoo.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// SpaceWar 2000
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: SPACEWAR 2000 prototype
Author: Curt (curt@atari-history.com)
Date: August 13, 2001 at 19:48:47
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>My guess is that B&C found an early version of the game(which
>was supposedly finished when Atari killed it off) on one of the
>many hard drives they bought from atari and decided to dump it
>onto a couple of flash ROMs to make some money. I could be wrong,
>but from where I'm sitting, that seems like the most plausible answer.
>-Mark
Mark wins the prize.
It was on some HD's from Atari, Bruce and I looked at it last year a bit,
Bruce sent a copy of the HD to Glenn Bruner and myself back around April,
mine had a problem with it, so Glenn went through the drive, found the
early version of Space War 2K and using the backdoor file, made a usable
image of it. Its early, but playable nonetheless. So Bruce has decided to
recoup some of his costs from all of the equipment he bought from Atari
back in 1996 when they were cleaning out things (he paid out over $75K for
palettes of equipment, much of it was non-functional) so I don't blame him
for trying to make a few dollars from programs that were found on the HD's
from systems out of Atari. Obviously he wont make $75, but even if he makes
$7,500 or even $750 in sales, he deserves it. Early game or not, it's yet
another game to add to the Jaguar collection.
Its tough for Bruce to do all the things he does, running the business with
Cathy, doing repair work, answering questions and then trying to go through
stuff to see what does and doesn't work and then to find stuff on old
systems and see if its usable and to make such things as the carts like
Space War 2000, he's stretched very thin, yet tries to make everyone happy.
Give him a little time and breathing room to drive back from LV, settle in
and make more of the carts if that is what he is planning to do. The game
is definitely no comparison to BattleSphere, but in its current state its
still cool to play around with and enjoy.
Curt
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: finish the work on spacewar 2000?
Author: Thunderbird
Date: September 19, 2001 at 06:51:14
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
That's funny....
In discussions I had with the programmers at Atari, they told me that they
were developing the title In-House. In fact, the artists and testers ALSO
told me this was an in-house title. The 3-eyed guy is actually Lance Lewis
(recall his name from the testers section of other titles). He told me
specifically that the game was an in-house title.
I suspect that some German coders may have been enlisted to do some music
or perhaps some intro screens, but the main coders were Atari.
I was told that the almost USELESS radar scheme was forced upon the coders
by L. Tramiel. I don't believe ANY coder (German or not) would admit to
putting something like this in a game!
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: SW2K Authors (Yes, internally developed)
Author: Keita (editor@atatrihq.com)
Date: September 19, 2001 at 19:20:54
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>>in the ironsoldier are much atarinames too. But the game is 100%
>>done by eclipse/germany
>The difference here is that nobody at Atari ever said they were
>writing IS and IS2. People AT Atari specifically claimed to be
>writing SW2K. It has always been referred to as an In-House title.
>Until two days ago, nobody ever claimed any different. I find it
>hard to believe this is true, as it would have been said a long
>time ago.
>Thunderbird
Doug is right. Space War 2000 was being developed internally by a guy by
the name of Rob Zdybel. Classic gaming fans might know the name, as he was
responsible for Missile Command on the Atari 400/800, RealSports Football
for the 2600, and Warbirds on the Lynx (among many other accomplishments.)
Lance Lewis was a tester at Atari at the time, and worked a bit with Zdybel
on the SW2K project.
Word is that the game was going nowhere, that the powers that be thought it
wasn't good enough, and quietly canned the game. Possibly after comparing
it to BattleSphere at CES?
FYI - SW2K was originally called Star Raiders 2000, but the game was so
unlike Star Raiders that Atari wisely changed the name so as not to do the
famous name an injustice.
- Keita
Atari Gaming Headquarters
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: sw2k
Author: rune (runedig@cox-internet.com)
Date: September 27, 2001 at 19:19:10
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
If you press zero after the Space War 2000 logo spins off, then you can
control and tweak the background with the keypad.
rune
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// BattleSphere
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: finish the work on spacewar 2000?
Author: Thunderbird
Date: September 19, 2001 at 16:55:03
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>BattleSphere is flawed...there is a known bug in the game that you
>had to repair by making the worlds first patch for a cartridge game.
>So yes, BattleSphere is a flawed product. Even you cannot deny this
>as a fact. Out of the box it is flawed.
Actually, it turns out that the "flaw" is in the Jaguar itself... there's a
timing bug that shows up with the EPROM carts.
We considered fixing it with a workaround and releasing a new version, but
decided that the scalpers would have a field day if they knew that there
would be no more of the first version made.
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: finish the work on spacewar 2000?
Author: Thunderbird
Date: September 19, 2001 at 18:02:40
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>Ok so if the timing bug is in the EPROM carts(I.E. Cartridge
>game) Then how is it the Jaguars (console) fault that your game
>has a flaw?
Because there's no flaw in the EPROM itself. It works as designed. The
Jaguar hardware has a bug in it that only shows up when used with the
EPROM. Without going into a dissertation on the differences in timing and
parallel busses and load resistance and parasitic capacitances we can't
really do that. This bug shows up when multiple processors access the same
memory location... sometimes one of the processors will read garbage. It's
well documented, and there are guidelines how to avoid the bug, but it can
still happen and there's nothing you can do about it. We spent months
tracking down these bugs.
These bugs explain the random crashes in several Jag games.
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: BattleSphere code mystery
Author: Thunderbird
Date: January 08, 2001 at 18:20:26
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>The hang in Gauntlet BS seems to occur before the end of level 91,
>prior to or as level 92 is loaded. The patch does not work because
>it unfortunately requires that one get to level 92 in order to bypass
>it. An optimal patch would allow one to bypass level 91 at least. I
>finally got JUGS running a little while ago and it appears that this
>is the case. JUGS uber allies, BTW.
Okay... okay.... this is MY FAULT. I was running the patch program on my
alpine and manually edited the level to get to 92 because that's the level you
reach when the game crashes. I didn't know at the time that the game crashed
in level 91 BEFORE the level was incremented. I wrote and tested the patch by
manually setting for 92 and running the patch and then looking at the level to
see it went to 93 and then playing 93 to see it worked.
I guess the patch will need updating to skip over 91 and go to 92 instead. Not
a big deal.
When nobody but Fard pointed out the problem I thought that he was having a
problem unique to his cart because nobody else said a thing about it to me.
If people want the fix, I can get it together and put it on the site. Anyone
game for 93???
>Also, Fard was the first to make the logical prediction that the
>NORAD code = JUGS enable key. Makes sense to me. If there is another
>mind blowing egg in this game, however, I will probably eat my hand
>in awe.
The JUGS Enable key is NOT one of the listed codes. I believe the game does
NOT even give that one out, and there are no clues to it on the box or
anything. At most, the screenshot code is given out at some point. But there
are probably 4 or 5 _BIG_ codes that have been undiscovered. I do not know
what you have to do to get them. Scott probably doesn't recall either.
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: BattleSphere cart malfunctioning!
Author: ETHunter (ETHunter@webtv.net)
Date: January 09, 2001 at 14:09:49
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
Doug, Scott, I need your help with this one. I turned on the game to do some
Gauntlet play with the fighters. Picked the ship I was going to use and
advanced to the wave. Here's what happens next:
The shield and energy which start out at maximum, rapidly deplete to nothing
then shoot back up top to maximum. When this happens, the "S" and the "E" only
partially appear and I have no laser. To the left the shot count indicator is
flickering signs such as 9->, , or 5->. Always changing the left digit. And
despite my shield being 100%, one shot and I'm terminated.
I've tried multiple ships, fighters, bombers, super ships, it's all the same.
I cleaned the Jag pins, removed and plugged the cart back into the Jag several
times, nothing changes. The only thing I can think of now is to reset the
memory but I'm praying that is not necessary for obvious reasons.
Do you have any idea what has happened? Is my cart screwed up for good?
Worried,
Micah
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: BattleSphere cart malfunctioning! (reason discovered)
Author: Thunderbird
Date: January 09, 2001 at 16:41:18
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>Thanks for the suggestions, Doug. I turned off all the codes and
>all the Gauntlet waves worked fine with any ship. I then activated
>each code one at a time to see if a particular code was causing the
>mess-up. What I found was the "No Hurt I" code was messing up the
>earlier waves in Gauntlet.
That makes sense. That play mode alters your firepower and shields to make it
more difficult as you progress. The "No Hurt I" code manually tries to force
them to maximum so you are invincible. The code adapts as you progress to
higher levels as the difficulty increases. It doesn't really expect to go
backwards in difficulty.
Probably something that playtesting would catch with a few dozen full-time
testers on hand with nothing to do but test hidden codes...
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Dodgy BattleSphere Cart Case...!
Author: Thunderbird
Date: January 12, 2001 at 17:01:56
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>Cheers! think I'll try the screw fix (very carefully!). So is the
>missing screws and tabs *ALL* that is different about my CART,
>doesn't contain early 'pre-release ROM' or anything does it...???
>- what version date should the game have as standard on it's title
>screen...?
Congratulations! You just found one of 2 BattleSphere carts purpose built
without screws. These carts were intended as demo models which the circuit
board could be removed to demonstrate the top quality soldering workmanship of
our production line.
If you look on the box the cart came in, there should be a small orange
sticker which says "NO SCR." on it.
If you have this, then you have the second rarest Jaguar cart in the world.
(The first one being the autographed personalized version").
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: BAM. (2 New BS codes)
Author: justmike (mwgilliard@atari.net)
Date: January 20, 2001 at 00:58:15
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
Enjoy, gentlemen. I assume that you've found these also Fard, but if not the
last name has two i's. ;)
NAME: Kill 'em All
HOW: 343665262343
WHAT: Ship is stocked with 99 missiles, bolts, etc.
NAME: Custom Delivery
HOW: 925479687463
WHAT: Enables a new option on the Main Menu, Ship Adjustment, which allows one
to edit ship attributes.
ALSO: Finally got up close to that "Flying Starbase" feature-it is a blinking
4Play Starbase with a pilot inside. You probably still have to see it to know
what I mean, but still.
ALSO: I have a strong feeling that BattleSphere continues well beyond level
100...;)
Finally, thanks much Doug for the patch. It is 3am Chicago time and I am
losing primary causal drives, will post more on the codes tomorrow.
mike
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: BAM. (2 New BS codes)
Author: ETHunter (ETHunter@webtv.net)
Date: January 20, 2001 at 08:11:37
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>Some of the ships don't like having their properties set to maximum.
>It makes them uncontrollable. Just a word of caution.
>Thunderbird
That would explain some of it, but from what I've experienced, that's just the
tip of the iceberg. I'll try to say what I've been doing and the problems I've
encountered.
I've only tried making some changes on the Rapier. Perhaps it is different on
other ships. I didn't max out everything but did do it for speed and laser.
I'll go back to Main Menu, go to Gauntlet, which eventually takes me to ship
select. The Rapier always has the "turn rate" shut off, when I previously had
it set at about 50%. I can go back and turn it back up again but it'll shut
down again when I go back and select it. Other problems found were:
Inability to decrease the properties.
Occasional wave lock-ups.
Speed, shields and laser set high, yet ship performs using standard abilities.
I want to try turning all the other codes off with just the custom code on to
see if it makes a difference. Or perhaps you have to turn the code off once
you're done making changes. I'm trying everything and it seems something else
goes wrong when I attempt to do something differently.
I'll try what you said and not put anything on maximum. That may cure
everything.
Micah
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: BS Code Spoilers
Author: Thunderbird
Date: January 20, 2001 at 09:26:31
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
Here's the FAQ on the Customizer:
The ship adjuster was designed because we were originally going to have a
system where players could dock with starbases and "buy" upgrades based on
their kills which translated into credits. The system was too imbalanced and
we couldn't find a way to make it fair for everyone, so we took it out.
We had the code written, so it became a "code". It's really there just as a
fun thing to look at and play around with.
The settings are way imbalanced and don't work very well, because we decided
it wasn't going to be part of the game. I wanted it included as a code because
it was a bunch of work designing the screens and stuff.
Think of it as a curiosity. A "Felix" board or a "Cortina" board. Cool, but
not very useful.
That's all folks.
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: BAM. (2 New BS codes)
Author: justmike (mwgilliard@atari.net)
Date: January 20, 2001 at 09:24:16
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>Inability to decrease the properties.
>occasional wave lock-ups.
>speed, shields and laser set high, yet ship performs using
>standard abilities.
I'll confirm the above. The main difficulty seems to be that the Turn Rate is
zeroed after saving the adjustments. When I saved the ship after setting the
Turn Rate to zero manually, it zeroed both it and the Acceleration. Dunno.
Regardless, its wicked to be able to travel almost as fast as your lasers.
Norad Code completion: Hot / Cold?
thanks,
mike
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: BattleSphere: Independence Day sound FX?
Author: Thunderbird
Date: October 26, 2001 at 16:52:26
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>What were the results? Nothing immediately comes to mind
>as the sound of an M-80 detonating in a soup can...
The sounds were recorded and heavily massaged with Sound-Forge. It is actually
a small cannon (1/2" bore) with about 5 grams of black powder being detonated.
That thing is as loud as any of those huge fireworks. It's 100% legal too!
I shot it off into various cans and put items in front of it like wood, soda
cans, etc. Recorded the sounds with the Atari Falcon 030 and it worked great.
There are other weird sounds layered on top, like slowed down sounds of an
aluminum rowboat being hit with a rock, and other things like that. I forget
exactly what all the layers were. I just played until it sounded good.
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Earliest Mention of BS
Author: John
Date: December 18, 2001 at 11:38:20
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
This is from 1991. A company called W Industries was planning a game called
BattleSphere--
"Battlesphere is a much better effort, and begins to exploit VR properly. A
space shoot-'em-up, it features head-up display targeting, allowing your guns
to track your gaze. It quickly becomes second nature to sweep your head around
to track the enemy craft, or to shoot down ships trying to get on your tail.
With practice, you are soon flying through swarms of enemy craft, shooting in
all directions.
The other controls, however are rather complex, so reading the info sheet
before inserting your coin is recommended. It's certainly an experience worth
trying, but VR, even at the current level of available technology, has much
more than this to offer."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Earliest Mention of BS
Author: BSB
Date: December 18, 2001 at 11:45:13
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>This is from 1991. A company called W Industries was
>planning a game called Battlesphere.
And they never ever shipped it. Then a company called Viridis, located about a
mile from my apartment, must have either heard about BattleSphere on the net
or met us at a game suit pitch, and tried to launch a PC edition of the game.
The problem was they did this without telling us. The game was hastily renamed
Sphere Warriors after Tom gave them a call. I still have the web artwork from
the game's page. I'm hoping it will show up on web.archive.org some day.
Viridis died before finishing it. Why these idiots didn't just contact us to
do it will always remain a mystery I think. The only true annoyance here was
that Viridis owned the BattleSphere domain until mid-1999.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Back to playing BattleSphere!
Author: Thunderbird
Date: December 30, 2001 at 22:39:30
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>After an extended break.. from playing any video games really I
>have found the time to sit down and enjoy a few rounds of Tempest
>2000 and BattleSphere for the first time in ages! Man I forgot
>just how fun BS is. My favorite mode is Alone Against the Empire.
>I love the strategic map. I just only wish this mode was incorporated
>in multi-player. Any reason for this? Well, a big Free for all with
>16 players is still a blast. Too bad I don't have any friends that
>are heavily into gaming and space shooters.
Hey THANKS!
That's my favorite play mode as well. It's the combination of strategy and
action that makes it "feel" like Star Raiders.
Trivia: AAtE Mode was the mode that ALMOST didn't make it into the game.
When Atari was dropping dead we did not have this mode written yet. It was
the last mode we had to do, and the hardest because of the need for the map
and hyperwarp code. Plus the remote AI for other sectors, etc. We ALMOST
"punted" and just wrapped it up with the modes we had done but we decided
to finish the thing the way we promised.
It's personally my favorite mode, and had there been more support from
Atari (and the Jag lived) there would probably have been a multiplayer mode
of AAtE where you could cooperatively battle incoming forces. I recall also
planning a head-to-head mode of AAtE where you two players essentially
played Star Raiders against each other. The objective being to use some of
your forces to defend and some to attack and you win by killing the other
players' bases off while having at least one of your own left.
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Executive Producers at Atari
Author: Thunderbird
Date: December 31, 2001 at 09:50:16
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>Hey T-Bird...did you ever run into an Executive Producer at Atari
>by the name of Larry Pacey? How about Phil Gelber?
Nope. Our software was self-produced, so we had no dealings with anyone at
Atari in that area. Heck, we had enough trouble getting technical help from
the people who were supposed to be helping us. I was the one who discovered
the UART bugs, and reported them to Atari in Jan 1994. Years later after
begging for an answer and never getting one I was fortunate enough to get
some documentation another developer was getting rid of (they were bailing
out of the Jag because Atari was collapsing). In their documentation was a
memo describing the causes of the UART bug. Of course this was never
provided to me. Knowing the causes of the bug allowed me to develop a
software workaround.
>Just curious cause I have the displeasure of having to work with
>those spindly nimrods......its no wonder Atari went under with people
>like them working there.
Just curious about what exactly they are doing and why have they caused
such resentment in you?
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Speedster II
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Speedster II
Author: Scott Walters (swalters@flash.net)
Date: September 02, 2001 at 10:59:55
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
T-Bird is selling a prototype jag game on eBay.
The game was written by the same person/company who wrote Breakout 2000. You
can read about it on their website. http://www.l4software.com/
On the main page, click the 'Projects' button on the left and scroll down to
the Speedster II screenshot. From the l4software web page:
"Speedster II is our first 'Kiddy-ride' for Carousel International. If you're
a parent of a small child, you know all about kiddy-rides; Every time you go
shopping you have to drag your kids past these things. They're in front of
almost all the department stores in North America.
This one is a small race car that moves back and forth. What we did was add
some video scenery and a little game logic to make it more interesting. It's
not rocket science, but the 3 to 7 year old crowd seem to love it."
Scott
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Speedster II
Author: JustClaws (ji2@justclaws.co.uk)
Date: September 02, 2001 at 13:03:05
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
> T-Bird is selling a prototype jag game on eBay.
I fear this is potential trouble!!! This is a commercial product used in
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION machines in use at Wal-Mart and other stores. How Mario
Perdue will react we'll see!!!
>The game was written by the same person/ company who wrote Breakout
>2000. You can read about it on their website.
>
Mario Perdue changed his company name from the MP-Games of Breakout 2000 to
L4Software a while after B2K was released, we're going back years.
>Every time you go shopping you have to drag your kids past these
>things. They're in front of almost all the department stores in
>North America.
Yes, read "IS OUR FIRST", this thing exists, and I have email conversations
with Mario about it. This may be a prototype of the game, but the game itself
is a commercial product, and uses special hardware.
Mario wrote that the ride contains a full (retail) Jaguar and does all the
control including things like monitoring the coin box, and started and stopped
the motors of the ride, and if you had the optional ticket module dispensed
tickets. It was all controlled via the Jaguar joypad ports. In the game you
can steer, but you do not affect the up-down motion of the little vehicle
which is standard once the motors of the unit start.
There is another game of the same type, called "SkyCopter II", and the
Carousel who created the little cars and helicopters actually encrypted their
own cartridges, Mario produced customized versions of the game for K-Mart with
K-Mart on the advertising signs, kind of cool thing really!
JustClaws.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Speedster II
Author: Mario Perdue (mperdue@L4software.com)
Date: September 02, 2001 at 17:14:13
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>This is a commercial product used in COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION machines
>in use at Wal-Mart and other stores. How Mario Perdue will react we'll
>see!!!
I was going to respond to this, but it seems you beat me to the punch. Thanks
for sharing the history of this game/ride with your readers. I may have to
expand the projects page at L4 Software to include a little more information
on the two Kiddie-Ride titles that I did. I guess I never expected anyone to
notice them.
Mario
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// VM Labs
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Is VM labs going to be able to recover?
Author: BSB
Date: December 23, 2001 at 11:02:22
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>Is this the end of Nuon? Nuon games?
That depends IMO. It looks like they're about to default on all their debts
and sell themselves off to a buyer so the name seems likely to survive. OTOH
some possible ex-employees implied that over a million dollars of that debt
was in unpaid wages. If this claim is true, they're dead in the Valley IMO:
they'll have 50 emissaries running around here relating that tale.
They have a massive spin control job ahead of them. Who knows how it will turn
out? I personally think they should have thrown in the towel before missing so
many payrolls, but to each their own. I'm amazed that none of the ex-employees
took action to recover their money.
According to California Law, this is a misdemeanor, with a possible 30 day
jail sentence per violation, and/or substantial fines. I suspect if they skip
on their debt, then the former penalty becomes much more likely but IANAL.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Is VM labs going to be able to recover?
Author: Monkey
Date: December 23, 2001 at 18:50:32
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>some possible ex-employees implied that over a million dollars of
>that debt was in unpaid wages.
Ick...missing payroll is a pretty good sign that the money spigot has been
closed off at the meter--i.e. the revolver is so far out that there is no way
the bank is going to cover the INF.
>If this claim is true, they're dead in the Valley IMO: they'll
>have 50 emissaries running around here relating that tale.
Work is work, no? I've known some willing to work for 50% pay (until a 'later'
date) and other such silliness...
>They have a massive spin control job ahead of them. Who knows how
>it will turn out? I personally think they should have thrown in
>the towel before missing so many payrolls, but to each their own.
Some have the opinion that it doesn't matter if you go down owning $1 million
or $100 million--if you're going down, go down big and at least say you 'gave
it a shot.' I agree, that your take is much more reasonable, and unless there
really is a light at the end of that tunnel, and you know it isn't a train,
you end it quick.
>I'm amazed that none of the ex-employees took action to recover
>their money.
See above...
>According to California Law, this is a misdemeanor, with a possible
>30 day jail sentence per violation, and/or substantial fines.
I've seen worse--much worse--like felonies drug across a number of
jurisdictions (AZ, CO, GA, KY, MN, TX, and let's not forget US). Does the law
have serious teeth?
>I suspect if they skip on their debt, then the former penalty
>becomes much more likely but IANAL.
Line up...only the employees will likely find themselves as 4th or 5th or even
worse position creditors.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Is VM labs going to be able to recover?
Author: BSB
Date: December 23, 2001 at 22:58:50
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>Ick...missing payroll is a pretty good sign that the money
>spigot has been closed off at the meter
They apparently ran the whole show on 30 million dollars over 6 years. This
says two things about the place: one, they ran a tight ship, and two, whoever
was in charge of procuring funding did an abysmal job. Money was getting
thrown at practically anything if you connected with the right people. There's
no point in doing business in Silicon Valley unless you do because the cost of
doing so is outrageous.
>Work is work, no? I've known some willing to work for 50%
>pay (until a 'later' date) and other such silliness...
There is an informal blacklist here. There are certain people that will never
ever get into a position within any organization which includes people from
one of their failed dot-coms. What comes around goes around. Ever see
someplace profitable hire one of these losers into an immediate position of
power?
OTOH you're quite right, some people will swallow any whale tale you spin at
them as long as they think they'll strike it rich some day. I used to be one
of those people. I learned. Now I'm coin-operated.
>Some have the opinion that it doesn't matter if you go down
>owning $1 million or $100 million--if you're going down, go
>down big and at least say you 'gave it a shot.'
I call places like VM "Techno Cults". By the end, they're more Jim Jones than
Bill Gates. F'ed Company relates one sad tale after another of people getting
strung along by leaders who were either lying SOBs or as deluded as their
employees. Either way, it's not a happy ending.
>See above...
Ayep, one supposed ex-employee claimed they were forced to work without pay or
face getting fired. No one rational would accept such conditions, but who's
rational?
>I've seen worse--much worse--like felonies drug across a
>number of jurisdictions (AZ, CO, GA, KY, MN, TX, and let's
>not forget US). Does the law have serious teeth?
Well heck, we've had multiple pedophile CEOs and CTOS in Silicon Valley, this
is nothing in comparison.
>Line up...only the employees will likely find themselves as
>4th or 5th or even worse position creditors.
Yep, they're probably screwed by their own inaction now that bankruptcy is
proceeding. Hopefully, they learned an expensive but valuable lesson from
this.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Prototypes
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Different prototype version of Zero 5 discovered
Author: ETHunter (ETHunter@webtv.net)
Date: February 15, 2001 at 15:38:24
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
So here I am, sitting at home, off from work today and I'm a little bored
so I decide to play with my Jaguar collection and pop in a flash cart of
Zero 5 just to make sure it contains what I've always believed it contains:
the completed version of the released product.
What I found is very interesting. First, there is some difference in
levels. Mission 3, Gunship attack, is completely different, also quite a
bit shorter.
Second, much of the in game text is not available. But it does have some
good humor to take it's place, such as...In the difficulty selection screen
when you select Novice, the text says:
Novice for beginners...
and stupid people
------------------------
blah blah blah blah
Or when selecting controls, the text reads:
This is a stupid text panel full of patronizing instructions that tell you
what to do if you were too lazy to read the manual...
blah blah blah
Mission 3 intro text says nothing but "Trench test".
Also there is some difference in the order of the mission where mission 11
was mission 7 in the released version. And there is new waves called
Deepspace Rescue and Alien Front Line.
I just can't believe all this time I had this variation of the game and
didn't know it! Hmmmm. I wonder what else I've got that I don't know yet.
:-)
Micah
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Lost unreleased Jag game....
Author: Alex Holland (alexh@cus.org.uk)
Date: March 06, 2001 at 09:58:54
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
I am seriously kicking myself here... but we (myself and JimB of SainT, the
Atari ST emulator) got what was left of the Jaguar dev stuff from Argonaut.
I dunno if anyone knows, but they were developing a Jaguar version of
"Creature Shock".
We kept an Alpine board, developers CD thing, and a couple of development
JAG's, plus all the tools. BUT we could never find the ALPINE board that
went with the CD thingy. There were several copies of Creature Shock (on
CDR) with all the stuff... but I believe, cos the CD thing didn't work we
left them in the warehouse.
Shortly afterwards, Argonaut threw out ALL unclaimed Jaguar stuff including
the PC's with the source code, and all the gold disc's. I think this is a
"definitely LOST" title!
Later
Alex
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Varuna's Forces CD...for public?
Author: urs (urs_koenig@bluewin.ch)
Date: August 05, 2001 at 22:26:45
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
Some more info about the VF-CD:
After winning it on eBay the package arrived 28.7.1999 which makes a 16
days journey from the US to Switzerland. After all I paid $166.50 for this
CD. It's the original CD from ATARI/AMP! In fact it's the same cd as
listed/shown at AGH.
It arrived in perfect condition and it "works" on my Jaguar64-CD! But as
I'm using an European PAL Jaguar with a PAL-TV I do not see the FMV in
full-screen. In addition the sound/voices are scrambled. (seems to be a PAL
only problem).
All I knew before of this game was:
- Title: Varuna's Forces
- Producer: ACCENT MEDIA PRODUCTIONS
- Genre: Action-Adventure
- Media: CD
- Scheduled Release-Date: 11/95
In facts it seems to be a demo-CD as used at fairs like the E3. But it's
not the latest what Atari showed about this game. This CD is dated 25-Jan-
95. The Winter-CES was held on 6. to 9. January 1995. There Atari showed
more or less this status of the game. At the E3 held on 11. to 13. May 1995
Atari showed a more progressed version which can be viewed at the AEO E3
Video. I noticed the differences!!! I wonder where this summer-E3 CD of VF
is?
Some more info about the CD itself:
- It's not a playable demo, it's "only" a set of 6 FMV running on the Jag-
CD.
- As it runs on every standard Jag-CD it is a fully encrypted CD.
- My PC does not recognize this CD at all!
- My HIFI CD-Player tells me that there's is one track only with the length
of 12 seconds. This track holds 12 seconds audio of Tempest 2000 "Mind's
Eye".
- Looking at the CD itself with my eyes I see 3 tracks, no. 1 and 2 being
just a thin line, track 3 is 5 millimeter wide. I believe track 3 holds the
data. Between each track there's about 3 millimeter distance.
It's the only Jaguar prototype I own. I will have summer holidays end of
August 2001 and would then like to make a full length MPEG-1 of it, before
deciding to give it away or not. As it's a CD in the Jaguar format, I and
many other people are (almost) "unable" to burn a working copy of it...
BTW: The 1:08 minutes Real-Player "movie" on AGH are just the first and
part of the second FMV being on that CD...
Urs
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Aircars prototype!
Author: Carl (forhan@yahoo.com)
Date: November 06, 2001 at 10:58:40
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
Hey, guys,
I just acquired my first bona fide Aircars prototype!!
This cartridge was obtained from a reliable source who indicated that
MidNite produced a handful of Aircars carts, mainly for the press, in 1995
when they were trying to get the game published. It does not include a box,
manual, or overlay.
It's a very heavy cart, so I'm pretty sure it's got 4 big 32-pin DIP EPROMs
inside, but I don't want to open it so as to avoid wrecking the label. The
label is what really identifies this as a proto -- it is the same general
layout, but the coloring is brighter, the small text is harder to read,
*and* there is a ESRB K-A rating in the corner!
The game itself appears to be the same game as the "published" version of
Aircars, but a byte compare of the two binaries would be needed to verify
this.
Cool stuff!
Carl
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Miscellaneous
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Developmental JAG
Author: Thunderbird
Date: January 21, 2001 at 20:08:00
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>or does the ALPINE do important, useful, and or necessary
>functions for the working of the dev. Jag. Where are the
>holes in my thinking? And would this give people the
>luxury of more memory?
Alpine boards RULE in that they:
a) Load really, really fast.
b) Provide a real-time interface to the hardware inside the Jag (in
addition to being a game binary storage unit)
c) Use a whole ton of existing tools to use these features. Memory fills,
memory examines, 60000, GPU, and DSP single-stepping, breakpoints, register
set/examine, Object List examine, etc. All invaluable tools for working on
the horribly non-standard Jaguar.
As bad as the tools were, they were pretty complete at the end... just came
too late.
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: Devkit for sale on eBay & MPEG ramblings
Author: Glenn Bruner (glenn_b18@yahoo.com)
Date: November 13, 2001 at 10:12:03
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>>Wasn't this card used as an MPEG for the Jag CD to play VCD's? i
>>have a picture somewhere in a mag with the picture of that telling
>>about it being an mpeg card upgrade. any info?
>No, that's an Alpine, the fancy RAM cart used by developers to make
>games on. The MPEG cart may well have look the same if a development
>version was shown; basically the same hardware is used all the time,
>but you could develop a game on it, or use ROMs off the Internet to
>simulate a cartridge, or anything like that. It's just a way of
>making an erasable cart for developers to use so they don't have to
>keep burning EPROMs of their development builds, or just to test an
>idea. It also provides useful features like breakpoints and so on
>for development.
>
>Could someone make it clear whether the auction is for a 2MB Alpine
>(shown in Lars's picture) or a 4MB one? The 4MB one has half the
>number of chips in the centre (each chip 4x the capacity of the ones
>used in the 2MB Alpine, slightly counter-intuitive); Glenn has a
>picture if anyone wants to look. Obviously a 4MB one is more desirable
>for developers.
To confirm this, it is a 2MB board. The original run of the Alpine were
2MB. Uses sixteen, 128k x 8 static RAM chips. Atari designed the board to
handle different types and sizes of static RAM chips. They later provided
higher capacity boards with 4MB on them. They use only eight chips, 512k x
8.
It is possible to upgrade the boards to 4MB. I documented the upgrade on my
web site of the upgrade I did to mine. The link is below. It's not a cheap
upgrade to do. I had to pay $18 per chip and purchase a minimum of 10 chips
to do this upgrade. The static RAM chips involved are not widely used. I've
only found two other items to get these chips from, a AT&T Paradyne modem
card and a hard drive. And be careful to not use pseudo static RAM chips,
they don't work!! Made that mistake.
I've got information related to the MPEG cart. I haven't been wanting to
say much until I had the opportunity to research it more. One of the things
I haven't been able to determine exactly is what format Atari was going to
have the CD's in? I would think they would have made them capable of
reading the VCD format. But was that a standard in 1994 / 1995?
I've glanced through the notes that Curt Vendel has on Atari-History.com
from Richard Miller on the MPEG cart. But his notes are like trying to read
a doctors prescription. And they are just that, notes. Not a detailed
description of the whole system, just electronic design notes.
What I will say I have is some source code, schematic diagram, and Gate
Array Logic (GAL) source code for the GAL22V10 chip used on the cartridge.
Just need to get a cartridge board to try and make one. I also have a MPEG
board that I found that contains the chip that Atari was designing the
cartridge around (MPEG
board for the old Diamond Stealth video card).
Glenn
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Re: AIRCARS that BAD?
Author: Thunderbird
Date: June 01, 2001 at 16:24:58
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
>lame voiceovers (even worse than Skylar)
Funny thing is that the developers PAID some professional voice talent to
do the voiceovers! And they re-did them several times until they got it
"just right".
True Story!
Thunderbird
ScatoLOGIC
=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Codes
=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Get your Phase Zero out...(Level Codes)
Author: Clint Thompson (evisionextreme@aol.com)
Date: July 08, 2001 at 13:34:18
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
Not sure if anyone else knew this (apparently not, else everyone else would
have right?) - and it's not in the Jag cheats, yet anyway. I just did
discover how to do it last night while messing with the game for several
hours. Anyhow, Phase Zero hangs on level 5 and no one can get past it
right? Here it is:
Simply press any number on the numeric pad, hold and press Pause (red
screen will light up) then let go of the numeric number 1st , wait a sec ,
then let go of Pause and you're at that level. Fairly simple code, level 7
is pretty cool though! So is level 9.
I'm not sure if this will let you go on and beat the other missions(as I
played level 7 for like ever but you get lost easy), but at least you get
to check them out, they are kinda cool!
Also, I'm guessing either
a: There is a time limit, and when it is not reached the game freezes (for
level 5) or
b: The correct order is not being taken to NAV's or
c: neither of the above and it's just a flash out horrid bug
Anyways, enjoy the code! =)
Clint Thompson
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Subject: Zero 5 unlock code for mission 9
Author: -MG-
Date: on September 28, 2001 at 03:13:11
Forum: Jaguar Interactive II
Well, nearly :)
In the process of clearing out tons of junk so I can move house, I just
found a scrap of paper with the Zero 5 mission codes. The code for level 9
is missing a digit which is probably why I never released that one in the
first place. It's listed here as 57972. I'll leave it to someone else to
figure out the missing digit and where it goes... have fun :)
--==--==--==--==--
|| Get Your Particle Laser
|| By: Fard Muhammad
\__// the_ua@yahoo.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of 2001...
Get your particle laser.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, the particle laser would
be it. The long-term benefits of the particle laser have been proven by
Tempest 2000 players, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more
reliable than my own meandering Atari experience. I will dispense this
advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your games. Oh, never mind. You will not
understand the power and beauty of your games until they've been outdated.
But trust me, in 2 years, you'll look back at screenshots and recall in a
way you can't grasp now how much possibility for high scores lay before you
and how fabulous those graphics really looked. They were not as pixelated
as you imagine.
Don't worry about the boss stage. Or worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to destroy a Smg'Heed Devastator by getting the most
amount of "tings". The real troubles in your game are apt to be things that
never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at the middle
of an apparently easy level on some idle wave.
Play one game every day that startles you.
Sing the Tempest 2000 Soundtrack.
Don't be reckless with other people's joypads. Don't put up with people who
are reckless with yours.
Flossie.
Don't waste your time on jealousy of people's scores. Sometimes you're
ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only
with yourself... especially if it's a one-player game.
Remember compliments you receive on JI. Forget the flames from trolls. If
you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Stretch after 2 hours of gaming.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your game
after beating the last level. The most interesting people I know didn't
know at Level 122 what they wanted to do with their game. Some of the most
interesting 400-level people I know still don't.
Get plenty of powerups.
Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone... ask Rayman.
Maybe you'll stick with your system, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll make
your own games for the system, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll buy an XBox
tomorrow, maybe you'll make a movie for the Jaguar's 5th anniversary.
Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself
either. Your choices for games are half chance. So are everybody else's.
Enjoy your French Horn. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or
of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever
own.
Dance to Iron Soldier 2 music, even if you have nowhere to do it but your
living room... or your high school prom.
Read the game manual, even if you don't follow them.
Do not read video game magazines. They will only make the Jaguar look ugly.
Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should
hold on- especially if they have a copy of BattleSphere. Work hard to
bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older your games
get, the more you need the people who knew how to fix them when they were
young.
Live in Sunnyvale once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in San
Francisco once, but leave before it makes you blocky. Travel to the beach
for the finish line.
Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise if the games become
collectable. Politicians will blame video games for violence. You, too,
will get good at the game. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you
were a novice, prices were reasonable (except for that $50 copy of
Checkered Flag), politicians were lenient to video games and gamers
respected their developers.
Respect your developers.
Don't expect anyone else to support you with cheat codes. Maybe you found a
website. Maybe you'll have a ROM to mess around with. But you never know
when either one might run out.
Be careful whose "rare games" you buy, but be patient with those who supply
them. Old games are a form of nostalgia. Dispensing them is a way of
fishing the game from the attic, wiping it off, painting over the ugly
spots that was chewed by a dog, and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the particle laser.
--==--==--==--==--
|| 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 (http://www.magicnet.net/~yak/index.html). Check it out, and see what
else Jeff has yakked up lately. As per usual (inasmuch as "usual" can be
applied to JEO), all non-gaming content has been snipped. --Ed.]
//// 3 January 2001
Happy Gnu Year, and Fleece to All Men!
I got back a couple of days ago, and now I'm settling back into the mode;
got a couple of tweaks to do to the extra 52 VLM effects I've made for the
Euro release of VLM, and then start thinking about maybe making some kind
of VLM editing tool.
Tempest 3000 is now actually available and Out There in the US. If you want
to see the first user reviews of the game, check these from Nuon-Dome,
Tempest X000 and Iongames. I think they like it ;-).
I must away - VLM is calling, and my hay man has just been :-).
//// 3 May 2001
Strange Days
I suppose there have been other things going on over the llast few months
apart from FMD, but somehow they all seem lower-priority and don't really
mean much compared to that... work-wise I have been working on the VLM
Editor, a tool which allows one to more effectively build and tweak VLM
effects for the Nuon VLM. The editor is probably 90 percent functional now
- it does pretty much everything it should do, there are a couple of
interface glitches and a bit of tweaking yet to do, but it is actually
useful. I used it to create some custom VLM effects for a little outing to
a club in Cardiff, where my mate Robin was doing some video projections and
invited me along to get in the mix. I didn't have any audio direct into the
VLM, so I made a bunch of effects that could be "performed" in real-time
using a couple of Nuon controllers. This proved most effective, and when
the bank of video projectors in the club covered one entire wall with VLM,
it was indeed a wicked buzz ;-).
I'm going to be deploying the VLM again on the 16th of May, at the DNA
event - I should have even more effects this time out, because the editor
is closer to being finished than it was when I did the Cardiff thang. Come
along if you're in that part of the world at that time - who knows, maybe
I'll let you waggle my joysticks ;-).
Oh, and "Edge" magazine were quite enthusiastic about Tempest 3000. In the
May issue they have an "Edge Awards" feature, and they awarded Winner,
Second and Third Runners-Up in each of several categories, as well as
mentioning other worthies not in the top three. And T3K garnered Seconds in
the categories of "Graphical Achievement" and "Audio Achievement" (cheers
to Ian and the rest who contributed to the soundtrack), and "honourable
mentions" in the categories of "Technical Achievement" and "Game of the
Year".
I'm quite chuffed about that :-).
Well, I shall smeg off now and cease to bore everyone with my worthless
drivel. Ll8r...
//// 9 July 2001
Camelid Acquisition Mode Initiated
The llama obsession... Goat, it goes back a long way... I was somewhat
notorious for being into camels when I was at school, from the age of about
twelve onwards; and one day, reading a book about South America, I came
across illustrations of the South American camelids, and something odd
happened in my brain, I s'pose. I became besotted with the beasties. At the
time I had absolutely no idea that it would lead to Llamasoft, Llamatron,
Mama Llama, Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time, and all the
other llama-oriented craziness that I have emitted over the last 20 years.
Of course, back then I thought it would be cool to be close to llamas, but
I had no idea how I would ever go about it. Llamas, if you saw them at all,
were exotic beasts you only saw in zoos, and had a reputation for spitting
(but wouldn't you spit if you were in a zoo?)... I was a kid, I lived in
town, it was hardly practical to think about keeping llamas as pets in that
environment, even if my parents could have afforded to get me any (which
they very definitely could not).
Nonetheless I nurtured my llama obsession. I went to University, got thrown
out, went to polytechnic, got ill, almost snuffed it - many of you know
that story... and I wrote a game. And one day, alone in the house while my
parents were out, I sat tinkering with a little program I'd made on the
Vic-20 that allowed you to make little objects by re-defining a chunk of
character images in RAM, and I drew a little llama with it. And, on a whim,
in the space underneath the llama, I wrote, in tiny characters,
"LLAMASOFT!!".
Yes, naff double exclamation marks and all. I know, I had no taste. But
that was how it started.
//// 29 July 2001
Pictures of Fluffy Lambs
Work-wize, I've been working on a selection of utility routines that I
believe I would like to use to make my next game (and probably a few
others. I would like to produce a few games fairly quickly, which I should
be able to do when this lib is finished). One of the routines is the Daddy
of All Pixel-Shatter Explosion Routines, and I have been having fun testing
that out, blowing up a large picture of Amber the goat in a variety of cool
and interesting ways. Ever since I first stood in awe in front of a
Defender machine for the first time and saw what His Holy Exaltedness
Eugene Jarvis did with the explosions in that game, I have been aware of
the need for things to blow up interestingly in videogames. My nice new
explosion routine allows you to specify how things break apart - strictly
geometrically, strictly randomly, or a combination of the two; you can
choose the size and shape of the chunks that the object breaks into, and
specify an overall vector along which they can be made to fly away; you can
choose to have them go translucent as the explosion progresses, or sparkle
as they fly away... it's a nice, versatile routine, and Robotron explosions
are a subset of its capabilities; and if you consider what I might need to
be using Robotron explosions for, then you might get some idea of what the
first game I'd like to do with the new modules is ;-).
//// 4 August 2001
Bloody hell, it's August already
I've been continuing to work on my nice little set of core graphics
routines. It's really rather fun - the next game I'm doing is basically 2D
(but don't worry, it's still going to look very pretty indeed; the game
style has been tried in 3D and I simply don't think it works as well like
that, so I'm going to implement it in the style which I think best suits
the gameplay) - but basically, what I'm able to do with Nuon is implement
in assembler what my C code will see as my dream 2D hardware system - it'll
handle sprites in exactly the way I want it to, implement scrolling tile
surfaces exactly the way that Goat intended, and contain all kinds of neat
extra stuff which certainly wasn't ever implemented on any real 2D hardware
- and you know me, you just know that's going to involve lots of read-
modify-write malarkey and particles. There are always particles.
The thing is, once I get this nice little core up and running, and it's
nearly finished now - I should be able to produce the game for which it is
intended fairly quickly, because most of the game logic will be implemented
in C (yes, you read that correctly - Yak willingly using C for more than
trivial functions - but given that I will have the stuff that needs to be
quick running in parallel, in assembler, why the hell not make the
implementation easier on myself? That kind of stuff doesn't need to be in
assembler any more, and it means that the game will get finished a hell of
a lot quicker than if I was doing it all in assembler, believe me).
I must admit, with my nice little virtual-2D machine nearing completion,
there is a part of me which is thinking: now I could do some absolutely
lovely updates of some Llamasoft classics on that...
But again, I'm getting ahead of myself. No promises about anything like
that until I have conferred with The Powers That Be.
Wouldn't half be fun though ;-)...
--==--==--==--==--
|| JagFest 2001: The Aftermath
|| By: Dan Loosen, Carl Forhan, Micah Rowe, Clint Thompson,
\__// Kevin Mosley, Randy Femrite, and Ted Rusniak.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
There follows all the reports from JagFest 2001 that I was able to lay my
hands on. For all these and more (including lots of pictures), browse to:
http://jaguar.holyoak.com/jagfest/fest2k1.html.
Thanks to Dan Loosen and Gary Heil at the GOAT Store for putting on a great
JagFest!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Dan Loosen's Report
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Hello everyone,
Not having been able to do much of anything while I have been putting away
all of my Jaguar stuff has caused me to delay typing this, but I think it
also gave me a little bit of time to review everything, so here goes my own
views on JagFest 2K1: Beyond Tempest...
The last few days have been a total rush for me. The whole end of the
experience was rushing from one place to another. I finished the Official
Program at 2:00 am at the local Kinko's on Thursday, and then OTH Gary and
I stayed up until about 3:30 am the morning before the Fest opened,
finishing setting up stuff and working on final details. Needless to say, I
was extremely tired when I showed up for the event, and had no clue how the
day would turn out.
I was extremely worried that the PieperPower Center would not have enough
stuff in it to look full, but I was proved wrong and table space became
extremely hard to come by around 11:30! Thanks to everyone who brought
stuff to demo and show! It was great to see everything.
The nametags were a great addition! I thought that naming all of the non-
pre-paid people after Cybermorph planets was a stroke of genius. Everyone
seemed to find it funny that my mom wore the "Hellfire" nametag all day.
(So did I!)
While I didn't get to see much stuff, I got to do a little wandering when I
was videotaping stuff -- The Classic Gaming Museum looked incredible and I
wished that I could've just spent hours inside looking at everything and
trying out some of the systems. Gary had a disk from an Apple IIe that he
made in 6th grade, and he got to work it again. I wish that some of our
games from that era would've survived, as it would've been neat to see
them. Marty did an awesome job of answering people's questions and showing
off all of his many, many goodies. I especially liked to see a Vectrex in
action, as it was something I had never seen. I wish I had a chance to try
it!
I liked how the finished GOAT Store, LLC booth looked, mostly for the fact
that I had taken my two ROBs and stuck them on top of a Super Nintendo sign
to monitor the entire show. Something about the way their little eyes are
makes me smile every time I caught one staring at me. I really liked
running tournaments, because it was fun to watch others try to accomplish
really hard tasks.
Fard had brought his N501 NUON player and had it set up and going. He also
provided a Dreamcast which seemed to be running Rush 2049 for most of the
day -- a delightful game, might I add -- which sparked some great
conversations.
Max had his NUON, along with his Saturn, NES and of course, a Jaguar. A lot
of people seemed to like trying out Radiant Silvergun, as it is a game that
has grown over the past three years just like Battlesphere and now commands
a price tag well in excess of $200.00 dollars. A lot of people were also
seen trying out the other imports that he had on hand, Castlevania X and
Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter.
Terrance had brought an extremely cool looking system that was playing some
very awesome looking games. I never got a chance to go and check it out,
but from where I was it was a very interesting thing to have on hand that
drew a lot of attention.
In the back, there was a table that had most of the import Sega Master
System games on it, along with an N64 with the rare Super Nintendo adapter
to play SNES games too. I thought both pieces were extremely fun, and it
seemed that a lot of the younger crowd really enjoyed playing a version of
Sonic 2 that they had never seen before.
Kevin Mosley had a great set up, with 2600 and Jaguar games galore, among
other things. He was placed right alongside Micah, and their tables seemed
to blend into one big mass of great gaming items. I was really happy to see
how that all turned out!
The AVC table with both Randy and Dan was done very well. Randy had a
Jaguar Community United banner that was beautiful that hung from the back
wall, and the table had on display tons of interesting things. It also had
some of the issues of the AVC fanzine, and they were giving out promotional
Jaguar material. A great addition!
The Songbird table was another great draw. Carl had lots of different
prototypes for people to try out and see. Everyone seemed especially
excited about Protector SE. Personally, I have great hopes that Total
Carnage will someday be released, as it seemed to be a great game. Slam
Racer also seemed to have a lot of personality, even though I never got a
chance to try it in action. Perhaps my surprise of the show...
The Jaguar Rocks! CD from Clay was an awesome addition to the prizes!
Everyone seemed to be completely impressed with the concept and the work
that went into it.
Amazingly to me, there was not just one but TWO working Jaguar VR systems
at the Fest! At one point, I visited the table to try to get them on film
and got to try one out. While the display was pretty jumpy, the overall
effect was incredible. Make no doubt about it -- the systems Virtuality had
running at E3 in 1995 were running on real Jaguar hardware, and it looked
great. It is too bad this didn't see the light of day, as it may have
really helped to save the Jaguar's life.
My own personal highlight of the show was meeting the people that have
officially set the record for traveling the longest distance to a JagFest -
- our three Japanese fans! The guys were fun to talk to, and I got two of
them to compete in the Super Mario Bros. tournament. The fanzine that they
had created for the Jaguar was perhaps the most incredibly detailed fanzine
I had ever seen. It included level maps (using screen freeze, cut and
paste... a _lot_, one of the guys explained to me...), reviews on tons of
the games along with opinions (I found it interesting that they didn't
really enjoyed DOOM but really seemed to like Kasumi Ninja) and detailed
guides to games (an ultra detailed Kasumi Ninja guide with every move was
included.) Talking with them and seeing everything that they had to bring
was one of the most fascinating things that I have ever done. Talking with
them and meeting them was definitely my favorite moment from the show.
The 10 player Battlesphere network was great... 10 Jaguars + 10 CatBoxes +
10 BattleSpheres + 1 Network = Do The Math! Go Beyond - June 30, 2001 -
Network Born 9:46pm... wow. It was great to see many new people experience
the Sphere for their first time ever in such a grand multiplayer fashion.
Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and a Jagfan named Aaron seemed to get the
hang of it really quickly, winning the fifth game for the grand prize of a
sealed copy of Iron Soldier II from Telegames.
I was exceptionally glad that the food worked out how it did, and I really
enjoyed seeing everyone sign each others programs. I was happy to see that
something that I had put so much time into turned out to be one of the
highlights like that. The shirts also turned out to be just awesome. A
special thanks to Greg who contacted me less then two weeks ago and did the
shirts at cost just so everyone could enjoy them!
I also have to say that I loved watching and hearing comments about the Ram
It tournament. I was worried about how that tournament would go, and it
seemed that most attendees were saying that they didn't want to try out the
game. Once everyone sat down, the game became a true surprise hit and I got
a lot of great comments about it from people. So many that Gary and I have
begun to look into the possibility of finishing the new version of the game
up on either the Lynx or the Jaguar.
As an overall event, I must say that it was incredible! Both Gary and I
have talked and we are planning on having another classic gaming event of
some type in Milwaukee again next year -- if it is going to be JagFest 2K2
or if it is going to be something entirely different is, of course, out of
my hands and up to everyone to decide. Either way, it was an honor and a
privilege to host this year's Fest, and I hope that Atari Jaguar Festival
lives on for many, many years...
Lastly -- a special thanks to everyone that attended. No matter what, an
event like Jaguar Festival cannot be pulled off without the great support
of fans like you. Without your support, the GOAT Store, Songbird
Productions, AVC and great events like Jaguar Festival would slowly die
out. It was truly you who made the event what it was, and I was glad to be
a part of it!
dan
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Carl Forhan's Report
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I am thrilled that Songbird had a chance to attend JagFest2K1. My hat is off
to Dan Loosen and company; he did a fantastic job of finding a great location,
bringing in lots of interesting collections, and keeping the whole day running
with all the tournaments planned. We had a record-breaking attendance of over
80 people. Nice job, Dan!
The GOAT Store and Songbird were the only two vendors I was aware of at
JagFest. And really, that was plenty for the Atari systems, although I could
see in the future more vendor coverage for other classic/neo-classic systems.
Telegames had allowed me to vend some of their merchandise as well, so
Songbird had three tables chock full of cool stuff, from Aircars to Rapid Fire
Controllers (which were a hit, BTW!) to Lynx Championship Rally.
It was great to see all the cool collections... everyone hauled out their best
and shiniest protos for display and play. Kevin Mosley is truly an Atari fan
with that Lynx AvP cart! That's an absolute one-of-a-kind item you'll likely
never see elsewhere. The Museum of Classic Gaming was incredible, I couldn't
believe all the stuff in there. Thanks to Marty and company for making that
possible! Terrance brought a Gorf demo for the Jag, but unfortunately no one
had a laptop with the Jag dev kit installed. An early alpha of OMC's Dark
Guardian was there -- very nice, James! Looking forward to another cool
shooter on the Jaguar.
The JagVR units were definitely a highlight of the show for me personally. I
only tried it for five minutes, and it was jumpy due to all the handling that
day, but to think that Atari had pioneered VR for a home system is incredible.
The responsiveness of the unit and the speed of the game were quite
impressive. Thanks to Ted and Clint for making this possible!
The 10-player BattleSphere network was another highlight. They spent a LONG
time trying to get it to work -- so long, that I was encouraging them just to
live with only 8 or 9 Jags networked. But their perseverance paid off, and
everyone cheered and clapped when it all got running. This is the kind of
thing you will only see at JagFest.
Thanks to Dan's family for providing all the food at a reasonable cost for the
event, I surely appreciated it!
I loved the tournaments. We fell behind schedule at times, and some people had
to leave early which kept them from participating, but it was a lot of fun
seeing Ponx and Champ Rally and Protector SE being put through the paces. A
lot of people are still impressed at how much fun Ponx is (it's the best
selling Songbird Lynx game, BTW), and Champ Rally is quickly becoming a Lynx
favorite as well.
I got lots of good feedback on Protector SE. Several people asked throughout
the day if I had added new layers of scrolling to the game, and I hadn't! It
was just the new graphics -- all modesty aside, they really turn the game into
a graphical knockout, and everything stands out so much more. People also
liked the gameplay adjustments; anyone who has complained the game gets too
hard too fast will be pleasantly surprised with the easy pace of the first 10
levels or so.
The CD Bypass announcement was the Songbird highlight for the show. I gathered
everybody around and showed them a BHH CD, which, since it's unencrypted,
won't boot up on a regular Jag CD unit. I then inserted a Protector SE
cartridge, and after a couple of tries, the CD did boot up and start playing.
I explained that once Prot SE is released, anyone who knows their Jag
programming stuff should be able to burn and release new games on CDs. You can
even turn an unmodified Jag/CD combo into a developer system. No custom chips
or cables necessary, just Prot SE on cart! This is a cool and exciting
development for the Jag community, and I sincerely hope any current or
aspiring Jag developer out there will take advantage of this to self-publish
their upcoming games or work with Songbird to do the same.
Finally, I didn't play a single game at the fest. The only exception was a
couple seconds here and there, to show off a Rapid Fire Controller or help
someone learn Total Carnage. But you know what? I still had a blast. Why, you
ask? Because of the fans. You guys, the Atari Jaguar and Lynx fans, make these
shows worthwhile. It is so much fun to rub shoulders with such incredible,
dedicated, and friendly fans. I love answering questions (when I know the
answers :) ) to why such-and-such was never released, or do you know which
company worked on this game, or are there cheats you haven't published yet,
what is Songbird working on next, etc. It was great to see the familiar faces,
and meet lots of new people as well. Meeting and talking with the fans is
really what makes JagFest such an incredibly unique opportunity. I'm already
looking forward to next year's fest.
To everyone, organizers and fans alike, who made this year's JagFest possible,
a sincerest thank you from Carl Forhan at Songbird Productions. Let's keep the
Jaguar and Lynx alive for another five years.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Micah Rowe's Report
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I Survived JagFest 2001
I chose that title for the subject because my trip to Milwaukee was quite
eventful, and I'm not just talking about the fest itself. Maybe someday I'll
think back on all that happened and laugh, but this is not that day... :-)
The story goes something like this...
As some of you were aware, I got a kidney stone "attack" just 2 days before I
was to leave for JagFest. I really shouldn't have gone with the risks of
things going bad not just hundreds of miles from home, but also carpooling
with Carl Forhan from Rochester. But being the hardcore Atarian that I am, no
stone was going to prevent me from attending the fest I had waited anxiously
for so long. You would think that things could only get better when we made it
to Milwaukee. Not exactly.
When we got into Milwaukee at about 8:00pm, Carl and I first went out Motel to
check in, check out what our rooms looked liked, etc. Carl wished the rooms
were a little nicer, but I didn't care what they looked like, I was just happy
to be there. Unfortunately my opinion of our place took a 180 degree turn
within a short 24 hour period, but that story will come later.
After checking out our motel, we went to the place JagFest was being held at.
Carl brought a full van of systems and software and needed to get a head start
at setting up the table Friday night. I think we got done setting up
everything around 1:00 am Saturday and called it a night while Dan, Gary and
Max hung around till 3:00am setting up all of their belongings.
The fest itself was very well done. The amount of work The GOAT Store put into
the event to make it successful was remarkable. The turnout was also very
impressive, with more than 80 attendees for the day. Several tournaments were
going on throughout the day, unreleased games like Brett Hull Hockey, Total
Carnage, BHH CD, Phaze Zero were on display, prototypes such as the JagVR and
AvP Lynx were playable and we even managed to get a 10 BattleSphere network
going.
The tournaments were agonizing to say the least. For instance, the rules for
the Tempest 2000 competition was the starting point at level 61. Ouch! If that
didn't hurt bad enough, I lost to Fard by a lousy 1,000 points! I choked when
I knew I was closing in on his score and let my excitement get the best of me.
The starting point was a little extreme as only 3 players actually completed
level 61, while the other 10 were done in just seconds. Other tournament
favorites such as Combat, Ponx, Ram It, and the big BattleSphere network were
a ton-o-fun!
But playing games is only a small part of what made this JagFest so cool. It
was very cool meeting all the JI2 users, seeing again those I met at JagFest
'99, and meeting several I had never seen before. It's always interesting
putting a face to the name. Nice to see guys like Kevin Mosley, Ted Rusniak,
Clay Halliwell, Clint Thompson, Fard Muhammad, Chad Tindle, Randy Femrite and
his wife, Jason Data, Terrance Williams, Dan@AVC, Eric Armstrong, Max and the
Goat crew, Dan and Gary. As you can tell, several JI2 guys were present and
every single one of them were a pleasure to meet.
During the fest, Carl showed off the soon to be released Protector SE _WITH_
the CD bypass built in. Using that cart, he loaded Brett Hull CD on a normal
JagCD. With that device, the possibilities are plentiful for new software to
be released far into the future and at a low cost not just for the developer,
but also the buyer. As for Protector SE, the game, very impressive! The
updated graphics have been done nicely...so nicely in fact that some wondered
if there are additional layers of scrolling. Not the case, according to Carl,
but it appears that way due to the more colorful background. All you guys
should be saving your nickels for this one! The gameplay tweaking really makes
this game playable for everyone, not just the defender junkies anymore! ;-)
What probably caused the largest amount of excitement to this years Jaguar
festival was the BS network. It took about a dozen tries to get all ten
systems to hook up with one another. We continued to have problems with one
console. The problem was fixed when we realized the phone cable we had
connected to the CatBox was a different type. We all applauded when all ten
systems finally entered the network.
We played only Free-for-All, setting the kills on 10 and went at each others
throats. I took the first 2 victories, with Fard coming in 2nd each time. Then
Fard took the next 2 victories with myself coming in 2nd. It appeared when the
tournament was to begin that it was going to be a dogfight between The UA and
ETHunter. Unbelievably, a pilot that never played BS before won the
tournament! Obviously, he lucked out by not constantly being targeted by the
BS experts! Having ten players together, it's hard to keep track of everyone
that may be quietly getting kills while staying out of harms way. Grrrrrr!
With the initial problems of getting everything to work, the tournament wasn't
over and the fest near closing till after 11:00pm. Exhausted, we all packed
our stuff while visiting with others till after 1:00am. Fard missed his bus
back to Chicago and had to wait until 3:30 for the next departure. With a long
wait at the bus terminal, I told Fard he could come to my place and get a cab
in a couple hours to take him to the bus. Fard accepted my offer, and this is
where it gets weird.
We got to the Motel and went to my door with my key in hand. Trouble was, my
key couldn't get into the lock! I went to the office...CLOSED! But a caretaker
of the facility saw Fard and myself standing outside and asked if he could be
of any assistance. After say "you're screwed, dude!" when inspecting my lock,
he attempted to pry the lock open when we heard someone yelling from inside my
room! We told him to open up since that was not his room, but he countered
saying it was indeed his room, the front desk giving him the keys. Now the guy
said I have no chance to get my room back now, and all I can do is call the
emergency number located on the door. So Fard, Carl and myself are standing
outside, 2 in the morning, attempting to call the owner, but there was no
answer.
If going to the fest with a kidney stone and choking at all the tournaments
wasn't enough, now I lost my room I had paid for! Carl offered his room so we
all piled into Carl's room. With Carl laying on the bed and Fard and I sitting
on the vinyl chairs, we chatted about all things Atari until his cab arrived
at around 3am.
Needless to say, when the office opened, they had to deal with a very angry
ETHunter about my room being given away! Getting my money back (and then some)
for that night, Carl and I made the journey back to Minnesota today.
I will have to say, though, that experiences like this make great, great
memories. This will always be remembered by me as a time when I got to meet
new friends, and strengthen the friendships of those that I have considered to
be buds of mine for the last few years. I am so happy I was able to attend.
Here's to hoping the next JagFest will be just as great of an experience...but
with a nice, competent motel next time. ;-)
Micah Rowe
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Clint Thompson's Report
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Arghhh, I'm tired ;)
JagFest was great... yes, three words! :)
My friend and I however have came to the conclusion that our trip was nothing
other than Satan's work (other then being at the fest, he pretty much stayed
out of our way, lol)
We left pretty early, 10:30 I think so we could head back to indy... well
around 2:00 am when we're actually back close to indy we hit this massive
accident (someone's van had taking a tumble down the ditch at 75mph+) and we
had to sit there for 4 hours (why I dunno, it was only 1 van) and that made it
painfully worse for the fact that we were so tired...
That and that every motel.hotel.inn and whatnot either A: No, we have no
vacancy! (um, yeah right) B: Your not 21 are you? (so what?) C: $130 WTF?
Riiight... or D: We have no vacancy... argh! (this is in WI btw, on Friday)
Tony and myself spent about 4 hours going inn to inn, hotel to hotel trying to
get a place, until finally, 50+ miles later, someone had an opening :) ahhh,
expensive but it was a very nice room!
Anyway, enough of the bad stuff..
Everything went pretty smooth once we got to JagFest...
Very exciting indeed meeting everyone that posts (and doesn't quite post) to
this board :) And I didn't do so well on any of the tourneys other then I
actually won Ponx to play another then I crashed out, heh.
Tony, Ted and I shared a table, with the 2 VR units and OMC Games Demo Dark
Guardian (I know James was slaving away at this one till the last minute) :),
which switched on and off between that and the Virtual VCS Ted brought with
him.
Luckily enough I had gotten most the stuff there on video (well, a few cool
announcements including Carl's JagCD Bypass on Protector SE). Very exciting
news for )EVERYONE!(
Seeing the AvP on Lynx was pretty cool... interesting.
Just finally a pleasure to meet everyone at the fest and talk/play Atari for
hours on end! I'm sure I'm forgetting other great things but I'm still tired,
lol.
The little passes that we got were pretty awesome, that one goes out to Randy
:)
I'll have something posted up on AtariVision link on JI2 sometime soon. :)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Kevin Mosley's Report
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Hello everyone!
Well, JagFest 2K1 far exceeded my expectations. A Great BIG thanks to Dan and
all the others who did so much to make this year's fest a great success. In my
opinion it definitely lived up to being the best yet.
There were a lot of great things to see and some cool protos to play, (Brett
Hull Hockey, Slam Racers, Total Carnage, Protector SE, and others), but I'd
have to say that my favorite part of all was meeting all the really great
people. It was really nice to put a face with the names I've seen around
online. That was truly an honor. I'll never forget Micah... everything just
seemed to have such an unlucky twist for him that it was almost comical. ; )
But, only because he took it so well. Of course, meeting the man who has given
the Jag new life most recently, Carl Forhan, was a pleasure. Thanks to all the
rest of you who attended... Eric Armstrong, Randy Femrite and his wife, Ted
Rusniak, Fard Muhammad, Clay Halliwell, Clint Thompson, Chad Tindle, Jason
Data, Terrance Williams, Dan@AVC, Max and the Goat crew, Dan and Gary... and
everyone else who I can't think of right now. Everyone was so nice. Obviously,
the Atari community could not be so great without such great people in the
community.
There were many items of interest. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw a
working Jaguar VR there. Unfortunately, by the time I played it, the tracking
was terrible, making it very hard to control. I guess so many people handling
it and putting their fingerprints all over it caused its performance to drop.
There was a Library of systems from Pong and Odyssey, to Amiga, Mac, and
toady's newest systems. That was a really cool trip down memory lane. I had
never gotten to play a Vectrex before, or even seen one in operation.
The Nuon was pretty cool, but I wasn't overly impressed with IS3, (there
weren't many improvements from the Playstation version), and I still like
Tempest 2K better than 3K.... (oops, did I say that? Just don't tell Jeff) : O
Micah Rowe had Brett Hull Hockey and a really cool collection of Atari Jaguar
and Lynx reviews, articles, and ads from different publications over the years
(including the ads and reviews for the newest games released by Songbird).
Speaking of Songbird, Carl Forhan kept stirring up excitement by announcing a
different prototype for display every little bit.
It was great to be a part of the 10 linked BattleSpheres. The Jaguar I was
seated at failed to connect over, and over, and over, showing me a mocking,
stuck out tongue a few more times than I cared to see. After checking all the
connections, switching Jaguars, CatBoxes, and Battlesphere cartridges, it
seemed I was the only variable remaining. Finally, it was discovered that the
wrong kind of cable was used on mine, and I was relieved to know that my
Jaguar didn't have a personality that I had ticked off.
Lastly, I had a few things for display that I was very pleased to see a few
people taking interest in, (mainly Phaze Zero and AvP for the Lynx). I had
really hoped to contribute something to the fest this year and I feel like I
accomplished a little of that regardless of how small.
As for my trip, I spent a total of 53 and 1/2 hours without sleep. This made
for many of you at the fest receiving some blank, "no one's home" stares from
me throughout the day. This has been a vacation that has really worn me out. I
started by driving from Dallas, TX to Chattanooga, TN, then Lexington, KY to
visit my parents. From there, I went to Eastern KY to visit more family and
back. Then it was time to make the 8 1/2 hour drive from KY to Milwaukee. By
the time I arrived at JagFest I was out of it... totally hopped up on "yellow
jacket" pills. A special thanks to Carl Forhan and Max for helping me unpack
and pack. That was a major help. It wasn't until about 10:00 pm that I started
feeling somewhat normal again. I apologize if I seemed like a zombie
throughout parts of the day. ; )
Tuesday night, I drive back to TX where I'll immediately go to work when I
arrive Wednesday evening. It's been a demanding vacation, but it was worth it.
I would do it all over again.
Until next time........
Take Care,
Kevin Mosley
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Randy Femrite's Report
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
We Just Got Home
The only bad luck Nancy and I had during our JagFest trip was our plane(s)
canceling our home flight out of Detroit do to bad weather in Dulles
(Virginia), but even that didn't bother my "Buzz" from the Fest!
I can't add much more than what the others have stated; it's all true! I'm
telling you, I've seen Pics of the Jag VR and talked/heard about networked
Battlesphere, but until I actually experienced it did I get the true feeling
of what this Jaguar enthusiasm is all about.
A big congratulations to Gary, Dan and his family. The setup was terrific,
more than enough room, plus food and bathrooms close by. My wife enjoyed
herself also even though she isn't a gamer. When I asked her what she liked
about it she replied "the people". 'Nuff said!
If you own a Jaguar and are reading this post you owe it to yourself to attend
a JagFest, ESPECIALLY if it's anything like JagFest 2001 was. I started
planning to attend next years Fest on the plane ride out of Milwaukee, and you
should plan now too. And after what some of the guys went through to get there
I don't think distance should be a reason not to attend.
I have to agree the best part of the Fest was meeting all the gamers,
especially all of you from JI2. I see the 10th Battlesphere link finally
agreed (way to go Kevin:), did the JI2 pic get done after I left? Just who
were those chaps from Japan? I asked them but they didn't speak a word of
English, they did have some cool "Japan Jaguar" periodicals/magazines that I
got a few pics of. more later when I get my brain back...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Ted Rusniak's Report
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I must say it was great to finally put some faces with names on this board
like Micah, Kevin Mosley, Clint, Dan@AVC, Dan L, Gary, Max, Chad (Beefman),
Randy, Carl, Terrance, and a few others whose names I'm drawing a blank on
right now.
The Goat Store guys did a great job with everything and it was better than I
thought it was going to be. Randy also made some real cool ID badges. As for
the tourney's they were too cool even though I got my butt kicked in most of
them I was able to win a few. The classic gaming corner they had was real neat
and the tourney they had for the Colecovision Rammit was pretty cool too bad I
lost.......
Songbird was out in force with plenty of games to be bought and played. The
protos like Total Carnage, Brett Hull Hockey CD, Thea Realm Fighters and
Protector SE were all very playable and great games to bad most of them will
not see the light of day. Protector SE was a surprise as I figured it would be
the original one with not much new added but boy was I wrong this game is
going to be a must buy, I actually was lucky enough to squeak out a victory in
the Protector SE tourney...:)
ET Hunter had a pretty neat table as well he had a huge binder with a lot of
Jaguar articles etc which was awesome to go through, he also had BHH Cart
which I was glued to for awhile.
Dan (AVC) had a nice set-up as well he had the custom made overlay's and a lot
of good reading on the Jaguar and Atari.
On to the Goat Store guys-- they had a great selection of games for many
systems as well as the AvP beta which was neat to see he also had a test cart
board. I picked up a JagFest 2K1 shirt from them, too cool! A big thanks to
these guy's for making this Fest possible and the prize selection was great,
they had an array of things signed by Jeff Minter, which I won a signed T2K
soundtrack. They also had the Flossie Edition of T3K that was in one word:
weird!~
They had games from Telegames and other cool stuff.
Clint had the VR working at his table and I put my VR on his table as well
(Thanks Clint) and it was neat to play the VR w/ the tracking working and we
figured out why mine was not tracking and I have solved the problem.(YEAH)
In all I had a great time meeting everyone and talking about the Jaguar and
various other systems. The end of the night Battlesphere network was awesome
and like Micah said a newbie to BS won when it counted! lol good for him.
Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to attend next year.
--==--==--==--==--
|| EuroJagFest 2001: Die Nachmahd
|| By: Lars Hannig, Peter, and Jan
\__//
-----------------------------------------------------------------
There follows all the reports from EuroJagFest 2001 that I was able to lay
my hands on. For all these and more (including lots of pictures), browse
to: http://www.e-jagfest.de/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Lars ("Starcat") Hannig's Report
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I started the first day of EuroJagFest 2001 at 6.30 and started to bring my
stuff into the car. Then I ate a mit breakfast and waited for Diederik who
arrived at a bit later than 8.30 at our house, we all drove to the room.
When we arrived it was still closed and it took some time until the owner
of the room finally arrived to open the door. We carried our stuff inside,
moved the tables and waited for the first visitors... One of the first
visitors was Robert Demming who brought lots of Jag games including all CD
Games (CD-Rs) and even a CD-R of Caves of Fear, the Jaguar Gamefilm
prototype. We first tried it in my standard Jag CD-Drive with the help of
CD-Bypass. It first ran fine, but later more and more "video junk" was
displayed and the game crashed. I am quite sure that it is my drive that
has to be cleaned again, though. Later we tried it on his Jag/JagCD and it
worked fine. He also had done some very cool modifications to his Jag with
more ROMs than I have ever seen in ANY Jag before. he had a 16 position
rotary switch in the case of his Jag, for up to 16 ROMs, he didn't have 16
ROMs in it though. (I really wonder how he got that many ROMs into it
anyway.) He had for example the French JagOS, BJL, regular rom, STUB ROM
Oct 93 and STUB ROM Nov 94. There were also a 50Hz/60 Hz and a reset switch
if I remember correctly. He was kind enough to make a copy of Caves of Fear
for me. :-) Thanks a lot again. I started to load some demos that were
given to me by some well known Jag developers like JustClaws and Force
Design. The firs demo was "Bounce!" by "Team Franglais" which consists of
Fred Natha and JustClaws.
It was a fun pong clone with a "Celebrate EuroJagFest 2001" message ;-)
Later in the evening I also showed a little demo of Force Design's Legion
Force Jidai. All during the day I shot lots of vid clips which I might
publish later, however I don't know yet if I will make a CD out of it or if
I can find a free server with enough space. Later in the noon a lot more
people arrived and the atmosphere got greater and greater. It was time for
me to display the promised JDC Project. It is a space shooter called
StarAlliance - Battle for Earth. It was only a one level playable demo, but
some people seem to like it. Another very cool thing was a hobby Jaguar
magazine/book done by Bjrn Baranski. It contains lots of Jaguar history
infos, pictures, game infos and stuff like that. Bjrn Spruck showed one of
his Lynx games, which reminds me a lot of that racing game of the movie
Tron. (I don't remember the exact name) But one of the coolest things of
the day were the talking with all the people and the great gaming
competition organized by Thorsten Butschke aka Mad Butcher, the prices were
given to us by Randy Femrite, thanks a lot :-). There was a Super Burnout
competition on the Jag, you play against somebody else and in the end the
best players play against each other. Then there was a very cool Checkered
Flag competition on the Lynx. There was a six Lynx network and six people
played against each other. First there was a "warm-up" round and then there
was the real race. It was the first time I ever played Checkered Flag on
the Lynx. It is much better than the Jag version. I was surprised how much
fun it is. The third competition started in the evening. It was a Joust
competition on a XE game system. I never played Joust before, but it was
very fun to play. I even won a few times, but after all I lost.
Some time later we gave the prices to the winners. Rouven Gehm was on the
1nd place and Michael Neihs on the 2nd.
Until almost 24.00 I was talking to Thortsen Butschke, Michael Neis, Rouven
Gehm and Bjrn Baranski - it was great !
The first day of EuroJagFest 2001 go into EuroJagFest History, that is for
sure.
There isn't very much to say about the 2nd day. Sadly is was more or less a
flop. I guess future EuroJagFests will only be one day events.
I'm sure I forgot a lot in this report because the atmosphere of the first
day was so GREAT, there were so many details... you just had to be there to
know how great it was...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Peter's Report
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I only could be there on Saturday, but I must say that it was very, very
cool again. There were about 18 people this time. Unfortunatly some of the
cool guys from last year didn't come, hey Richard what was up with you? A
three Battlesphere network would have been cool.....
Rouven had one BattleSphere and I enjoyed it very much. Played it for a
longer time than last year....
Then we had SpaceWar 2000 which also was cool, someone showed an unfinished
proto of Caves of Fear and Lars showed us a demo of his new game which
looked cool. I'm curious what it will be like when it's finished. Another
new game for our Jaggy, that's cool :-) So much for the protos and the rare
games.
We had 3 Competitions: One with Super Burnout on the Jag, Lynx Checkered
Flag with 6 people networked, and Joust on an Atari XE. The competitions
were fun, even if I sucked at all of them. :-) My mom made diplomas for the
winners, and she also made those cookies from last year again :-)
All in all it was a great day. I played a lot of games I still don't own
and meeting all these cool people is a wonderful thing. It's like being
home. :-) I think everybody had a good time. I had a good time anyway.
Lars made some videos with his camera so everybody should be able to see
some little movies from the fest. There were also some people who made pics
so the same here. Can't wait to hear how the Sunday was.
What more to say? Hope to see everybody again next year and perhaps even
more people.
Peter
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Jan's Report
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The date of the JagFest was very bad for me and a friend. My friend had his
35th birthday and a party. So I had to travel alone without him. After 4
hours driving I arrived in Coesfeld. It was my first JagFest and it was
great ! It was nice to meet people you never seen before or knew just from
the net.
I talked to a lot of interesting Atari-Freaks. Mad Butcher is one of them.
He organized the gaming-competition with a lot of fun! I never played Lynx
before against 5 other Checkered Flag drivers! It was real great fun!
I could test a lot of games I don't own. I saw BattleSphere - I played the
prototype SpaceWar 2000. Finally I could play Starcat's prototype "Star
Alliance" and it looks great. I think the Jagscene has a new good
programmer in Europe!
Finally i want to thank the DvD and Starcat for organizing EuroJagFest
2001! See you next time
--==--==--==--==--
||
|| Shutdown ....................... Power off, * + #, EOL, Game Over
\__// -----------------------------------------------------------------
Buzzword Index:
Buzzword Occurrences
Infogrames 4
SpaceWar 13
Bug 14
Network 15
Protector 30
BattleSphere 41
Fest 136
Atari 160
CD 161
Useless Fact O' The Month: NTSC Jaguars have red power LEDs; PAL Jaguars
have green power LEDs.
Happy New Year!
Your Editor
Clay Halliwell
clay.h@att.net
--==--==--==--==--
(This issue printed on recycled photons)
--==--==--==--==--
Bebop. Cola. Good!
--==--==--==--==--
DNFTEC
--==--==--==--==--
All your bits are belong to Jaguar
--==--==--==--==--
Jaguar Explorer Online Magazine is a monoannual publication covering the
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--==--==--==--==--
Atari, 400/800, XL/XE, 2600, ST, Mega ST, STe, Mega STe, Atari Falcon030,
Blitter, Atari Lynx, ComLynx, Atari Panther, Atari Jaguar, AtariTel, Pong,
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--==--==--==--==--
Jaguar Explorer Online Magazine
"Your Source for Jaguar News"
Copyright (c) 2001, White Space Publishers
******
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:: Volume 5, Issue 1 JAGUAR EXPLORER ONLINE November 31, 2001 ::
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