The Jaguar side isn't going neglected either. A report from the ECTS,
Tim Wilson with hands-on beta copies of new Jaguar games, Tal's
Jaguar NewsPhrases, and the latest and greatest AEO Jaguar
Development List. Plans are being made to attend the Summer CES in
Chicago to provide the best in Atari coverage. I hope to have further
details of Subspace Publishers' plans in the next issue of AEO.


 |||   Jaguar Tackboard
 |||   Confirmed information about Atari's Jaguar
/ | \  Compiled from online and official sources
       -----------------------------------------------------------------

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Independent Association of Jaguar Developers
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The IAJD (Independent Association of Jaguar Developers) has started
accepting members on GEnie. The IAJD is a private group where
confidential discussions can be freely held. (Category 64 of the ST
RoundTable is the IAJD meeting place.) Consequently, membership in the
IAJD is limited to Jaguar developers who are registered with Atari
Corp. To apply for membership, send EMail to ENTRY$ on GEnie (or
<entry$@genie.geis.com> if you're not on GEnie). Regular EMail
correspondence with the IAJD should be sent to IAJD$ (again, or
<iajd$@genie.geis.com> if you're not on GEnie).


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Developer / Game List 1.8
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

//// Editor: The following developers, licensees and game titles have
been confirmed to the best of AEO's ability as of April 19, 1994.
Entries in the "S"tatus column reflects any "e"rrors, "u"pdates, "n"ew
titles, or new "d"evelopers since the last AEO list. Titles in brackets
(e.g. [Cybermorph]) have been completed and are available in the US.

                            1-10        Titles
S Developer/Licensee       Rating  under development
" """"""""""""""""""       """"""  """""""""""""""""
  21st Century Software       -    Pinball Fantasies
n 3D Games                    -    Rainbow Warrior
n                             -    MORE
n Accent Media Productions    -    Varuna's Forces CD-ROM
  Accolade                    -    Al Michaels Announces Hardball
                              -    Brett Hull Hockey
                              -    Charles Barkley Basketball
                              -    Jack Nicholas Golf
  Activision                  -    Return to Zork CD-ROM
  All Systems Go              -    Hosenose and Booger CD-ROM
                              -    Jukebox (cart multiplexer)
n                             -    Bios-fear CD-ROM
e American Laser Games        -    Mad Dog McCree
  Anco Software Ltd.          -    Kick Off 3
                              -    World Cup
  Anthill Industries
  Argonaut Software           -    Creature Shock CD-ROM
                                   (For Virgin)
  Atari Corp.                 -    Battlezone 2000
                              -    Chaos Agenda CD-ROM
                              -    Club Drive
                              5    [Crescent Galaxy]
                              -    MPEG 1 and 2 carts
                              -    Star Raiders 2000
                              -    Tiny Toons Adventures
                              -    VR Helmet
                                   MORE
u Atari Games Corp.           -    Arcade Games using Jaguar
  Attention to Detail         -    Battlemorph: Cybermorph 2 CD-ROM
                              -    Blue Lightning CD-ROM
                              7    [Cybermorph]
                                   (For Atari)
  Audio-Visual Magic
  Bethesda Softworks
  Beyond Games Inc.           -    Battlewheels
                              -    Ultra Vortex
  Black Scorpion Software
  Bjorn Joos/Kris Van Lier
  Borta & Associates
  Brainstorm                  -    [x86 Jaguar Development System]
  Bullfrog Productions Ltd.   -    Syndicate
                              -    Theme Park
                                   (For Ocean)
  Clearwater Software
  Computer Music Consulting
  Cybervision
  CyberWare
  Delta Music Systems Inc.
  Dimension Technologies
n Domark Group Ltd.           -   F1 Racer
n DTMC                        -   Lester the Unlikely
n                             -   Mountain Sports
n                             -   (Miniature Golf)
  Duncan Brown
d Eclipse                     -   Iron Soldier
  Elite
  E-On
  Eurosoft
  EZ Score Software Inc.
  GameTek Inc.
  Genus Microprogramming Inc.
  Gremlin Graphics Ltd.       -    Zool 2
                              -    UNKNOWN TITLE (racing) - MORE?
  H2O Design Corp.
  Hand Made Software          -    Kasumi Ninja (For Atari)
  High Voltage Software
  Hisoft
  ICD Inc.                    -    Cat Box (AV & comm expansion box)
  id Software                 -    Doom: Evil Unleashed
                              -    Wolfenstein 3D
  Imagineer Company Ltd.
  Imagitec Design Inc.        6    [Evolution Dino-Dudes]
                              6    [Raiden]
                              -    Freelancer 2120 CD-ROM
u                             -    Busby in Clawed Encounters
                                        of the Furried Kind (For Accolade)
  Interplay                   -    BattleChess CD-ROM - MORE?
n Jaleco                      -    Cisco Heat
n                             -    Bases Loaded
n                             -    MORE CD-ROM
  Krisalis Software Ltd.      -    Soccer Kid
  Limelight Media Inc.
  LlamaSoft                  10    [Tempest 2000] (For Atari)
                              -    MORE MINTER!
  Loricel S.A.
  Manley & Associates Inc.
  Maxis Software
  Microids                    -    Evidence
                              -    Commando
  Microprose                  -    Gunship 2000
                              -    MORE SIMULATIONS
  Midnite Software Inc.       -    Car Wars
                              -    Dungeon Depths
n                                  MORE
  Millenium Interactive Ltd.
  NMS Software Ltd.
  Ocean Software Ltd.         -    (Movie title "The Shadow") CD-ROM
                              -    Apes---
n                             -    (Comic title "LOBO") CD-ROM
  Phalanx                     -    Phong 2000
  Photosurrealism             -    Galactic Gladiators
  PIXIS Interactive
d Rage Software UK
  ReadySoft Incorporated      -    Dragon's Lair CD-ROM
                              -    Dragon's Lair II CD-ROM
                              -    Space Ace CD-ROM
  Rebellion Software Ltd.     -    Alien vs. Predator
                              -    Checkered Flag II (Redline Racing)
                              -    Legions of the Undead
                                   (For Atari)
  Rest Energy
  Sculptured Software Inc.
u Silmarils                   -    Robinson's Requiem CD-ROM
  Software Creations
  Team Infinity
  Team 17 Software Ltd.
  Tecnation Digital World
  Techtonics
  Telegames                   -    Brutal Sports Football
                              -    Casino Royale
                              -    European Soccer Challenge
                              -    Ultimate Brain Games - MORE?
u                             -    Double Dragon 5 (For Tradewest)
n                             -    Super Off-Road (For Tradewest)
  Teque London Ltd.
  Thrustmaster
u Tiertex Ltd.                -    Flashback (for U.S. Gold)
  Titus
  Tradewest                   -    Troy Aikman Football
n Trimark Interactive         -    White Men Can't Jump - MORE?
  U.S. Gold Ltd.
  UBI Soft International      -    Jimmy Connors Pro Tennis
                              -    MORE
  V-Reel Productions          -    Arena Football
                              -    Horrorscope
  Virgin Interactive
n      Entertainment Ltd.     -    Dragon
n                             -    Demolition Man
  Virtual Xperience           -    Indiana Jags
                              -    Zozziorx - MORE?
  Visual Concepts
  Williams Brothers
  WMS Industries
d Zeppelin Games              -    Center Court Tennis


Pts Stars  AEO Ratings
""" """""  """""""""""
 10 *****  GAMING NIRVANA!!! - You have left reality behind... for good.
  9 ****+  Unbelieveable GAME!! - Your family notices you're often absent.
  8 ****   Fantastic Game!! - You can't get enough playtime in on this.
  7 ***+   Great Game! - Something to show off to friends or 3DOers.
  6 ***    Good game - You find yourself playing this from time to time.
  5 **+    Ho-hum - If there's nothing else to do, you play this.
  4 **     Waste of time - Better to play this than play in traffic.
  3 *+     Sucks - Playing in traffic sounds like more fun.
  2 *      Sucks Badly - You'd rather face an IRS audit than play this.
  1 +      Forget it - ... but you can't; it's so badly done, it haunts you.
  0 -      Burn it - Disallow programmer from ever writing games again.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Jaguar Quotes
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

//// Jeff Minter entered into a discussion about the internals of
Tempest 2000:

[] ... JERRY is doing all the audio. TOM gets to draw all the
   calculated starfields by himself; he gets in league with the
   blitter to do polygon drawing, transforming and rendering game
   objects, and pixelshatter (where things break into a zillion pixels
   like the '2000' bonus). Melt-O-Vision is almost entirely a Blitter
   operation. The 68K runs all the game logic and orchestrates the
   other co-pros and builds the (very simple) Object List. The OLP
   isn't really doing much at all, it's sitting there twiddling its
   electronic thumbs and just displaying the main screen and an
   overlaid sprite for the score and ships info.

   Frame rate is variable, depending on how much drawing is to be
   done. Logically, the game engine never slows down, as it's slaved
   to a regular interrupt. The draw engine is decoupled from this, so
   when the going gets tough it drops frames where necessary, which
   results in a degradation in the frame rate but does not affect
   gameplay speed. It *is* possible to clog it up if you let a lot of
   stuff build up on the web, but the dynamics of normal gameplay mean
   that this happens sufficiently rarely to be a problem in gameplay.
   The alternative would have been to maintain a constant framerate by
   limiting the number of objects onscreen, or having them 'disappear'
   (arcade Defender used to do that!) when the load is high, but I
   don't like that as it spoils the consistancy of the game
   environment. Don't assume that the rendering of polygons in T2K is
   necessarily as fast as it can be done - T2K represents my first
   attempt at a polygon-based game, and the first cut of my
   polyrenderer is unlikely to be optimal. Everyone optimises over
   time, and as we get into the Jag we'll learn cheats, techniques and
   shortcuts to do more stuff faster and smoother than ever...


//// In a discussion about portibility ("C" vs. assembler), Doug Engel
<d.engel@genie.geis.com> had this to say:

[] The Jaguar is too "unique" to write "portable" games for. If you
   try to write "portable" code, you've locked yourself into a mindset
   that limits most of what the Jaguar is good for.
   ...
   You _have_ to know how the Jaguar operates to write _anything_ on
   it, no matter when you write in. Much of the hardware features in
   the Jaguar are directly accessable in "C"... the problem is that
   the hardware will just be accessed more slowly than it would in
   assembly, or RISC assembly.


//// id Software's constantly being asked about their Jaguar work.
Here's their latest statement:

[] We're doing Doom and Wolfenstein 3D for the Atari Jaguar.  They're
   both coming right along.  Wolf 3D is sporting several new features,
   including source artwork at twice the resolution (4x the data), a
   high, fluid refresh rate, 22 kHz sound effects, and MIDI device
   emulation.  Doom pushes the hardware a lot harder and already looks
   trey cool.  The anti-aliasing effects of composite screens coupled
   with the very hip 16-bit CRY pixel mode makes images look even more
   realistic than the DOS version.  Both should be done this summer.


Duncan Brown <brown_du@eisner.decus.org>, self-confessed "Jaguar
Programmer in a Garage", sums up how he views the Jaguar's power:

[] -- It's kind of an awe-inspiring amount of powerful hardware at
   your disposal. What kind of graphics system theory are you used to?
   Sprites? Frame buffer? Character mapped? Graphics coprocessor?
   State machine to process display lists? Yeah, this can do all of
   that... simultaneously... and probably some other things that
   people haven't even thought of yet.

   -- There's so much power in so many different places, it's kind of
   hard to know where to start. To try to write a program from scratch
   (even after studying example code supplied by Atari) suffers from a
   steep "learning wall". You have to get at least passingly familiar
   with a lot of different pieces just to make that first tiny program
   fly. But once you've gotten familiar with all that, gotten the
   framework in place to make all the parts sing together, it gets a
   lot easier.

   -- I'm still getting my feet wet here. In fact, it's a bit
   depressing to play Tempest 2000. It's like I'm still painting a
   background on a canvas and then someone takes me to see the Sistene
   (sp?) Chapel... But from everything I can tell, this is a graphics
   hacker's ultimate playground here. There are no rules, there are
   almost no restrictions.  Once you decide which direction you want
   to head in, it's pedal-to-the-metal time.

   -- The development hardware and software is pretty decent, but it
   does take some effort to get used to. The faint of heart need not
   apply. Atari's example programs *never* assemble and load without a
   hitch. But hey, what better way to learn the tools than by figuring
   out what the problem is? I wasted a lot of time creating a good
   work environment for myself on the TT030 because I had never even
   *heard* of the computer before, much less used one! I was convinced
   the development tools would work better on a 680x0 platform, but I
   advise anyone else to weigh that notion carefully against the
   ramp-up time for a new platform. If you're already familiar with
   Atari computers, then it's a no-brainer. The TT030 *is* a nice
   platform.

   ... But so far I am extremely impressed and extremely happy!


                            --==--==--==--==--


 |||   Jaguar Games Preview & Bay Area Devcon Report
 |||   By: Tim Wilson
/ | \  GEnie: AEO.8     Internet: wilsont@rahul.net
       ------------------------------------------------------------------

Through my various sources and by attending the Bay Area Jaguar
Developer Conference, I've been able to see some of the following
games:

Doom
Wolfenstein 3D
Club Drive
Alien Vs Predator
Checkered Flag II (Redline Racing)
Kasumi Ninja

A Very Important Note: everything I saw was in an early stage, and at
least a month old at the time I saw it. (Which makes them at least
two months old to you.) I also have no way of knowing how far along
each one was, or how far back the demo was. Oh well, just read this. :)

//// Alien Vs Predator

You want texturemapping? You got tons of it in this game. Walls,
floors, ceilings, doors, are all covered with 16-bit textures. All
nicely done. You could of course choose to be an Alien, a Marine or
the Predator, I tried each out, but only the Marine had a lone working
weapon. (Pulse rifle) Each character had a unique HUD that you can
slowly fade in and out, making it opaque or transparent, depending on
the situation. A map could also be displayed over the screen - the map
would scroll around smoothly as you moved. The map was an overlay, not
a separate screen, so it's possible to see the map and look through
your "eyes" at the same time.

The Marine had a shotgun, a pulse rifle, and a grenade launcher
visible. I've seen a knife before, but that's being cut out I hear.
It may be possible to pick up and drop weapons, it's not confirmed
yet. The Marine had a motion tracker on the HUD, but it wasn't active
then. (It's since been activated.)

The Predator had the cloaking net, claws, plasma gun, killer frisbee,
net gun, and a spear. The Predator also has Ultraviolet and Infrared
vision. I couldn't find a dark area to try it out in, the map was
huge. The Predator had a sound analyzer, but it too was inactive.

The Alien only has a tail, second mouth, and claws as weapons.
However, the Alien can move EXTREMELY fast.

As the Marine I could engage the Predator or Alien if I happened to
cross their path. The Predator would immediately cloak, then suddenly
appear in front of me, quickly shooting, poking and stabbing with all
of his weapons. Not that it mattered, I was invincible. He wasn't... a
blast from the pulse rifle sent green blood spraying, A few more shots
and he fell to the ground in a slowly expanding pool of glowing green
blood. When I shot the Alien, it kinda made a little explosion on his
chest, and then a bigger explosion when it died... it looked thrown
in. Of course, this was an early release.

I also accessed a computer terminal, but all that was there was mug
shots of the programmers and some bitmaps of armor and stuff.

I did find some Alien eggs, which open as you near them. No
facehuggers popped out, but I did encounter a facehugger scampering
around. It jumped at me and disappeared. I guess that subroutine
wasn't quite done yet either.

Some ambient noises where present, hissing steam noises, and ominous
alarms. Watch the last 20 minutes of "Aliens", and you'll hear the
same noises.


//// Doom

Doom was running in 16 bit color as well, and I only got to see
episode one, mission one. There were beasties to kill, and they died
just like in the PC version. The added colors (supposedly from the
original 24-bit artwork) sure helped, and the dark areas and color
gradients were -excellent-. id has said they'll acheive a faster
frames per second in the end. What more can I say... it was Doom!

//// Wolf 3D

It's the same ol' PC Wolfenstein you know and love. Dogs, Nazis,
blood, big weapons, and many fps. Someone said that delays had to be
added because it was so fast. The textures were enhanced to double
their original resolution.

//// Club Drive

Yeah, I saw it, but it's been redone since. The frame rate was great,
and the toy car scenario was kinda neato. Lots of ramps and things to
let you get on top of tables, etc.... I'm not gonna say much else in
light that it's been worked over.

//// Checkered Flag II (Redline Racing)

Looked a lot like Virtua Racing or Hard Drivin'. Buildings and distant
objects fade into view and get more detailed as they get closer in a
realistic manner. There were four views to choose from, and the
internal view had "arms" that moved the steering wheel. The tracks
were flat, but I hear they may be changing that. The frame rate was
pretty good.

//// Kasumi Ninja

I hope you like blood....

Blood splatters all over, and according to the product manager, can be
turned on or off easily (no secret codes), and then saved to the cart,
so you won't have to constantly enter a "blood code."

Blood slowly "dried" up, but it may very well -stay- on the ground for
the whole round if the manager gets his way. The finishing moves code
be done at any time in the version I played. They were uh...  unique.
They may or may not be final versions of them... but here they are:

[] Flip your opponent over backwards and then back flip onto his head,
   squishing it nicely.

[] Pick up your opponent and then proceed to rip him/her in half, drop
   said opponent... er... oppenents? at your feet.

Errr, there was one more, but I can't remember it. -grin-

The characters also had the usual assortment of special powers:
Fireballs, floating roundhouse kicks, and teleportation. (That's for
one character...)

BTW, those backgrounds you see in the pictures will be animated. For
example, those dog/dragon thingies will have firey eyes and smokey
nostrils, and various other details.

I've heard of some CD games too, but I can't tell you much about them.
("Gee! THAT'S helpful!", you say grumbling.) Well, I've been sworn to
secrecy, but I can say the CD will have -lots- of support. Use your
imagination on this one. :)

I've also heard of more never before heard of ComLynx games... but I
can't say what. I know I'm gonna get hate mail, but just know this for
now - Atari has bunches of titles and tricks up their collective
sleeves.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Jaguar Developer Conference Report
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I attended the Jaguar Developer conference and was *very* pleased that
I went. Normen went over the documentation and fielded questions. If
he didn't know the answer, he found it out. Each chunk of the Jag was
covered, the Object Processor, GPU, DSP, and blitter. I learned just
how amazingly flexible the OP was, and learned some amazing tricks,
visual and efficiency wise. I learned how much time various operations
took in relation to the other parts of the Jag, which is a big help in
regards to interupts, which were also covered in detail. Also covered
was a bit of Jaguar history, the CD unit, some previews of upcoming
games, and miscellaneous Atari plans.

I personally think it'd be a good idea for any Jaguar programmer to
attend the conference when it gets close to you.


                            --==--==--==--==--


 |||   Jaguar News Phrases
 |||   By Tal Funke-Bilu
/ | \  GEnie: EXPLORER.5
       ----------------------------------------------------------------

O.K. Jaguar fans, here's the scoop. I had this great follow-up to my
Jeff Minter interview. He was gonna talk long and hard about the
making of T2K and give a full report from the ECTS (European Computer
Trade Show). The only problem was that all of GEnie's EMail was
backlogged for a day due to maintenance. Then Atari decided it wanted
Jeff to spend a lot of time working on the VLM for the JagCD. What to
do? Work on Jag CD stuff, or write for AEO?...

Enough with the excuses. There's been a lot of talk about Tempest
codes and a rotary controller. First off, let's get the codes
straightened out. There are two of them, one allows you to pass the
current level by obtaining an "outta here" while the other enables the
current warp when you pass the level you are on. I've seen a ton of
garbled posts on how you actually enable these, and most of them will
work, but here's the bare bones:

To enable either cheats, start a game of Tempest 2000 with the "a"
button while holding down 1,4, and 7. Then, when you are playing, hit
"6" to enable the warp, and "option" to catch an "outta here."

Now for the good stuff. People seemed to have discovered that by
another combination of button pushes, one can enable a "controller
type" option on the options screen which can be set at "rotary" or
"joypad." Again, I've seen various claims to "push this!" or "no, you
do this!", and again, here is the bare bones (you need two
controllers).

To enable a "controller type" option on the options screen, go to the
options screen, and push "pause" simulataneously on both controllers.
That's it.

I am only revealing this because others have already discovered it,
and I am sick of reading "where can you get a paddle?" posts. The main
reason behind the secrecy surrounding the rotary option is mainly
becuase Atari did not want people hounding them with "When can I get
one?" calls and other related correspondence. Here's the facts:

[] Developers have the info. If they want to make a paddle control, it
   is up to them.

[] Installing hooks into a game to accept rotary controls is minor.
   The Yak said it took him two days to do the extra code. It would be
   better to leave a hook in a game that would most likely be played
   with a paddle, than leave it out. For that reason, I suspect all
   games that have even the most remote possibilty of being played
   with a paddle, will have some sort of hook installed.

[] Right now, Atari can not afford to spend resources on a paddle. If
   enough games are released that could use one, and people still talk
   about it, I suspect that late summer-early fall might see the
   release of such a controller.

Keep in mind that the rotary option was not to be talked about by
Atari employees/developers (in public).

That's all the Tempest action for this week. (Anyone go double beastly
or beat 3,112,083 yet? Without the cheats of course!)

//// Other Jaguar tidbits: (sorry this is so brief, look for an
expanded section next issue)

[] Atari wants AvP to be a mega-hit, so the programmers (Rebellion)
   are cramming in all the whistles and bells that will fit! This is
   definitely going to be a major candidate for game of the year.
   Rumored to have been in beta-testing by now, word is AvP's hit some
   legal snags and has went back to the developers, so it could wind
   up on the shelves from early June to early August.

[] Don't even think about DOOM until the end of summer. ID wants to
   get the job done right, and with the Alien running around at
   30fps, ID is going to have their job cut out for them.

[] In the meantime, Wolf-3D is being updated for the Jag. The addition
   of a flamethrower and rocket launcher are just a few of the
   enhancements, not to mention double the sprite size! Don't worry,
   all the Nazi decorations are intact, not to mention resampled sound
   along with improved music.

[] A sizable number of new developers signed up at the ECTS a week or
   two ago. Look for a confirmed list in an upcoming issue.

[] Jaguar television ads are all over cable. Even a new Tempest 2000
   ad.

[] Some people have reported hearing radio commercials for
   Tradewest's Troy Aikman Football, "Out this fall" for Jaguar.

[] Ocean's Flashback should be one of the first 3rd party games
   available (along with Wolf-3D).

[] Jeff Minter's Virtual Light Machine, supposedly named ColorSpace
   2000, will most likely be built into the CD-ROM unit.

[] Here's the specs on the JagCD:

   Double speed.
   350Kb/s transfer rate.

   160x120 @ 50 fps.
   320x160 @ 24 fps.   (3DO can do 160x120 @ 24 fps)

[] A VR Helmet code-named the CyberMaxx is reportedly being made for
   several platforms, including the Jaguar. Rumored price range:
   $400-$500.

Look for a nice developer report in an upcoming AEO, along with the
missing Jeff Minter files.


 |||   ECTS - Traque du Jaguar a Londres (Stalking the Jaguar in London)
 |||   By Loic Duval
/ | \  CIS: 100015,3044
       -----------------------------------------------------------------

The ECTS, one of the most important video games shows in Europe, took
place in London this year from the 10th to 12th of April. The ECTS is
a trade show that only professionals can access, so it is not a show
for big announcements, and not a show with huge booths and large,
colorful demonstrations. It is more the kind of show where booths are
comfortable suites with sofas, and people simply talk to one another,
etc.

Atari Europe (which means Atari UK) had a suite on the lower ground
level, which was just in front of the "Time Warner Interactive" suite.
Sam Tramiel and Bill Rehbock made the trip to London with some other
US personel like Normen Kowalevski, who responsible for Jaguar
developer support.

The booth contained five Jaguar displays and a big TV with all the
Jaguar ads running in loop. In the back, a secret room was reserved
for developers' presentations.

There were no other Jaguars displayed at the show except at three
booths from UK dealers. You would have to know that the Jaguar has not
been officially introduced into Europe yet. The current date of
introduction should be around September 1994.

However many developers have confirmed that they were currently
working hard on Jaguar games and some of them had early versions
displayed in the Atari booth.

//// One more award

Before I describe the games I saw, I have to announce that the Jaguar
won another award at the ECTS: "Best Hardware 1994". (The only
hardware award given.) The ECTS awards are the only independent
consumer awards for this industry. A panel of over 70 of the world's
leading computer and video games magazines voted on the award. The
other contenders for the "Best Hardware 1994" award included 3DO, CD32
and Reel Magic.

//// New games

Atari displayed prototypes (in various stages of development) of soon
to arrive Jaguar games, but no announcements or demonstrations of any
new hardware or Jaguar extensions were made. (However there were some
new products which were demonstrated to developers during a developer
conference on the 13th of April.)

The game that attracted the most interest and about all the
journalists present (at least the ones I spoke too) was Kasumi Ninja.
It is the Jaguar's hottest title for the moment, even if the game is
still far from completion.

Only two characters (Ninja and Goth) were implemented in the version I
saw, but it was still highly playable. It may look like Mortal Kombat
because of the digitized fighters, however it is yet much more fun,
more playable, and more... bloody!

The characters are very well digitized (in true color) with smooth and
detailed animations. They look even bigger than on MK (Mortal Kombat)
or SF2 (Street Fighter 2). One very interesting detail is that the
characters have a real shadow which follows the movement exactly and
not the kind of simple dark circle you have on SF2 or MK.

The background graphics are also digitized with tons of colors and
multiple levels of parallax. It is not yet animated but it will be in
the final release. The ground is done with texture mapped polygons
also. I wasn't sure because you don't see any polygons (the ground
looks so good), but the 3D perspective animation (when you move both
fighters on the left or on the right) was so smooth that I can't
believe they have enough space in the cartridge to store all the
bitmap positions. It must be texture mapped 3D polygons! (Editor: It
is.)

Each character has its own moves and "fatality" moves. I was impressed
by the number of moves currently implemented and how they succeeedd to
install it on the Joypad. You don't have to use the numeric keypad at
all. All moves are done using the joypad and the three fire buttons.
Many combinations are possible, because to get at some, you have to
find the right joypad position and press several buttons
simultaneously. It may look strange but believe me Kasumi Ninja is
highly playable and once you have discovered a move, it is very easy
to reproduce it.

As I said previously, the game is bloody. Very bloody indeed. When you
hit your opponent some blood springs down to the floor and remains
there. The "force" level is represented by a knife (one for each
fighter) at the top of the screen. Each time a fighter is hit, more
blood appears on his blade, dripping on the floor. So at the end of a
fight, the least I can say is that you have a lot of blood on the
screen. If you add a fatality move, the result....

The fatality moves can be executed at any times (if you are well
positioned). No, I will not describe the 3 fatalities currently
implemented. I prefer to let you discover them once the game will be
available. Just say that the face of the visitors looking at those
moves for the first time was the funniest thing at the show (something
like the face of your father or mother when he/she discovers the
"barf" Jaguar ads on the TV for the first time).

With all of the action and gore (it even sports a 3D texture mapped
maze!), Kasumi Ninja is so terrific and impressive that it
overshadowed all the other Jaguar games on the show - even Alien Vs
Predator! AvP is now very near completion. When you look at it for the
first time, the 3D animation looks smooth but slower than Doom on a
486/66 PC. That is not because the Jaguar is slower, but because the
soldier walks slower than the one in Doom. Just play the Alien and you
will discover how fast the Jaguar can be when texture mapping. You
just "fly" down the corridors of the space station at 30 fps.

The concept, of the game (AvP) is very similar to Doom but AvP is much
more an adventure game than a shoot'em up. Graphics are beautiful
(with highly detailed textures) and the very realistic sounds add a
lot of depth to the game.

Wolfenstein 3D was also displayed. It runs at an incredible speed (60
fps for sure), too fast to be honest. The version displayed is in a
very early stage and only uses the PC graphics (in 256 color mode)
with no texture mapping on the floor or ceiling (just like the PC
version). I know that the graphics are currently being redrawn for the
Jaguar.

Also displayed for the first time was Flashback from US Gold
(programmed by Tiertex). The game looks exactly like the PC and the
Genesis version. So we will hope that Tiertex will change the graphics
to true colour before release. For the moment Flashback Jaguar looks
like an immediate 68000 port from the Genesis. The game is good with
an incredibly smooth animation, but Jaguar players want more than a
simple port from a 16-bit platform.

Tempest 2000 (T2K) was the only game at the show that is currently
available. The successful game has attracted many visitors (and don't
forget that it was T2K's first official presentation in Europe).

I also very briefly saw some other games like Checkered Flag II, which
is still very far from completion. The good news is that the version I
have seen is much faster than the one displayed at the CES in January.
The speed is now similar to Virtua Racing, and Rebellion's programmers
are still optimizing their routines so the final version will be even
faster. The most interesting feature is that you can change the view
to be in the cockpit, just behind the F1 or behind and over the F1
(with a fully user selectable angle).

Club Drive is a flat 3D polygon style racing game. The animation is
smooth and fast but the graphics looked poor (no texture, no gouraud,
just flat polygons). The game is very fun and you can play with two
players (the screen is split in 2) simultaneously for even more
excitement.

//// News From Third Parties:

[] Domark

F1 Racer from Domark will be a dangerous competitor for Checkered Flag
2. The game is in early development stage but the 3D graphics are good
and the animation is very fast. It looks similar to Microprose's Grand
Prix or Papyrus' Indy Car on the PC.

[] Ocean

Ocean is currently working on two Jaguar projects: one cartridge and
one CD ROM. The first game, code-named Apeshit, has some of the nicest
graphics seen on Jaguar (which means some of the nicest graphics ever
seen on any console). It is a True Colour platform game with multiple
parallax scrolling and a cooperative "two players" mode. The CD-ROM
project is based on the violent comic character LOBO. Ocean said this
game is a very new concept and doesn't want to talk about it for the
moment. The only thing we know, is that all the graphics and
animations have been rendered on Silicon Graphics Unix workstations.

[] Anco

Kick Off 3 is a soccer game from Anco. Versions 1 & 2 (available on
the ST) were the most playable soccer games ever made. Kick Off 3 is
of course better and offers many new features. The game is now side-on
view (watching from the stands) with much, much larger and better
animated players. It is scheduled to be released in June/July time
frame, Kick Off 3 on Jaguar sounds very exciting.

[] Zeppelin Games

A new company, Zeppelin Games, which was not on my list of Jaguar
Licensees has announced "Center Court Tennis" to be available late
1994.

//// The Developer Conference

On the 13th of April, Atari organized a Jaguar developer conference
attended by around 100 European developers. They showed a Jaguar
CD-ROM prototype running an FMV demonstration of Spielberg's movie
"Jaws". The CD-ROM is expected to be available in August at a retail
price of $199.

The FMV (full motion video) demo shown was done using Cinepak technology
from SuperMac. Cinepak is also used by Apple (in Quicktime), Sega (in
the Mega CD), 3DO (most of the CD animations you have on 3DO games are
coded with Cinepak). Cinepak is similar to MPEG as it uses a "lossy"
compression scheme (which means visual information not seen by human
eyes is not encoded) to get a very high compression rate which allows
you to store more than one hour of VIDEO + AUDIO on a single compact
disc.

The Jaguar Cinepak implementation is done completely in software (no
extra hardware is needed to decode the frames) and is, in term of
quality, one of the best implementations of Cinepak so far. Some
programmers who used to work with Cinepak compression on the Mac or
3DO, said they never thought Cinepak images could be as good as what
they have seen on the Jaguar. The quality is outstanding (no
pixelisation effect; no visible loss most of the time; excellent
synchronization between the sound and the video image; and it runs
in 320x240 pixels at 30 frames per second. The best point of the
Jaguar's implementation is that the decoder only uses about half
the power of the machine, so programmers have enough bus bandwith
and processor power to move objects on the screen and add game play
over the video playback.

During this conference, Jeff Minter demonstrated a "currently under
development" version of VLM (Virtual Light Machine), an impressive
light synthesizer which reacts to music and the user's input, and it
will be a pack-in with the CD-ROM unit. It is totally crazy and
absolutely indescribable. It is a kind of Colourspace/ Trip-A-Tron
(Jeff Minter's light synthesizer on Atari STs) using the 64-bit and
Tempest 2000 technologies.

Many games are currently under development for the Jaguar CD-ROM. The
most advanced projects seems to be "Return To Zork" from Activision,
"Space Ace" from ReadySoft, "Robinson's Requiem" from Silmarils, and
"Freelancer 2120" from Imagitec. Several new developers signed up as
Jaguar developers during the ECTS show as well.

In final, this ECTS confirmed that most of the Jaguar titles are late.
Due to a production delay, don't expect new games before beginning of
June. However the new titles look very, very hot and most of them will
probably be displayed in final stages during the Summer CES (Consumer
Electronics Show). So stay tuned....
 
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