Jaguar unreleased games info

And from an interview i did with Domark's Jim Blackler for CCM ages ago, Jim explaining Domark did at least have Jaguar projects on the drawing board.

Old news, but it does make clear Atari at least tried to get Domark onboard with the Jaguar, but it was a loosing battle, as it was clear the Japanese hardware was that to back.

 

One thing that Adriano missed to put on the interview was that he was behind of Mortal Kombat 3 as well as Batman Forever for the Jag & the Jag CD. But other than that, it was a great interview and i'm looking foward to see more interviews of the Atari Corp. era from him!. I didn't even knew he worked on the amazing Warlocked for the GBC.

 

Bit more on Black Ice/ White Noise..from Atari Explorer Online..volume 4/Issue 7 ..Sept 95..


'Meanwhile, at the same conference, our good friend Pradip at Atari,
who previously wrote Atari Works for the TOS series of Atari
computers, handled test routines for the CD-ROM, and developed the
CD+G capabilities for the Jag CD, gave the goods on what's becoming
one of the most highly anticipated Jag releases, the ambitious Black
ICE\White Noise.

It seems that the newest hobby for Jag programmers is to completely
rethink the 3D engine, and this game is no exception to the rule.
This new 3D engine written specifically for the game operates at 30
fps at a resolution of 320x200 - on the fly with no prerendering - and
is capable of full motion in all directions (which should answer some
questions as to whether the Jag is capable of such a thing); it is
especially good, reports Pradip, at depth cuing. The game itself
operates in a window of 224/180, with the rest of the screen being
taken up by control panel operations.

Black ICE/White Noise will make good use of Jag peripherals such as
the generic NVRAM save carts [Ed: Memory Track carts.] that are on the
way, as well as the six-button controller. (Which will be especially
good for the fighting sequences in the game.) The team for the game
consists of 3 programmers and 3 full time artists (as well as contract
artists), who each put in 50 hour weeks. Still, Pradip says that it's
not much more difficult to produce a CD than a cart; the only real
differences are the sheer volume of data, plus the lack of Jaguar
onboard memory.

As for the game itself, it's a cyberpunk adventure set in future San
Francisco (which should be interesting to compare to LucasArts'
upcoming Calia 2095, which is also a first person adventure in the same
setting). It will be a non-linear game, which though it features one
main plot, will also be threaded with various subplots along the way
which will lead you on different directions along that main plot. One
of the most unique (and RPG-like) aspects of the game is that you will
be able to interact with characters, and gain reputation in this way
that will affect how you move along the main story. Some people have
asked about comparisons to the game Virtuoso, based on some early
screen shots of BI\WN, but Pradip couldn't comment as he hasn't seen
the earlier game.'

 

From the same issue of Atari Explorer Online:

Fatal Design
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

No, we're not talking about the coding for Club Drive. We're actually
referring to the newest Jaguar developer from France (joining the
impressive console-mate UbiSoft). Fatal Design appeared recently on
an CIS conference, with much interesting discussion (with some
occassional, er, creative French) as to what they're interested in
developing for the Cat.

Fatal Design, whose credentials include a 3D API for the PC (Pro 3D
Engine) as well as various Falcon 030 applications, has committed
itself as a developer for the PC and Jag platforms (though they say
Playstation may be possible some ways down the road). One of the
reasons that they're enjoying taking on the Jag challenge is that
they're quite interested in burrowing down "to the metal" and coaxing
maximum performance out of the Jag architecture; the developers say
unlike some other developers, they're not afraid of diving into the
complexities of using a 5-processor system. The people at Fatal
Design feel that when you get into sheer performance potential, the
Jag is on a par with the Playstation (though they do concede that the
Playstation is much easier to program).

While Fatal Design couldn't get into many details about what games
they were developing for the Jag, they gave out information about one
of the Jag efforts on which they are focused: a brand new 3D engine to
really make the most of the Jag architecture. They are critical of
Atari's own 3D engine, which they claim inhibits the Jag's potential
processing power. Their reworked 3D engine uses no 68000 code, as has
been the case with other 3D engines; Fatal Design's code will be pure
ASM, using the GPU, DSP and Blitter processors. This engine is being
designed with 1700 quad/Gouraud polygons per frame possible; their
engine will also use both gouraud and texture mapping. However, some
phong shading will be necessary for real time games.

As for their game plans, they plan on focusing entirely on cart games
for the forseeable future. They will be developing both arcade-style
and simulation games, and are exploring the possiblity of filling the
RPG void in the Jag's lineup. They are studying the chances of
employing a network setup, but say that the expenses of it may be
prohibitive for a European-based company. They're aiming their first
game at a mid-96 release. We wish them the best of luck!

 

More from Atari Explorer Online. .volume 4 Issue 8 this time..more talk of planned Jaguar titles...

Something to Gravon To
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Stop right there - don't you make any more jokes about having some nice
Gravon with your lox and bagels. The only thing you're going to feed
this to is your hungry Jaguar.

One of the things I find fascinating about the eclectic base of Jaguar
developers is their international spirit. We've had U.S. developers and
Brit developers, it's said there are Jag developers in Russia, and one
of the biggest and brightest games in a long time has come from
UbiSoft, a French developer. Now we have word of a new game coming from
our friends at Suma, a development house in the Czech Republic. Ondrej
Spanel was kind enough to forward us some information on a new game his
company is developing for the Jag64 system. We're especially glad to
give them a little time in our spotlight, for although the Iron Curtain
has fallen, these Czech developers still report a certain sense of
isolation which has kept their work from spreading far and wide.

Suma has been developing for Atari systems since all the way back in
1987, when they created a game for the (remember this?) Atari XE/XL
system. This was shortly followed by some various games and system
utilities for the Atari ST.

Their first major work for the European market was an advanced music
studio program, Componium, which allowed users to create and playback
songs directly on the computer. Of more interest, though, was their
next work, a 3D simulation entitled Gravon. Here are some of the
features as described to us:

Gravon for Falcon
"""""""""""""""""
Our next project was Falcon only game Gravon. Gravon is a 3D simulation
of a battle hovercraft. Main features are:

[] Real 3D environment
[] Highly realistic physical simulation
[] Lighted polygons in 65536 colors with depth-cueing (accordingly to
the daytime/weather)
[] Stereo-sound with 3D-effects.
[] Enemies use artifical inteligence.
[] Four different planet types
[] Many thrilling missions
[] A lot of original music

Taking advantage of such Falcon capabilities as its DSP chip, direct
color graphics and 16-bit stereo sound, Gravon met with good respons
and reviews, though the company is still in search of a US
distributor. (A demo of this is available at ftp.cnam.fr in folder
[Falcon/Games].)

Suma was given a Jaguar developer's license at the end of 1994. With
this in hand, Suma now intends to create a sequel for the Jag64.
Though the game sounds quite state-of-the-art even for the Falcon, the
Jaguar version will be an enticing hovercraft and helicopter
simulation, featuring gouraud shading and head-to-head combat (or
cooperate using the JagLink cable). We wish them the best in their
endeavor and will, of course, keep you updated on their progress.

 

From Atari Explorer Online's E3 special..

A show report pointing out the Conan Code on display wasn't even playable...

' A couple of games were on show, but were not playable, such as Super
Kart, and Konan (as in that barbarian/destroyer chappie). Super Kart
is basically Mario Kart-ish, but with superior graphics. It looks
amazingly smooth and fast, and I just pray that the playability is up
to scratch when it comes out. If a two player function is included,
this could prove to be another promising game.

Konan (I thought it was spelt with a 'C') is a Final Fight style, side
on scrolling hack-em-up. I must say, this looks just as good as many
arcade games of this style, with huge bold sprites, fantastic scenery,
and bone crunching sound fx. Little is known about this game so far,
as no playable version has been available for us to play, we can only
judge from what we've seen. And that alone impresses me.

That's about it from the ECTS, and I can safely say, it was quite a
success for Atari. Here's looking forward to a great year of games,
that should please any Jaguar owner out there.'

 

And here's Atari Explorer Online's interview with Core Design..In which they talk about SoulStar..make clear it's the only Jaguar title in development..others planned had been cancelled.

Sadly team were split up before even this could be finished..

Here's Atari explaining what had become of SoulStar..

Soulstar CD: originally developed by Core design... company acquired
since and development teams were reconfigured at that time... the
title was taken off the list because the development team has been
split up.

Here's the AEO interview:

Inside The Core

As you may have read in AEO_0402, Core Design have signed up and are
developing the Mega-CD classic, SoulStar, for the Jaguar. Considering
this game was one of the best on the Genesis's CD unit, it seems
logical that it could be a corker title for the Jaguar CD.

Core Design's Andrew Smith revealed all the juicy details exclusively
to AEO this past Thursday.

AEO : Well Andrew, how is SoulStar coming along?

ANDREW : Very well indeed actually, we're approximately a few weeks
away from completing the game. However, it is a JagCD game
and the production of the CDs doesn't seem to be arranged
yet. At least we are almost finished, it shouldn't be too
long now.

AEO : What was it like converting the Mega-CD game over to the JagCD?
Was it an easy task, or did you have any trouble?

ANDREW : Actually, our programmers found the Jaguar to be quite
difficult to use. We have had to learn its architecture very
fast to get the game done with such pressing deadlines. We
basically ported over main game code from the Mega-CD
version, so all the game mechanics are identical on the Jag
version. The game visually is far more impressive though.

AEO : I'm sure we all want to know what has been done to the Jaguar
version to make it so superior. Can you tell us what has been
improved over Mega-CD game and have you put the Jaguar's power
to good use?

ANDREW : Most definitely! We have totally new space ships and objects
that all been SGI rendered to produce some excellent sprites
that are far better than the old ones. The backgrounds and
scenery have all been redrawn with the help of one of our
best graphic artists, and all the main game GFX are in 16-bit
CRY color mode so it looks very impressive.

AEO : Does the game move as smooth as the original?

ANDREW : Better in fact. The game has full rotation of all scenery and
sprites at an extremely fast frame rate [Ed: Frame rate not
given] and moves smooth and fast throughout. We have done our
best to ensure there is no slowdown at all and the games
moves as good as it looks.

AEO : How about the pre-rendered intro sequences from the old version?
Have you got any info on the Jaguars sequences?

ANDREW : Oh yes, the intro and in-game sequences are very impressive
indeed. We have changed the animations from the Mega-CD game
and done the sequences from scratch for the Jag. The intro is
a 3 minute long pre-rendered Cinepak story, in 24-bit color
mode. The JagCD is well suited to such intros and they have a
high resolution that rivals any other CD system. Also, the
between-level sequences have been vastly improved and all add
to the atmosphere of the game.

AEO : Is there anything in this game that isn't improved? It all sound
too good to me! How about the sound FX and the speech during the
mission briefings?

ANDREW : Well, what do you expect with the Jaguar's excellent
soundchip. I think it's the most impressive part of the
Jaguars architecture. The sound and speech have all been
improved and is sharper and clearer than the Mega-CD game.
The tunes are pretty much the same though.

AEO : How about the poor people who do not get a Jaguar CD unit, how
are they going to live with this game out of thier reach?

ANDREW : It is up to Atari to decide if a cartridge version is viable.
We are not opposed to doing a cart version, but it would have
to be cut down somewhat. The CD version has 21 levels you
know, and over 6 minutes of FMV sequences which would be
difficult to fit on a cartridge. We could do a good version
if we got the go ahead though.

AEO : Have you got any other plans to convert your games to the
Jaguar, or maybe even an original title for the Jag?

ANDREW : Not yet actually, we did have a few of our titles on the list
to convert, but some have been cancelled as they may prove
too difficult to port over. You can expect more of our titles
for the Jaguar in the future though.

AEO : That's all we ask! Thanks very much.

Well people, if that's not interesting news, I don't know what is.
Soulstar will hopefully be out March/April to coincide with the
release of the JagCD.

Talk of a cut down cart version being possible in theory..made for interesting reading as well...

With Atari moving Defender 2000 from CD to cartridge and cutting Cybermorph down to fit onto smaller cartridge..i am somewhat surprised they didn't tell Core Design to cut content and make Soul Star a cartridge title, if it meant less play testing and would see the game finished quicker and they could have another Jaguar game out at retail..

 

As i stated before many times, Conan/Konan was playable at WCES 1995 alongside Phear (which was also playable) but it's most likely that it was playable behind closed doors. Deathwatch/Switchdeath on the other hand was playable on the show floor, in fact it was shown alongside Computer West' Hyper Force.

And Super Kart is obviously Atari Kart but on a 1995 issue of CD Consoles, alpha screenshots of the game were shown under the generic title Kart.

AEO were very lucky, they saw stuff that many of us we'll never have the chance of seeing. The Cyberroach entries of unreleased games for the system mention them a lot!

 

The mentioning of a possible cart version of Soulstar doesn't surprise me at all, since they were doing Soulstar X for the 32X after all. At least that last line by Andrew Smith proves that the were indeed planning to make more conversions of their 3D-ish Sega CD games.

 

Jaguar Explorer Online talking to OMC Games..had to cut non-Jaguar related content to fit within character limit of posting..


[JEO] What does OMC Games do?

[JG] That's a good question. I think that will be defined over the next
year or so. Currently, we publish. Mostly small periodicals, but we're
moving into games and such. There are currently two games on the roster,
The Assassin, and Age Of Darkness. Both for the Atari Jaguar. Eventually
I'm planning to do stuff for the Sega Dreamcast. Orb Of Bengazi might be
released for that system, but I'm still not sure yet.

OMC is also the medium for which I can express myself without going through
the HUGE companies who require you to fill out too many forms and force you
to compromise your own vision. Eventually, I hope to help others reach that
same plane. Let's face it, it's hard to get anything published these days,
so OMC will be an avenue for others to test out their talents and such and
get things released. Maybe it's too broad of a vision, but it's something I
feel strongly about.

[JEO] What type of game will "The Assassin" be?

[JG] The Assassin is really a testing of the Age Of Darkness engine, and
the prequel to Orb Of Bengazi. I've thought of it as a tribute to the
action greats John Woo, Chow Yun Fat, and Bruce Willis. I've designed a lot
of the stunts and action sequences with them in mind, though the main
character is more like a Bruce Willis character and a little Chow Yun Fat
mixed in for good measure. It will be awesome if I can get slow motion to
work.

It's 2D bird's-eye with about a 3 to 5 degree angle to give it a semi-3D
look. I used just about every button on the pad (ProController recommended)
and we're planning on adding a lot of gameplay elements such as changing
weather, time of day, getting tired, special moves which can be used to
perform stunts and such. It will be possible to use multiple guns, dive
over tables, jump off buildings, etc. Not to mention some extremely cool
gameplay elements that I'm keeping under wraps at the moment. I think a lot
of people will be pleasantly surprised.

The game is set in the year 2147 in a world which is basically the world as
we know it except orcs, elves, goblins, sprites, dwarves, dragons,
vampires, etc. are meshed into everyday life. The genre is specifically
cyberpunk. Picture JFK as an elf, or Martin Luther King as an orc. It's
based in the role playing world we put together entitled "Blood City" which
I'm hoping will be released simultaneously with The Assassin.

If all goes well I'm even going to attempt to do city movement, via
vehicles, in polygons. I figure I could put together some pretty
interesting car chases and provide a more interesting view of the various
cities I have planned. You will also be able to purchase vehicles and
weapons, as well as take missions or cases.

If I had to describe it, I'd say that The Assassin is more of an
RPG/Mystery/Action game. The action takes place in real-time, and there
will be a MAJOR storyline underneath that. There are subplots and extra
cases you can take for cash and personal satisfaction. It's an RPG, which
means you get experience and go up levels, also there are skills and you
can pick and mix them from the beginning (as you will see in the demo), and
acquire new skills as you progress through the game. We're even working on
adding an extremely difficult case that, if solved, could earn a lucky
person $500 and a free copy of Age Of Darkness. I'll add more details on
the day of release. I can't leave out the fact that the game is not for
kids. It's dark, depressing, violent, and extremely ruthless. Not much
different than games released these days, but the adult content (language,
nudity, etc.) is pretty high. We've tried hard to capture the real essence
of cyberpunk. I'm almost positive the ESRB will give it the highest rating
in the book, and I wouldn't settle for anything less.

The basic storyline is pretty simple. You take the role of Michael Steele,
a human Chicago detective, who goes to Austin, TX to investigate the death
of his brother. During his investigation he finds out his brother was
murdered and so he tracks down his brother's killer and murders him in cold
blood. He gets caught and sent to jail, where he goes to trial, and the
game starts there. This is the short version, but I'm sure you get the
idea. The story gets pretty complex, and you find out a number of things,
which set the stage for Bengazi.

Heh, heh. I apologize for being long-winded. There's just a lot to the
game.

[JEO] When did you decide to develop a game for the Jaguar, and why?

[JG] I actually had no plans on bringing it to the Jaguar. It was
originally an Atari 8-bit exclusive, but after I arrived in Japan, I found
that my 800XL wouldn't work here. I was more than irritated at that, and I
had to spend a number of days apologizing to my girlfriend for being an
ass. At that point I couldn't let all of our hard work go to waste, so
since I had also brought some Jaguar development materials with me, I
thought it would be more productive to just do a Jaguar version and wait
until I got back to the States before I finished the 8-bit version. I think
gamers will benefit from this transition as we can add a bit more "color"
to it than was originally planned.



[JEO] Do you have any experience with game development?

[JG] On a large scale, I'd say no. I worked on a game back in '86 for the
Atari 8-bit called "St. Lauril's Castle". It was a pretty impressive piece
of work, but it was a semi-text adventure type game (RPG elements, but no
actual graphics), and I couldn't get Electronic Arts or Datasoft to pick it
up. Decided to give it up. I think that's about the closest anyone here has
gotten. The Assassin is OMC's first major game project.

[JEO] Who is the team working on The Assassin?

[JG] Currently, there are four of us. Two programmers, a musician, and one
technician.

* I'm the lead programmer, and another guy works on doing other things, but
he's still a bit wet behind the ears so I'll keep his name anonymous a
little while longer. Heh, heh. I also wrote the story, script, and have
done most of the graphics.

* Sandro Sarang, the technician, handles pressing CDs and getting programs
to work with the CD dev kit. Sandro also handles any problems we have with
dev kits and such. He's not really an assembly programmer, so I try to keep
him away from writing too much code. He's been getting his hands into doing
graphics, and may take up writing some cases.

* Arthur Lauritsen is the musician and this is his first project. He's
good, and I think he'll do a good job. He was quite happy when I told him
he'd be using redbook audio instead of converting code on the 800XL. We're
going to have a few [samples of his work] on the OMC site in a couple of
weeks.

We're going to most likely be adding another programmer and a writer to the
ranks sometime soon. Heh, heh. Of course, I still don't have that artist...

[JEO] How did you obtain your Jaguar devkit?

[JG] You know, my journey towards getting a dev kit has been a long and
hard-fought one. And experiences such as that can ruin a person's
perspective on the whole industry. So everything I've gotten so far has
been from various places and cost quite a bit of money. Including B&C, some
people who I vowed I'd keep undercover, and I got my BJL from Scott
Walters. A pretty cool guy, I must say.

[JEO] What are the projected tech specs for The Assassin?

[JG] The Assassin is going to be mostly 320x240 resolution, with the
exception of the option screen which will be 640x480. Both resolutions will
be in 16-bit color using straight RGB instead of the CRY color system. I
haven't decided whether or not this is a bad thing or not, yet. Sprites are
currently at 256 color, but may change depending on the situation.

I'm shooting for about 30 FPS or something close. I think 60 FPS is
virtually impossible with the number of things going on especially during
combat. I'm using strictly GPU/DSP code which is quite fast, so there
shouldn't be any complaints about us not utilizing the processors to the
fullest. I would like to get the parallel processing working, but it takes
some serious timing to get it to work properly. We're still experimenting,
but to be honest, I'd be happy with 30 FPS.

The game will be on CD and I'm working with Hasbro now to make sure that
encryption issues won't be a problem in the future. There won't be any FMV,
so we're going to use the CD for nothing but game. Therefore it will be
impossible for the game to be crammed into a cartridge, unlike Iron Soldier
2. Heh, heh, heh.

[JEO] It sounds like The Assassin is basically going to be a scrolling,
tile-graphics based game with sprite, which the Jag excels at. What are all
these other things going on that will slow it down to 30FPS?

[JG] Constantly moving blocks of code with a lot of jumps back and forth
from main memory to GPU RAM, special effects in which the sprite is
modified (such as lighting effects, translucencies), constantly keeping
track of NPCs on the screen, character and background animations, and all
the extra things like weather, the clock (which is displayed on the
screen), collisions, etc. I haven't tested all of these things at this
point, so my actual speed may be better than I realize, but I figure it
would be better to start with something reasonable and if I get better
results then we'll all be happier.

[JEO] Will the use of RGB color let you do colored lighting effects?

[JG] As I've seen so far, yes. Of course, when it comes to the polygons,
I'll use CRY mode. The shading is much better.

[JEO] By all accounts the JagCD was almost impossible to develop for, even
for fully supported, licensed developers. What drove you to taking the CD
route? Are you confident CD development won't cause you any major problems?

[JG] The real problem with CD is that it doesn't use a file system so you
actually have to seek the disk like you were looking for a song, then
checksum the data to make sure you got the right stuff. It's a lot of trial
and error. That's why I have Sandro spending most of his time working on
that area. I knew about that headache before I even got started. Also,
Atari had a couple of tools that help in "padding" the tracks with the
right information, so you don't necessarily have to remember all of the
details that goes with adding files to your file pool. It may be tough, but
I don't think impossible.

The reason why I went for CD is so I didn't have to worry about limiting
the vision I had for the games. I really needed storage, and a cartridge
just wasn't going to give me enough, even at 6 MB. When each city eats up
1MB by itself, you can use it up fairly fast. Not to mention the there is
only 128 bytes of EEPROM space for storing game data. Definitely not enough
for an RPG. Heh, heh. Currently, The Assassin character file is 7,168 bytes
(7k). I heard that Atari was working on something larger, but I haven't
been able to dig up anything on it, so I'll just assume it doesn't exist.

Sure, the argument is you can compress graphics and sounds to take up quite
a bit less space, but then you have to worry about uncompacting the files,
and when you uncompact sounds you lose a little bit of the quality. Small
quibbles, but I don't want to worry about them. And you still have to worry
about that 6 MB (most of the times less) of total space. When you think
about a CD having in excess of 600 MB it seems like the obvious choice if
you have a HUGE game in mind. I think I could do a Super NES quality RPG in
6 megs, but a Jaguar quality one will require quite a bit more.

[JEO] In your talks with Hasbro, what sort of impression have you gotten
about their attitude toward the Jaguar?

[JG] That's a tough question, because I've been getting a bunch of mixed
signals since we began talking at this year's E3 show. But one thing has
been consistent... they only want to support current hardware: Playstation,
N64, and PC. On the other hand, there have been a couple of people on the
inside who have helped me out and I believe they set up someone
specifically to deal with my case, so I owe them something for that. I get
the impression they view the Jaguar as a bad coat of paint on the new house
they just bought. It would take too much work to repaint the whole house,
and it stands out too much to forget about, so they just have to live with
it even though it drives them crazy. They tolerate me, as they do the rest
of us, but I intend to get my games released, so they'll have me in their
lap until then.

[JEO] When are you projecting The Assassin to be released?

[JG] At the moment we're projecting 3rd quarter '99. This may be a bit
optimistic, but considering the amount of time I'll have to work on it and
the number of programmers involved, I think we might be able to make it.
Either way, it should make it sometime next year.

[JEO] One last question: What does "OMC" stand for?

[JG] Heh, heh, heh. The dreaded question. Well, if you can track down a man
by the name of Dilip K. Silva, he'll be more than happy to tell you, or you
can wait another 20 years when I turn 50.

[JEO] Okay, I'll bite: Who's Dilip K. Silva? And what happens in 20 years?

[JG] (grin) Dilip K. Silva was the co-founder of OMC back in 1990, but he
moved on to get his degree in Radio, Television, Film (RTF), got married,
etc. We had this thing that if someone was to ask him what it meant, he
would tell, but he was the only one who would since he was the one who
thought up the name to begin with. I haven't seen him in a number of years,
so if you find him be sure to tell him I said, "hello" and I've got the $20
I borrowed from him.

I figure if OMC is still hanging around when I turn 50, I'd just rename the
company to what it stands for (O***** M**** C*****), because I'd hate to
die and no one knew what it meant. Decided I'd make a party out of it.
Though it would be cool for a cruel joke to leave something dangling after
I'm gone. Besides, I'll be old enough to where I wouldn't care anyway.

[JEO] Is it: Oberon Meets Cthulu?

[JG] Heh, heh. That's probably the best one I've heard so far. But the
asterisks don't necessarily represent the number of characters in the name.
Heh, heh. Besides, OMC Games Division sounds much better than what it
actually stands for.

[JEO] I notice your website is composed on a Mac. Do you have a Mac? And if
so, have you ever played the game Battle-Girl?

[JG] Yeah, I use a Mac for virtually all my computer work. I even packed
her (Sherry, a.k.a. the Mac) halfway across the globe. I've heard of Battle
Girl and I thought the screen shots looked cool. I was quite impressed
especially considering it was a Mac game. Though, I never thought of
porting it over. That would be a cool idea. I'll have to check on that.

I've spied some games which were Mac exclusives that I think might make
good Jaguar ports...

[JEO] Thanks for the all info, James!

[JG] Honestly, I didn't think I had that much to say. Heh, heh. Perhaps I
had too much time on my hands. I normally dislike these kinds of things,
but I kind of like this one. I guess because it helped me straighten out
some points I'd been mulling over for the past week or so.

Talk to you later.

James Garvin
OMC Games.

 

More from Atari Explorer Online..This time talking about Francois-Yves Bertrand's future Jaguar development plans:

'After Fight for Life, Francois will be heading the Atari Magic 1
programming team (AM1) and developing three new titles. The first is
an undisclosed sports game that will be released on CD. The second is
a 3D platform game (CD or cart has not been decided as of yet) and the
third is a "special RPG" most likely also on CD.'

 

Litil Divil was a title i'd been following since it was annouced for the Atari ST and i'd hoped would be looked at, alongside the Jaguar CD version, in Mark Hardisty's superb 'A Gremlin In The works' books, but there was nothing, it did cover Gremlin Ireland's Phil Plunkett and Pat Phelan chatting about it, Phil admitting game grated after a while, hadn't been playtested as well as it should of been, gameplay needed more balancing.

Talk of how Phillips approached them for the CDi version and how game art was cleaned up, some rooms totally redone, Phillips providing majority of funding for the game, work having started on Litil Divil II...

Damian Hibbard talks about the cancelled Mega drive and SNES versions..totally different to PC and CD32 games, these being a side scrolling platform affair and cleared up claim it was going to e a SNES CD project...long term plans might of seen Mega CD and SNES CD versions...Cart versions were going well, good few levels done...


I did ask Mark to ask his Gremlin Ireland contacts to confirm claims the ST version was dropped as it would of had to of been cut down, ST market was in rapid decline so no viable market and to see if any contract was actually signed/work started on the claimed Jaguar CD version, but heard nothing back.

Game recived average to very poor reviews (22% Amiga Power), so never classed it as any great loss on Jaguar CD myself.

 

I'd love to see the work they did for the cartridge versions of Litil Devil. Did you ever ask if they kept any protos/old source code?

The original version wasn't that great, I remember it being impossible to get far. But any unreleased Genesis/SNES stuff interests me.

 

☺ I myself would be far more interested in seeing the Mega Drive/SNES version surface..than another me too version..which Jaguar CD version would of been..If it had ever surfaced...

Like you say..the original simply isn't great.

They don't mention anything about source code for SNES or MD versions being kept, in Mark's book..only that they were progressing well and a couple of levels had been completed.

Mark never got back to me regarding questions i had put to him to run past his sources at Gremlin Ireland, so i assumed further info wasn't forth coming.

He was honest enough to explain reason Jaguar Zool 2 wasn't covered in the book was due to the people he contacted about it..didn't want to discuss it further..

So i am sure he did at least try and find out more..

Would be fantastic if MD/SNES Litil Divil code did surface though.

 

If i'm not mistaken, the Jaguar CD version was based on either the Amiga or the CDI version. There's some stuff that people can't still talk or release, unless they're all clear of if it's the right opportunity to release it. Patience is a virtue.

 

Those planned Jaguar projects by Domark were F1, Marko's Magic Football, Mig-29 & Big Red Racing. They were advertised or mentioned in some pretty obscure magazines.

 

He was going to do it but the bull**** that he went through when he was developing Fight for Life made him reconsider those development plans. He got this from a extinct interview with FYB made by various old JSII back in the day.

 

Nothing sadly on SNES or MD cartridge versions, but it does mention the ST and CDTV versions..and puts The One magazines claims straight:

http://www.everythingamiga.com/2017/01/dicing-with-divil.html

 

You never know what could pop up at any time. Look at NES Simcity, many believe it would never show up and it appeared 2 weeks ago.

 

Faran T.giving his personal thoughts on just how far along Jaguar Mortal Kombat III might of progressed:

marigul/Posted 07 September 2017 - 11:39 AM(Atari I.O Forum):

" n regards to MK 3...I don't think it got far but don't remember specifics maybe a title or selection screen, if there was something more I think it would have surfaced. It was no where near a "beta".