The Atari Panther:The Game Claims/UK Press Coverage etc.

Since there is still a lot of speculation/missinformation being repeated online (mainly YouTube) and a general feeling in places that it was a mistake for Atari to cancel the Panther and indeed some saying those at Atari Corp feel in hindsight it should of been released, i thought it best to create a thread to try and finally draw something of a line under the speculation.

Many like myself, KGRAMR, Shinto etc have contacted Atari Corp and it's now very much established that despite supposed 'expert claims' Cybermorph and Crescent Galaxy were never started on The Panther.

Nor were Pitfighter(Domark), The Humans, Raiden or Steel Talons (Imagitec Design)

Jeff Minter explained to EDGE magazine, back when Game Cube Unity was still being worked on, his jumping beasts demo's were test routines for his planned Sci-Fi epic/Star Raiders-esq game, inspired by Ian M.Banks, but he only coded on Panther for a few weeks, before moving onto Jaguar.


He liked the Panther hardware, found it more powerful than the SNES.


Scott D.Williamson (atari Corp) has talked on Atari Age forum of doing a simple graphics demo on Panther.




Jim Gregory talks of his Panther exp here along with Guildo H, talking to myself of The Crypt moving from Konix to Panther:

http://forums.atari.io/index.php/to...-panther-rpg-the-crypt-lost-dragon-interview/

http://forums.atari.io/index.php/to...bout-atari-panther-and-lost-lynxjaguar-games/


I also contacted:

Fred Gill and Brian Pollock (ATD)

Atari UK's:Bob Katz, Mike Fulton, Les Player (RIP) and Darryl Still

Domark's Head Of Projects Richard Brown and Tengen's Lee Actor who both confirmed Pitfighter was NEVER started.


Joel Sieder (Atari Corp) he did the Panther O/S..didn't think hardware was much more advanced than the SNES, wouldn't of made much impact had it been released.


1 coder, 1 artist and 2 bosses from Tiertex:Strider 2 was planned/Green lit.

Rob Zydbel-Was working on original games for Panther, but cannot recal which, it's been far too many years.

Susan Mcbride:Atari Corp-Never replied to Q's sent.

Martin Brennan-Too busy with work to reply to Q's sent.


BJ West and Ted Taq. Atari Corp

Peter Johnson who confirmed he/Andrew Bond WERE converting Shadow Of The Beast to Panther.


No One in my experience felt Panther being cancelled was a mistake or would of bought Atari/The Jaguar any time.


I will put up UK Press coverage in a seperate post or posts..

 

Boss Of Atari UK explaining why Panther was given low priority over Lynx, rumours of the attempt to take on Consoles by Sega/Nintendo-Project Robin, Rob Zydbel trying to convince atari to release the ST as a console in an XE case, have ST coin op conversions of OLD Atari games as launch titles, plus reviews of said games (and why this would of been a very bad idea),

 

Atari Marketing Manager explaining IF Panther had launched there would only be 9-12 months before Jaguar ready to launch (Not 3 years as some experts have claimed), The One Magazines article who's incorrect info has in the past, been passed around as FACT...

Mev Dinc explaining he was offered chance to develop for it, but stayed well clear

 

very interesting to read, thanks for the workup!

 

thank You.

I did feel it was important to have a 'Collected works' as it were of sources of information, which go someway to prove the homework has been done as it were, we (unseen64/Shinto/Myself/GTW etc) took claims made by Atari user Fanzine, The One, Marty goldberg etc as a starting point, NOT at face value....and contacted multiple sources for the most balanced views we could get.

I'm happy to be 100% honest about my sources, who actually replied, who was honest enough to admit they couldn't remember much...etc.


1 Atari corp source didn't want to be quoted, but he joined list of those who hated Panther hardware and said it would of done nothing for Atari, had it been released....but then with ST ports of things like strider II and SOTB, how could it of?

Interesting to note the UK Press reaction to Atari's claims, espically after the Lynx came in at a far higher price than Atari had promised (ironically so did the Jaguar hardware+software, but that's a story for another day)....



I was a 520STFM owner when reports of The panther started to appear and the ST was in decline even then, software support from the USA was pretty much non-existant, UK software houses had started embracing the superior hardware of The Amiga and we saw ST versions appear after the Amiga versions, IF at all in some cases.


So i've personally never bought into claims Panther could of bought Atari time to bug test the Jaguar, let alone beef it up to beat Saturn/PS1...

I was a Mk 1 and MK II Lynx owner, atari squandered that device as well-how ironic they annouce Lynx Rolling Thunder the same time they annouce the cancellation of The panther.


As you'll see by Mev Dinc's comments also, developers, Press and public had simply lost faith in Atari..too much talk from them, with far too little action to back it up by now.


Hopefully this thread will go some way to repair the damage caused by so much incorrect information being passed off as FACT over the years.

 

Wherever you get all those scans...faxes...emails...thank you man ! :'D

 

I was an avid magazine collector since i 1st got into gaming (Sinclair ZX81), i had amassed a huge collection over the years which was a bloody'mare everytime i moved house, which i was doing a lot at 1 point, so gave away what i could, recycled the rest..but i didn't want to loose the information, as i knew UK Press covered things like The Panther far more than US Press, so paid £5 a DVD for Mort's Magazine scans..entire mag collections on disc.

The faxes/internal documents from Atari Corp are thanks to a USA Historian friend of mine, Scott stilphen, who sent them to me after i lent him various UK magazines/files etc, plus passed on my Atari related interviews for use on his website.

The whole research thing has worked as 1 massive community effort over the years..Finds made on behalf of:ST Gamer/GTW/Unseen64 shared with sites far and wide and when interviewing we ask about formats we know others are interested in.


Until i spoke to Guildo, Slipstream, The Konix Multisystem site had no idea about The Crpt starting out as a Konix RPG, i also gave them a heads up on ODE and Sailing on The Konix....


They very kindly contacted Martin B. on my behalf.



I've been assisting GTW for years, they have Facebook contacts (FB something i never use) so they approached Tiertex/Susan Mcbride on my behalf...

And so on and so on.

It's worked out very well as everyone is doing it for the love of the subject, not fame or fortune.

 

Here's from Curt Vendel himself, who posted it at Atari Explorer, the technical specifications of the Panther. This is not the final laydown of the tech specs. Leonard Tramiel has it so i will let him come foward and show them to the public, either on a magazine like Retro Gamer or on the Jaguar Sector III group. I recovered it before it could be lost.

 

Here's a article from one of my helpers that he wrote for Pixel Nation back in 2012. Of couse some of the info here will be incorrect thanks to the rundown Leonard gave in JSIII. I'm posting this here with his permission:

 

People seem to like seeing Internal Atari corp files on Lost games, so time to add the 7800 to the list.

Huge thanks to Scott Stilphen for the files.

 

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https://web.archive.org/web/20031202031226/http://www.atari-explorer.com/jaguar-panther.html

Tech specs document unlikely to be lost as it and more PR statements from Atari Corp, plus Design Blue Print are all avaiable online here and at other online sources.

 

Hey, nobody's perfect when it comes to names the sources. He forgot to say that the images came from that magazine. It can happen to anybody...

 

This is really awesome. Thanks for posting!

 

your most welcome

In the past I've paid good money for UK magazines like RetroGamer, who do dedicated company profiles in hope of getting inside info on what the story behind lost games actually was..

Never had the answers..so now details start to emerge, I do what I can to ensure everyone gets to know.

 

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PLEASE NOTE WELL:

This thread was created so ANYONE thinking of doing an article on the Panther has a credible source of information..PERIOD.


It's already being used by 2 such sites for future projects a 3rd using the Tiertex Strider 2 Panther info specifically.


IT IS NOT:

Designed for promoting Jaguar based Face Book groups..

Attempts to air an agenda

Defend previously written, poorly researched articles on the Panther, but to ensure future articles are of the highest standards possible.

I welcome any and all fresh finds regarding the Panther, but nonsense posts are not welcome..You've the entire Internet awaiting you for that..

No pollution please.

 

Excuse these not being in order, nor in dedicated Lost Jaguar games thread, but due to some bizzare agenda JSIII seem to be undertaking, i'd rather put my material seperate.

Thanks as always to Scott Stilphen for forwarding on these.

A very wonderful look at just how bad things were between Atari Corp and Jaguar developers at the time.

I cracked up reading how Leonard Tramiel had over sold the 3D rendering Power of the Jaguar.

After reading Ringler studio's, ATD, Missile Command 3D and Jim Gregory talk about how difficult Leonard was to convince hardware was bugged or texture mapping a game was a real bvad idea on Jaguar, i have to admit he's not someone i myself would of liked to of interviewed.