Atari Explorer Online: 23-Apr-94 #0307
From: Bruce D. Nelson (aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 04/25/94-10:15:50 AM Z
From: aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bruce D. Nelson)
Subject: Atari Explorer Online: 23-Apr-94 #0307
Date: Mon Apr 25 10:15:50 1994
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Volume 3 - Issue 7 ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE 23 April 1994 ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: ::
:: ATARI .............. News, reviews, & solutions ............ ATARI ::
:: EXPLORER ............ for the online Atari .......... EXPLORER ::
:: ONLINE ................. Community .............. ONLINE ::
:: ::
:: Published and Copyright (c) 1993-1994 by Subspace Publishers ::
:: All Rights Reserved ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: Publisher ........................... Michael Lindsay EXPLORER ::
:: Editor .................................. Travis Guy AEO.MAG ::
:: Assistant Editor GEnie................ Ron Robinson EXPLORER.1 ::
:: Assistant Editor CompuServe.......... Albert Dayes AEO.1 ::
:: Assistant Editor Delphi......... Andreas Barbiero AEO.2 ::
:: Assistant Editor Internet........ Timothy Wilson AEO.8 ::
:: Atari Asylum ... [Closed] ...... Gregg Anderson AEO.7 ::
:: Unabashed Atariophile ..... Michael R. Burkley AEO.4 ::
:: Atari Artist ................... Peter Donoso EXPLORER.2 ::
:: Jaguar Junkie ............... Tal Funke-Bilu EXPLORER.5 ::
:: User Group Coordinator ........ Ron Whittam EXPLORER.4 ::
:: ::
:: Contributors: ::
:: """"""""""""" ::
:: Loic Duval, Michael Robinson ::
:: David A. Wright ::
:: ::
:: ::
:: Telecommunicated to you via: ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: GEnie: AEO.MAG ::
:: CompuServe: 70007,3615 ::
:: Delphi: AEO_MAG ::
:: Fnet: AEO Conference, Node 319 ::
:: AtariNet: AEO Conference, Node 51:1/10 ::
:: ::
:: Internet mailing address: aeo.mag@genie.geis.com ::
:: FTP AEO Volume 3 issues from: rahul.net:pub/wilsont/AEO ::
:: Search gopherspace under "aeo" for back issues ::
:: ::
:: Internet subscription service: stzmagazine-request@virginia.edu ::
:: (Internet subscription requests ONLY!) ::
:: ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Table of Contents
* From the Editors ......................................... Cut. Print it.
* Digital Briefs ................................ Computer, high tech, and
video game industry news.
* Rare Gems ......................................... Quotes worth reading.
* Jaguar Tackboard ...................... New developers & titles / Quotes.
* Preview of Jaguar Games/Bay Area Devcon ..... Resident Jaguar programmer
Tim Wilson went to the
Bay Area Jaguar Devcon
and got to play with
some beta titles.
* Jaguar NewsPhrases .................. Tal scoops up some of the freshest
Jaguar news; alas no Minter!
* ECTS - Traque du Jaguar a Londres .......... Stalking a Jaguar in London
was easy for Loic last
week. See what was shown.
* CeBIT '94 ....................... Atari wasn't there, but TOS items were.
* Atari Artist ..................... A call for TOS standardization - more
Wizztronics wizardry - MIDI news.
* InShape ................................. 3D modelling and rendering for
high-powered Atari's only!
* The Creation of BattlePong 2001 ........... Not joking, Michael Robinson
tells how he used InShape
and an Editor's weird
idea to pull a prank.
* Andreas' Den ...................... A slew of new ST games on their way?
That and TT acceleration are on
Andreas' mind lately.
* "From a Saved Backup" ............... The club newsletter. Communication
at the heart of a users group.
* News From Usenet ............... Odds and ends from that largest of nets.
* The Unabashed Atariophile ................... PD and Shareware files for
_your_ Atari computer.
* GEnie News ........................... New files & happenings on Atari's
Official Online Resource.
* Developing News ......................... Texas Atari Festival
Fez.A.Bit, Berlin
ICD Link 2
Processor Direct Prints!
DMC's Customer Offer
Calamus User Magazine
Audio CD Master 3.0
Diamond Back 3 Shipping
Space & Astronomy Compact Disc
Mastering AtariWorks
Radio Computer Magazine
ROMWARE's Software Hunt
* Shutdown ............................ Around the world and up your block.
--==--==--==--==--
||| From the Editors ....... Atari Explorer Online: The Next Generation
||| Travis Guy
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.MAG Delphi: AEO_MAG Internet: aeo.mag@genie.geis.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Wow. There's so much going on in the World Atari of late that I had to
stop the building of this issue at the quarter-megabyte mark and leave
some stuff for next time. (The lesser of an editor's two nightmares:
"Not enough to fill an issue" vs. "Too much, what can I cut?".)
I've listened to the comments and EMails asking if AEO was ignoring
Atari computer owners for the new Jaguar crowd, and this issue should
be the start of the response: No. We're increasing our Atari computer
coverage with a report from CeBIT, a review of InShape, Atari Artist
returns with more news from Wizztronics and Steinberg, Usenet news,
over 33K of TOS press releases, and our regular columns from Andreas,
Michael Burkley and Ron Whittam, now an AEO regular - welcome him
aboard everyone. Many more reviews and articles are in the works. (A
few were even cut from this issue!) I don't think anybody will be
disappointed.
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.
I've even been able to add a touch of class to this motley
collection. "Rare Gems" are a weekly collection of quotes chosen by
an online personality I've admired for years, David Wright. Mr.
Wright has consented to the inclusion of his "Rare Gems" in AEO, and
I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
"What next," you ask. "Grunge Jaguar fiction?"
"Tune in next issue and see," I reply. "Change is a part of life."
Our condolences go out to the family and friends of the late President
Richard M. Nixon, the 26 UN volunteer peacekeepers who were accidently
killed in Iraq, and most of all, to all of the victims of the violence
in Bosnia.
It's Earth Day. Be kind to your planet and to your neighbors. It's
not that hard, folks.
See you back here in two weeks.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Digital Briefs - Industry News
||| By: Albert Dayes
/ | \ CIS: 70007,3615 GEnie: AEO.1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Atari News
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Atari Stock to Warner Communications - Atari Corp. recently
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" reported that agreement
for the sale of common stock to Time Warner Inc., as reported on March
24, 1994, has been completed. Atari Corp. has sold Time Warner Inc.
1.5 million shares of its common stock at a price of $8.50 per share
for a total of $12.8 million. The transaction increases Time Warner
Inc.'s interest in Atari Corp. to approximately 27%. Time-Warner has
since transferred the sotck to Warner Communications, the former
parent of Atari Inc.
//// Atari Ships Tempest 2000 for Jaguar - Atari Corp. announced it
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" is shipping Tempest 2000
for Jaguar, its award-winning 64-bit game system. Tempest 2000 was
recently awarded "CES Game of Show" (Electronic Games Magazine), "Game
of the Month/March" (DieHard GameFan) and "Game of the Month/March"
and "Editor's Choice Gold Award" (Electronic Gaming Monthly).
The original Tempest is one of the most popular video games in arcade
history. With Tempest 2000, players get four games on one game
cartridge: the original Tempest, Tempest Plus, Tempest 2000 and
Tempest Duel.
"Tempest 2000 is the hottest selling title on Jaguar today," said
Peter Roithmayr, senior buyer at Electronics Boutique. "We sold over
60 percent of our Tempest 2000 stock within four days; most sold in
the first two days of shelf life. Tempest 2000 is in very high demand
because the popularity of the Jaguar has far exceeded the gaming
industry's expectations."
"Tempest, by itself, is worth the price of the Jag - Tempest 2000 for
Jaguar is further proof that the next level of gaming has arrived,"
said Dave Halverson, DieHard GameFan.
Tempest 2000 players venture through 100 unchartered galaxies filled
with "Demon Heads," a very aggressive and deadly enemy and "Warp Bonus
Tokens," which count toward bonus levels and a free instant
"SuperZapper," a player's defense which can destroy everything on the
screen.
"We are pleased to offer Jaguar players Tempest 2000, which has
already captured the attention and praise of the industry's leading
game publications, " said Sam Tramiel, president of Atari Corp.
"Tempest 2000 has hit the ground running - Jaguar's 64-bit technology
has allowed us to make one of the industry's most exciting,
challenging games even more outstanding."
Tempest 2000 features two-player cooperative play and more than 30
minutes of pure CD-quality techno-rave soundtrack. In addition:
-- Powerful 3D polygons provide realistic parallax star fields
-- Particle displays deliver realistic explosions
-- Melt-O-Vision graphics provide stunning graphic effects
-- Cycle shading gives players accurate depth perception
Atari Tempest 2000 is immediately available through all
Atari-authorized retailers for $59.99.Atari Jaguar is the world's
first 64-bit interactive multimedia home entertainment system and is
the only video game system manufactured in the United States. Jaguar
was recently named the industry's "Best New Game System" (VideoGames
Magazine), "Best New Hardware System" (Game Informer) and "1993
Technical Achievement of the Year" (DieHard GameFan).
Atari Corp., based in Sunnyvale, manufactures and markets 64-bit
interactive multimedia entertainment systems, video games and personal
computers for the home, office and educational marketplaces.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
//// Yerger Lawsuit Decision - Earlier this week, a decision in the
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" California case brought against Atari
Corp. by Bill Yerger was reached in Atari's favor. While AEO hasn't
seen a transcript from the trial at this time, it is worth noting that
some rather "interesting" testimony was reported to have been given.
No announcements have been made as to whether any appeals are planned.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Technology News
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Optical Power - An Optically Powered Data Link (OPDL) system
"""""""""""""""""" providing total immunity to electromagnetic and
radio frequency interference (EMI and RFI) has been developed by
Photonic Power Systems, Inc.
Fiber optic power uses light in an optical fiber to transmit power
instead of electricity in a copper conductor. As such, the technology
avoids the drawbacks of conventional power transmission, including
susceptibility to electromagnetic and radiofrequency interference,
ground loops and the devastating effects of lightning. It has
important applications in electric power transmission grids, mining
and munitions, corrosive atmospheres, and many other critical
installations.
//// Squeeze an Atom? - AT&T Bell Laboratories researchers have
""""""""""""""""""""" invented a fundamentally new type of
semiconductor laser - called a quantum cascade (QC) laser - that
operates like an electronic waterfall.
It is the world's first laser that can be tailored to emit light at a
specific wavelength set at nearly any point over a very wide range
from the mid-to far-infrared spectrum. This can be done by simply
varying the layer thicknesses of the laser, using the same combination
of materials.
The QC laser's emission wavelength is entirely determined by quantum
confinement effects: the fact that its layers are so thin - typically
a few nanometers, or about 100 billionths of an inch - that electrons
are squeezed and change their quantum mechanical properties. One can
tailor the laser's wavelength continuously over an enormous range by
changing layer thicknesses.
//// Green Disks and Ham? - GreenDisks are high-quality recycled
""""""""""""""""""""""""" diskettes, extracted from outdated
packages that software companies had not yet sold before a new version
was shipped. GreenDisk works with concerned software companies,
collecting these obsolete versions of their products. They break down
the packaging and recycle the paper and plastic components. The
diskettes are "degaussed" - a magnetic process which completely erases
all information. Next, the diskettes are preformatted, prelabelled and
packaged.
Within its first year, GreenDisk Inc has recycled over 5 million
pounds of software. The company first began operations one year ago
on Earth Day.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Computer Business
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// IBM Stac'ed - IBM recently licensed data compression technology
"""""""""""""""" for all IBM software including DOS and OS/2. This
comes quickly after Stac won a legal victory over Microsoft involving
the same technology. Stacker data compression technology, now in its
fourth generation, is the first product of its kind to break the 2:1
compression barrier. Beyond increasing storage capacity, Stacker 4.0
provides new safety features for enhanced reliability and a
comprehensive tool set for managing Stacker drives.
//// Flash: Memory Near $3 Billion - Dataquest recently announced
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" the results of its flash memory
market forecast, which indicated that the flash memory market is
expected to increase from $634 million in 1993 to $2.975 billion by
1997. According to the forecast, North America will have approximately
50 percent of the worldwide market.
Flash, a nonvolatile memory, retains information even when power is
disrupted. Flash memory is increasingly used in a variety of equipment
such as small personal computers, personal digital assistants, laser
printers, and facsimile machines. The demand for flash memory will
come mainly from the replacement of EPROMs, silicon disk drives, and
solid state recorders.
//// "Mrs. Bell, Godzilla on Video Line 4" - AT&T has signed licensing
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" agreements under which
four major Japanese consumer electronics companies will be able to
introduce and promote new products compatible with AT&T's proprietary
VideoPhone technology.
AT&T said the agreements are evidence that its Global VideoPhone
Standard (GVS), is becoming the de facto standard for video telephony
in the consumer electronics industry.
//// Peaches Picked - Automatic Data Processing announced Tuesday that
""""""""""""""""""" it was buying Preachtree Software for an
undislosed sum. Peachtree is a maker of accounting software on the IBM
PC platform. ADP is a large computer consulting firm with revenue in
excess of $2 billion dollars.
//// Superman Online - DC Comics Online will soon make its debut on
"""""""""""""""""""" AOL (American OnLine). It will provide
services such as, information on new comics, previews, interviews,
graphic files, and background information on making comics in general.
In addition users of the online service will be able to talk directly
to the authors and writers of many of the comics.
//// Hard Drive Makers Write Protection - Seagate and Toshiba signed a
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" broad, worldwide patent
cross-licensing agreement which permits each partner to use a number
of magnetic mass storage technologies covered by the other's patents.
The agreement demonstrates the desire of both companies to compete on
commercial values, unimpeded by the risk of patent litigation.
"The disc drive industry today has become mired in costly,
unproductive patent litigation and the trend toward hostile patent
claims continues," said Alan F. Shugart, president and chief executive
officer of Seagate Technology. "We are pleased Toshiba shares our
belief that cross-licensing benefits everyone in the industry -
fostering a more competitive market environment where innovation
flourishes and end-users realize the best product options available."
Seagate also holds similar agreements with industry leaders including
Quantum Corp., NEC, and Hitachi. Patent cross-licensing agreements
allow companies to compete on commercial values, unimpeded by mutually
blocking patent portfolios.
//// Cyrix Dumps TI for IBM - IBM and Cyrix announced a five-year
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" agreement for advanced x86-compatible
microprocessors. This comes quickly after lawsuits were filed between
TI (Texas Instruments) and Cyrix on royalty payments and patent
protection.
Under the agreement, IBM's Microelectronics Division will become a
primary manufacturer of Cyrix-designed 486-compatible microprocessors.
In addition, Cyrix has selected IBM's industry-leading half-micron
CMOS process technology for use in its M1, an advanced Pentium-class
microprocessor, and successive high-performance designs. Both
companies have made investments to ensure availability of
Cyrix-designed product manufactured at IBM facilities. In addition to
supplying these microprocessors to Cyrix, IBM has the right to
manufacture an equivalent amount for use internally or to sell on an
OEM basis.
//// Phoenix Patent Rises - Phoenix Technologies was recently granted
""""""""""""""""""""""""" a patent for its PostScript language
clone color technology. The patent deals mainly with its half-tone
screening techniques used in its software. It increases color
gradation without losing resolution or using more memory when
generating an image.
//// Size not Important - Quantum won a victory over Rodime (another
""""""""""""""""""""""" hard drive maker) when a partial summary
judgment ruled that size of a hard drive does not matter. This was due
to Rodime's claim that it could patent the size of 3.5 inch drive.
Quantum was the only company so far to fight Rodime's patent claims
even when IBM, Conner and other hard drive manufactures had alreaady
paid Rodime.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Smart Weapons
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// No Tail - The "X-31" program is designed by NASA to determine
"""""""""""" unique performance increasing characteristics for the
next generation aircraft. The X-31 program is an international
experimental project of the two countries United States and Germany.
The aircraft recently tested at Edwards Air Force base should be one
of the first tailless aircraft to break the sound barrier. Three
vanes extend beyond the back of the plane which use exhaust to control
the aircraft. The aircraft has also demonstrated its ability to fly at
high angles of attack (which would cause normal jet aircraft to stall)
and make abrupt 180-degree turns.
One important advantage military of the craft its increased stealth
characteristics. In addition for non military use it provides such
benefits as reduced weight, smaller amount of drag and less fuel
consumption.
//// Take a Long Bow - The Army's AH-64 (Apache) helicoper was
"""""""""""""""""""" recently enhanced during a special upgrade
project called Longbow. Transmission and sharing of digital targeting
data - vital to the Army's success on the next-generation digitized
battlefield - was successfully demonstrated recently by an airborne
Longbow Apache prototype for the first time.
The first of what will develop into a library of Longbow messages was
transmitted from the Longbow Apache to a mobile ground station using
an Improved Data Modem (IDM), an integral part of the aircraft's
avionics suite. The IDM will enable crews to instantly communicate
digital targeting data with other air and ground IDM-equipped or
IDM-compatible forces.
The IDM will enable pilots to communicate digital targeting data and
other information needed to accomplish near real-time fire zone
coordination, fire control and target handoff.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Video Game Industry News
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Fujiless Arcades? - Time-Warner's game and multimedia units plan
"""""""""""""""""""""" to integrate their operations soon. The
units are Time Warner Interactive Group, Atari Games Corp. and Tengen
Inc. They will operate under the common name, Time Warner Interactive.
The new structure will allow the organization to develop and publish
interactive consumer entertainment products that span across all
platforms including coin-op video games, home video games, CD-ROM
entertainment titles (for game-based machines as well as computer
platforms) and interactive TV applications.
//// Nintendo Postponing Reality? - Rumors are that Japanese video
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" game manufacturer Nintendo has
purchased a design for a new home console video game unit from a
Japanese industrial company. It has been said that this new unit is
-not- part of Nintendo's planned 64-bit "Project Reality", and may
debut in early 1995 for less than $200.
//// A Claim to Sega? - Acclaim will become the first US entertainment
""""""""""""""""""""" software maker to use Sega's Titan technology
to create games across Sega's high-end hardware systems including
coin-op; Genesis Super 32X; and the yet-to-be-introduced platform,
code-named Saturn. The first release published under the agreement
will be based on a soon-to-be-released major motion picture.
//// Trade WMS - WMS Industries announced that it has entered into an
"""""""""""""" agreement to acquire privately-held Tradewest Inc.
and certain related companies. The acquisition provides WMS with an
established home video game development group, worldwide distribution
network and industry licenses. Tradewest is a licensee and publisher
for Nintendo, Sega, Atari and 3DO platforms and produces games for IBM
compatible and Macintosh personal computer applications.
//// Toshiba licenses 3DO - Toshiba has signed a hardware license
""""""""""""""""""""""""" agreement to manufacture, market, and
distribute 3DO products. Toshiba also plans to develop a portable
version of the 3DO system that can also be installed in cars.
//// Mega Fight on the Big Screen - Capcom (best known for its Street
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Fighter games) has made several
deals involving Mega Man. Bandai will bring Capcom's famous software
superhero to the action toy market, while Sony Music Entertainment
will market and distribute episodes from the much-anticipated Mega Man
TV series on home video. In other path-blazing, video game-based
projects will bring Capcom's Street Fighter II to the motion picture
industry in December. The live action film's expected bugdet will be
around $34 million dollars.
//// Orion on CD-I - Philips announced that it has signed an
"""""""""""""""""" agreement with Orion Home Video to distribute
films from the Orion Home Video library for the Compact Disc
Interactive system, using the Digital Video (MPEG-1) technology for
full screen full motion video on Compact Disc.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Rare Gems
||| Compiled by: David A. Wright
/ | \ GEnie: DAVE.WRIGHT
----------------------------------------------------------------
The following are the "Rare Gems (sm)" selections for April 3 to 9,
1994. "Rare Gems" is a service mark (sm) of Rare Breed Noninc. and
David Alan Wright. Compilation copyright 1994 by same. All Wright's
rights reserved. Each weekly or monthly collection may be distributed
freely as long as this notice is retained. Multiple collections, such
as CD-ROM, print, electronic, and other publications, may not be
distributed without further authorization. We don't take American
Express. --:Dave
===
None can love freedom heartily, but good men - the rest love not
freedom, but license. --John Milton
Man no sooner discovers a new intelligence, than he tries to
involve it in his own stupidity. --Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Let them laugh. The present is theirs, but the future I'm really
working towards is mine. --Nikolai Tesla
Who lies for you will lie against you. --Bosnian proverb
If you won't be better tomorrow than you were today, then what do
you need tomorrow for? --Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav
Is not this the true romantic feeling - not to desire to escape
life, but to prevent life from escaping you. --Thomas Wolfe
After the game, the king and pawn go into the same box.
--Italian proverb
The following are the "Rare Gems (sm)" selections for April 10 to 16,
1994. "Rare Gems" is a service mark (sm) of Rare Breed Noninc. and
David Alan Wright. Compilation copyright 1994 by same. All Wright's
rights reserved. Each weekly or monthly collection may be distributed
freely as long as this notice is retained. Multiple collections, such
as CD-ROM, print, electronic, and other publications, may not be
distributed without further authorization. May cause perkiness.
--:Dave
===
Everyone has a photographic memory, but some don't have film.
--Unknown
Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI. --Tony Hendra &
Michael O'Donoghue
Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less
boring and because it has fresh peaches in it. --Thomas Walker
Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved. --D. H. Lawrence
Life is a handful of short stories, pretending to be a novel.
--Unknown
Stop complaining. You knew what you were getting into when your
father left you the business. --Queen to king, cartoon by Harris
For every vision, there is an equal and opposite revision.
--Unknown
--==--==--==--==--
||| 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.
I'll leave you with this parting caption I dug up from EGM #16 in
1990:
"Quartermann has scored big this month with the first solid
news on what could become the most exciting new system of
the decade! No, I'm not talking about the big "N's" SFX, I'm
pointing my joystick at none other than Atari Corporation!
The creators of the console, who remained content with their
position as the low priced man on the totem pole, have
decided to launch a superior system to sit next to their
cutting edge Lynx portable! The new system, code-named
Panther, reportedly uses an advanced 16-Bit processor and
comes with a totally explosive package of abilities that
include scaling, multi-field scrolling and more! While
little else is known about the Panther at this stage,
several of Quartermann's sources were told that the machine
will absolutely, positively blow the Super Famicom away with
its scaling functions (a strong feature on the company's
Lynx)! Atari will neither confirm nor deny the rumors at
this point, saying only that they've heard similar
rumblings. While it does seem to be a reality, Atari appears
to be keeping their doors as well as their mouths closed
until games are finally ready to play. Save up your money
kiddies, it looks like the 16-bit wars are going to be much
hotter than anyone had planned..."
--==--==--==--==--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-- --
-- To enroll as a Delphi subscriber, modem call 1-800-365-4636. Press --
-- [Return] until you see "Password:", then type IP26 [Return] --
-- --
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--==--==--==--==--
||| 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....
--==--==--==--==--
||| CeBIT 1994
||| By: Loic Duval
/ | \ CIS: 100015,3044
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The CeBIT is the biggest computer show in Europe. Just imagine 24 huge
packed halls (you need to walk more than hour to reach Hall 24 from
Hall 1). More than 5000 exhibitors (from nearly 50 countries) and
around 700,000 visitors came to the 1994 CeBIT show.
This 1994 edition was the "processor wars" edition: Power PC
(Motorola/IBM/Apple), Pentium (Intel), Alpha (DEC), Mips (Silicon
Graphics) were all present at the show; and the winner was the
Pentium. Oh yes, Power PCs were present (thanks to IBM more than
Apple) but they didn't meet the expected interest compared to the
Pentium. The big winner was Intel - Pentiums were everywhere! Intel
had some very impressive demonstrations of the 100 MHz DX4 and the new
90 and 100 MHz Pentiums. Intel also announced a 150 MHz Pentium and
the new 300 MIPS "P6".
For the first time since 1986, Atari was not present at the CeBIT.
They preferred to attend the ECTS (April 10th to 12th) - the biggest
European video game show in London. And it was a big surprise for
visitors to find in place of the Atari booth... COMMODORE! However
even though Atari was not present, some big German developers attended
the show with their own booths. Compo and Overscan had the biggest
(with many new products), but Steinberg, Maxon, Heim Verlag and
Rhotron had their own booths also.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// News from COMPO
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Medusa Unleashed
Compo is the exclusive distributor of the Medusa T40 in Europe. The
Medusa T40 is a very high performance TOS workstation. It is based on
the Motorola 68040 running at 64 MHz and offers 26 MIPS/4.5 MFLOPS
performance. The main bus is 32 bits wide with transfer rates up to
128 MB/sec. The Medusa T40 includes 8 MB of RAM which can be expanded
to 128 MB on the mother board and to 4 GigaBytes using an extension
board. The ET-4000 graphic board provides 16 bit True Colour graphic
modes and up to 1024x768 in 256 colours. This board also supports all
ST, TT and Falcon resolutions. If you open a Medusa you will discover
many slots. One of them is filled with the ST I/O board which provides
a DMA interface, 2 serial ports, 1 Centronics parallel interface, 2
MIDI ports, an IDE hard disk interface and several AT-bus expansion
slots (used by the ET4000 board).
Optionally, a SCSI board is available, a Bus Board (which offers a
Mega ST extension bus slot), a VME extension bus (TT compatible) and a
ROM port. Performance is outstanding with indications of at least 5
times the speed of the TT (68030/32MHz). We performed some tests with
Calamus SL. We displayed 7 times the same colour document on the
Medusa while the TT/030 was trying to display it for the first time.
We also printed four pages on the Medusa while the TT was still trying
to print the first page. The T40 costs DM 7999 with a 300 MB hard
drive and one 1.44 MB floppy drive.
Look for Medusa to be released in the second quarter 1994.
//// Musicom 2
Musicom 2 will be released this May. This direct-to-disc stereo
recording system includes some impressive DSP effects, a full set of
functions for editing samples and assembling samples (to create
jingles). Musicom 2 has a wonderful spectral analyser too. The user
interface uses multiple windows to allow you to have access to all the
functions on the screen. Musicom 2 costs DM 200 and supports the
"Digital Box" from Compo. This box allows you to input Digital Signal
from your CD player into your Falcon030 and also to output in digital
format to a DAT recorder (48Khz). With the "Digital Box", Musicom 2
and your Falcon030 can work together at either 44.1 Khz or 48 Khz. The
"Digital Box" (at DM 599) supports the S/P-DIF protocol too.
//// Trackom
Trackom is the first 16-bit sound tracker for the Falcon030 and it
supports up to 10 tracks (played simultaneously). Samples have to be
recorded with an external software like Musicom 2 or the shareware
program WinRec. The user interface is MultiTOS compatible and is very
easy to handle. You play the music with the computer's keyboard for
example. The sound quality is very impressive and Trackom can work
fully in the digital domain if you have the "Digital Box". Trackom
should be out in the second quarter.
//// CD-ROM <--> ROM
A double speed (300K/s) CD-ROM drive (which is very inexpensive)
connects directly to the ROM port (cartidge slot) of all STs, STEs,
TTs and Falcons - even the Medusa's cartridge slot is supported. The
CD-ROM drive includes an Atari Metados driver, a Multitos driver, and
a CD Audio player program. Second quarter 94.
//// ScreenBlaster II
ScreenBlaster II is the second generation of video extender for your
Falcon030. It includes software which allows you to push your monitor
(and Falcon) beyond its "normal" limits. The Video Mode Generator will
let you program non-standard video modes. You can have up to 512x480
pixels on a VGA monitor in True Colour. In 256 colours, you can have
over 944x720 pixels (on most SVGA) and over 1280x960 in 16 colours!
//// FalcoGen
FalcoGen is a professional genlock which is very high quality at an
affordable price (DM 799). It can work in normal mode (priority goes
to computer image which comes over the video image), in luma-key mode
(priority goes to video image so the computer image appears behind
it), and can even use the Overlay-Bit mode of the Falcon030. It
supports a wide variety of video signals/formats including for Input
AND Output including: PAL, NTSC, Y/C(SVHS), RGB, SMPTE Timecode.
//// Overlay
Overlay is a presentation and video titling software package. Version
2 offers many more effects, an anti-flicker mode, and can even call
external programs from within your animation. Two new modules are
available:
[] Hypermedia allows the creation of "interactive" animations.
[] An FLI module allows you to play FLI/FLC animations within your
Overlay presentation.
//// AfterBurner040
Overscan has also announced for late May release, an incredible
accelerator board for the Falcon030. AfterBurner040 connects into the
internal slots of the Falcon030 and turns it into a very powerful
Falcon040 machine. This board is based on a 68LC040 CPU running at 66
MHz (internal, 33MHz external) and supports up to 64 MB of Fast-RAM
(using SIMMs). It also includes an optional PCI bus for additional
graphic boards.
//// Screen Eye Plus
Matrix and COMPO presented Screen Eye Plus, a real time video
digitizer. Now you can watch TV on a corner of your screen! Dedicated
to the Falcon030, Screen Eye works in True Colour or 256 colours. You
can display from 192x144 pixels at 25 frames/s up to 768x576 pixels at
around 2 frames per second. It is also inexpensively priced at DM600.
For more information about these and other Compo products in the
United States, contact: COMPO Software, 104 Esplanade Avenue, Suite
121, Pacifica, CA 94044. Tel: 415-355-0862 Fax: 415-355-0869 GEnie:
COMPO
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Other Products
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Steinberg Plays 16
The big revolution!! Steinberg has announced CUBASE AUDIO 16 (for
Falcon) which supports up to 16 direct-to-disk audio tracks played
simultaneously! This new version also includes new editing tools and a
10 band graphic equalizer. Another new product called AudioSpector, is
a professional tool for acoustic analysis which runs on the Falcon030.
Also available for the Falcon030, Avalon 3.0 - sample editor (which
uses the 56K DSP for impressive effects) and all the Synthworks series
have been rewritten to run on the Falcon.
//// Maxon Emulates ST on PC
Janus, from Maxon, is an ST emulator for the PC. It differs from
Gemulator because it is an hardware emulator which includes a 68000
running at 16 MHz with its own memory (up to 16 MB). Janus runs in two
different modes: in "Local Mode" where everything is done by the 68000
(just like an ST) and with speed similar to a MegaSTE. In "Dual Mode",
Janus uses all the power of your PC to help the 68000. In this mode,
Maxon claims you get a TOS machine running up to 12 times the speed of
an ST. Price of Janus, DM 800.
As you can see the Atari market is not dead in Europe with many new
products coming out for the Falcon030 and the STs. In fact, since
Atari has closed French and German offices, developers have found a
new dynamism. They are organizing three big Atari shows in Germany (in
April and May) and many new products (even Falcon games) are promised
to appear in the next months from France and Germany. Let's hope these
new products (Chroma, Afterburner, etc) may help Atari to find good
reasons to come back into the computer business.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Atari Artist
||| By: Peter Donoso & Fadi Hayek
/ | \ GEnie: EXPLORER.2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-[ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [ ATARI ARTIST ] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-[ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Hello, and welcome once again to ATARI ARTIST. Although this issue may
seem somewhat on the thin side, we feel the content more than makes up
for the size. It also is a fairly good indicator that the next issue
will have a good deal more news for us to talk about!
First off, we have an short editorial piece which centers on a subject
that we feel is both relevant and timely to the future of the entire
Atari community. Take a moment to look at our Editorial section
directly below and give us some feedback on what your feelings are.
After that is the latest update on Wizztronics' 040 Barracuda
accelerator board for the Falcon030. Steve Cohen has been bombarded
with calls from all over the US... and the rest of the world as well!
Find out about the latest developments in this leading Atari hardware
developer first - we've got it!
So, without further ado... entrance, Stage left!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
= =
- - -=-=-=- [ E D I T O R I A L ] -=-=-=- - -
= =
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The continuing influx of new product from a number of both recently-
established, as well as long-devoted, European software developers
seems to continue to be a crucial factor in keeping both the domestic
and Canadian Atari market alive and kicking. Meanwhile, back here in
Vespucci-land, we (that is, us) Amerigoes continue to steadfastly
cling to our Atari systems, even as we dabble in the workplace with
varying intensity on a number of other computer platforms.
Word has it that the Medusa 0x0 TT clones will be arriving on our
shores sometime in the next few months. Atari's first step towards
licensing TOS to third-party computer manufacturers is certainly a
wise idea whose time has come (and hopefully not already departed). It
seems to me, however, that in order to engender continued development
and support for the release of new models and the software that can
take full advantage of the latest processing power, a crucial element
continues to remain conspicuous by its very absence. What I'm talking
about here is the very real and present need for developing a standard
for future Atari software and hardware.
When Microsoft first developed DOS they made the conscious decision to
leave the layout and workings of a DOS-based program up to the
individual developer. As long as it followed the rules, they basically
had a "no looks or functions barred" attitude. Since DOS was the first
PC operating system on the scene, Microsoft felt it essential to
capitalize on this and assure a continuing hold on the market by
purposely encouraging the largest number of developers, at the expense
of the individual user. This was a move they would soon realize was a
serious mistake.
When Apple introduced the Macintosh line, the one thing Microsoft
would come to envy more than anything else was its uniformity. Users
could buy just about any program and be assured that the look,
function and key commands for each program would be consistent and
work the same way. This added in a big way to Apple's overall
"user-friendly" pitch - "a computer for the rest of us." The rest is
Apple history. People became enamored of a system that didn't require
a large body of knowledge to set-up, configure and run a computer
system.
Microsoft managed to see the writing on the wall in time to do an
about-face in developing and subsequent released versions of their
Windows shell operating system software. It's no small coincidence
that a premium was placed on assuring similar looks and functions
among each and every Windows-based program running under the Windows
environment. They all share a similar look and set of basic functions.
With what we feel is the imminent release of TOS upon a third-party
world, now is the time to establish an operating environment which is
capable of running older TOS & GEM based programs while establishing a
standard for all future development of Atari software and hardware.
Although this may prove a daunting task at first, it's not impossible.
When Dave Small's GADGETS BY SMALL announced development of a MAC
emulator for Atari computers, he got quite a bit of "totally
impossible - it just can't be done!" from a number of quarters. Of
course, that's all Dave had to hear - and the rest is Small-story!
Well, it's not impossible.
Atari has had its hands full developing the Jaguar to stay alive.
They have a truly exiting engine under the Jaguar's hood, one which
offers some very exciting potential for both a game machine and some
form of home computer system as well, and they should pursue it
wholeheartedly as the next step in a natural sequence of technological
development would logically dictate.
Although Atari continues to make assurances that they have no
intention of abandoning their TOS-based platform, it seems to me that
the wisest thing on their part at this time is to do exactly what they
seem to be doing - license out TOS to third parties who will be able
to establish markets for the manufacturer of both older as well as
next-generation models based on their TOS operating system. TOS is
certainly capable of very, very sophisticated applications - its
potential has most likely been merely touched upon.
If continuing with GEM will severely limit the implementation of new
chipset instructions and processing power, then maybe it's time to
look at adopting a new graphic environment to run under TOS. With
careful planning and a consortium of minds similar in creative ability
to the team that developed the original 1040ST, TOS's potential is far
from finished.
The other problem which draws some striking parallels with the world
of DOS is the software itself. The wealth of programs that run on the
ST / TT / Falcon line of computers are quite impressive, but they all
have one distinct feature in common - they all look and function
differently. Some employ their own operating system, totally ignoring
GEM and in some cases run their own shell environment on top of TOS.
Others adhere to the GEM standard but use a variety of different key
commands and locations for menu functions.
Although Atari wisely decided to place its operating system totally in
ROM, thereby sparing users from having to configure start-ups by
adding to or changing a seemingly daunting amount of code in autoexec
and config.sys- like files, they also saw the need for attracting as
many developers as they could in the beginning.
As a result they played it loose when dealing with the diversity of
interpretations that inevitably came up among different code writers.
Since you could write programs using a variety of computer languages,
each langauge had its own set of limits pitted against its respective
advantages. Although Atari certainly succeeded in attracting
developers, the time has now come to follow in Microsoft's footsteps
and establish a badly needed set of standards. Perhaps the IAAD
(Independent Association of Atari Developers) can work in conjunction
with the company or companies who are granted licensing for
manufacturing and developing the next generation of Atari
ST/TT/Falcon/???-based computers.
In a computer world that is slowly shrinking while also increasingly
becoming cross-platform friendly, the success of any one operating
system depends to good degree upon a particular key ingredient. To
insure a continued user-base, one which will keep established users
loyal while expanding to attract an ever-widening number of new users,
an operating system must be uniform in its visual as well as practical
usage in handling a variety of applications.
The inevitable replies may include any number of "It's impossible.",
"It's too late." and "It's not practical." responses, but after having
been in the Atari community for a number of years, I would consider
that a positive dare - one which someone out there will pick up and
say, "Oh, yeah?.. watch this!" It's always been human nature - and
it's often been the Atari banner cry. Until that cry is heard, let's
all make a concerted effort to raise this issue and talk about it as
much as possible. What do you think? Let's do it!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
= =
- - -=-=-=- [ WIZZTRONICS ] -=-=-=- - -
= =
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Barracuda 040 Accelerator Board
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
After a number of frustrating delays and revisions, Wizztronics'
Barracuda 040 accelerator board is finally nearing completion. The
past two months have also brought about a redevelopment of the board's
original 8 logic PALS, which have now been reduced to one FPGA field
programmable gate array. This greatly reduces the possibility of
crashes and failures due to mis-connections and the integration of a
number of chips, as well as reducing overall current draw and
increasing system reliability.
The previously announced standard configuration, driven by a 68EC040
microprocessor running at 68EC040 operating at 16MHz (no FPU) 68040
running at 33MHz, both with an 8K internal cache will be ready for
shipping by the end of May - a two month delay from the previously
announced deadline.
If you've ever dealt with Steve Cohen, you know that his word is his
absolute bond, so you can imagine how much it hurt, not to be able to
deliver in March as originally promised. Preliminary benchmark
testing, using Quick ST's benchmarking program (a widely-respected
standard in the Atari industry) yielded some impressive results. 68040
33MHz showed an overall system performance increase of 500% without
the additional RAM card. Some benchmarks, such as the integer aspect,
reached a whopping 876%!
The Barracuda will fit in the existing Falcon casing with small shield
modification and one wire to solder. Use of the optional 128meg RAM
expansion card, or any other optional card (see below) will require
the relocation of the Falcon to a external case.
Prices are still as follows:
Barracuda 040 16MHz accelerator board with 68EC040 - $650
Upgrade to 68EC040 33MHz - add $150
Upgrade to 68040 33MHz - add $300
RAM Expansion Card w/memory management controller $300
Switch Kit - add $ 5
The Video Funnel video frame-grabber unit will be released one month
after the Barracuda board - the end of June.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Falcon Rack
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The Wizztonics' Falcon Rack has been ready to ship, but is being held
up until the Barracuda 040 accelerator board has been officially
released. Latest specs confirm inclusion of a stereo 1/4" jack at both
the front and rear panels of the unit, as well as the option for
either a front or rear-mounted cartridge port.
A second SCSI port will also be available for allowing installation of
an additional external hard drive within the case. Connecting the
drive directly into the Falcon's SCSI port, a SCSI cable will lead
from the SCSI out port of this external drive to the back of the case
for interfacing with additional SCSI-based units. Rack dimensions
remain 19" wide by 15" deep by 5 1/4" high.
Prices also remain as previously announced:
Level 1 - #WT-ARK941 bare case $250
Level 2 - #WT-ARK942 includes keyboard interface $335
Level 3 - #WT-ARK943 includes internal power supply $320
Level 4 - #WT-ARK944 includes internal power supply &
keyboard interface $395
Additional Options:
200 watt UL power supply (recommended for Barracuda $175
33 MHz accelerator board and RAM Expansion board) $ 70
Internal hard drive mounting kit $ 20
SCSI cable kit with IDC 50 and dual centronics connectors $ 35
PC keyboard interface for use with XT or AT keyboards $125
Input/Output patch cable kit for use from original Falcon
housing to Falcon Case $ 20
Near-Future* Options:
1040/Mega ST rear plate $ 55
Mounting adaptor plate for Mega ST $ 20
* 3rd quarter '94
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// PC Emulation Board
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
If you're a bit confused as to whether this is on-again/off-again...
it's definitely on again! Last time in Atari Artist we mentioned that
Wizztronics decided to give a green light on developing of an optional
PC emulation board for the 040 Barracuda accelerator. Originally
conceived as a 386SX, it wasn't certain that the choice of the older
processor would entice customers to buy in sufficient quantity to
warrant its manufacturing, so the project was shelved. After a lot of
sweat, and more than a few all-nighters, a number of seemingly
unsurpassable obstacles were finally overcome.
Last month's Atari Artist column included an announcement that
Wizztronics had decided progress on their 040 accelerator warranted
continued development of a 486-based PC emulator. Soon after the
phones at Wizztronics' headquarters started ringing off the hook! Due
to the amazingly heavy number of telephone calls regarding this PC
emulator, using a faster 486-based processor chip for the PC board has
now become a viable option.
If you caught that phrasing, you'll notice I didn't say "emulator"
board. That's because Wizztronics has decided that in order to insure
100% compatibility with PC-based applications (games are another story
- that's up in the air right now, but we'll keep you informed) they
decided instead to go with a FULL 486SX PROCESSOR running at 25 MHZ on
a separate plug-in board! In effect, this card will be like installing
a PC onto your Falcon, via the Barracuda's motherboard. There is one
catch, however.
The added height will require that your Falcon be relocated into an
external case. Fortunately, Wizztronic's Falcon case will be perfect
for the occasion! Price for the PC-on-a-card is around $500, and
should be ready in time for Santa to put in your stocking.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Dedicated Support
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Wizztronics has asked me to assure their loyal customers that the
company is continuing their uncompromising commitment to future
development and full support for any and all of their Atari-related
products. Deadlines serve the useful purpose of spurring development
to its completion, but a deadline is nothing without the delivered
promise of a fully-functioning, 100% solid product. That same
commitment to providing total customer satisfaction is a central
driving force behind the Wizztronics' business philosophy.
Wizztronics offers its sincere apologies for the delays, and looks
forward with as much eager anticipation towards their final release as
the many users who have either already called to make inquiries
concerning this new line of products.
You can reach Steve Cohen on GEnie at S.COHEN 27, or call him at
(516) 473-2507.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
= =
- - -=-=-=- [ MUSIC NEWS ] -=-=-=- - -
= =
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 16 Audio Track Version Of Cubase Audio Falcon!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Steinberg Jones has made some exciting announcements for its next set
of updates. First and foremost, the next version of Cubase Audio
Falcon will offer a whopping, rock solid 16 TRACKS OF DIGITAL AUDIO!!!
Although never really discussed in-depth, the Motorola 56000 DSP chip
used in Atari's Falcon 030 is actually capable of eight STEREO tracks
of digital audio. That translates to a total of 16 monaural tracks!
This is eight more tracks than Digidesign's hardware-dependent (2
cards plus external mixing unit) Session8 for the Mac & Windows and 10
more tracks then Deck's (employs the DSP in a Mac) six tracks!
Other added features include:
[] 128 tracks of MIDI
[] Auto analog compression.
[] Support for the Studio module within Cubase Audio.
[] New sample rates for sounds with conversion capability.
Sample rates include 48kHz, 44.1, 33.9, 24.6, 20.8, 16.5.
[] 10-band graphic EQ, which includes a new mixer map.
[] Cross fading and reversing of digital audio.
[] Linking of stereo sampling for editing as one entity.
The only limitation while in 16-track mode is that EQ & reverb
features are negated, due to DSP restraints, and will not be
avaialble.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Avalon Version 3.0
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
A major update to Avalon, Steinberg's awesome, full-featured sample
editing program is also due to be released around the second quarter.
This new version will include some exciting new features:
[] Audition samples directly through the Falcon's Audio output.
[] Support for importing Cubase Audio Falcon digital audio files
(AIFF).
[] Load samples directly from your sampler's SCSI port into Avalon.
[] Support for Macintosh interchangeable file format.
[] Multi-harmony processing.
[] Direct control of Akai S1000 & Roland S770, S760 samplers.
[] Ability to apply Falcon's DSP digital effects to samples.
This new version means Steinberg will discontinue production of the
AVALON SCSI adaptor and AD/DA card. For those stalwart Mega ST users,
Steinberg still has a few of these peripherals left.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// New Cubase Hardware
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Steinberg also will be releasing their SA-8 four stereo channel output
external unit, featuring RCA outputs. This will allow for the use of
external effects processors for eight digital tracks, as well as
isolating and exporting your digital tracks to an external mixing
board for final mixdown. The SA-8 has a built-in DSP port for
interfacing directly with the Falcon.
Also included is a dedicated thru port for chaining Steinberg's FDI
(Falcon Digital Interface). The FDI features SPDIF in/outs as well as
optical in/outs for connecting with the AD/DAs on your DAT machine.
The advantage of using FDI's input/outputs is that they offer a much
cleaner signal path, as opposed to the Falcon's somewhat noisy
built-in stereo input/outputs.
Using both hardware units, you can utilize the Falcon's stereo outputs
as an additional two external effects sends to route to your favorite
effects box. You can return them through the Falcon inputs or to your
DAT player or through the FDI box.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Studio Sessions On The Phone
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
In what has to be the wildest application of communications technology
to music, Steinberg will also release their MIDI-to-ISDN converter
unit. Using a modem which supports ISDN ver. #24 transmission, you
will be able to do studio session work right from your own home - or
wherever you are - right over the phone.
Simply hook up your MIDI keyboard or controller, along with your
modem, into the appropriate ports in Steinberg's unit. The other end
of the phone line needs a similar setup. Once a connection has been
confirmed, either location can both send and recieve MIDI information
directly over the phone lines!
=-=-=-=-=
//// Coda
=-=-=-=-=
Well, that's it for this edition. Until our next issue, this is
Pete Donoso & Fadi Hayek reminding you that...
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
= =
- - [ "Today is the Tomorrow you dreamed about Yesterday." ] - -
= =
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--
== ==
-- C R E D I T S --
== ==
--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--
ATARI ARTIST endeavors to bring you the latest news on what's
happening in areas that involve the ARTS: Music & MIDI, video, and a
host of graphic categories covering drawing, painting, animation,
graphics, raytracing & texture mapping as well as related
graphic-editing & rendering programs, all of which are either new
arrivals or soon to be released both here and in Europe.
We keep a somewhat loose publishing schedule, which roughly translates
to around once a month. ATARI ARTIST's staff consists of myself, Peter
Donoso, and my partner, Fadi Hayek.
An Atari owner since 1985, I've written numerous software reviews for
a number of publications, including ST Log, ST Informer, and Atari
Explorer magazine, the latter of which I also had the pleasure of
serving as Managing Editor under the stewardship of Editor/Publisher
John Jainschigg. Apart from writing, I also freelance as a DTP layout
and graphic artist, and find my Atari computers an absolutely
essential tool in my passionate pursuits of both musical performance
and composition.
I use a number of both acoustic and MIDI-related instruments,
including keyboards, guitar, flute, sax, percussion, vibes, as well as
MIDI guitar, wind-controller, MIDI vibes and percussion controllers.
I've been a New York city resident for more than thirty-five years.
An equally long-time Atari owner, Fadi Hayek is a MIDI/computer
specialist for the SAM ASHE chain of music stores in the northeast
United States. Recording engineer, artist and video enthusiast, he is
also an accomplished composer and drummer, guitarist, bassist and
percussionist.
For those of you who may be interested, my personal Atari setup
includes:
[] An original 1040ST, used for playing games.
[] A Mega ST / 8 megs RAM / Digidesign DSP-driven Sound Tools card,
TOS 2.06 / TALON Omniswitch for Princeton Ultra 16 multisync
monitor/ Cartmaster multi-cartridge port expander / Spectre GCR
Mac emulator / ICD Link.
[] A Falcon 030 / 14 megs RAM / 65 meg internal hard drive /
integrated Barracuda 1 Gigabyte external hard drive & 88 meg
Syquest removable Cart drive / NEC 4FG 15" multi-sync monitor.
If you have any questions or sugestions concerning anything related to
the contents or subjects mentioned here in ATARI ARTIST, you can leave
EMail for either Fadi or myself on GEnie at EXPLORER.2 (Internet:
<explorer.2@genie.geis.com>), and we'll get back to you just as soon
as we can.
--==--==--==--==--
||| InShape Review
||| By: Michael Robinson
/ | \ GEnie: EXPLORER.1
--------------------------------------------------------------
A Professional 3D Modeler/Shader for
the Atari TT and Falcon Computers
//// Introduction
Inshape is a 3D Modeler and Shader package marketed in North America
by Cybercube Research Inc. This product is useful for visualizing
three dimensional objects in various environments. It is also capable
producing a series of renderings that can then be played back as an
animation. Included in the package is a converter program for
producing output in TIFF file format.
According to Cybercube Research Limited, "InShape integrates a
sophisticated 3D scene, object, path and template editor with a truly
amazing 24 bit raytracing/rendering engine. InShape lends itself for
many different and exciting applications incuding: product design,
architecture, sophisticated game developments, visualisation of
intricate biological, chemical or physical phenomena, professional
video animations and DTP work."
//// What's Needed?
InShape is an application that requires a powerful computer, and the
computers it will run on reflect that. The product is only designed to
run on Falcon030 or TT030 with an FPU in a minimum resolution of
640x480x16. For all of you ST users out there wondering why InShape
doesn't support your ST, it would probably take a couple of DAYS to
render a high quality on an 8 MHz ST and really requires the speed and
power these 2 computers offer.
//// 3D Modeler - User Interface
The Modeler gives you an excellent custom interface appearance with a
MultiTOS 3D like look. When I first ran it, my initial impression was
"cool!", and it stayed that way the whole time I used the program.
The Modeler is fairly easy to use, aside from not being able to use
the mouse to place points and simple boxes etc. Everything is in
convenient places and is very logical. The user interface looks crisp
and clean. All of the key equivalents are convenient and are in
logical positions. Although Warp 9 is not available due to a conflict,
screen redraws are very fast.
InShape is one of the few Atari programs that actually use both mouse
buttons. InShape utilizes a neat item called a "Shader". A shader is a
slider bar within a box that you click in. Depending on your mouse's
position when the left button is clicked, the values will change
according to where the mouse is. If you use your right mouse button,
the value will change by 1, which is really handy when editing an
object's color.
//// The Modeler
When you run InShape Modeler, you are presented with a dialog box with
the options of "New", "Open", and "Continue" with the Scene editor
beneath it. The Continue button is handy, allowing you to pick up from
where you left off from last time. You will notice a tool box to the
far left side. These have the neato 3D look like everything else.
Menus have a nice little border around the edges that gives it that
extra neat factor, unlike normal GEM's black-in-everything approach.
If you explore the menus some, you'll realize much of what's up there
is mostly different views. In addition to the views, there is the file
menu, shader menu, and the INSHAPE menu. One drawback of this custom
interface is the INSHAPE (or "Desk") menu. Underneath it is an info
selection. That's it. You can't use desk accessories while using
InShape.
When you take a gander at the Shader menu, inside you'll see an
animation preview. This is one of the handiest things that InShape's
creators could have though of. This allows you to see what happens in
your animations before you create them, and is presented in another
crisp looking dialog in the middle of the screen. The animation
preview is then drawn in yellow wire frame (slowly the first time
through), and can be replayed through as many times as you like. This
menu is also where you tell the program when to generate a single
frame or a whole animation when you are ready.
When you've finished having enough fun exploring the joys of the menu
bar, you'll need to take notice of the tool box off to the left. All
of the buttons on the upper half are squares with icons that really
fit their function. Example, to get to the Camera, you click on the
icon that looks like a camera. To define the texture of the floor,
click on the icon that has a 3x3 grid of boxes, which looks like the
Scene editor's "floor" when looked at straight down. This is where a
majority of the most useful functions are located.
The Modeler makes use of a custom file selector, allowing you to do
many things such as rename or delete files, definitely better than
TOS's file selector. One problem I found was when you try to make a
folder, it ends up replacing the name you made for the folder with a
bunch of gibberish. In addition it would be nice to have the option of
being able to use a different file selector (such as UIS III or LGS).
Using the camera is difficult, especially when it comes to getting it
to point where you want it. After a while, you get used to it and can
generally place it where you want it. You are also given certain keys
you can press on the keypad along with the control, left shift, and
alternate keys to change the values which is very helpful in trying to
figure out what you are doing.
//// Object Manipulation
InShape uses a position relative scheme for placing objects. This
"Hierarcy system" allows you to group objects in some sort of logical
organisation. Puting "Object A" at coordinates (in x,y,z format)
15,100,45 will put the object at 15,100,45. Anything under "Object A"
will have coordinates that are an relative to "Object A"'s
coordinates. If we add "Object B" under "Object A" instead of under
"Main" (the default), "Object B" will be at coordinates 15,100,45. The
portion of the dialog which tells you where the object is located at
will report "Object B" as being at coordinates 0,0,0. Modifying that
0,0,0 to 10,25,-5 will result in the actual coordinates being
25,125,40.
The object Hierarchy system can be accessed by clicking with either
mouse button inside your "view". When you do this, you are presented
with a window that contains the hierarchy. As a default, you get a
"main" where everything goes under. Clicking on an entry with the left
mouse button, you can add, delete, and do a few other things with an
object. If you'd like to edit an item, just click on it with the right
mouse button. Within the dialog, you can select which object you want
the entry to represent. You can reposition the object to whatever xyz
coordinate, rotate it by whatever xyz axis, and choose its scale (1
being same as it is in the object editor, .5 being 1/2, 2 being
twice).
You can have a light source dedicated to it, and you can also
reposition that as you like and choose its radius if you want to (0
being invisible). You can choose the brightness of the object
(infinite, flood, bulb, or candle), and you can define it as a
spotlight too. If you make your light a spotlight, you can choose the
direction that it points, the angle of light it puts out, and how
softly it fades out.
A distance below everything in the tool box, you will see a button
called "Object". This will send you into the Object editor, where you
actually make your 3D objects. After clicking on this, the menu bar
changes to reveal many more menus. Among them is the Create menu.
The Create menu contains all of the basic types of objects you can
create, from a simple box to a 100+ segment sphere. When selected,
each one prompts an appropriate dialog box asking for appropriate
information, such as the x,y,z position of your object. Unfortunately,
you are not allowed to use the mouse to actually place an object where
you want it. This is the biggest drawback I found with InShape.
It's very difficult to actually know for a fact where something will
need to go beforehand if you're designing a complex object from
scratch. After you've filled out the appropriate data, you are given
another dialog box where give the surface features, such as the color,
what kind of texture it will have, luminosity, transparency,
reflectiveness, etc., etc.
Included with InShape are TONS of premade surfaces, such as marble,
sand, chocolate (!), mirror, glass, leather, and dozens more, not to
mention what you can modify and make on your own (Transparent
chocolate anyone?). Not only can you load/save them off the disk, you
can store them inside a slider menu for later use within that object
you are creating.
Amongst the other menus, there is (of course) the "View" menu. In here
are your standard Top, Bottom, Right, Left, views. But the two I liked
the most were the "Parallel" and "Central" views. I really can't tell
the difference between them, but if you press the control key, you can
rotate the xyz axis to any position you want, and the object will be
draw in that position.
There is a file menu which allows you to load individual objects and
save them. The usual assortment of things you would expect to find
under a "file" menu.
The tool box has very clear icons that really do explain what they do.
The cutest one I saw was the "delete points". The icon to delete all
selected points has a set of points being eaten by (among others)
PacMan. The buttons are clear enough to figure out what they really
mean without having to look at the manual (too much :).
From the Object editor, you have access to the Template editor and the
Path editor. You can also return to the Scene editor.
In the Template editor, you create a one layer slice of a pattern.
You can have the program create some point arrangements for you, such
as an ellipse. You can actually use the mouse to arrange you points
here. No hit and miss guessing. To aid you, InShape gives you the
option of having a grid displayed, along with snap if you want it. The
points you can create can either be smooth or sharp. The icons in the
tool box will be a mix between old an new. Some familiar icons such as
the delete selected points are there, along with new ones like the
ellipse function (which looks like a compass).
After you've finished creating your "template", and you've connected
all the points together (don't forget that!), you can turn this into a
3D object for the object editor to deal with. If your finished item is
too complex for the simple Spin and Extrude functions, you can go on
to the Path editor. When you've finished creating your path, choose
the "path" option from the menu bar and an object following your
template runs along the path, and is drawn in the object editor.
The Path editor's only use is to create a path for the Template editor
to use. You are allowed to use your mouse to manipulate points here
also, and you can once again tell it if you want a grid or snap too.
The interface here is pretty simplistic. Point where you want your
next point to be and you're done with it. You can turn line segments
into Bezier curves in addition to just straight lines. When you do
this, you will see 2 "x"es which you reposition to change the curve.
When you are finished here, you can go back to the template editor,
and make an object that follows your path.
//// Shader
The Shader is a separate program itself and is launched by the 3D
modeler when you want to create an actual frame. An annoying quirk
between the Modeler and the Shader is you have to press a mouse button
when going between them. The next thing you see is a bunch of numbers
counting down to zero labeled "pass one". Then you get a set of 3
numbers labeled "pass 2" that seem to move somewhat erratically. When
they disappear (and your selected screen size is small enough to be
displayed) you are treated to a dithered display of your picture in
progress.
This file is created and saved to a file called "IS_00001.IIM". You
have to re-name it when you are finished. If you get interrupted or
find something wrong while the Shader is working, pressing [Control]+
[LShift]+[Alternate]+[RShift] will stop the current render. It would
have been nice if you could start where you stopped, but that isn't
supported. Other than that, you just get to look at the screen....
The actual time it takes to create a picture depends on a number of
things, including the number of light sources, textures, clouds, etc.,
etc. Rendering a picture at 320x200 with several light sources, a
couple thousand points, many different textures (including
transparency and reflection options), image mapping, and a few other
things at 5 iterations with photo shading can take several hours
(literally).
On the other hand, a small object (say 100x100) with a couple hundred
points and 1 or 2 light sources at 1 iteration and test shading can
take less than 1 or 2 minutes. When the shader is finally finished
creating your picture, it re-runs the Modeler and you go on as if you
just started the program.
//// Converter
Thankfully, you are given a program within the InShape package to
convert files to and from the shader's IIM format. The Converter has
the same neato 3D look as the Modeler. It gives you information about
the file you have loaded (if any) and can also show them to you if you
want. You can load in IIM files, TIFF files, and Degas files. The IIM
and TIFF files loaded in fine, but the monochrome Degas pics I loaded
into it were shown twice (i.e. "picture picture"). That was the only
apparent problem with the converter. You can save files in IIM and
TIFF.
The converter gives you a few options too, such as turning a picture
into 256 gray scale (or True Color if the file is in 256 gray scale)
and you can reduce its size in half. The custom file selector is used
here and contains the same folder creation bug as the 3D Modeler (you
make a folder and it creates a folder with a garbage name). I kind of
wished that it would convert and load more file formats, but you take
what you get.
If you don't like or don't want to use the converter program that the
authors of InShape included, they've also (thankfully) created a
couple of modules for the great shareware graphics conversion package,
GEMView v3.xx, which easily loads, converts and saves the IIM files
used by the Shader into many different formats.
(Editor: InShape was used by Michael to create the base "BattlePong
2001" image seen in AEO_0306; GEMView was used to convert the True
Color image into the GIF file.)
//// Documentation and Support
The manual for InShape is very well done and professional. It is
contained in a 2 ring binder and contains 156 pages. Most *EVERYTHING*
is explained in the manual.
The program disks for the InShape package can be found in the front
cover inside 2 plastic sleeves. Included inside the manual are 4
terrific tutorials, or "exercises", that really get you used to and
comfortable with many functions the Shader offers, such as the
Template and Path editors and how they work, the Scene editor, and how
to image map an object.
There are 3 different appendices, which include keyboard shortcuts
and a look at what different patterns look like. Also in the very back
is an index that seems to cover everything.
CyberCube Research Limited provides great personal support of the
product for the U.S. and Canada. Electronic network support is also
provided via GEnie, CRS-Online and InterNet/UseNet.
//// Conclusions
The InShape package does what it was intended to do: Create
beautifully rendered computer generated images and it does this very
well. Aside from some minor bugs (*VERY* minor), the 3D Modeler is
simply a joy to use and would have been almost perfect if you would
have been able to reposition, move, create, or whatever with the
mouse. The Object Editor is reportedly getting an overhaul with
version 2.0, as well as many other additions, improvements,
enhancements, and bug fixes (which includes being able to use the
mouse in the object editor).
Look for announcements of updates to InShape in future issues of AEO.
Roars (good)
===== "Neato" 3D Interface
"Continue" button
Tons of premade surfaces
Example tutorials in manual
Automatically saves preferences when quitting
24-bit color files created
Very configurable
Excellent manual
Makes animations
Image mapping
Snores (bad)
====== No ACCs
Difficult to edit (No mouse point editing)
Can't choose the save names of files you render
The need to click a mouse when exiting and before render
Warp 9 conflict
SpeedoGDOS conflict
Can't create folder correctly
No animation player
(Editor: CyberCube tells me that all of the "snores" listed
here are being remidied in the next versions of InShape.)
InShape INTRO 1.0
=================
Hardware Requirements:
Atari Falcon030 with 4MB of RAM,
color monitor (min. 640x480),
harddisk and FPU (68881 or 68882).
SRP: US $189
Can $229
InShape 1.02
=============
Hardware Requirements:
Atari TT030 with 4MB of RAM,
VGA (PCT1426 or equivalent) monitor,
harddisk, FPU (68881 or 68882).
SRP: US $319.00
Cdn $379.00
Upgrade Prices:
Registered Customers: INTRO 1.0 -> 1.02 US $120.00
===================== Cdn $140.00
INTRO 1.0 -> 2.00 US $240.00
Cdn $290.00
Unregistered Customers: INTRO 1.0 -> 1.02 US $130.00
======================= Cdn $150.00
INTRO 1.0 -> 2.00 US $250.00
Cdn $300.00
- Multiple Licenses Available -
US/Canada - Contact
===================
Cybercube Research Limited
126 Grenadier Crescent
Thornhill L4J 7V7
Ontario Canada
Tel.: (905) 882 0294
Fax : (905) 886 3261
BBS : (905) 882 5895
GEnie: CYBERCUBE
CRS-Online: Cybercube.Research
InterNet/UseNet: cybercube.research@camrem.com
or cybercube@genie.geis.com
Germany contact
===============
InShape Softwareentwicklung GmbH
P.O. Box 1302
24952 Harrislee
Germany
Tel.: 0461 / 788 21
Fax : 0461 / 788 26
United Kingdom contact
======================
CGS Computerbild
231 Northborough Road
Norbury,London SW16 4TU
England
Tel.: 081-679 7307
Fax : 081-764 7898
--==--==--==--==--
||| The Creation of "BattlePong 2001"
||| By: Michael Robinson
/ | \ GEnie: EXPLORER.1
------------------------------------------------------------------
In mid-March, I was asked if I could come up with an April Fools gag
picture called BattlePong 2001 for AEO. The following text describes
how I made the picture using InShape.
What I first created was the paddle. The main bulk of the paddle was
just a simple box. I tried putting a few bolts in, but they're really
too small, and I barely notice them when I'm looking close up. I
figured, "heck with it", and left them in anyway.
Next to be created was the ball. It too is a simple object; just a
small sphere.
The walls were very similar to the paddles. Just a single box. Using
the hierarchy, I positioned multiple "walls" so that it looked like a
squarish single wall.
The holes in the walls were a bit harder to make. The holes themselves
are just a one plane circle colored black. It has the "no-shadow"
option on so you don't see any shadow effects, and is placed a bit
away from the wall itself so it doesn't disapear into the wall. They
were meant to give the illusion of a hole, but it kind of failed
because you didn't see the side of the blown out hole.
I tried making the scores of the players a few differant ways. The
first thing I did was use Degas to simply type some numbers on the
screen and write player 1 or player 2 beneath it. I first tried
mapping it onto a cylinder, but when it rendered I couldn't get both
sides lighted correctly so I finally tried using a single plane.
Getting it rotated so that it looked flat on the screen was also hard,
but after a bit of piddling with the numbers, I managed it so it
looked right.
The "balls remaining" were very easy to make. They're just multiple
copies of a single sphere that were spaced out and positioned so that
they looked like they