Jaguar Explorer Online Vol1 #1 03-27-97
From: Fred Horvat (aa778@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 04/24/97-07:37:00 AM Z
From: aa778@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Fred Horvat)
Subject: Jaguar Explorer Online Vol1 #1 03-27-97
Date: Thu Apr 24 07:37:00 1997
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Volume 1, Issue 1 JAGUAR EXPLORER ONLINE March 27, 1997 ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: ::
:: JAGUAR .............. News, reviews, & solutions ............ JAGUAR ::
:: EXPLORER ........... for the online Jaguar .......... EXPLORER ::
:: ONLINE ................. Community .............. ONLINE ::
:: ::
:: Published and Copyright (c) 1997 by White Space Publishers ::
:: All Rights Reserved ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: Publisher Emeritus Plus ................... Michael Lindsay ::
:: Publisher Emeritus .............................. Travis Guy ::
:: Editor/Publisher ............................ Clay Halliwell ::
:: WWW Spinner .................................. Frans Keylard ::
:: Genie Uploader ............................. Clay Halliwell ::
:: CompuServe Uploader ....................... Richard Turner ::
:: America Online Uploader .................... Lonnie Smith ::
:: ::
:: Contributors: ::
:: (voluntary and otherwise) ::
:: """"""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: Doug Engel, Wes Powell, Don Thomas, Jeff Minter, ::
:: Mark Santora ::
:: ::
:: Telecommunicated to you via: ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: GEnie: ST/JAGUAR RT Library 38 ::
:: AOL: VIDEO GAMES FORUM Hints, Tips and Tricks II Library ::
:: CompuServe: ATARIGAMING Library 10, VIDGAME Library 15 ::
:: ::
:: World Wide Web: http://www.ior.com/~fkeylard/aeo.htm ::
:: http://www.mcc.ac.uk/~dlms/atari.html ::
:: ::
:: E-Mail Request address: AEO-by-EMail-request@maximized.com ::
:: ::
:: >>> To subscribe to JEO, send a message to the request ::
:: >>> address, with the following line (no subject): ::
:: >>> ::
:: >>> subscribe aeo-by-email ::
:: >>> ::
:: >>> and your address will be added to the list. To ::
:: >>> unsubscribe from JEO, send the following: ::
:: >>> ::
:: >>> unsubscribe aeo-by-email ::
:: >>> ::
:: >>> to the same request address, making sure you send ::
:: >>> it from the same address you subscribed from. ::
:: ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Table of Contents
* From the Editor ......................................... JEO: AEO Reborn?
* Where Was I At? ............................................. It's Travis!
* Jaguar Tackboard ........ Web Message Boards - Atari Times - JEO's Jaguar
Development List - Mail Order Directory -
Catnips - PRs - WTR - Jaguar Underground.
* Jag-Fest '97 ......................................... Jaguar Users Unite.
* Llatest from Llamaland .................................. The Yak is Back.
* BattleSphere Updates .................................... How it's Coming.
* BattleSphere Playtester Update ......................... How it's Playing.
* Baldies Review ........................................... Down With Hair!
* Breakout 2000 Review ............................. Breakout, 64-bit Style.
* Towers II Review ........................................ Jag's First RPG.
* Did You Hear Anyone Say "Goodbye"? ........... Don Thomas Eulogizes Atari.
* Martin Brownlow Interview ................. The programmer of MC3D speaks.
* Vince Valenti Interviews ............... The programmer of Towers II begs.
* Matthew Gosling Interview ........... The programmer of Zero 5 rolls over.
* Atari Jaguar Cheats and Codes FAQ ................ Cheats for all seasons.
* Shutdown ............................. Around the world and up your block.
--==--==--==--==--
|| From the Editor .............. Jaguar Explorer Online: AEO Reborn?
|| By: Clay Halliwell
\__// halliwee@ts436.dyess.af.mil
------------------------------------------------------------------
The last issue of Atari Explorer Online was Volume 4, Issue 9, published in
January of '96... over a year ago! Since then, enough has happened to fill at
least three or four AEOs, but unfortunately Travis Guy, the chief driving
force behind AEO, was finally forced to retire AEO in favor of other, more
real-world concerns.
Then one day in early February, I'm browsing an old issue of AEO, and I
realize that such a vast quantity of Jaguar news has accumulated, that
putting out a new issue of AEO would be practically trivial. Trouble is, I
can't just take over AEO... there's far too much baggage and infrastructure
attached to it. Solution: Create a sort-of-but-not-really new publication,
which I've dubbed "Jaguar Explorer Online". No ST/Mega/TT news, no Lynx news,
no industry news. Just 100% pure Jaguar news.
You may notice a lot of very old "news" in this issue... these items were
included simply because AEO has always served as a sort of "time capsule" of
Atari news, with each issue capturing and preserving events of note. So while
something like Don Thomas' "Did You Hear Anyone Say Goodbye?" may be 11
months old, it's too significant a document to allow to slip, forgotten, into
the cracks of the Internet.
But it's not all old news! What's the state of the Jaguar these days? For a
supposedly dead system ("I don't want to go on the cart!"), the cat is
showing a lot of life... Breakout 2000 and Towers II have just been released,
we've got at least four more excellent games coming from Telegames, we've got
Jag-Fest '97 ramping up, we've got the Jaguar Underground hacking away on
their Jaguar Servers, and 4Play continues to push BattleSphere closer to
reality.
Long live the Jag!
--==--==--==--==--
|| Where Was I At?
|| By: Travis Guy
\__// g8trh8tr@ix.netcom.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
When last we met, Atari was one of the oldest video games names still in
business, Windows 95 was the shining new hope of computer operating systems,
and I was single... ensconced in beautiful Northwest Florida.
Some things change.
Jaguar software was trickling out, Windows 95 users were dealing with
aggravating bugs, and the FU Gators football team had never been able to call
itself "the best team in the land."
Some things stay the same.
It's a pleasure to know that a year after Atari died, the flame - although
nowhere near as bright as it once was - is still held high by a few. Terry
Grantham and his crew at Telegames have stepped in to fulfill the wants
of a small band of Jaguar owners with new titles. Tom, Doug, Scott and
Steph of 4Play are fighting the bugs carved in silicon to bring us
BattleSphere. Clay Halliwell has graciously offered to carry the mantle of
Atari Online News Resource.
(Speaking of such, I would like to thank once again, the two men that
assisted AEO the most during my tenure as Editor; the two men who tried to
keep the good news flowing: Bob Brodie and Don Thomas.)
If it's not a labor for money, it must be a labor of love. That I can
honor. Speaking of love, Clay asked me to dash off a missive that would
explain what happened to Atari Explorer Online...
The back injury I mentioned in my last editorial put me out of action
for several months early last year. During that time, a sweet angel named
Geri appeared, and once I had began to mend, I took her as my bride. Atari's
death throes seemed too distant to relate as we literally loaded up the truck
and moved to Beverly ("Penske" and "Silicon Valley" actually, but they don't
read as well).
I had to lay my Atari aside and join the "real" world. It was not an easy
task, rather, one which simply had to be done. I will always look back on my
many years using Atari computers and games with a sense of family and joy.
Making no allusions to the recent political season here, Atari represented
one of the first bridges - steps - between the world as it was before digital
entertainment, and the world we are hurtling towards. Atari brought the
digital revolution home. Helped give it a face. Revolutionized the world.
But revolutions are nothing more than a change in the status quo. Once
the change takes effect - or doesn't - the revolution is over. And so it
goes.
To commemorate Atari's preeminence in the arena of digital entertainment, I
created an image ["FUJIFISH.GIF" --Ed.] that should be attached in this
archive, and which should be treated as public domain. I think the image
itself needs no explanation. Wear it, share it, improve upon it, toss it into
the bit bin. But remember the fun we all shared.
Have you played Atari today?...
--==--==--==--==--
|| Jaguar Tackboard
|| Confirmed information about Atari's Jaguar
\__// Compiled from online and official sources
-----------------------------------------------------------------
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Atari Times Jaguar Newsletter
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Greg "Fruitman" George <greggeorge@worldnet.att.net> publishes a Jaguar-
specific newsletter called The Atari Times. The newsletter is FREE, but cash
donations are greatly appreciated. To subscribe, write to:
Greg George
1531 Stevens Loop Rd.
Babson Park, FL 33827
Also, an online version is available at:
<http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/8341>
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Web Message Boards
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Anyone with web browsing capability can join in on the discussions on two
web-based Jaguar message boards out there on the net. Note that, due to the
rapid message turnover and instant-update nature of these boards, they have a
tendency to burn through topics in a matter of days instead of weeks (or
hours instead of days).
Just point your browser to:
Jaguar Interactive
<http://www.magicalfox.com/ken/postit.cgi>
or...
Toad Computer's JagTalk
<http://www.ataricentral.com/wwwboard/jagtalk.html>
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Internet Jaguar Mailing List
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Anyone with Internet e-mail access can join the discussions on the Jaguar
mailing list. To "subscribe" to the list, send an e-mail to the following
address: <majordomo@colossus.net>
With the following as the body message:
subscribe jaguar FirstName LastName
(Where "FirstName" is your real first name and "LastName" is your real last
name.)
You should then soon receive the subscription information. Since the list
moved, digesting is no longer available.
The actual list address is: <jaguar@redsun.net>. All mail will go to the list
server and be sent to the dozens of readers of the list.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Atari Underground Mailing List
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Anyone with Internet e-mail access can request to be added to the Atari
Underground mailing list. This is a moderated mailing list maintained by Matt
"MHz" B., generating periodic messages describing current events of interest
to Atari Jaguar owners.
To subscribe to the list, send an e-mail request to <MHz@earthlink.net>.
Please do not confuse the Atari Underground mailing list with the Jaguar
Underground hackers (more on them below).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Jaguar FAQ
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Robert Jung <rjung@netcom.com> still maintains the Jaguar FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions) file, an updated list of Jaguar specs and facts. The Jaguar
FAQ is posted to rec.games.video.atari on Usenet around the first of every
month, and can also be found via FTP, address: ftp.netcom.com, in Andy Eddy's
/pub/vidgames/faqs directory.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Jaguar Cheats and Codes
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Clay Halliwell <halliwee@ts436.dyess.af.mil> maintains the Atari Jaguar Game
Cheats and Codes FAQ. It's available by e-mail request, from Andy Eddy's FTP
site (see above), or from Jaguar Interactive
<http://www.magicalfox.com/ken/postit.cgi>.
Lonnie "The Mage" Smith <themage@aol.com> maintains the Concise Compendium of
Frequently Asked Codes, Moves, and Cheats (FACMAC). It's available via FTP
from <users.aol.com:/TheMage1/jaguar>, or from
<http://users.aol.com/TheMage1/jaguar/jagcodes.txt>
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Independent Association of Jaguar Developers
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The IAJD (Independent Association of Jaguar Developers) is still 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 JTS Corp. To apply for membership, send e-mail to
ENTRY$ on GEnie (or <entry$@genie.com> if you're not on GEnie). Regular e-
mail correspondence with the IAJD should be sent to IAJD$ (again, or
<iajd$@genie.com> if you're not on GEnie).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// JEO Development List 1.00
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The following list of game titles has been confirmed to the best of JEO's
ability as of March 10, 1997. Entries in the "S"tatus column reflect any
"e"rrors, "u"pdates, "n"ew titles, titles that are in "P"roduction, or
"?"uestionable listings since the last AEO list. Entries in the "M"edia
column reflect whether the title is "C"D-ROM (blank entries are assumed to be
cartridge software). "NEW" indicates titles released since the last (and I
do mean "last") issue of AEO.
ETA dates are dates that have been provided by the developer or publisher.
//// Titles in Development or Limbo
S M Title ETA Developer Publisher
" " """"" """ """"""""" """""""""
? Air Cars ? Midnite
? Arena Football ? V-Real Productions
u Battlesphere 1997 4Play 4Play
? Brett Hull Hockey ? Ringler Studios
? C Brett Hull Hockey CD ? Ringler Studios
? Charles Barkley Basketball ? Ringler Studios
? C Commander Blood ?
? Deathwatch ? Data Design
? C Highlander II ? Lore Design Ltd.
? Hyper Force ? C-West
P C Iron Soldier 2 3/97 Eclipse Telegames
? C Magic Carpet ? Bullfrog
? C Robinson's Requiem ? Silmarils
? Skyhammer ? Rebellion
? C Soulstar ? Core Design Ltd.
? Space War 2000 ? Atari
? C Varuna's Forces ? Accent Media
P C World Tour Racing (was F1 Racing) 3/97 Telegames
P Worms 5/97 Team 17 Telegames
P Zero 5 4/97 Caspian Software Telegames
//// Current Software Releases (revised ratings)
M Title Rated Developer Publisher
" """"" """"" """"""""" """""""""
Alien vs. Predator 9 Rebellion Atari
Atari Karts 6 Miracle Design Atari
Attack of the Mutant Penguins 6 Sunrise Games Ltd. Atari
C Baldies 6 Creative Edge Atari
C Battlemorph 10 Attention to Detail Atari
C Blue Lightning 6 Attention to Detail Atari
C BrainDead 13 5 NEW ReadySoft ReadySoft
Breakout 2000 7 NEW MP Games Telegames
Brutal Sports Football 6 Millennium/Teque Telegames
Bubsy 5 Imagitec Design Atari
Cannon Fodder 8 Virgin Interactive C-West
Checkered Flag 4 Rebellion Atari
Club Drive 5 Atari Atari
Crescent Galaxy 3 Atari Atari
Cybermorph 7 Attention to Detail Atari
Defender 2000 8 NEW Llamasoft Atari
Doom 8 id Software Atari
Double Dragon V 4 Williams Enter. Williams
C Dragon's Lair 5 ReadySoft ReadySoft
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story 6 Virgin Interactive Atari
Evolution: Dino Dudes 6 Imagitec Design Atari
Fever Pitch Soccer 6 U.S. Gold Atari
Fight For Life 6 NEW Atari Atari
Flashback 7 Tiertex Ltd. U.S. Gold
Flip Out! 6 Gorilla Systems Atari
C Highlander I 8 Lore Design Ltd. Atari
Hover Strike 5 Atari Atari
C Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands 7 Atari Atari
Iron Soldier 9 Eclipse Atari
I-War 4 Imagitec Design Atari
Kasumi Ninja 5 Hand Made Software Atari
Missile Command 3D 8 Virtuality Atari
C Myst 9 Atari Atari
NBA Jam: Tournament Edition 9 NEW High Voltage Atari
Pinball Fantasies 6 Spider Soft C-West
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure 8 Imagitec Design Atari
Power Drive Rally 7 Rage Software Time-Warner
C Primal Rage 7 Probe Time-Warner
Raiden 6 Imagitec Design Atari
Rayman 10 UBI Soft UBI Soft
Ruiner 6 High Voltage Atari
Sensible Soccer 6 Williams Brothers Telegames
C Space Ace 3 NEW ReadySoft ReadySoft
Super Burnout 7 Shen Atari
Supercross 3D 5 Tiertex Ltd. Atari
Syndicate 7 Bullfrog Ocean
Tempest 2000 10 Llamasoft Atari
Theme Park 6 Bullfrog Ocean
Towers II 7 NEW JV Enterprises Telegames
Troy Aikman NFL Football 6 Telegames Williams
Ultra Vortek 8 Beyond Games Atari
Val d'Isere Skiing/Snowboarding 7 Virtual Studio Atari
C Vid Grid 6 High Voltage Atari
C VLM 9 Llamasoft Atari
White Men Can't Jump 6 High Voltage Atari
Wolfenstein 3D 7 id Software Atari
Zool 2 7 Gremlin Graphics Atari
Zoop 6 NEW Viacom Atari
//// Current Hardware Releases
Item Manufacturer
""""" """"""""""""
Jaguar 64 Atari
Jaguar 64 CD-ROM Drive Atari
3-button Controller Atari
6-button ProController Atari
Team Tap Atari
Jag-Link Atari
Memory Track Atari
CatBox Black Cat Design
Lap Cat/Lap Cat Pro Ben Aein
Jaguar Server Roine Stenberg (Istari Software)
Pts Stars JEO Ratings
""" """"" """""""""""
10 ***** THE ULTIMATE - Flawless, beautiful, deviously addictive.
9 ****+ EXCELLENT - Something to throw in the face of N64-heads.
8 **** SMEGGIN' GREAT - Something to kick on the shoes of N64-heads.
7 ***+ DARN GOOD - Plays as good as it looks.
6 *** DECENT - Plays better than it looks (or vice versa).
5 **+ TIME KILLER - If there's nothing else to do, you play this.
4 ** INEPT - The programmer's first Jag game?
3 *+ INCOMPETENT - The programmer's first game ever?
2 * UNPUBLISHABLE - Heaven help us!
1 + INCONCEIVABLE BAD - ...but someone conceived it. Too bad.
0 - EXECRABLE - This is an April Fool's joke, right?
//// The Short Term Schedule
Here's the Jaguar software schedule for the next few months. Please bear in
mind that these dates represent everyone's best assumptions.
March: Iron Soldier 2
World Tour Racing
April: Zero 5
May: Worms
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// JEO Mail Order Directory 1.00
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The following list of vendors carrying Jaguar software/hardware has been
confirmed to the best of JEO's ability as of March 10, 1997.
//// Best Electronics
Mail 2021 The Alameda, Suite 290
San Jose, CA 95126-1127
Voice 408-243-6950
//// Bits of Fun
Mail PO Box 12345
San Luis Obispo, CA
Phone 800-FUN-JAGS
Email <ddavis@cwest.com>
Web <http://www.cwest.com/atari>
//// BRE Software
Mail 352 W. Bedford Ave., Suite 104
Fresno, CA 93711
Voice 209-432-2684
Fax 209-432-2599
FaxBak 209-432-2644
Email <bresw@aol.com>
Web <http://www.cybergate.com/~bre>
//// Buy-Rite Video Games
Voice 919-850-9473
Fax 919-872-7561
Email <buyrite@interpath.com>
Web <http://www.buyrite1.com>
//// Demand Systems
Voice 805-482-7900
Orders 800-593-0059
Fax 805-484-3745
805-987-1998
Email <mbrown@demand-sys.com>
Web <http://www2.demand-sys.com/demand>
//// Electronics Boutique
Voice 800-800-5166
Orders 800-800-0032
Email <feedback@ebworld.com>
Web <http://www.ebworld.com>
//// Flashback Video Games
Mail 2284 Kresge Drive
Amherst, OH 44001
Voice 216-960-1622
Fax 216-960-1663
Email <flashback@usa.net>
Web <http://www.sunmarkinc.com/products/flashback>
//// GameMasters
Mail 14393 E. 14th Street, Suite 208
San Leandro, CA 94577
Voice 510-483-4263
Email <mchaddon@game-masters.com>
Web <http://www.game-masters.com>
//// Game Pedler
Voice 801-273-0787 (ask for Internet Sales)
Fax 801-273-1357
Email <sales@gamepedler.com>
Web <http://www.gamepedler.com>
//// Games To Go
Mail 7632 Lyndale Avenue So.
Richfield, MN 55423
Voice 612-798-5879
Fax 612-869-5925
Email <sales@gamestogo.com> (orders)
<inquiries@gamestogo.com> (info)
Web <http://www.gamestogo.com>
//// Hardysoft
Mail 24 Lawnside Drive
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
Orders 609-883-1083
Fax 609-538-8674
Email <hardysoft@genie.com>
<hardysoft@prodigy.com>
<hardysoft@compuserve.com>
Web <http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hardysoft>
//// STeve's Computer Technologies
Mail 405 Main Street
Woodland, CA 95695
Voice 916-661-3328
Fax 916-661-1201
Email <steves@woodland.net>
Web <http://woodland.net/wdm/steves>
//// Telegames
Mail P.O. Box 901
Lancaster, Texas 75146
Voice 972-228-0690
Orders 972-224-7200
Fax 972-228-0693
Email <sales@telegames.com>
Web <http://www.telegames.com>
//// TigerDirect Inc.
Mail 8700 West Flagler Street, 4th Floor
Miami, FL 33174-2428
Voice 305-229-1119
Orders 800-879-1597
305-228-5200 (international customers)
Fax 305-228-3400
Email <tmcguinness@tigerdirect.com>
Web <http://www.tigerdirect.com/todays_special_012197.htm>
//// Toad Computers, Inc.
Mail 570 Ritchie Highway
Severna Park, MD 21146-2925
Voice 410-544-6943
Orders 800-448-8623
BBS 410-544-6999
Fax 410-544-1329
FaxBak 410-544-0098
Email <info@toad.net>
Web <http://www.ataricentral.com>
//// United Game Source
Mail 210 Ring Ave Unit 104
Palm Bay, FL 32907
Voice 407-726-6867
Orders 800-564-1458
Fax 407-726-6903
Email <unitedgame@aol.com>
Web <http://members.aol.com/unitedgame/index.htm>
//// Video Game Advantage
Mail 6861 Anthony Lane
Parma Heights, OH 44130
Orders 216-843-8815 (24-hr answering machine)
Email <vga2000@ix.netcom.com>
<vga2000@io.com>
<dw901@cleveland.freenet.edu>
Web <http://www.io.com/~vga2000>
//// Video Game Liquidators
Mail 4058 Tujunga Ave, #B
Studio City, CA 91604
Orders 818-505-1666 (9am-5pm PST)
888-944-4263 (toll free)
Fax 818-505-1686
Email <vglq@vglq.com>
Web <http://www.vglq.com>
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Press Releases
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Atari Announces JTS Merger
ATARI, JTS TO MERGE OPERATIONS
SUNNYVALE, Calif. Feb. 13, 1996 Atari Corporation and JTS Corporation
today agreed to merge the two companies. Atari is the pioneer in multimedia
video entertainment and JTS is a manufacturer of computer disk drives.
"This merger puts us in a great position to capitalize on a very experienced
management team and a rapidly growing disk drive market. JTS is using
innovative technology, particularly in the 3" disk drive market, and we are
excited about its prospects," said Jack Tramiel, chairman of Atari.
"Our partnership gives us the ability to expand our capabilities and pursue
new opportunities," said Tom Mitchell, president and chief executive officer
of JTS. "Dataquest has predicted that 115 million disk drive units will be
shipped worldwide in 1996, and it is a great time for us to be participating
in this market," said Mitchell.
Terms of the Agreement
Under the terms of the agreement, the new corporation will operate under the
name of JTS Corporation and the officers of JTS will become the officers of
the merged company. The Atari entertainment business and the JTS disk drive
business will operate as separate divisions of the new merged company.
Atari has extended a bridge loan to JTS in the amount of $25,000,000. In the
event that the merger is not consummated, the bridge loan will be convertible
into shares of JTS Series A Preferred Stock at the option of Atari or JTS and
subject to certain conditions.
As a result of the transaction, Atari stockholders will hold approximately
60% of the outstanding shares of the new company following the merger. The
transaction is structured to qualify as a tax-free reorganization and will be
accounted for as a purchase.
The board of directors of Atari and JTS have approved the definitive
agreement. The merger is subject to certain shareholder and regulatory
approvals and other conditions to closing. The parties anticipate the
transaction will close toward the end of the second calendar quarter of
1996.
JTS Management Team
JTS was formed in 1994 by Jugi Tandon, the company's current chairman of the
board. Tandon is well-known in the computer storage industry for his ability
to develop innovative products for the marketplace. Tandon will remain
chairman of the board of the new company.
Tom Mitchell was a cofounder of Seagate Technology and president and chief
operations officer of both Seagate and Conner Peripherals. Mitchell brings
unparalleled industry and operational experience in the high-volume disk
drive market. He is a pioneer in disk drive manufacturing in Singapore,
Thailand, China and India.
About Atari Corporation
For more than twenty years, Atari has provided consumers with high-quality,
value-priced entertainment. Atari markets Jaguar, the only American-made,
advanced 64-bit entertainment system and licenses and markets software in the
multi-platform, multimedia market. Atari is located in Sunnyvale, California.
About JTS Corporation
Founded in 1994, JTS Corporation develops and manufactures hard disk drives
for the computer industry. JTS has recently introduced its new 3" Nordic
product for the portable computer market. Headquartered in San Jose,
California, with manufacturing facilities in Madras, India, JTS employs 1,300
people worldwide.
The above statements regarding the disk drive industry and JTS' prospects are
forward looking statements and involve a number of risks and uncertainties.
Among the factors that would cause actual results to differ materially are
the following: business conditions and growth in the portable computer
industry and in the general economy; competitive factors, including pricing
pressures; availability of components from third parties; risks associated
with manufacturing of products in India or other overseas jurisdictions and
risks associated with JTS' ability to ramp its manufacturing operations,
including cost and yield issues.
//// Atari Announces JTS Merger Again
ATARI CORPORATION AND JTS CORPORATION TO MERGE
On February 13, 1996, Atari Corporation and JTS Corporation announced plans
to merge the two companies. JTS is a manufacturer of personal computer hard
disk drives. Under the terms of the agreement, the new corporation will
operate under the name of JTS Corporation and the officers of JTS will become
the officers of the merged company. The Atari entertainment business and the
JTS disk drive business will operate as separate divisions of the new merged
company.
In connection with the merger Atari has extended a bridge loan to JTS in the
amount of $25 million. In the event that the merger is not consummated, the
bridge loan may be convertible into shares of JTS Series A Preferred Stock at
the option of Atari or JTS and subject to certain conditions.
As a result of the transaction, Atari stockholders will hold approximately
60% of the outstanding shares of the new company following the merger. The
transaction is structured to qualify as a tax-free reorganization and will be
accounted for as a purchase.
The boards of directors of Atari and JTS have approved the definitive merger
agreement. The merger is subject to certain shareholder and regulatory
approvals and other conditions to closing. It is anticipated that the
transaction will close toward the end of the second calendar quarter of 1996.
Atari has been in the video game business for over twenty years. Today, Atari
markets Jaguar, the only American made, advanced 64-bit entertainment system
and licenses its intellectual property to third parties. Atari is
headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
//// Telegames Announces New Releases
In the past few months, Telegames has either released, or announced their
intention to release, SIX new Jaguar games. While they haven't put out any
actual press releases, these are the descriptions from their web page
<http://www.telegames.com>.
TOWERS II: PLIGHT OF THE STARGAZER, is the first genuine RPG to be released
for Jaguar. Become one of four different characters as you are immersed
within the strange happenings in the mystical land of Lamini. You must
uncover the secrets as you explore Daggan's castle. Many before you have
tried, but none have returned. First-person perspective, full screen smooth
scrolling, talk to others, collect 100's of items, refer to maps, encounter
100's of creatures, experience challenges in combat, magic, and spell
casting. Hours of challenge with appropriate save and restore feature.
Available NOW.
BREAKOUT 2000 is a 3-D version of the arcade classic. Designed for one or two
players, this reflex tester will challenge any skill level. The object of the
game is still the same; accumulate as many points as possible by breaking
Bricks with Balls. That's where the similarity ends. There are a total of ten
different Phases to survive, each consisting of five playfields. Each
playfield is more difficult to clear than the one before it, and each Phase
adds even more difficulty. As you progress through the game you'll encounter
bricks that you have to hit more than once to break, and even some bricks
can't be broken at all. Also includes Classic Breakout for the nostalgic
player. Available NOW.
IRON SOLDIER 2 (CD) is the knockout sequel available on CD for Jaguar. Pilot
your 42 foot tall mech robot through 20 new missions against the evil Penta
forces. Dramatically enhanced 3-D graphics create a virtual battlefield with
war waged in all 360 degrees. Outfit your mech with combinations of 12
weapons systems and begin your fight against the multitudes of enemy weapons.
With full motion video, driving soundtrack, and realistic SFX, all available
in stereo or surround sound, this product must be purchased by any true
gamer. Available March 7th. [delayed, see below --Ed.]
WORLD TOUR RACING (CD) is the first Grand Prix style racing game for Jaguar.
Select your racer, customize its features, and set off to conquer the
international racing world. With a super-high frame rate, this game really
puts you in the driver's seat. Split screen, head-to-head competition in two
player mode. A multitude of features makes each race a new experience!
Available March 28th.
ZERO 5 is a futuristic space shooter set in a 3-D, 360 degree playfield. The
year is 2044 and the battle for Earth has begun. On the far reaches of the
galaxy, a massive invasion force is assembling. Scanners at DEFCON have
alerted you to the alien threat. The Earth's best pilots are dispatched in
their BAMBAM cruisers to engage the enemy. Multiple weapons, driving
soundtrack, non-stop combat, multiple power-ups, and 15 extended missions
contribute to a shooter's game with real depth. Available April.
WORMS is the hit product that is available on most other next-gen systems.
Designed for one to four players, this game combines the best elements from
the very best games ever created. The game requires great thought, strategy
and elements of sheer outrageous fortune within an almost infinite range of
playing possibilities. Teams take it in turn to bombard the enemy with
whatever weapon they feel is likely to reap the most reward. Each battle has
a time period and once this is over a period of extra time may be played
where all remaining worms are reduced to 1 unit of energy and the slightest
hit will render them out of the game. The last team remaining wins the game.
Available May.
//// IS2... The Wait Continues
IRON SOLDIER II DELAYED
The projected release date of Iron Soldier 2 (CD) for Jaguar has been delayed
due to a CD replication problem. Although Atari's "officially" licensed
replicator has had the gold masters of IS2 since February 20th, they have
been unable to create problem free glass masters that are required for mass
production. Their problems are partly related to the sophisticated security
encryption on the Jag CDs. Engineers have been working furiously since the
masters were delivered to fully resolve the problems. We will update our web
site as more info becomes available. Please do not send individual e-mail
inquiries asking about the status.
[Editor's Addendum: In response to an inquiry regarding whether the IS2 delay
would push back the release of subsequent titles, Telegames had this to say:
"We will try to maintain release date separations, so probably yes."
Bummer.]
//// Electronics Boutique to Carry Telegames Titles
Again, this isn't an official press release, but was posted to several online
sources. Check out <http://www.ebworld.com/news/articles/jaguar.html> for
this offer.
ELECTRONICS BOUTIQUE WANTS YOUR HELP!!
Hello everyone... My name is Wes Pederson and I am the Web page creator for
the EB WORLD web page at Electronics Boutique. We have responded to your
requests for us to carry the new JAGUAR games by TELEGAMES. We have decided
to try it one more time and see how it works. We will not be offering these
games in the stores to start with but we will be offering them through our
mail order department as a test. If this test works, we will look into
carrying them in the stores as well. Here is how it will work... We will test
it with IRON SOLDIER 2 by offering it through our mail order department at a
price of $59.99 and when you call and tell them that you heard about it from
the EB WEB PAGE <http://www.ebworld.com>, you will get an additional $10.00
Gift Voucher upon the delivery of your new game that you can use towards your
next purchase at EB. (Store or Mail order)
To place your Pre-Order call 1-800-800-0032
We pride ourselves in listening to you the customer and what you want... So
here is your chance to make a difference... Let's here from you folks...
If this test goes well, we will look at offering the rest of the TELEGAMES
titles for the JAGUAR...
Wes Pederson
<marketing@ebworld.com>
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// CatNips Epilog
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
08/14/96 - by Don Thomas
You may like to know that I have submitted my resignation to Atari and have
determined that Thursday, August 15 will be my final day.
I have been at Atari since November 1989. I helped launch the Portfolio,
which enjoyed tremendous success early in its life cycle. Later, I took on
the role as a specialist and helped represent Portfolio technology at
specialty trade shows, key account presentations and in exclusive development
scenarios. More recently, I have streamlined an effective customer service
department pursuant to the resources afforded by corporate direction. During
much of this time, I have made every effort to be accessible and active on
CompuServe as well as GEnie, Prodigy, our Web Site and a BBS I sustained
privately in my home.
Prior to Atari, I worked at Federated Electronics stores and was known within
the organization for my prejudice for Atari brand computers and games. Much
of my software library was provided to Federated as samples and the software
buyer asked me to test the latest titles.
I purchased my first Atari product in the early 80's. The 2600 was financed
on my first Visa Card from a Video Concept store in Dallas, Texas. I was so
impressed with the technology that I taught myself programming and developed
a newspaper delivery game to present to my employer, the Dallas Times Herald,
long before Paperboy ever hit the coin-op arcades. Only the crash of the
video game industry in the mid 80's kept me from entering the industry during
those years.
My first computer was the TI99/4a and, later, the Commodore 64. But it wasn't
until I opened an Atari 400 box in my apartment that I developed a passion
and soon found myself hoarding every cool thing I could find. From Scott
Adam's adventures to my MPP1000c modem and Rana disk drives, I was virtually
possessed.
After the Tramiels took over Atari, I bought into their 16-bit computer line
hook, line and sinker... and never regretted a single moment.
When the Tramiels acquired Federated in the late 80's, I thought I died and
went to heaven. For the first time, I met the likes of Neil Harris and Mr.
Jack Tramiel himself. During the day, I helped expand Atari exposure in
Atari's new chain of electronic stores. At night I honed my programming
skills into a line of software I called Artisan Software. I successfully,
released a know, Atari has just completed a merger with JTS; a
reputable supplier of hard disk drive technologies. The terms of the merger
relegates Atari as a division of JTS and no longer is Atari an independent
corporate entity. Shares of stock are now traded under the symbol JTS.
Atari's staff as of next week will consist effectively of 4 people, all of
which are among the most proud and honorable I have ever known.
On behalf of Atari, past and present, thank you to everyone who supported us.
Atari will always be an institution in our hearts remembering the evolution
of Pong, Asteroids, Star Raiders, Major Havoc, Millipede and many more. Look
for Atari's afterlife in licensed titles for other systems.
I have every intention to continue frequenting the Atari support areas and
you will no doubt find me popping up in a PSX forum near you! I'll look
forward to seeing you there.
-- Don Thomas @ Atari
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Hark the Herald Angels SCREAM
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
by Don Thomas
Hark the Herald Angels SCREAM
no one hears the words they sing
for 'neath the boughs of ever green
'midst the wraps of red and sheen
tied with bows of satin white
there's sorrow cradled that slumber night.
There were parcels large and some petite
there was one quite long and another smelled sweet
there were tags for Mom and sometimes Lover
some marked Mike, Michael or Brother
others did say simply Sister or Susan
and some of the ones were for Dad or for Rueben.
Now all the paper is crumbled and torn
not one gift is left still adorned
some bows are saved for another year
most are battered and tattered, we fear
and all the while; during joyful festivity
no VCS, no 8-bit, no Antic, no ST.
In years gone by; not all long ago
Mount Fuji stood tall; its pride aglow
it inspired and nurtured millions of souls
it marketed great things and set all the rules
there were games and computers and printers and mice
there were joysticks and modems and drives that were nice.
Yet lo in the present there's no present to be
that's wrapped with the factor of fn fromAtari
this year Jack The Santa; J.T.S. to be quite sure
took funds once marked for gamers so pure
and with disk drives that ship pairs at a time
there's no money for gamers, not hardly a dime.
Yet Christmas is perfect to remember the past
the Tempests, the Asteroids, the game names that last
and no one demands to know where they have gone
the silence just deafens as new systems move on
and through all, we shall treasure that precious green tree
next year when J.T.S. absorbs the tree industry.
--Donald A. Thomas, Jr. (75300.1267@compuserve.com)
believing that the tremendous success of the today's
systems has meaningful roots that should not be forgotten.
(c) Christmas, 1996
Please freely reprint or resend with author's credit.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// World Tour Racing Author Speaks?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The following messages were posted to the Jaguar Interactive message board,
by someone claiming to be the programmer of World Tour Racing (formerly known
as F-1 Racing... coming in March from Telegames!). We have no proof that this
individual is indeed who he claims to be, but he certainly sounds like he
knows what he's talking about.
//// World Tour Racing - Info
1/28/97
Hello Jaguar users,
With luck World Tour Racing will be released in March by Telegames. The game
was originally completed 12 months ago, but the release vanished with the
demise of Atari. Information about the product is quite scarce, so I would
like to clarify a few things. The game IS polygon based, the project was
originally conceived as Virtua Racing on the Jag, but as the project
progressed that look became dated and we received pressure to include heavy
texture mapping. The game does contain some texture mapping, but also
includes lots of tricks involving scaled sprites and bitmaps to make the
screen look detailed and interesting, without anywhere near the same speed
hit. It's not 30fps but it is a lot faster than Chequered Flag.
World Tour Racing was in development for almost 2 years whilst I worked at a
company in Greenwich London. Since than I've moved on and now work at another
company, but I'm currently helping to resolve a few technical issues so that
the game can be published. I had to fire up a dev-kit for the first time in
almost a year a few weeks ago to supply the screen shots which are now on the
Telegames web site.
I'm grateful to Telegames for releasing the game, as I and the rest of the
team that worked on it were proud of the product and how well it played and
looked when it was finished. The fact that it didn't go onto the shelves was
a bit of a kick in the teeth.
Regards
The Programmer.
//// World Tour Racing - More Info
1/29/97
Hello again.
Some answers to some direct questions :-)
The game has 16 tracks, 12 of which are based on real F1 tracks from around
the world, and 4 fantasy tracks which we made up (I wanted pyramids in the
game and Egypt doesn't have any racing tracks, so what the heck). It has 10
cars in each race, at one point the game had as few as 6, it was part of the
process of tweaking the game play so that you were always racing against
someone. 10 cars worked well in the final product. The fact that you never
really raced against anyone in CF was probably the worst thing about the
game.
The Jaglink is not supported, 2 player mode is via a split screen. What
resolution does it run at? Erm... most of them. This would probably take me
quite a while to answer, due to a technique I used to maintain acceptable
frame rates at all times. Instead I'll just point out that Doom is the lowest
resolution game on the Jag, only 160 horizontal pixels, and I'm higher than
that at all times.
The music was produced by the same musician who did the music for that French
skiing game that I can never remember the name of [Val d'Isere Skiing and
Snowboarding --Ed.]. It's CD audio throughout and I was very happy with it,
but you'll have to decide for yourself.
I think I remember the adverts that some of you have been referring to. The
early mock up pictures of the racing game [Checkered Flag] had nothing at all
to do with WTR, it didn't exist back than. The company where I developed the
game was producing Brutal Sports Football at the time (the programmer who
converted that game wrote the first level of Die Hard Trilogy on the
Playstation afterwards).
Well done whoever it was that said that the in cockpit camera seems slightly
higher than the drivers head, it is, by about 20cm. Very few people noticed
in testing and it does make quite a big difference to the game's playability.
You can set the camera to lots of different positions, you can even race via
the TV cameras if you really want to.
World Tour Racing was not a Domark project, and as a publisher I don't think
they ever released any Jaguar software. As a side note, I now work for Eidos
Interactive which owns Domark Software.
BTW, during my time as a developer I did have access to some of the Jag 2
papers, I think by now my NDA is pretty much dead, anyone interested?
Regards
The Programmer
Sorry, I'd rather not give my e-mail directly, but I'm checking this site
on an irregular basis, so if you want to leave me a message post it up
here.
//// World Tour Racing - Jag 2 Info
1/29/97
I'm about to disappear as it's the end of my working day, but as there seems
to be quite a high level of interest I'll clarify what I said about the Jag 2
in my last message.
I don't have any physical Jag 2 papers, I don't think anyone does except the
ex-employees of Atari, as the project was confidential, but I did get to see
some of them.
Atari started releasing details to some developers around the middle of '95,
with the intention of holding a developers conference in the Autumn. The
conference never happened and the project died later that year.
Depending on how much I can remember (it was over a year ago) I'll try to
post some information up about the machine tomorrow. But I will say this, at
the time it didn't look that great compared to what was looming and Atari
must have been aware of that.
Now for a few more answers :-)
Yes, the tracks do have tunnels and dips and bridges, it doesn't wildly
undulate, which is mostly due to the nature of the real world tracks and the
type of racing.
The computer cars do race against one another and have quite complicated AI.
The car AI was originally developed on another machine before the Jaguar
project began, so it was adjusted, refined and playtested over a considerable
length of time.
Yes the game does vary the resolution. It doesn't quite do it on-the-fly in
the sense that it changes whilst you're racing around a track, but it does
change from section to section and track to track. It even changes res when
the game is paused, if things are flying pst at high speed you can get away
with lower res as the eye doesn't notice that sort of detail, speed is all
important in a racing game. I did at one point experiment with an engine that
changed the base res on a frame by frame basis, but that makes simple things
like screen overlays stupidly complicated.
The car is highly configurable, there is a workshop during qualifying which
you can jump into at any time and adjust all the usual stuff. It has a fairly
complicated vector force model driving the physics of the car, with a set of
interpreter blocks put in to make it a fun game to play. Sliding is an
important part of the game, simply because most testers found it a lot of
fun.
I'm not sure what the Blitter "trick" is that your refer to, but it does blit
via CLUT & GPU memory, and uses many, many other techniques (half of which
I've now forgotten).
Bye for now
The Programmer
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Jaguar Underground Forges Ahead
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"THE UNDERGROUND"
[This article originally appeared in Gamepen's Gamewire
<http://www.gamepen.com>. Reprinted with permission.]
In the wake of the Atari Jaguar's commercial death, it seems that the Atari
community is going to pick up where the corporation left off. Certain
dedicated members of the community are in the process of making history. A
group of game designers and programmers that calls itself The Underground is
working on the idea of shareware for the Jaguar. The movement is currently in
a learning state: all the coders figuring out the tricks of assembly on the
Jaguar. The group is also requesting rights from various corporations to
program certain titles. If successful, this would be the first major
shareware movement on a console, and it could very well change the face of
the video game industry.
Recently GameWire was able to get in touch with some members of The
Underground to find out how this project is developing:
"The final form of the shareware has not yet been determined. Most of this is
in its infancy. If only (Atari) realized how many people would write games
for them from this underground, the Jag may still be formidable. Fact is the
Jag can do all those nice tricks the PSX can and better, with more color. We
simply want to put out games for a system that we all love and realize a
great potential for."
"Just so everyone understands who reads this, we in no way intend to violate
anybody or their copyrights, Atari included. If (they) had half a market
brain, they would bring back the Consumer Program Exchange where home hackers
produced a lot of the 8 bit computer software."
The Underground has mentioned a few titles and it seems some of Atari's
broken promises of 'classics' may be fulfilled through this. (Games by)
Bally, Stern, and other classics are all possibilities, pending approval, of
course, from their respective companies.
Overall, the shareware movement is alive and well on the Jaguar. The game
descriptions that have been shared with us thus far sound extraordinary. We
wish the best of luck to The Underground and will continue to cover this
development as it progresses, so stay tuned to GameWire for exclusive
interviews and coverage. In the meantime, if you have any comments,
questions, or concerns about The Underground, please email GameWire's Senior
Web Editor, Brian C Bessemer (<kitten@dfw.net>). Messages will be forwarded
to The Underground and we will attempt to answer all concerns, if not
personally, then in future updates.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// New AvP Code Discovered
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Thanks to Adam Ryder for unearthing this heretofore unknown Alien vs Predator
code. This code displays a few lines of debug info on your HUD.
Debug Info:
Hold Pause.
Press Option.
Press 1+3.
Release Pause.
Press Option.
Shotgun blast confirms.
"dec(nn,nn)" is your map grid coordinates. "hex(nnnn,nnnn)" is your precise
coordinates (in hexadecimal). "1(nn)" is the current level.
--==--==--==--==--
||
|| Jag-Fest '97
\__// The Atari Jaguar's Woodstock?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Several Jaguar enthusiasts (mostly on Jaguar Interactive) are organizing a
little get-together called "Jag-Fest '97". It started out as a party to
celebrate the release of BattleSphere andAtari employee)
and Terry Grantham of Telegames. They are not attending for sure, but it is
an exciting possibility.
Jeff Grimshaw has sent out a request for feedback on who's planning to
attend. Here it is:
"PLEASE SUBMIT A POSTCARD
Send a Postcard Today!
Attention all Jag-Fest '97 party goers! It has proven to be somewhat
difficult for me to secure a place for our meeting. To help remedy this, I
ask that you send some information to me via SNAIL MAIL!
Hardcopy information I can keep and file and be happy about, electronic I can
lose when my next HD crash occurs...
My big problem is that I know we all would like to go and have a good time,
but I don't know how many of you will be needing a place to stay. I don't
really know how much you are expecting to spend, what you plan to bring (if
anything), if you plan to show up early or would like to stay late and help
clean up.
I don't know if you want to donate anything, be it ideas, food, luck,
posters, artwork, whatever. Remember, a big undecorated room is ugly to look
at. Besides, you'll become rich and famous like me (ever heard of me before
this event? :-Q ) when we credit you for your contributions.
As of now, this is the information I will need:
First and Last Name: (so I know who you are)
Age: (I hate to ask... but there are curfew laws and hotel regulations we
must take into account. If you are way too young and coming alone, we'll try
to pair you up with someone, but your parents will be convinced all internet
geeks are axe murders, anyway..)
Mailing Address: (in case I need to mail you for whatever reason)
Daytime/Evening phone numbers: (In case I need to contact you regarding
hotel/motel rooms/pricing etc. The hotel will also need this if they need to
contact you in case of reservation problems.)
E-mail Address: (so I can e-mail you with updates)
Who is Coming With You? (Wouldn't it be great if I requested a bunch of
single rooms and your group of 12 drinking buddies come along with the
intention of all staying in the same room? This will allow me to have a fair
idea of how large of a room we each need. Prices will vary accordingly due to
room size.)
What can you bring? (Tell me if you are bringing something. I don't care if
it's a thank-you card. Acceptable items are listed on Chad's page.)
Are you willing to send a deposit on your room, if need be? (I will try not
to handle the money and have it go straight to the hotel if this comes to
light, but I can't promise)
Who can we contact in case of an emergency? (If you suddenly die, we can't
throw you away)
Finally, what comments/suggestions do you have? (There's still so much to do,
there's still time for one person to make a difference!) e-mail me this information. But if you
must, my email address is: Gorgonzola@earthlink.net
Please use the same format as listed above, and title the message "Jag Fest
Applicant Information"
All people who register with me will be getting e-mail shortly thereafter. I
will try to keep everyone posted in a timely manner as to current events and
developments. If you would like to send me artwork/posters/etc, please
forewarn me, so that I will be sure to check the PO Box more often.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The PO Box's address, incidentally, is:
Jeff Grimshaw
PO BOX 958542
Hoffman Estates, IL
60195-8542
Thank you for your support! I look forward to meeting you all and publicly
losing most of the contests... No one said I was a good gamer, I just like to
play..."
//// Where Can I Get More Information?
Every Friday evening, 11:00 PM EST, there is a lengthy Jag-Fest meeting for
everyone to attend. It's located at JPFN. To go directly to the chat, go to
<http://www.frontiernet.net/~bwdaly/chat.html>.
Be warned though, some have encountered technical problems and haven't been
able to enter chat. If this happens, then please e-mail us (or probably
Kevin) for the latest scoop on what went on. Of course, you can always check
out the home page for all the info, too.
Check out these home pages for further info:
Jag-Fest '97 Home Page:
<http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/4062/>
Jag-Fest Info Page:
<http://freenet.buffalo.edu/~bl478/>
Maintained by Kevin Manne (kevinmanne@wycol.com)
Atari Video Club:
<http://www.angelfire.com/ia/AtariVideoClub/AVC.html>
--==--==--==--==--
|| Llatest from Llamaland
|| By: Jeff "Yak" Minter
\__// llamaman@ix.netcom.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[All of the following postings are taken from Jeff Minter's web page, Yak's
Zoo <http://www.magicnet.net/~yak/zoo.html>. Check it out, and see what else
Jeff has yakked up lately.]
//// 22 Jun 1996
Well, I have been getting on with The Project Of Which I Cannot Speak, having
fun doing that... went to an excellent party not too long ago... enjoying the
onset of California summer and driving around in the Red Ship... installed
Linux on my PC... (amazingly enough, someone has converted the old C64 game
Thrust to Linux! I was most impressed!)... unfortunately I can't say a lot
about what is really turning me on at the moment, but soon... real soon... I
promise :-).
I've introduced a new section, dedicated to my favourite tech toys, and added
a bit of new stuff here and there in the existing sections. I know there are
a few snapped links around, I'll do me best to fix them and add new ones RSN.
Sorry I have been a bit inactive Webwise of llate, I have just been a lazy
git, iz all. And not being able to speak of my passion makes it a bit harder
to get enthusiastic about maintaining my stuff. That *will* change. Soon.
Watch the skies. Imagine a world without pixels :-).
//// 14 July 1996
Just done a major overhaul of the Llamasoft Titles by System page - adding
links to scans of the original cover artwork of the games where available,
plus a few words about each of the games. I will add more as I get hold of
more of the cover art, but some of that stuff is quite hard to find now!
//// 20 Oct 1996 (Wipeout XL is due to release tomorrow!!)
I've been away for a while, took a short trip back to the UK... yes the new
project is still proceeding OK, no I can't say a lot about it yet - at least
no more than I said in the October 'WIRED' Atari piece. Soon... in the
meantime, I have updated a couple of areas and added a piece about my recent
trip, including some nice pi can be sure; but
that period is coming to an end. Expect interesting things to read about at
the start of '97. Next year is going to be a Time of Much Coding and Many
Miracles. As soon as I can, I shall also start up my "Wallpaper of the Week"
section, where you will be able to download psychedelic stills for your
Windoze wallpaper from some of the outrageous graphics naughtiness that I
have been getting up to. Be warned that you will need 24-bit colour to view
them at their best. I tend to be worst-case for anything less. :-)
Also, also... been playing a few new games (see In The Slot)... and got a
couple of new emulators and finally uploaded my game packs for download from
the Emu page, and I've also updated a coupla other areas on the website...
Apart from coding and messing with my computers I haven't really been up to
much recently. I've been in semi-hermetic mode, lurking in my lair communing
with exotic constructs and occasionally breaking off to consume stimulants
both chemical and digital. (Coffee and Robotron will get ya wired as f*ck).
In particular, I have been firing up the Williams Arcade Classics on the PSX
and refining my skills at Robotron, in anticipation of the imminent release
of "Robotron X" on that system.
Oh, Tempest is now apparently out on the PS and Saturn... I still haven't
seen it as nobody at either Interplay or what remains of Atari has seen fit
to send me a copy to have a look at, which is kinda weird, considering that
it is my game after all. However initial reaction in the newsgroups and in
review is good, and there is no reason why the conversion shouldn't be as
cool as the original - maybe more so, with some cool new FX on the PS
version. One of these days maybe I will even get to see it.
I've been coding up a lot of HTML too... but nothing you are gonna see
:-)... tech examples for the coders who are to follow me down the Path to
Great Glory that is our current project.
However it won't be long until I am comfortably enthroned in my Virgin
Premium Economy, definitely no smoking seat, within a large metal tube
hurtling at unthinkable velocity and altitude above a large body of water,glugging down one gin and tonic after another and mak won't want to do anything except gaze at your screens drooling
on the carpet and... interfacing... we are talking serious habit-forming 100%
class A pure video narcotics here. Algorithmic ecstasy. A full-frontal
digital lobotomy.
heh heh heh.....
//// 15 Dec 1996
Well, I was supposed to be tidying up my house prior to my going back to the
UK for the hols (yippee!), but instead I found myself seated firmly on my
arse in front of the Playstation and N64 all weekend. Go to In the Slot if
you wanna hear the whole sorry story. My arse is totally numb from all the
videogaming I have been doing...
Hey, I did tidy up at least the living room today, in between games. I nearly
blew up my Hoover! There I was, Hoovering away, when suddenly I could
smell... you know... that smell. Burning electrical stuff. Never a good odour
to encounter as it usually bodes ill. I switched off the Hoover, and sure
enough, there were wisps of smoke coming out of the ventilation slots!
Now, I know my carpet was dirty. I have about as much sense of domesticity as
a billy-goat, as anyone who has ever had to use the bogs at my gaff will
attest. I rarely Hoover. So there was plenty of dirt on my carpet - I didn't
have so much dust-bunnies as dust-cows. Big ones, wandering around and mooing
loudly. However, even I would have been amazed that there could be enough
dirt to actually blow up my Hoover.
As it turns out, all that was wrong was that I had forgotten to switch mode
on the Hoover from "low pile" to "high pile" before I attempted to suck my
living-room carpet. Now that's an easy oversight to make, and I reckon there
should have been some failsafe device in the Hoover to actually cut out the
motor before it started to burn up. Bloody silly piece of design that there
isn't. Luckily I stopped my Hoover before actual flames ensued, but it was a
close call. Poxy dumb mechanical devices - I hate 'em. I look forward to the
day when I can buy some nano dust that I can scatter on my carpet and which
will eat my dirt, using it as raw material to reproduce themselves, evolving
vast nano civilizations in the interstices of my shagpile whilst
simultaneously keeping it spotlessly clean. Hehe...
Oh well, tomorroeview, complete with moany bits and comments, on my reviews
page. (To be honest, I am probably being a bit extra-hard on the game, but,
well, if anyone has the right to be an opinionated git about the game, it's
me. And, of course, the Great Originator Dave Theurer - but since he has left
the games biz, I feel like I have kinda inherited Tempest - I care about it
deeply, and I want to nurture and protect it, keep it safe from harm... and
watch it grow. I don't think I've finished with Tempest yet. Oh my no, not at
all... (hehe)...
"Project X" is entering a very exciting phase, and we're all buzzed about how
things are going at work. Yes, there will be announcements; no, I don't know
yet when they will be, but it should be fairly soon. Keep an eye on the Area
51 section of my homepage, because if I let anything slip, that's where it's
going to be slipping.
Oh yes - and one other thing I have decided about this year: Exodus.
Apart from that... I had a very nice break over the Xmas hols, went back to
the sceptred isle as per usual, got to hang out with my mates, go to Wales,
drink lots of beer and eat plenty curry. In fact on the last day, I went out
for curry with my mates, and the curry house offered me one of the mythical,
off-the-menu "stealth curries" which they consider to be too dangerous and
won't even admit they exist until you have a proven record of wolfing down
the hottest Vindaloos. I had a dark, ominous, seething chicken curry that
made my eyes water and my tongue throb. A curry that burns like fire and,
amazingly enough, even looks exactly the same both going in and coming out.
I also went to see my mate Dave Lightsynth up in Bristol, and had one of
those proper British nights out that I really miss since I've been here. You
know the sort of thing - down the road for a most excellent Vindaloo at the
Sheesh Mahal, then lots of lager, further stimulation, and conversation until
N o'clock in the morning... Dave's gaff is an interesting place to get
smashed in - full of boxes marked VPL and bits of Polhemus trackers, hardware
and computers everywhere, even parts of the furniture made out of bits of old
computers. Dave is an excellent guy to have inebriated conversations with.
This is a guy who has interfaced the Jaguar VLM to a Theremin, for Ghu's
sake. Me and Dave and Ian Lightsynth used to have regular such sessions at my
old gaff in Wales, so it was most excellent to do so again - it's been a
couple of years. Oh well - maybe soon the Welsh sessions will be starting
again...
Not that I don't get to have occasional good nights out over here - in fact
the other night I met up with some ex-Atarians I hadn't seen for a while and
we had a most pleasant evening indeed, consuming a degree of fermented
beverages of varying ilks and talking about this and that and the Old Days
Back At Atari. There was this guy there I didn't really know, kinda a FOAF,
ya grok [Errm... no? --Ed.], and although he was a nice enough guy for sure,
well, you know that funny feeling you get when you know someone who's
apparently sane but belongs to some cult, or is a Scientologist? Well... this
guy was a heretic... I can barely bring myself to say it, but he... he...
He didn't like Roger Waters.
Yes, yes, I know, that's shocking, and the very words look ugly upon the page
of your Web browser, but it's true. I tell you, I knew something was up when
the conversation happened to veer in the direction of Their Exalted
Pinknesses, and he suddenly said something extraordinary: he said that he
thought that Pink Floyd were losing their touch when they released The Wall.
He thought The Wall "wasn't that great".
Yeah right! And that Eugene Jarvis chap was totally missing his stride when
he wrote Robotron. And that Shigeru Miyamoto, he's crap, he is, and Mario 64
sucks!
Now that was scary, being in the same room as someone who actually thought
The Wall was crap... but, shock piled on horror, the heretic went on to make
the following bizarre allegations:
- The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking is, apparently, crap!
(yeah right! And the Curry Gardens serves rotten Vindaloo and it never rains
in Wales!)
- Radio KAOS is "poppy!"
(yeah right! Regular Spice Girl, that Roger Waters is! Yeah! KAOS was *so*
mainstream!)
- Amused to Death only has one decent song on it!
(yeah right! And the only good game on the PlayStation is "Viewpoint"! And
that Dave Gilmour, he only knows one chord!)
Naturally, I was somewhat taken aback to find out that apparently my Deity
has been creating all this crap, poppy music for years and silly me's been
enjoying it and thinking it's good! Damn, I hope nobody pops up to tell me
that all Eugene Jarvis's games are crap, and I just didn't notice - that
would really spoil my day.
Amazingly enough, when pressed, the individual in question revealed that he
had arrived at his deep, insightful opinion of Pros and Cons after just the
one listening! Silly me, and I thought that there was such a wealth of detail
in that album that it took me quite a few listenings before I began to get
the most out of it...
Well, after hearing such talk, in mixed compaI was halfway through
writing some stuff for the website, when I had a pre-emptive curry interrupt
that caused me to leap into the Red Ship and tool down to Monterey and
India's Clay Oven, where I had an extra extra hot chicken Vindaloo, garlic
naan, two spicy pappadoms (the best spicy pappadoms I have found in the US so
far, actually) and a couple of bottles of Flying Horsie beer (according to
the little tag you get on each bottle, Flying Horsie is "the champagne of
beers", and each bottle is brewed "for you, the connoiseur. When you're sure
the occasion deserves it, serve Flying Horsie Royal Lager Beer. Then sit back
and drink deeply". Well, a good curry always deserves lager, so I did indeed
sit back and drink deeply - in between shovelling forkfuls of steaming
Vindaloo into my face, that is :-).
Speaking of curry and lager, I am totally overjoyed that Red Dwarf series 7
is out at long last, and being broadcast back in the UK. Thanks to a co-
operative mum over there and a multi-standard VCR over here, I am receiving
regular tapes of the new episodes, to my unmitigated delight. I was howling
with mirth within the first five minutes of Episode One when Lister is
devastated to find out that a spacetime anomaly has wiped out the ship's
entire supplies of curry and lager ("Life without curry? That's like Laurel
without Hardy... or the Lone Ranger without... umm... that Indian bloke!").
Life without curry would indeed be a terrible thing to contemplate. Maybe I
should marry a nice Indian girl who would be willing to cook me Vindaloo
every night. I can just see my Personals ad now:
"Shaggy, goaty-smelling coder seeks Indian female for spicy culinary
relationship, possibly marriage. Looks unimportant, age unimportant, but
please send photo of curry..."
Hehe... so what else is up? Well, I'm off skiing next week, oh delight,
sliding down mountains with long things on my hooves, one of my favourite
activities! I'll be strapping on my Salomon ski-boots and getting into my
very appropriately-named Mountain Goat ski-suit, although not in that order,
'coz that would be well awkward :-).
Finally got around to trimming off some of the dead parts of my website, and
gathered my links and downloads into one place; and I have decided to release
Llamatron and Revenge as freeware. Coding continues well on the new Thang - I
expect to twiddle with Area 51 [the section of Yak's page, not the game --
Ed.] a bit more tomorrow and quite possibly upload a couple of new images, so
watch the skies!
//// 15 March 1997
Saturday night again - seems to be the timezone when I am most relaxed and
can re-enter the real world long enough to actually communicate with humans
:-)... here I sit listening to a nice techno compil that I laid down onto
minidisk a few months ago, and quaffing a not insignificant amount of Gin and
Tonic. G&T is my inflight drink of choice, you see, and when I am feeling a
little homesick, well, if I can't jump on a plane and fly right back to
Flossie, well, at least I can do the gin part, and imagine the rest.
Things are hotting up a bit in the world of Project X, and I've had precious
little time to be human recently... I have n things to do right now, and when
I'm not doing those, I am thinking about the n+1 things that I also need to
do, but which are of a lower priority from the original n... and there are
several layers of X-based priorities before you even begin to get down to
normal human things like feeding yourself or going out or being sociable. As
a result of this I am afraid I have fallen down somewhat on my comm duties,
and I have a huge backlog of email that I just cannot hope to shift. I
apologize, and don't mean to seem rude if I don't answer your email
immediately, if at all. I always appreciate hearing from people who know of
me and my work, particularly when people write out of the blue just to thank
me for wearing out their joystick hand over the years - it always cheers me
up when I get such a communication. But these days I am knocking off work
quite late most nights, and all I'm fit for at the end of the day is a quick
beer and then bed, and I can't really face answering a ton of email. I'm
sorry, I don't mean to be rude. Merlin eats me, iz all. And I love it, and
the results will be well worth it, you wait and see. You will know extreme
bliss when I caress your quivering neurons with my nootropic algorithmic
digital-narcotic wares. And that day is getting inexorably closer. There is
much excitement amongst the Project X team.
I've basically been in trogloditic mode, and will probably remain so for the
next month or two - I have a long-weekend break arranged for the end of May,
when I shall be going to an extremely good party; I'm kinda using that to aim
for and to justify not really having a life beyond X at the moment. And after
that, of course, there's my return to Flossie, planned for later in the year,
to which I look forward with inordinate relish. It gives me deep joy to know
that before the year is out I shall be reunited with my Ungulate of Choice.t of hard
work for all of us on the X team, and will continue to be so for the next few
months... but if I could tell you the specs right here and now, you'd
understand exactly why it's gonna be so worth it.
For you, it's gonna mean a gaming and lightsynth experience unlike anything
you've ever seen before. N64 included.
For me, it's gonna mean being back in Wales, working on stuff that I am
passionately enthusiastic about, on unbelievable hardware that I would never
have imagined in my wildest dreams (at least the wild dreams pertaining to
hardware, rather than beasties) a few years ago, living not far from a decent
pub, and in close proximity to a variety of pleasantly aromatic furry
beasties.
Well worth working for, I reckon. Trogloditic mode isn't particularly human,
but it gets stuff done :-)
--==--==--==--==--
|| BattleSphere Updates
|| By: Doug "Thunderbird" Engel
\__// thunderbird@sprynet.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[All of the following are public postings to Usenet by Doug Engel,
BattleSphere Chief Engineer.]
//// BattleSphere(tm) Mini-Update(R) 4/17/96
Greetings Sports Fans! Welcome to the latest installment of BattleSphere(tm)
Update(r). Once again, we are slaving around-the-clock in our efforts to
create the greatest console game ever designed on any system known to
mankind.
Since the last update, the following breakthroughs have been accomplished:
1) A super-nasty and annoying bug in the targeting system was exterminated.
Changing targets with the selection keys no longer glitches on occasion. It's
working fine now.
2) A bug in the sound manager was squashed, so now the sound locations in the
universe are accurately calculated, so their relative volumes are now
properly computed. This had caused some annoying miscues in the sounds.
3) Speaking of sounds, the new samples which we added recently have been
described as, "Sounds like a world war". Great. That's what we wanted! Our
sound is officially chock full of "64-bitty" goodness!
4) All of the versions of all of the Starbase objects have been created. A
major task has been completed. There are bases for each different race. Each
base has a unique shape and style, making them all race-specific.
5) The Starbase code has been completed, which includes the ability to
target, shoot, damage, and eventually destroy a Starbase. The HUD icon for a
base was added, so they can be spotted on the HUD and targeted. It looks
great.
6) The universe was expanded (Scott playing God again) because the large
bases would not grow small enough in the distance before wrapping around the
universe.
7) We were not 100% happy with the way the Starbase destruction sequence
appeared once it was first completed. We felt that a Starbase should have a
distinctive looking termination effect. Inspired by the effects from the
recent space-battle on Babylon 5 (which blows away any and all current
versions of Star Trek), we came up with a last-minute revamp of the Starbase
destruction. Now, a Starbase that dies does so in a much more spectacular
fashion. It's last-minute inspiration like this which makes game development
so enjoyable, and makes BattleSphere(tm)'s development process superior to
the rigidly defined processes of other developers.
8) The "Gauntlet" play-mode is being honed to perfection. It's a lot of fun
and has an "arcade" feel to it. The enemy AI is really wickedly evil, and few
players will get very far against the ever improving enemy pilots. Protecting
a group of Starbases in a sector has never been this much fun before...
9) Expect a preview from none other than Travis "El Travvy" Guy, from Atari
Explorer Online within a few days. Travis is going to be playing a recent
beta test version of this game.
10) BattleSphere(tm) R00LZ!
Until next time, Happy BattleSphere(tm)ing!
Thunderbird
//// BattleSphere(tm) Update(R) #032396:
That's right! With tonight's code modifications, you too will experience the
amazing technological innovation of 4-times the Nonvolatile Memory Capacity
of any Jaguar Game Cartridge ever produced!!!
We felt that limiting our high-score tables to only a handful of names was
one of the few legitimate complaints with the -awesome- Defender 2000, so we
embarked on an effort to quadruple the storage capacity of the NV memory. The
effort has succeeded. Now we have the ability to store complete high-score
tables _and_ detailed ship statistics.
Another record-shattering advancement from 4Play!
This BattleSphere(tm) Update(R) brought to you by:
Thunderbird
//// BattleSphere(tm) Update(R) 9/9/96
Greetings, everyone!!!
Welcome to the latest installment of the BattleSphere(tm) Update...
The three latest additions to our masterpiece are as follows:
1) The "Warp Effect" is incorporated. This is a cool wavy wormhole that
appears in the spot where a ship exits from hyperspace. If you see one of
these things you can pepper it with gunfire and the ship will materialize
right in your hail of fire! Boom!!! It works!!! And it looks really cool!!! I
have to make a sound effect for it though...
2) "Free-For-All" play mode has been added. This mode pits you up against 15
other ships in an all-out battle to reach a selectable number of points. You
will re-generate after getting killed after a 5 second delay, with a 1 kill
penalty. The first player to reach the goal is the victor! This is something
like "DeathMatch" in Doom, except that we have the additional features:
a) When killed you re-generate with your targeting computer locked on
the ship that killed you, so you can get "REVENGE(tm)" on him!
b) Your targeting computer displays a bar-graph indicator under each ship
target indicator indicating their score. A ship with a large indicator
has more kills than one with a short one. This way you can concentrate
fire on the guy that's winning, and cut his score back!
Free-For-All mode is complete, except for the pre-game setup screen which
allows the number of kills to be specified and the ship classes allowed in
each game.
Free-For-All works in both 1-player and Networked modes and it's a real blast
to play!!! With 16 ships in constant battle and an infinite supply of lives,
things get pretty hairy! There's never a dull moment here!!!
3) Check out the All-New and Vastly Improved "BattleSphere(tm) Homepage(R)".
Just point your browsers at <http://www.best.com/~sebab> and select the
Videogames / BattleSphere icon.
We even have a feedback form so you can submit your info so we know who to e-
mail when we release!!!! And we have e-mail links to all of your favorite
4Play members!!!
Let us know what you all think!!!
Thunderbird
Strap yourselves in. This flight is gonna suck, and we don't serve peanuts!
//// BattleSphere(tm) Update(R) 12/28/96
Hey there BattleSpherePhanatics(tm)! The wait is drawing to a close. Gauntlet
Play Mode is now in play testing, and I must say that it RULES!!! Never
before have I met such a challenging shooter game in my life! (Well... maybe
Tempest 2000). But it's great!!!
The levels start off pretty easy for me (I'm an expert) but the enemy gets
smarter and stronger as you go. Some levels require a great deal of strategy
as you're outnumbered and outgunned. Careful planning of when and where to
use your special weapons is crucial.
The level bosses are particularly fun and challenging, and really make the
time fly by. Finding the weakness in these guys is going to be a real
challenge! It took me 90 minutes to get through one particular level and I
know the Achilles heel already (heh heh heh) you guys are gonna love this.
Watch out now that the enemy AI is programmed to use special weapons on you.
Some of you complained a while back that some of our special weapons were not
particularly useful, right? Well, you'll be singing a different tune when you
discover how "INeffective" they are when the enemy is using them on you
(don't cry to me).
At any rate... if you finish all 100 levels of Gauntlet, you will indeed be a
supreme BattleSphere champion.
In other news, our nifty new introduction which tells the story of the game
is completed, which really spiffs up our Attract Mode. There's even some cool
easter-eggs in that sucker.
There's a couple of other things new too, but I can't tell anyone about them
;-) Let's just say we have another "first" for Jaguar games!
Thunderbird
//// BattleSphere(tm) (Awesome) Update(R) 02/03/97
Greetings BattleSpherical BattlePhanatics! It's time once again to give you
all the nitty-gritty on the most eagerly anticipated videogame in all of
videogame history! You guessed it... we're talking about BattleSphere(tm)
from 4Play!!! (That should really annoy Martian, huh?)
More amazing superhuman effort has brought about dramatic changes to the
world of BattleSphere(tm). As we approach the end of available ROM space,
more and more additional features are being added and play is being tweaked
to perfection. The actual changes made include but are not limited to:
1) The graphical extravaganza introduction has been completed. The number-
crunching graphics are indeed impressive. The nasty bug in the hardware which
caused this mode to occasionally lock up was circumvented.
2) The mega-awesome new "Mystery" levels have been added to Gauntlet (I hate
the term "Boss"). Several unusual new entities have been added to make things
a little more interesting for the player trying to complete all 100 levels!
Animated 3D ships RULE!!!
3) Gauntlet Networking is nearly finished. This allows 2 consoles to be
connected to play a cooperative version of Gauntlet... it may be the only way
some of you get to see the nifty later levels (heh heh heh).
4) Cockpit radars have been aesthetically improved for a more high-tech look.
5) Another incredibly realistic explosion has been added.
6) Several all-new sound effects have been added.
7) Steph is pleased to announce that all non-in-game music has been increased
to 8 or 10 track stereo sound, thanks to an all-new music player expertly
coded by TBird. (Limited bandwidth forces in-game tunes to remain 4-track).
8) A nasty hardware bug killing BattleSphere(tm) mode was eliminated. It
didn't show up until testing.
9) BattleSphere(tm) Play mode is finished. This mode is a show-stopping,
strategy-invoking, white-knuckle blast! Conquering the bases of the enemy
team is challenging and fun... and the more players you bring to the Battle
Sphere, the more fun it gets. Forget about mindless "Deathmatching" (Which
you can play too in "Free-For-All" mode)... BattleSphere(tm) mode's vastly
more elegant play mechanics create a networked play environment that's light-
years ahead of the simplistic kill-or-be-killed doldrums everyone's so weary
of.
The object of the mode is to capture the enemy team's bases using special
energy weapons... but you need to accumulate kills to be able to upgrade your
ship to be able to carry these weapons. Once you upgrade your ship, you can
dock with your bases and load up on special weapons.
But watch out! If you get destroyed, you have to start over again. Once you
have sufficient weapons to conquer a base, and you get through the enemy
fighters defending it, you can lay into it and take it over. Once the base is
yours, you can go after the next. Be careful though because the enemy may not
want you taking over their base and may take their own base down with a last-
ditch bombing run, if it looks like you're about to conquer it!
Of course the number of bases, number of players, and method of victory
(conquest or destruction of enemy bases) is completely configurable... for
hours and hours of networked play fun. By itself this play-mode is an entire
game. Remember... this mode is for 2-8 consoles only (no 1-player version).
10) Coding is progressing on the final play-mode (Alone Against the Empires),
which is the Star-Raiders-ish mode. An all-new galactic map is being designed
as well as the enemy AI required to seek and destroy bases in multiple warp
sectors. This mode will be super cool.
With the multiple play-modes available and the variety of them, it's a lot
like getting 4 or 5 different high-quality games all for the price of one!
Imagine getting a game and 4 of its sequels all at one time! That's what
BattleSphere(tm) is all about.
As always... BattleSphere(tm) continues to improve daily.
Until next time....
Thunderbird
//// BattleSphere(tm) Collector's Edition 03/02/97
Anyone who is interested in having their very own customized and personalized
"Collector's Edition" of BattleSphere(tm), please go to our web-site and
leave us Feedback mentioning your interest in this sort of item. Also, please
mention how many we should limit the number of them too, and how much you
would pay for one:
<http://www.best.com/~sebab/dvidgames/dsphere/sphere.shtml>
You have to realize that these would have to be "hand made" and individually
encrypted, etc. It will be labor intensive, so the fewer of them we make the
easier it will be, but they will probably cost more for us to make.
If we're going to do this, we need feedback to judge how many of them we can
make.
We are CONSIDERING doing this sometime after we finish the current game and
we see how sales are.
At the very least, we'd have the owner's name displayed on the title screen
or a special dedication screen. We'd probably have a serial number on there
too to authenticate the rareness, and we'd sign the cart or something.
Thanks.
Thunderbird
[Editor's Addendum: 4Play has just made available a 30-second "commercial"
for BattleSphere. It's a bit... odd, and it's their first effort with their
new video capture card, but is darn good considering. Snag it at:
<http://www.best.com/~sebab/dvidgames/dsphere/amovies/web.avi>]
--==--==--==--==--
|| BattleSphere Playtester's Update
|| By: Mark "Stingray" Santora
\__// santora@earthlink.net
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[Be sure to check Mark Santora's BattleSphere Playester's home page at
<http://home.earthlink.net/~santora/index.html> for updates. World Tour
Racing preview coming soon!]
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// The January/February 1997 Report
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// The Plot
In the future, an intergalactic war is about to break out. Eight different
races were set to fight until they controlled the galaxy. But in a brief
moment of intelligence, the races agreed to save the galaxy from being
ravaged by war. They did this by placing their best pilots in an enclosed
area of space to fight until one remained. Which ever race that was, would
rule the galaxy. Here lies the plot for Battlesphere.
//// Commentary
Well gamers, the wait is almost over! That's right, with a full force
programming blitz over the past few months, Battlesphere is a hell of a lot
closer to getting finished. Let me tell you, the gang at 4Play have managed
to really pump up the action. But more on that later. At this writing, there
are about 7 more concepts to be put into the game. Also, work on the Gauntlet
mode is complete.
//// Gameplay
As I said above, the Gauntlet mode is pretty much done, aside from some minor
tweaking. That said, most of this report is going to focus on that.
Gauntlet mode starts off with a simple yet effective screen asking for which
level you wish to start on, what type of ship, and difficulty level. There
are 99 levels in this portion of the game. They start off pretty easily,
sending a ship or two into your sector and they go after your starbases. But
as you get higher up in the levels, you start running into Squadrons. That's
right, out of one "jumpgate" area, three or more ships will appear. They each
have their own vortex, but you get the point. The best way to describe what
this looks like is from a movie(a movie reference from me?). Remember at the
end of Return of the Jedi all the squadrons of Tie Fighters heading for the
Millenium Falcon? That's what you will see, minus the Death Star. Hey, these
guys don't want to get sued!
Now, a quick fighting tip for Battlesphere: Whatever you do, Don't Fly
Straight At An Enemy Squadron! This is a good tactic for anywhere in the
game, but when you are facing the squadrons, they will kick your ass in a
real serious way.
Speaking of enemies, they have taken another step towards consistently
flogging you. They now use their special weapons, i.e. missiles. A nice
little sound accompanies each missile as it moves towards your ship, sort of
like sonar. The missiles can be shot down, you just have to find them first.
For all you science fiction fans out there, also look for nods towards the
past in Gauntlet mode. One level is inhabited by beings from a planet in our
solar system. Nak! Nak! Nak! If you don't get it now, you might once you play
it - level 48.
Speaking of the radar, the gang has added a bit of depth to it by layering in
a few things. I can't really describe it, but it looks nice and gives you a
bit more eye candy. It looks polished.
Also in Gauntlet, you get the Boss Ships. Put your head between your legs and
kiss your ass goodbye. They are extremely difficult and make you wish for
those squadrons of Capitol Ships.
//// Graphics
The graphics are still sharp and look better than half the crap that is 100%
texture mapped. Sure, texture mapping is nice, but usually I find that it
bores me and interferes with the gameplay. Let's face it, a nice looking game
with bad gameplay is TFX2000. And a bad looking game with bad gameplay is
Battlecruiser 3000.
//// Sound Effects
Well, we've got thenew sound effect for the incoming missiles, but nothing
that I've noticed aside from that. Of course, Scott will pull me aside later
and give me a whuppin' for that comment.
//// Networking
It appears that the eight-player networking in Gauntlet is finally solid. No
new bugs have creeped up, at least none that Scott has told me about. Link up
with your friends, and get rocked!
//// Music
Stephanie has been diligently working on new/different tunes for the game.
The ones she has shared with me, and what's in the game, are most excellent.
Take the energy of the Tempest 2000 music, give it more of a John Williams
tone, and put it in Battlesphere. Now you know what to expect. Steph has a
few MODs of the tunes on her web page, check them out.
//// Alone Against the Empires
It has finally started. Here comes what unofficially can be called, Star
Raiders 2000. This is the game loyal computer users have been waiting for
since the original hit in 1982. Really folks, this is the game to beat.
Scott's got some time to finish this one, hopefully I will have more to tell
you about it once I get a Flashrom of it.
//// Secrets
I can't tell you the easter eggs, but I'm trying to keep track over here and
my last count put the number of easter eggs around 15. I'm sure there are
more. This doesn't count the hidden race which everyone knows about. These
are the funky things. Things you don't expect. That's why they're so much
fun.
--==--==--==--==--
|| Review: Baldies
|| By: Clay "Macabre Kiwi" Halliwell
\__// halliwee@ts436.dyess.af.mil
--------------------------------------------------------------
So you say, you want to be a god? You've watched jealously as your PC- owning
friends have simulated cities, founded entire civilizations, and ruled
benevolently over a worshipful populous. How many times have you glared at
your Jaguar and wished you could take command of a group larger than those
four little guys in Cannon Fodder?
Well, now you can. Baldies is here for the Jaguar CD. So slap on that halo,
grab a thunderbolt, and step on up to the throne!
//// The Bald and the Beautiful
Upon loading, in what has to be one of the more unusual intros I've seen,
Baldies goes straight into a long claymation video with no dialogue and very
little connection to the actual game. The CinePak video here is some of the
worst I've seen on the Jaguar, and on top of that the animation itself is
very crude.
Once at the main menu, you can start a new game, enter a level password, or
load a saved game from a Memory Track cartridge. Baldies supports a single
save slot on the task to
perform, and each also has a power bar that is depleted as they perform their
tasks. Baldies can either be wandering around outside or placed inside
buildings.
[] Workers (red): The default Baldy type. Inside, they produce more Workers
(amusingly depicted by a Baldy jumping up and down on a bed). Outside,
they build up the red power bar. The red power bar is depleted by digging
holes and laying down strips of land.
[] Builders (blue): Inside, they repair and maintain buildings. Outside,
they build up the blue power bar and build new buildings.
[] Soldiers (green): Inside, they build up the green power bar and defend
buildings from invasion. Outside, they pummel, shoot, and lob grenades at
the Hairies.
[] Scientists (white): Inside, they construct weapons for use against the
Hairies. Outside, they build up the white power bar.
You can switch Baldies between types as much as you like, whether they're
inside or outside.
Generally Baldies who are outside will wander around aimlessly, stopping only
to pick a flower or take a nap in the shade of a tree. I've also spotted
suspicious yellow patches on the ground in the Ice stages, but haven't
actually caught anyone in the act yet. There are no territorial boundaries in
Baldies, so be careful that your guys don't wander onto enemy soil!
//// Let There Be Condos
While some levels start with a building ready for you to use, most of the
time you'll have to build your own. Simply plant a flag anywhere on the map,
and all your Builder Baldies will converge on it, eventually causing a basic
hut to appear. Then you can fill it with Builders and choose what kind of
building you'd like it to expand into. The type of building you create has a
direct impact on what it's optimized for. Building proceeds along the
following decision path:
Hut -+- House --- Large House -+- Larger House -+- Largest House
| | |
| +- Nursery +- Heliport
|
+- Fort ---- Large Fort
|
+- Laboratory
[] Houses: Have the highest Baldy capacity, and are good all-around
production centers.
[] Nursery: Best for producing more Baldies.
[] Forts: Best for military production.
[] Laboratory: Best for churning out inventions, and required to access
certain inventions.
[] Heliport: Must have one of these to access the helicopter invention.
If you don't allot enough Baldies to building then your building won't expand
to the next size. Even if you don't want your building to get any bigger, you
still have to assign a certain number of Baldies in each building to
performing maintenance, otherwise it will fall into a state of disrepair (at
which point all production going on inside stops), and eventually
disintegrate.
If the number of Baldies inside exceeds the maximum capacity of a given
building (usually due to Baldy breeding), the extraneous Baldy is kicked out
the door. If you abandon a building it will eventually fall down, but don't
be surprised if your computer-controlled opponent starts dropping Hairies
inside and takes it for his own.
As you build more buildings, you also gain new abilities. At three buildings
you gain the ability to dig up and create terrain, and at four buildings you
can make your Baldies fly. To use this ability, you select an area of Baldies
to be affected, then click where you want them to go. This is good for moving
large numbers of Baldies across the map quickly.
//// Implements of Destruction
You have two main means of wiping out the opposing Hairies-- Soldier Baldies
and inventions.
To use your Soldiers, just set your inside Baldies to military production and
send in the troops! Target selection is accomplished via a shield icon which
you pick up and drop wherever you like. Soldiers will home in on this, but
will also lob grenades at any enemy buildings they pass on the way. Shooting
and using grenades will quickly consume the green power bar, so be sure you
have lots of Baldies back home supporting the cause. Soldiers with an empty
power bar will be reduced to just knocking the Hairies down (which only stuns
them).
Inventions are where the real fun is... theoretically anyway. With your
Scientist Baldies, you can create gizmos such as poppers, mines, bear traps,
cannons, springs, and almost a dozen other items. You can increase the
fertility of your Baldies, decrease the fertility of your enemies, rain down
boulders and goldfish, cause earthquakes, zap your enemies at will, and bring
about Armageddon!
Poppers, mines, et al, fall into the general "trap" category, which I try to
avoid using. They're good for taking out wandering Hairies, but can't get at
the ones inside buildings. For that you need to send in your troops, which
can also be killed by all the traps you've laid. So for the most part you end
up either not using traps, or finishing off the enemy by building a
helicopter and bombing them back to the stone age.
Most of the really good inventions aren't available until you work your way
through the basic inventions. You can also gain new inventions by picking up
objects and dropping them in a Laboratory building. One of the most useful of
these is the Stink Bomb, which you gain by dropping a skunk in a laboratory.
Using the Stink Bomb on any building will cause about five of the inhabitants
to come running out (and right into any traps you've laid...).
By the way, the Exploding Cow is truly awesome. It does require a lot of
Hairies to set off though. And some of the inventions (balloon, angel cloud)
I have yet to figure out.
//// Sights and Sounds
Graphics are pretty much what we've come to expect from Euro software... very
tiny, and very detailed. I was definitely glad to be running S-Video while
playing this game. The animation is decent enough, but the scrolling is
embarrassingly coarse.
Where the graphics really fall short is in the various inventions. Half the
fun of a game like this is meting out death and destruction upon your
enemies, yet the lack of graphic payoff here severely undermines that
pleasure. For instance, the first time I used the cluster bomb invention, I
expected to see a fusillade of missiles falling from the air, fireballs,
craters, and flying bodies. Instead, a small cluster of Hairies simply cried
"Eek!", burst into little pixelly flames, and fell down. Very, very, VERY
lame. All of the high-power inventions are like this, leaving you with little
more than a strategic satisfaction at having used them.
Sound effects are similarly underpowered. What's there is okay (your Baldies
protest with a "Hey!" when you pick them up), but when you're dealing with a
game where you can only see a small part of the action at a time, audio cues
become extremely important. Baldies simply doesn't have enough sound effects.
//// Conclusion
Baldies is essentially "Populous Lite". It tries to convey the impression of
great variety of gameplay, but this is mostly a sham. All five sets of levels
(green, ice, desert, circus, hell), while graphically different, play exactly
the same. All the traps perform the same function. With few exceptions, the
variations in terrain have very little effect on gameplay.
As for the game itself, at times it feels more like a level editor than a
complete game. By giving the player the ability to redraw the terrain, drop
Baldies wherever you like, and change Baldy types at a whim, you don't get
much sense of having a virtual world to work within. The interface is clumsy
as well. I won't go into the details, but there are about a dozen little
things that they didn't get quite right about it. Well, I'll list one. The
game treats the entire screen as your window on the Baldies world, and then
overlays your menu bars on top of that. So, if you're at one of the far edges
of the world and want to pick up something that happens to be underneath a
menu... you can't.
Overall, I enjoyed Baldies for quite a while before its weaknesses started to
get to me. There is a mild appeal to building up your little civilizations
and clobbering the Hairies, but the uninspired AI and long waits for
buildings and power bars to come up to strength guarantee tedium in the long
term. A two-player mode would have made this game exponentially more
entertaining, but is sadly absent.
In the end, it's a technically mediocre product that simply lacks the depth
and polish of the games it attempts to imitate.
If you have WWW access, be sure to check out <http://www.baldies.com>.
//// Final Ratings
Title: Baldies JagNet: No
Design: Creative Edge Players: 1
Published by: Atari Media: JagCD
Retail: $59.99 Availablity: Now
A Summary of Ratings:
"*" is a whole
"+" is a half
5 stars Maximum
Graphics - *** Choppy scrolling, teeny-tiny character design.
Audio - **+ Tinny music and too few sound effects.
Control - *** Imprecise object selection and placement. Objects
sometimes unreachable under menu bars.
Gameplay - *** Shallow and repetitive. Not much real variety to the
weapons. No 2-player option.
Overall - *** A pleasant waste of time. Occasional crashes.
Key to Clay's Ratings
(leaders of men)
***** - Julius Caesar
**** - Winston Churchill
*** - Jimmy Carter
** - George Steinbrenner
* - Leonard Tramiel
--==--==--==--==--
|| Review: Breakout 2000
|| By: Wes Powell
\__// powell@easilink.com
--------------------------------------------------------------
Breakout 2000... a game that's been due out for, 'ahem'... too long. The
third in the series of 2000 [fourth, if you count MC3D --Ed.] games, B2K
doesn't disappoint. T2K and D2K were fairly similar, with their distinctive
styles. B2K may not be as good as they are, but it's definitely a 2K game
with a new flavor.
//// Blast from the Past
You're greeted by a polished title screen and a dull and repetitive tune.
>From the menu screen, you have great control over the way the game will be
played. You can choose between Breakout Classic and Breakout 2000. In 2K, you
can choose from three difficulty settings and three paddle speeds. You can
choose to play solo, against the computer (that, I might add, has superb
artificial intelligence) or against a human opponent.
As in the other 2K's, you can take a dose of nostalgia by going back and
playing the original version of the game. In B2K, they didn't do a good job
on the classic mode. There are only two levels... but, I can't say that I'd
want more. I'd rather that they put the effort into the NEW version, and let
the diehards of old pick up an older Atari system and jam to the clsic.
B2K's object is simple: destroy the bricks on the playfield. It's not as easy
as it seems though, especially with new stuff thrown into the mix.
B2K's gameplay is anything but predictable. The levels designs are very well
planned to give you a run for your balls. There are robots that can help or
hurt you. Some shoot down much-needed power-ups. Others try to make a mess of
your paddle. There are bricks that take multiple hits to destroy, and some
that are unbreakable. Ball speed, angle, and rotation are very important. If
you're gonna get anywhere, you've got to get good at aiming the ball by
judging the angles.
In two-player modes, you'll be faced with even more obstacles. If you clear
out a section of your bricks, your ball will hit a ramp at the back of the
playfield and hit the opponent's bricks. Unfortunately, you may be handling
two balls at one time. If you miss your ball, you lose a ball. If you miss
the opponents ball, you lose 1,000 points (a hefty chunk). Watch your balls
closely.
To keep the game from being repetitive, they were smart, and threw in some
great new stuff. Complete five levels, and you'll be treated to an
intermission of either a 3D Pong round, or a target round. 3D Pong is
awesome! I had never thought about a 3D Pong, but here it is, and it's
intense. You'll face your friend or a computer foe. With every hit, the balls
moves faster... and keeping track of two balls moving at blinding speeds
isn't easy. The target round is a test of your lightning shooting skills.
You're equipped with lightning, and you'll be awarded points for destroying
the target bricks in the least amount of shots. Very cool bonus rounds
indeed.
The mechanics of the ball are excellent. Angles and stuff are precise and
very realistic. Scaling of the ball is also great... almost flawless. The
ball floats above the ground and has an appropriate shadow. It looks very
shiny, and spins in different directions. When you hit the ball left or
right, it'll spin respectively.
The robots that you'll be faced with are animated very well. They look almost
like SGI with the exception of some rough edges. They move around well, and
they scale smoothly too. They'll throw down some nifty power-ups, or some
sucky power-downs. Get the breakthrough ball to sweep the levels clean. Bag a
bigger paddle or an extra ball. Paddle boosters like lightning charges and
ball attract. Beware, there is an opposite to every power-up.
//// Graphics
The graphic package is nice, but it's not going to blow you away. In the
game, there are different space-like backdrops which are nice and colorful.
There is a molasses-speed star field in the back as well... very choppy, but
your mind will definitely be on other things.
The bricks that make up the levels are fairly basic, but look shiny
nonetheless... the 3D look that is created is mighty cool. Your paddle is
transparent... and that's a nice plus. It also recoils when you hit the ball.
The sight of your ball traveling up and down the ramp is outstanding. When
the bricks become multi-stacked, that's when you'll realize that this really
looks awesome.
//// Sound
The music and effects bundle is also done well. The SFX are basic stuff. Some
seem to be pulled right off of the 2600 or something (not sure on that).
Other sound effects have a newer and cooler sound, fortunately. There's not
much to complain about... some of the effects are very nice, and others are
average.
On the music side, what we have heard in the other 2Ks isn't matched here. It
doesn't seem that they fine-tuned the music the way that Imagitec did.
Although, the music does a great job of suiting the game. It's always upbeat,
and offers a lot of variety in the way of beats and rhythms. You'll get a new
track each five levels. Some of the tunes are remixes of others with new fill
ins and beats, but they are varied enough that you won't mind at all. I find
myself tapping my toes to these tunes... I really enjoy 'em.
//// Overall
The control is dead on. With speed configurations, you should be able to play
the way you want to. There's not much more to say-- it's perfect in this
category.
If you've seen a screenshot, or watched a Quicktime of this game, and weren't
impressed, believe me... it has to be PLAYED to be believed. The action is
intense, and that makes for great fun-factor. Multi-player options are also
very cool and add much to the replay value. Great game for any library.
//// Final Ratings
Title: Breakout 2000 JagNet: No
Design: MP Games Players: 2
Published by: Telegames Media: 2 megabyte cart
Retail: $59.95 Availablity: Now
A Summary of Ratings:
"*" is a whole
"+" is a half
5 stars Maximum
Graphics - **** At first they look basic, but in the later levels, you'll
respect the excellent 3D look that is created.
Audio - **** The tunes are great, and the sound effects are more good
than bad.
Control - ***** A great game for beginners with its simple control setup.
Nice and easy to use.
Gameplay - ****+ It's awesome. Multi-player increases the replay value
dramatically, and solo is great fun too. Don't judge this
game on pics alone... play it.
Overall - **** A game that will appeal to all types of gamers with its
simple controls. In the later levels it gets pretty
intense, a la T2K and D2K.
Key to Wes' Ratings
(an audiophile state of mind)
***** - Mini-CD
**** - CD
*** - Cassette
** - 8-Track
* - Rocks
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Author's Bio
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I'm Wes Powell. I'm 16, have brown hair, blue eyes, and I stand about 6 foot.
I'm one of the biggest Jaguar freaks ever, and I run the Jagu-Dome web site
<http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/4106/jagu-dome.html>. My talents
include, but are not limited to: Jaguar <g>, kicking peoples' butts at Jaguar
<g>, playing piano or keyboard, artwork, and HTML code.
--==--==--==--==--
|| Review: Towers II
|| By: Clay "Macabre Kiwi" Halliwell
\__// halliwee@ts436.dyess.af.mil
--------------------------------------------------------------
After years of waiting, false starts, canceled agreements, and last-minute
deals, the Jaguar finally has its first (and only) true RPG... Towers II:
Plight of the Stargazer.
//// Enter the Daggan
Like the original Towers (released for the Falcon), Towers II is set on the
island of Lamini, where your merry band of adventurers is still shipwrecked
after an unfortunate run-in with some pointy rocks. As the nicely presented
intro relates, the titular stargazer is a wizard by the name of Daggan. Seems
he's been acting strangely of late... ranting and raving, blowing things up
at his castle, and exhuming the corpses of dead mystics. Everyone who goes to
find out what's up never returns, up to and including all of Lamini's knights
and high council members. Oh my.
It's at this point that the sheriff resorts to you. In exchange for entering
Daggan's towers and apprehending him, he offers you a keep of your very own
(a keep to keep?) and as much treasure as you can grab inside the tower.
Being poor and bored, you of course accept.
//// Tower Power
Towers II is a single-player, single-character, first-person RPG. The game
environment is very Alien vs Predator-ish (but with lower ceilings). The
entire game takes place within Daggan's tower. There are 11 floors, which you
can move between freely via stairs, teleporters, and the occasional hole in
the floor. There are two types of game saves you can perform-- a complete
save to RAM (unfortunately lost when you power down your Jag), and a partial
save to the cartridge. This partial save includes only the bare essentials...
your inventory, stats, position, groups of monsters killed, and major
objectives completed.
Before you start, you select and roll your character. There are four
characters to choose between:
[] Merton, the wizard. Physically weak, but a magical powerhouse.
[] Tasler, the boy. Reasonably strong, the decent magic.
[] Andros, the circus performer. Similar to Tasler.
[] Gerand, the fighter. Strong as a blue ox, but little magical talent.
The character selection you make determines the range of the stats you roll
for that character. The stats are:
[] STR - Strength
[] INT - Intelligence
[] WIS - Wisdom
[] DEX - Dexterity
[] CON - Constitution
Fortunately, you can immediately re-roll a character if you don't like the
numbers that come up. The character selection you make has a real outcome on
how you play the game. For instance, Gerand can only cast a handful of the
available spells, and Merton is too frail to wear any armor.
Once you've created a character, you're placed on the ground floor of
Daggan's tower with only the clothes on your back (why do videogame
adventurers never bring weapons with them?).
The user interface is relatively simple. Pressing the joypad moves and turns
you in the usual way. Your character has rather a lot of inertia... if you've
stopped and press forward, it takes a full second to start moving. This can
be extremely annoying (and fatal) when trying to weave around monsters in
combat. The game uses every available button but one on the joypad. You can't
change button assignments, but the layout is optimized for use with a
ProController. Pressing the shoulder buttons lets you sidestep, and the most
commonly used keypad functions are mapped to the X/Y/Z buttons. Unfortunately
there is no keypad overlay included.
The game runs full-screen, with health and mana bars at the top and a compass
in the upper-right. Your currently-selected weapon bobs, Doom-style, at the
bottom of the screen. A press of a button bring up additional overlays-- a
spell canvas on the right, which gradually fills with icons as you find spell
scrolls, an inventory on the left, and miscellaneous text displays in the
lower center. The drag-and-drop inventory management system clearly shows its
roots in the Falcon... to pick up items you go into inventory mode, click on
an onscreen object, and drop it into any available inventory slot. You start
with only four inventory slots (forget about collecting every bit of treasure
you find), but this can be increased by finding bags and backpacks. Equipping
is done by moving inventory items into boxes overlaid on a small human
figure.
The mouse-based functions of Towers II can be somewhat of a hassle. Your
cursor moves much too rapidly, forcing you to tap-tap-tap the d-pad to
position the cursor where you want it. You even have to go into inventory
mode to open doors (yep... stop and click on the door).
Your health is whittled away by enemy attacks, and can be regained only by
sleeping or drinking a healing potion. Sleeping is implemented rather oddly
in Towers II. To go to sleep, just punch the Sleep button... anytime... even
in the middle of a fight. Weird. Health is regained at a fixed rate, so the
more powerful you become, the longer you have to sleep to fully heal. You can
only sleep when you're not hungry, so be sure to carry some food with you at
all times. Happily, "summon food" is one of the first spells you find.
There is an excellent automap feature, which maintains a full map of every
level as you explore, and you can view the map of any level at any time.
Naturally there's no way to fit these maps on the cart EEPROM during game
saves, but the game makes a valiant effort to reconstruct your map by looking
at the monsters you've killed and the goals you've achieved.
//// All Out of Bubble Gum
There's a satisfying variety of destructive implements in Towers II. Attack
from afar with arrows, wands, and spells, or get in your opponents' face with
swords, clubs, maces... even a broom! You also have the ability to throw
knives (or apples, very small rocks, whatever...) but the mode-switching
required to do this makes it practically useless in a fight.
To select a weapon, you go into inventory mode and dr