Jaguar News (Oct.08,1993)
From: Atari SIG (xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 02/20/94-12:28:53 AM Z
From: xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Atari SIG)
Subject: Jaguar News (Oct.08,1993)
Date: Sun Feb 20 00:28:53 1994
SILICON TIMES REPORT
====================
October 08, 1993 No. 9.41
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ATARI JAGUAR NEWS
=================
Here's some interesting stuff off Internet (off rec.games.video.misc):
From phixus Sat Oct 2 11:09:05 PDT 1993
From: phixus@netcom.com (Chris DeSalvo)
Subject: Everyone MUST read this!
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1993 09:56:06 GMT
I work at Interplay productions, you (hopefully) are probably familiar
with some of our games. Anyway, Bill Rehbock, Director of Applications
Software at Atari came by today and demo'ed a FINAL PRODUCTION MODEL
of the Jaguar for us, trying to get us to sign on as a developer.
Here is everything I can tell you about the Lynx and Jaguar that was
discussed in that meeting.
Oh, this will probably be long...
Lynx Update:
------------
Don't give up on the Lynx. Expect it to magically reappear on store
shelves starting with the holiday season. Even Toys 'R Us will carry
the Lynx again! Here's what happened... Atari had geared all its
marketing resources and development bucks on the Panther a few years
ago, and were hoping for a big Panther/Lynx debut. Well, the Panther
died. So, the Lynx got shoved out in the cold cruel world by itself.
With the introduction on the Jaguar most retail chains are so excited
about it that they are going to carry the Lynx again. Atari counts 24
new titles under current development for the Lynx that will be out next
year.
Atari is planning on piggy-backing the Lynx marketing onto the Jaguar.
There will be one Lynx commercial to every 10 Jaguar commercials. Atari
is lowering the price of the Lynx so that it will sell for about $50
retail, a head-to-head competitor with GameBoy.
Test Markets:
-------------
The Jaguar will be test marketed in New York City, San Francisco and a
giant Tandy superstore in Texas around November 15th. Atari is
pumping $4 million into a marketing campaign for these three cities.
1994 marketing budget for Jaguar/Lynx is $45 million. There will be
50,000 units shipped total for the test markets.
Release Info:
-------------
The Jaguar will sell for $200 SRP. This includes the console unit,
one controller and CyberMorph. Cartridges will average $50-$80 each.
Additional controllers will be about $15. I'm sure you've all seen the
picture of the controller... It is surprisingly light! The directional
button feels like it does on the Lynx, as do the 3 action buttons at
top.
There is also a 12-key keypad at the bottom that will allow
game-specific overlays. The CD-Rom unit will be $200. This is cool if
you think about it. With 3DO SRPing at $700, the Jaguar w/CD will only
be $400. I've played both, you'll want the Jaguar! (Read on for more
details why...). Atari will ship 1,000,000 Jaguars in 1994.
Graphics Features:
------------------
The follow graphics features are supported in hardware...
Texture mapping: Alien v. Predator uses this well. This allows a bit-
map to be wrapped around a 3-D object. It looks incredible.
Morphing: Animate and inanimate objects can be morphed into each other.
CyberMorph does this. You have a polygon ship like in StarFox which can
speed-up, slow-down, bank. As it speeds up the wings sweep back and two
steering fins morph out of the wings, and engines morph out of the back
of the ship. When you completely stop, you morph into this small box
that looks like a ST:TNG shuttle.
Warping: Objects can be stretched, pulled, rotated or skewed.
Lighting: This was way kewl. You can define light sources for your
scenes. In Alien v. Predator you are in a Doom-like texture-mapped maze
and rather than ray-casting, they just define a light source. It is
very light where you are standing, but gets darker down long hallways.
It is very realistic. Especially with the lights hanging from the
ceiling all over that game.
Transparency: Smoke and shadow effects, as well as full transparency
are supported by the graphics chips.
Confirmed Titles:
-----------------
Crescent Galaxy: Hottest side-shooter you've ever seen! 3-D, rendered,
shadowed.
CyberMorph: Real 3-D (as opposed to StarFox's 3-D on rails) flying
shooter. Very cool landscapes, shading.
Raiden: VERY faithful conversion.
Evolution: Dino Dudes: Save as Dinolympics on Lynx or Humans on PC.
This is an Atari game that utilizes all of the colors/graphics effect
the hardware is capable of.
Club Drive: A driving sim. You get lots of cars, on lots of terrains.
One of the options is to drive a toy-car around your furniture. 3-D,
polygon.
Checkered Flag 2: Virtually (pardon the upcoming pun) identical to
Sega's Virtual Racing. Wow, it looks great.
Tiny Toon Adventures: Say no more.
Alien v. Predator: Action, maze-based shooter. Texture-mapped wall
sets, great lighting.
Kasumi Ninja: Martial-arts fighting game. Didn't see it, but it sounds
cool.
Tempest: Re-hash of the old Atari classic, but using the Jaguars 3-D
polygon engine, and neat stereo sound.
Licensee Concerns:
-----------------
Although Atari has to grant final code approval, they do no censoring.
You could, if you wanted, develop X-rated software for the Jaguar.
Every game is given one man-month of compatibility and quality testing
before it is approved. Atari seems devoted to offering consistent,
and reliable developer technical support via fax, mail and e-mail and
voice. Unlike Nintendo, Atari is allowing developers to source there
own cartridges, documentation and plastic shells if they want. This
should help drive down the price of Jaguar cartridges in a short amount
of time. Atari is working very closely with developers and doing just
about everything legal to get companies to develop software for the Jag.
Comments:
---------
Bill's presentation lasted about 1.5 hours and we were all floored. The
games look great. The graphics are unbelievable. Its fast, sleek, and
beautiful. With Atari dropping the price of the Lynx, and think that
people will be willing to buy them as smart peripherals (how many people
paid $50+ bucks for advanced flight-stick/rudder controllers to use on 2
or 3 PC flight sims?). The development cycle seems to go pretty fast.
Development of all the games shown to us started this year. This would
indicate that we can expect a steady stream of high-quality games. As
developers get more used to the hardware, and learn to tweak its per-
formance, I think you will see some truly innovative games.
There's lots more to tell, so if you've got specific questions, I'll try
to answer them. Just post here, or mail me.
thanx for your time
Chris
============
From: phixus@netcom.com (Chris DeSalvo)
Subject: Jaguar v. 3DO
Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1993 08:48:50 GMT
First of all, someone posted that they just bought a 3DO and love it.
Where did you get it, 3DO moved their ship date back two weeks!
I don't care what you say about 3DO, my company is developing 3DO
software, and our programmers have also read the Jaguar technical dox.
They all agree that the Jag is FAR SUPERIOR IN EVERY WAY!
The Jag: is faster, has better resolution, has more colors, has a better
development environment, has a more robust graphics/sound chipset!
I've played both. Believe me, strictly as a game machine, the Jag beats
the hell out of 3DO.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| phixus@netcom.com | Macintosh: Changing the world, |
| Chris De Salvo | one person at a time! |
| Professional Mac Geek | ----------------------------- |
| Interplay Productions, Inc. | (I wish they'd hurry up!) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Any opinions expressed, or implied, are my own! They should not be
considered representative of the opinions or attitudes of my employer,
Interplay Production
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