¢ATARI: THE END? (continued)¢¢¢Postponed¢¢ Many Jaguar owners, like myself, eagerly awaited the cartridge releases and were promised a list of over 180 titles on both cart and CD over 1995/96. Many haven't been completed as yet and are still under production. Many won't be completed since the developers have pulled out due to the Atari's uncertain future. Other titles, it has come to light, have supposedly been withheld and stored in warehouses. Why these much needed titles are still withheld, other than Atari still deciding their options, is bewildering!¢¢Fighting for release¢¢ The polygon fighter Fight for Life has been withheld for months because Atari wasn't happy that it was up to and beyond the standard of other consoles' fighters such as Virtua Fighter II and Toshenden. A comendable move on Atari's part but a much needed title. Mail order specialists like Telegames are currently taking orders for it and it may well be out soon. I hope so. The pre-production versions have blown reviewers' minds away, according to the Jaguar Journal.¢¢CD-ROM released¢¢ While the other next generation consoles appeared around the 3rd and 4th quarter of 1995, all running with CD-ROM technology, many like myself were cursing at the continued monthly postponement of the 150 pounds Jaguar CD-ROM unit. Manufactured by Philips no less, the Jaguar CD finally arrived in October 1995. I bought mine with great haste and was not disappointed!¢¢ Far from being accompanied by any additional advertising, from Atari or the retailers, the Jag CD unit seemed to enter the country almost unnoticed! The only place I could find a CD unit for sale was Future Zone, now Electronics Boutique. Furthermore, they had a one on one re-ordering policy of stocking just one unit with the intention of ordering another replacement if sold!¢¢ There was no poster in the store that indicated it's arrival and when I inquired in the high street stores HMV and Virgin, they were unsure of a release date or indeed that they were going to stock it at all! [Ed: Virgin, Aberdeen stocked the CD unit. They promoted it in the front window for a week or so.]¢¢ Astounded though I was, I withdrew the 150 pounds from my depleting student account and bought probably the first in the country.¢¢ The initial CD titles that were to come with the unit were Batman Returns, Blue Lightning and Vid Grid. Batman Returns fell through due to a failed licensing deal with it's copyright holders, Williams.¢¢ The final package was still impressive, with Vid Grid, a sliding puzzle game with nine full music videos; Blue Lighting, a re-working of the Atari Lynx's flight arcade combat title similar to Afterburner in play; the Tempest 2000 CD soundtrack taken from the hit game; a demo of MYST, an up and coming point and click adventure release that was a PC hit.¢¢ It was such a relief to see the Jaguar handling nine music videos as they streamed off CD in Vid Grid, including personal favourites AeroSmith, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Soundgarden. The intro FMV sequence in Blue Lightning was very impressive, as was the enormity of the game itself. Finally, the beautiful graphics and engrossing voice-over in the intro of the MYST demo is great to watch.¢¢Virtual Light Machine¢¢ I was really looked forward to seeing the VLM software (built into the Jaguar CD unit) when I first heard about it. I wasn't let down! Like the Saturn and PSX it allows standard audio CDs as well as CD+g (with graphic displays) to be played. All the usual CD player functions are available. In addition, the software generates mulitcolour psychadelic patterns from 80-plus pre-programmed sequences. They gyrate to the music currently played and some allow you to manipulate them while active with the joypad.¢¢ The Tempest 2000 soundtrack taken from the successful game of the same name, consists of 12 techno/rave/industrial tracks and when played really sound fantastic. I am not a technohead or dance freak but loved this CD! Patterns pulsated and moved about the place in an almost hypnotic, if slightly nausiating, manner (well, I had been clubing the night before).¢¢ The Jag CD's strong points were flaunted in the few double page magazine spreads, leaflets and supplements published. There were said to be 10,000 of these adverts for the Jaguar last year! Yet still nothing was advertised in the high street Jaguar retailers, the most effective meduim, giving access to one of the widest audiences - the street shopping public.¢¢ After playing all the titles, I awaited apprehensively for the on-set of the two to three new titles promised monthly. Title release dates were released, only to expire and be renewed repeatidly. Eventually, in late December 1995, two titles, Highlander CD and Hover Strike CD-the Unconquered Lands suddenly appeared on the shelves. I consequently bought Highlander, a huge game based on the cartoon (in turn based on the idea of the films of the same name). A 3D polygon character engine similar to the PC series Alone in the Dark is used to great effect. Cartoon landscape shots grabbed and rendered in 24-bit true colour provide totally photo-realistic images. Sampled sound, music and FMV sequences taken from the cartoon series really combine to make a fantastic virtual world. Two more sequels are to be released in the series.¢¢Hardware¢¢ Many additional items were planned for the Jaguar, including a Virtual Reality headset priced at 250 pounds. This almost saw the light of day but at the last minute was scrapped because of problems with the prototype and production costs. The unit hadn't functioned as well as Atari had hoped, reportidly making an Atari executive 'queasy'(!) because of it's slower than expected tracking rate. Lucky, only one game was made available which had the headset in mind, a remake of the classic 80s arcade title Missile Command, called Missile Command 2000. It caters for the headset but doesn't rely on it, having other modes of play.¢¢ A 22 button joypad was scheduled for production early this year, but was also scrapped. ¢¢ The CatBox, allowing connection to S-Video, RGB and composite monitors, stereo outputs to monitor and hi-fi's; two stereo headphone jacks with sepereate adjustable volumes; RS232/CatNet networking ports for connection to other Jaguars, allowing up to 32 Jaguars to network with each other (supported in games like Doom) and a DSP pass-through bus for other devices to be daisychained. (Information from Atari on-line magazine, January 1st 1996). The CatBox is currently available in the UK for 59.99 pounds from Telegames mail order.¢¢ The Jaguar link cable allows 2 Jaguars to be connected directly. Doom's player to player deathmatch can then be played. The link is 24.99 (Telegames).¢¢ The 4-player adapter can come with the Baketball game White Men Can't Jump (59.99 inclusive from Telegames) allowing up to four players to play on one Jaguar. Telegames sell it alone for 24.99.¢¢ The memory Track Cartridge, though in my opinion too expensive at 29.99, allows you to save those levels, positions and scores from CD games (really essential for games like Highlander or Blue Lightning which due to their size are so frustrating and time consuming to restart again).¢¢New Jaguars planned¢¢ A Jaguar console/CD combo was to be released late last year or early 1996, sporting a new large flat square design, and around the 300 pounds price range. This has been scrapped to the best of my knowledge.¢¢ A Jaguar mk.II console was in the pipeline, with impressive specs, including processing power four times that of the Sony PSX and totally compatible with current software and hardware. The price was said to be around 200-300 pounds and the console was to be released this Autumn. I would imagine this is to be scrapped in the light of present developments, and with the present stock of over 100,000 Jaguars waiting to be sold in warehouses!¢¢Price Reductions¢¢ Although Atari first started dropping the price as part of their marketing strategy, I suspect that the radical price reduction over the past year was a last resort, or retailers simply trying to rid themselves of the Jaguar line.¢¢ Atari's collapse has been on the cards countless times, but I am nevertheless surprised at their merger with JTS. The Jaguar software situation may well dry up but alongside Atari's statement that the combined company will continue software support, I am optimistic that at least the titles promised and those nearing completion will be available over the next year or so.¢¢ If Atari do dump the Jaguar, I think the best (if only) support is going to come from mail order companies such as Telegames. These new titles are only going to be available from them since the high street retailers aren't stocking titles anymore, too concerned with getting rid of the current Jaguar line.¢¢ The Jaguar may survive with a mail order market if all the stops are pulled out on those games withheld, if all those nearing completion are completed, and all the CD games are released. Well, look at the Atari 8-bit software scene if you don't believe me!¢¢Titles to look out for:¢¢Mortal Kombat III¢World Tour Racing (CD)¢NBA JAM TE (59.99 from Telegames)¢BattleMorph (CD) (49.99)¢Baldies (CD) (49.99)¢Supercross 3d (49.99)¢Atari Karts (49.99)¢Defender 2000 (59.99)¢Fight For Life (TBA)¢Primal Rage (CD) (54.99)¢¢SAE to: Telegames,¢ Kilby Bridge,¢ Wigston,¢ Leicester LE18 3TE,¢ UK.¢ tel: 0116 2880445¢ fax: 0116 2813437¢¢UK postage cost are on average 3 pounds for a normal order and 6 pounds for a console or hardware.¢¢Possibly released titles to look forward to are:¢¢Magic Carpet; Wing Commander III; Batman Returns; Battlesphere; Arena Football League; Braindead 13; Brett Hull Hockey; Charles Barkley Basketball; Commander Blood; Commando; Creature Shock; Dactyl Joust; Deathwatch; Demolition man; Deus ex Machina; Thea Realm Fighters; Varuna's Forces; Virtual Warriors; Sudden Impact; Wayne Gretzky NHL Hockey; Zzyroxx II; Worms; Indiana and perhaps more. ¢¢ I compiled this list based on a release list I have from last July. I have omitted those titles whose release dates are past February 1996. The likelyhood of these titles coming out are slight for they are unlikely to be more than 50% complete (or already abandoned). I have also omitted titles produced by large third party developers such as Ocean and Team17 as they are more likely to have been the first to terminate contracts with Atari.¢¢Jaguar Future?¢¢ I hope the new merged company will continue support for the Jaguar, especially the CD unit. I think Atari's loyal fans will continue to support the Jaguar as long as new titles are made available. The Jaguar is a great console and I can't wait to see titles such as Mortal Kombat and Magic Carpet on it (with any luck!).¢¢ Atari has huge warehouses full of hardware and software to sell. Providing they find an effective marketing niche to sell from, I am sure they can sell everything off and recover some of the production costs. It could and should have been oh so much greater.¢
