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1995-05-13
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226 lines
From: JOECAT@IX.NETCOM.COM Public
To: ALL
Date: 05/12/95 at 04:32
Re: Tronix/E3 DAY 1 (Part 1)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Temporary E-mail address just for this report - my regular
E-mail address is joecat@phantom.com.
================================================
E3 NEWS from Tronix - [Day 1] Thursday, May 11th 1995
================================================
Part 1
Howdy folks - it's now 6:15 LA time, the first day of E3 has now
come to close. Two words can best describe the first day: Exhausting
and Outstanding. Compared to the Winter Consumer Electronics Show
in Vegas, E3 is a gamer's paradise - yet there's so much to see in
this
dense activity of sight and sound - there's no way you can cover even
half of it in one day. The first day of the show is always brutal. You
walk around with a video camera (I have to) in one arm, and 50 lbs
of literature in the other. You can't stop and really enjoy any games
as you're either filming or reorganizing your press kits before your
bags burst open. I'll give you a brief rundown of what I saw just
today - but don't forget, more will be covered (and more extensively)
as the show continues (with less hassle).
The day started with Keynote Speakers - Tom Kalinski of Sega, and
Olaf Olafsen of Sony. Both gave nice presentations of where they
felt the market was going, each ending with a video demo collage of
their 32-bit babies. Both "performances" received a wave of applause.
Kalinski's final words were "It's out there", referring to the sudden
stealth-like release of the US Saturn. Kalinski stated that the Saturn
will have 20 titles on shelves by the end of August. So, what's with
Saturn-Day? Sony's ending comments pretty much brought the
crowd to its knees when they announced a $299.00 price tag on the US
Sony Playstation which will be coming September 9th.
On With the Show!
Stopping first at Nintendo - there was no sign of the Ultra-64
anywhere on floor - but you all knew that. Perhaps in the next two
days we might see a video or something? Who knows - but somehow I
doubt it. Nintendo is still pushing the 16-bit SNES, and quite frankly
there is some life left to it with the help of these accelerator chips
and memory-boosted games. Such is the case with Nintendo's
32-meg Killer Instinct. Yes, it's here -fully playable, and it actually
looks quite stunning! At first glance you'll think it's Acclaim's MK2,
but closer inspection which reveal the nicely-rendered characters, and
incredible backgrounds. The game is going to do quite well - like last
year's Donkey Kong Country, and it can pretty much hold it's own -
even up against some of the 32-bit games that were out on display.
With no surprise, right next to Killer Instinct was the sequel
to Donkey Kong Country - simply called DKC2 (guess they're still
working on a name). Personally, I felt the magic of seeing it the
first time around was now missing. In fact, they look pretty much
identical with the addition of new moves, and of course, different
levels. Other interesting titles from third-party developers included:
Mortal Kombat III from Williams (which looks as good, if not better
than Acclaim's MK), and Doom (Williams) - yep you read that right,
Doom for Super-Nes. The special coproccessor chip bring SNES
Doom up to par with the others console versions, though noticeably
the lowest resolution in comparison. I also got a quick peek at
Squarsoft's Chrono-Trigger and EverMore - two high-quality
RPGS for those who adore the Final Fantasy series. Another hot SNES
title was Acclaim's monster movie tie-in, Batman Forever. The
characters are incredibly digitized - making this action game one
of the few left to look out for in the 16-bit world.
Nintendo was once again showcasing the Virtual Boy which will
be out this year for under $200.00. I'll have to stop by and check
out the games - as compared to the Winter CES showing; no time
today.
Overall, from what I've seen so far, Nintendo's showing is the least
exciting, with Killer Instinct being the only real people magnet
amongst their offerings. What's worse - Nintendo's booth was seperated
from the South Hall, where all the rest of the big guns had their
displays. It was obvious already - the South Hall was the hot spot!
SEGA
---------
Everywhere you turned, both in and around the convention center,
was some sort of advertising for the Saturn. The classy Saturn logo
was plastered across outside billboards, at bus-stops, and even on
the hoods of cabs. Sega's booth itself was quite massive - and sections
were nicely set up separating all their formats (please, no more formats
Sega - we can't keep up). I didn't even begin to explore any Genesis
titles, but I did catch a few that really shined. Seeing that 32X and
Saturn were only a few feet away - these had to be good. Definitely
check out Comix Zone, Batman and Robin, and a incredible new
screen-star - VectroMan. All games were top notch, each with their
own style of graphics that were a step above any of the Genesis titles
I've seen to date. VectroMan's graphics in particular will amaze you!. There
is also a football game coming from Sega called PrimeTime
NFL - though I didn't really play it. I mean - who can - with all the
surrounding eye-poppers that are yet to be explored at this mega-
event!?
There wasn't a large showing of 32X titles - but the few that I saw in
Sega's area looked quite promising. I'm sure there are other 32X titles
in some of the third-party areas, but we'll investigate that more closely
tomorrow. What I did see for 32X was a fluid Virtual Fighters, which
looked quite nice - almost close to Saturn quality with a reduction in
polygons. Other 32X titles included:
*Xmen - Work in Progress, but the demo was showing a Doom-like
3-D perspective.
*World Series Baseball - Just like the excellent Genesis version, with
a much broader palette and better animation.
*Shadow Squadron - An interesting polygon-based space shooter -
nicely done.
*Zaxxon: MotherBase - Looks a lot like ViewPoint, with a nice
mixture of polygons and bitmaps.
*32 X-stream. Some kind of 3-D Speed Boat shooter on the lines of
Spy Hunter.
It's Out There....
Saturn of course captivated the majority of the crowds which
continuously poured into Sega's territory. If a Saturn game wasn't
showing from a third party company - you can bet it had a "Coming
to Saturn" sign plastered nearby. Saturn games viewed so far:
*Panzer Dragoon (it's out now, so I won't bother - but it's a must-buy
and one of the top Saturn releases).
*Daytona USA (ditto)
*Bug - A very cool platform game with excellent characters, and a
rotating playfield that changes perspective from 3-quarter, to
full 3D as your bug walks into the screen. Looked hot!
*WorldWide Socer (known as Victory Goal in Japan). A very nice
Soccer game using Saturn's powerful scaling.
* A 3-D Hockey game which needed work - but will use a 3D,
camera, shifting ice-rink.
*Virtual Cop - looks arcade-exact. One word - WOWZO!
*Virtual Racing - Had the US black Steering Wheel connected. Played
great, but short in the graphics department. Not as slick as I
expected.
*Ghen War - a Mech battle-style game - ultra smooth, gorgeous
graphics. Actually, it looked like Metal Head in the next dimension.
A dimension of quality this time. :)
There were other Saturn titles scattered around 3rd-party booths,
but these are what I caught so far:
*Casper (work in progress from Interplay - lovely graphics).
*Cyberia (Another Interplay piece - not shown but coming).
*Rayman (Ubi-Soft - also quite stunning - like all the other versions).
* Solar Eclipse (Crystal Dynamics - Wait to you see this! A next
generation shooter - "TOTAL-ly" :).
Also, which I forgot to mention - at the opening conference,
Saturn's baseball game was flashed across the video-wall
presentation. When the batter hit the ball, the entire stadium zoomed
and panned at a remarkable clip. You can already count on this one
being a must-have.
More Saturn info tomorrow .......
Jaguar
---------
The Jaguar setup though much small than the others had it's own
healthy crowd - with two Virtual Reality setups at opposite ends
of the booth. This new VR system will be coming out in the late
fall - and will be priced under $299.00. Tomorrow I will get in
line to try it - but from what I can tell from the external displays -
the game people were "immersed" in looked mighty impressive.
It was some kind of 3D space exploration game - looking a bit
like AvP, with lots of detailed polygons. The tile is called Zone
Hunter, and according to one of the heads of this project, this
might very well be the pack in. People who tried on the goggles
stepped off the specially made platforms with smiles on their faces
Another title we might be seeing for this Jaguar add-on is a 90's
Missile Command, VR-style.
As far as games, there wasn't exactly a large explosion of new
titles, but many of the promised titles were finally finished, or much
further along in progress. There were a few monitors that weren't
showing anything, so aside from the list below - more can show up
on tomorrow's report.
*Defender 2000 - Once again, Jeff Minter is king. I can't even begin
to describe the magic surrounding this updated William's coin-op
classic. D2K is chock full of special effects, and simply put - the
hottest Jag-game in Atari's booth.
*BurnOut - 3D motorcycle racing - updated further - and looking
better and better!
*RayMan - Hey, it's almost here - and it'll be worth the wait.
*Flip-Out - Very nice-looking puzzle game...
*Baldies - Looks like another Lemmings-type - not impressive.
*Brett Hall Hockey - too early to tell - but knowing Accloade, don't
count on it knocking your socks off.
*TRF - A new fighting game - in fact, it was displayed on a large
screen as everyone thought it was Mortal Kombat III as they passed.
Looks great!
*Myst - Jaguar CD - like the other 900 versions.
*Highlander - Jaguar CD - looks juicy, though I'll have to look at
it more closely tomorrow.
*BattleMorph - Jaguar CD looks like Cybermorph - but it's unfair to
judge, as I didn't take a crack at it yet.
*Creature Shock Jaguar CD - looks sharper than the PC version!
*Fight For Life - They added more textures to the characters since
the last time I saw it. Still needs works - but improving.
*Vid-Grid - Jaguar CD -Some rock-n-roll-stye puzzle game with full
motion music videos.
*Varuna's Forces - Jaguar CD - looking hot! A space/action adventure
which I will be playing tomorow.
*Blue Lightning - Jaguar CD - Another improvement from the last
time it was on display at WCES.
*Primal Rage - Only had a the title page done.
*Ultra Vortex - Yep, once again it's here - and they've added a lot
more. The final version should be great (damn-well better be!).
* DeathWatch (I think this is the name ) - An immensiely colorful
platform game - though showin in early stages.
See Part 2 (3DO/SONY).... (Give me a few hours - I need to
take a short nap as my eyes are going).
--
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<*>