¢THE ATARI JAGUAR CD PLAYER¢¢Reviewed by Michael Clatworthy¢¢¢IT HAS ARRIVED!!!¢¢ After initially being informed that the release date for the CD add-on unit would be the end of April, I've finally received the unit five months later. I must convey my thanks to Andromeda Software, who run the Atari Jaguar Club, for keeping me informed of the delay details and reasons during the summer, and for the prompt delivery of the device.¢¢ On opening the packaging, I found the CD unit, power adapter and four CDs, which are as follows:¢¢1. Blue Lightning game.¢2. Demo CD of an up and coming game called Myst.¢3. VidGrid, a puzzle game.¢4. A music CD containing Tempest 2000 soundtracks.¢¢ I must stress that I use the term "game" as a loose description, as you have to see these CDs running to believe them!!!¢¢THE CD ADD-ON UNIT¢¢ The CD unit is the same colour as the console, and being slightly smaller, is designed to sit on top of the console during use. The CD unit plugs into the cartridge port on the console, and does itself have a cartridge port to enable you to use standard cartridges without having to remove the CD unit. The CD unit also has its own power supply adapter, so be warned: you will need three plug sockets to use this system.¢¢ On powering up the Jaguar, you find the usual "Jaguar" emblem on screen with some very fancy effects enveloping it. The system then checks to see if you have a cartridge plugged on or a CD loaded. The CDs are loaded into the CD player similar to a portable CD system, i.e. a top loading door is used, and you position the CD on the central spindle. If there is no media present the screen shows a picture of a CD with a question mark over it, prompting you to take further action. If there is media present the system recognises what it is and proceeds accordingly. Bear in mind that this is a CD player, and will play music and video CDs as well as specific Jaguar Software, which brings to attention the Virtual Light Machine.¢¢VIRTUAL LIGHT MACHINE¢¢ This is built into the CD player's memory and comes into use when the Jaguar CD is used to play conventional music CDs or Video/Graphic CDs.¢¢ A screen appears which graphically represents the buttons on a CD player, i.e play, stop, pause, skip, etc. These functions are utilised by using the Jaguar control pad. Believe me, when you press "PLAY" and the music starts playing, you won't believe your eyes.¢¢ Jeff Minter (author of Colourspace) is responsible for the Virtual Light Machine (VLM) and has let his imagination run wild! The VLM works by creating patterns/effects in time with the music/beat which is playing on the CD, and there are over 80 patterns for the machine to utilise; each one is a kaleidoscope of colour and patterns.¢¢ In essence the VLM is a hybrid of Colourspace, only with 64-bit power, millions of colours to choose from and programmed to follow music. When I fist tried the VLM, I loaded Biosphere's Patashnik CD and I could not believe my eyes, the colours and patterns are phenomenal with patterns of starscapes, spirals, pulsing bars of colour to name a few; each pattern merging with the next when changed.¢¢ The VLM can be programmed to change patterns randomly or allow you to change them manually, as well as playing disks randomly, programmed or just single tracks. CD+G disks can also be played on the Jaguar CD.¢¢ This is the most inventive idea I have seen (yet) for CD-related consoles and computers! It gives the Jaguar another dimension to that of just a games machine. The Jaguar could easily be plugged into the Hi-Fi system and video system if you were having a party for example, creating one of the best home lightshows around!¢¢BLUE LIGHTNING¢¢ Blue Lightning first appeared on the Atari Lynx hand held system, so some of you may be familiar with the gameplay. It is broadly based on the arcade hit Afterburner but incorporates ground attack and escort/rescue missions as well.¢¢ On loading up you are presented with the title screen featuring a "BLUE LIGHTNING" emblem spinning towards you. You are then treated to some of the best CinePak I've seen. It shows an aircraft flying along as you pan smoothly around it. When the aircraft comes under attack it receives instructions to "engage and destroy" and promptly knocks its' adversaries out of the sky! The detail in this sequence is stunning, with very smooth, almost lifelike graphics.¢¢ Throughout the game there are CinePak sequences for almost all "inbetween" periods, e.g. landing and selecting your mission. These can be turned off if required. But why? You may as well treat yourself to these tremendous graphic displays every moment that you can!¢¢ On initial start-up the system looks for the memory cartridge (which is expected in the UK shortly). This is used to save game information from any CD, as obviously you cannot save onto CDs yet. As there is not a memory cartridge present, a relevant warning message is flashed on-screen.¢¢ The options screen asks you to select a pilot. This will come into more effect when the save game cartridge is available. If you select the "Play Now" pilot you go straight into missions, whereas if you select to enter your name, you have to go through five training missions first to prove that you are capable of being a member of the Blue Lightning squadron.¢¢ The mission vault is another CinePAk sequence, showing a first person perspective view of walking into the mission room, placing your I.D. card into a slot and hence gaining access to the mission computer, all very tastefully done! The computer then informs you of the mission objective which can be air to air, air to ground, escorting another plane, etc.¢¢ You next go to the plane and weapon select menu, where you choose which plane you want to fly. For those who are aviation minded, you start with a F-18 Hornet, then after 50000 points you can select a Saab Viggen, then for every next 100000 points scored you are awarded, in ascending order, a Mig-29 Fulcrum, A-10 Thunderbolt, F-14 Tomcat, Av-8 Harrier and finally a Tornado. In simple terms you start with one life and are awarded extra lives at 50000, 150000, 250000 and so on.¢¢ It can be important which plane you choose for a mission, as the characteristics of each is fairly accurately followed within the realms of arcade playability. For example, if you keep finding that you are losing fast, lightweight jets on a ground attack mission, it may be advisable to use the A-10 (if you have it) as it can take more damage and flies slightly slower, giving you more chance to hit targets.¢¢ On the plane select screen you can also choose weapons, either carrying your full complement of missiles or giving a few up to accomodate napalm or cluster bomb weapons.¢¢ Next you enter the take-off scene, another CinePak sequence showing your plane in the hangar preparing for take-off. Each different plane is accurately portrayed in perfect detail.¢¢ You now enter the actual arcade sequence, showing the rear of your plane centrally located on the 3D perspective screen. You have three different styles of view to choose from, selectable by using 1,2 and 3 on the number pad, allowing an in-cockpit view, a normal rear view or a wide angle rear view.¢¢ The actual arcade sequences are very fast and quite well detailed, but instead of using polymor 3D effects, which you may expect with a 64-bit machine, the game creates a 3D playfield by using "layered" graphics. My guess is that this type of playfield is used to ensure that the speed of the game is not sacrificed by polymer drawing, as there can be quite a few moving objects on the screen at the same time - although you would not expect this to be a problem for a machine with the power that the Jaguar is claimed to have. In retrospect though the game does not suffer for this and is fast and playable.¢¢ Each mission is around five stages long, usually involving at least one air-to-air, one air-to-ground and one support mission. On missions which require you to escort a transport plane, look out for the packages dropped when the dropzones are reached.¢¢ During arcade sequences there are a number of adversaries to contend with, namely aircraft, tanks, anti-aircraft missiles and helicopters. You may also be required to destroy lorries, missile launchers, oil tanks and buildings. You have an unlimited supply of cannon shells, but a limited supply of guided missiles (the number you can carry depends on the plane you fly). Also, depending on mission details, a small number of napalm or cluster bomb weapons.¢¢ On completion of a stage there is a Cinepak sequence of you landing, then you receive orders for the next stage and a chance to choose your plane and weapons again... unless you've only got one plane left!¢¢ On completing all the stages of a mission, you return to the global map to select the next mission.¢¢ In all, Blue Lightning is a good title to have packaged with the Jaguar CD, as it demonstrates the capability of using the CD to obtain Cinepak sequences, speech and music. The game itself is easy to get into, has plenty of options to keep you interested (there are three difficulty levels as well), is pleasing to the eye and ear, and above all is PLAYABLE! I have to say this as I have started to get the "just one more go..." syndrome, a condition I have not often experienced away from my Atari 8-bit.¢¢ I think that graphical excellence still doesn't guarantee playability. For example, Virtual Fighter... can anyone really be bothered to learn all the moves with the screen constantly showing different perspectives to bewilder you? Graphically amazing, but unplayable unless you've got twelve fingers to operate the control pad.¢¢ One thing though about Blue Lightning - the crash sequence is awful!¢¢MYST DEMONSTRATION CD¢¢ An interactive graphical adventure which is already available on PC formats, this CD demonstrates MYST, which is close to completion for the Jaguar. The software company, Cyan Inc., promise that the Jaguar version will be the best version available due to processor speed and colour palette. All this information is given during loading of the disk and introduction sequences.¢¢ I must say that I am impressed with what I have seen on the demo disk. The introduction is Cinepak and tells how you have come across a book and by reading it are transported into another world... All very mythical indeed and it seems that the object of this adventure is to find out more about where you are and how you can return to your own world, with a few twists and turns along the way.¢¢ The demo itself allows you to explore a small room, classed as the library. You can pick up books and read them. You will find that they tell the tale of the author of Myst, the book which you started reading before being thrown into this other world.¢¢ Reading the books is superb, as they are very detailed with wonderful colours and fonts (loose term!) used for the text. On turning the pages you also hear the sound of old pages being turned.¢¢ Everything around you can be touched and may or may not have a purpose. Some of the books are fire damaged, as you will see!¢¢ Although you can only explore the library, it does give you some insight as to how the adventure will turn out, with atmospheric sound effects and some well thought out ideas to match the very detailed graphics and colours.¢¢ This sort of graphic adventure is the next step in adventure games, being an interactive graphic experience. Lovers of text adventures may be dismayed by this, but I am sure that if they tried Myst, they would find it very absorbing.¢¢ When it is released I will probably purchase Myst, as it looks very detailed and well designed. Using independent software houses may be the best decision that Atari have made regarding the Jaguar, even if it does mean that software titles are taking longer to reach the shelves.¢¢VIDGRID¢¢ On first playing this game, I was amazed by the originality of it all, even though it borrowed old ideas. VidGrid is basically a puzzle game involving a picture split up into 9, 16, 25 or 36 squares and jumbled around. You must rearrange the squares into the correct order to re-make the picture. The one problem is that the picture is a moving one, namely a music video!¢¢ The music featured on VidGrid is:¢¢ Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel¢ Cryin' - Aerosmith¢ Enter Sandman - Metallica¢ Spoonman - Soundgarden¢ November Rain - Guns n' Roses¢ Right Now - Van Halen¢ No More Tears - Ozzy Osborne¢ Give It Away - Red Hot Chilli Peppers¢ Are You Experienced - Jimi Hendrix¢¢ All songs are accompanied by a full-length video.¢¢ If you can imagine a music video cut into nine equal-sized squares, then jumbled around, this sums up VidGrid. The beauty of the puzzle is that the videos play even when jumbled up and each square plays its relevant section of the video, even as you move it around trying to find the correct position. This is amazing to see, as the game does not flicker, slow down or freeze and the music continues as normal while you frantically try to rearrange the squares before the tune finishes.¢¢ The object of the game is to rearrange all nine of the jumbled up videos in the shortest time possible. High scores can be saved on the high score cartridge (when it becomes available). This may sound easy with a 3x3 grid but it gets much harder when the Jaguar starts playing videos upside down or flipping individual squares, as well as rescrambling the squares if you place one in a position other than its finishing position! There are also 4x4, 5x5 and 6x6 grids to contend with. You can even select slider puzzles, which takes one square out of the video and only allows you to move squares which are adjacent to the empty position, similar to the hand-held tile puzzles.¢¢ With this many options, it is difficult to see many people getting bored with this game, especially when there are more than one playing. The only problem is musical taste. If you don't like heavy rock music then you are not going to be familiar with the videos to start with, and will tire easily of the music. Let's hope that other musical versions are released to satisfy nearly all tastes.¢¢ I found Vidgrid a challenging game and enjoy playing it. Some of the videos featured are difficult to recognise when they are complete, let alone when they are mixed up into little squares! Take a look at the loading sequences as well, I think they are excellent. Incidentally, videos can be played through normally if you don't wish to be taxed with trying to rearrange them, demonstrating the Jaguars CD+G capabilities.¢¢TEMPEST 2000 SOUNDTRACK CD¢¢ The final freebie in the Jaguar CD box is the Tempest 2000 CD featuring 12 of the original tunes from the game, remastered onto CD. The tracks are a mixture of techno, rave and ambient sounds and are designed to be played through the Virtual Light Machine.¢¢ Although not entertaining to all ears, these tracks do give you the chance to try out the VLM and experiment with the numerous patterns available.¢¢FINAL COMMENTS¢¢ The Jaguar CD may be late, but I don't think it is a case of "too little". The CD is what the Jaguar is really made for, as information can be accessed quickly, and obviously a CD can hold far more information than a cartridge.¢¢ Independent software houses are now supporting the Jaguar, e.g. Microprose (authors of the wonderful Silent Service), Ocean, etc. As long as there is a market, the games will start coming... and looking at the Myst demo, the quality of some is going to be astounding!¢¢ With the ability to play normal CDs and video CDs (the video cartridge is expected shortly), the Jaguar should appeal to a much wider market than the likes of the Lynx.¢¢ Let's hope that the marketing strategy is up to scratch this time! One worrying thing to note is that, contrary to reports in magazines, I haven't seen any Jaguar hardware or software in so-called mainstream electrical stores, i.e. Dixons, Currys, etc in Birmingham. Our HMV store seems to have "lost" its stock of Jaguar software.¢¢ One bright note though is that more specialist stores are now stocking Jaguar software and, with the introduction of the CD, will hopefully strengthen their support.¢¢ Let's try to keep the flag flying for Atari (even though they have let us down in the past) as the Jaguar deserves more recognition than it is currently receiving, mainly thanks to poor press from Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn-mad magazines (The Edge is one of them so don't buy it!).¢¢ The November 1995 issue of Atari World reports that Jaguars are selling well for Christmas. They also report that although there are some excellent titles in the pipeline, e.g. Zero 5 (described as a Virtua-Galaxians with excellent polygon graphics), Attack of the Mutant Penguins (a sort of Lemmings based game) and Fever Pitch (a football game by US Gold), it appears that some Jaguar titles are still retaining Super Nintendo / Sega Megadrive-style cartoon graphics - hardly competition for the Super Consoles!¢¢ All in all, present reports look encouraging for the Jaguar and, so long as Christmas is a success, software should come flooding in. Let's hope so. At least you now know what to buy for Christmas...¢
