Boris

Another one from ebay, also from June 1993.

So now the JagJam 2024 is online: https://itch.io/jam/jagjam2024 Hopefully some people will participate. ( @7800 Pro Gamer I wrote you, but am not sure my mail got through, probably not, I guess. Maybe you want to push this news anyways now that it's online. @Ballistik If you'd be willing to cover this as well, that would be awesome.)

Has anybody here actually had the chance to look and play this pre-alpha?

@7800 Pro Gamer Yes, I did. And that is a great idea, please send me a private message here with your mail address, I'll gladly contact you. I'll disclose more info as soon as more details are fixed, probably around early April.

I played the demo a few times now and wish the scrolling was faster. Also, sometimes it felt like the detection of where a hole is, for example, was not working that precise. But hey, maybe that's just me sucking at the game. I kinda like the concept, but so far, I would not play it again, to be honest. It feels a bit dull to me, but we'll see how much will change in the finished version. I look more forward to "Jumping at Shadows"

Good question, we will see. I am still on it and the jam will start in May, thought the info about it will probably be available online earlier (in April, I guess). It will be done via itch.io and I hope there will be some participants and some interesting games.

I guess so, too. But originality might be a good point for the voting chart. Currently reading about how to start a Game Jam on itch.io and if it would be allowed to give out prices there. Would not know where else to start something like that other than itch.io, or maybe @Justin would be interested in doing this via atari.io?

Well, as far as I've seen, there does not seem to be any Jaguar game jam or whatever you want to call that kind of thing. Saw that for the Lynx and I wonder (for quite some time now): Wouldn't that be a nice thing to start? Sure, there are not that many Jag devs out there, but maybe this will give them and others an incentive to make some games? Prices (money for sure and other stuff maybe) would be necessary. I'd be willing to throw some money in the pot for this and get things going. Maybe you have some thoughts regarding the criterea of the games? So far, I've come up with: Every type of game is welcome No 1:1 ports of existing games from other platforms The cartridge image must run on a GameDrive (submittable ROM types should probably be mentioned) Include instructions on how to play the game (.txt file) The game will have a free public release at least in form of a playable demo after the contest (to not exclude people who'd like to get their stuff published by Songbird or AtariAge) If this Jam starts in February, the deadline will be close to the year's end, probably in November I wonder if there should be some kind of bonus for people who actually try something with vector graphics or polygons?

Yes, but did not play through it. It's indeed more of an oldschool experience that takes some time. If you're looking for a faster gameplay pace and more enemies, you'll be disappointed. But I find that very relaxing, and there is also the puzzle elements and some interesting rooms and enemies in later levels, but so far, I've only made it to level 3 (shame on me). Part of the reason is that you need some time to dig into it, half an hour of spare time here and there doesn't get you anywhere.

Atari had stopped the Panther around mid 1991. Work on Cybermorph started around mid 1992, according to the devs. It would be very surprising to me if this had ever been intended for the Panther. Chris Gibb explained that they had 12 weeks to put the Jaguar (in its state back then) through its paces before the design of the game shaped up to the direction that we know now. Interesting interview with the devs in EDGE magazine 2/1994, pp. 42-43. Don't think the dev system was mentioned there, but look it up and take a peek yourself. The machine ATD used at the first Jag press conference to showcase Cybermorph did not look like an TT at all, but who knows, maybe it was one, stuffed in a PC case. You'll find that video on Youtube.

JagZombies II is something I keep an eye out for. Not sure about ordering from Wave1Games yet - I wish he had an European distributor. But can you tell me about the quality of the cardboard used for the box on this one, please? As I've seen Fast Food 64 (cartridge edition one) before and did not like that thin material.

Just saw an AtariAge program for fall 2023, from which many games are still not out yet, but Nitrous made the "coming soon" list! So I guess it must be pretty much completed and might arrive next year then (hopefully). Thanks to Smallywood over on AA in the Rocket Ranger announcement thread.

Declared as a mini game, will probably be available for free – so why not 🙂. I'll play it when it's ready. The dev stated over on AA: "It is now 'feature complete' and playable, but still requires some cleaning up (new art, music, options, score, lives, etc)". So maybe the final build will look and sound a lot different, but I'm not expecting it to be a Jeff Minter kind of different 😄

Exactly. It's actually a wonder they licensed Raiden 😄. But Pit Fighter would indeed have been a very welcome addition to the early Jag lineup. Regarding Outrun on the Jag: It is the ST port, only the music got an upgrade. Which is a pity, as I think that version is next to unplayable, but I guess he won't refine it, as it was something he did for a friend of his (as far as I read), so he will not touch that again. Nitro looks pretty nice, but the video is already two years old, so I won't get my hopes up too much.

Will really did a nice job on this one. The music fits excellent and the game is surprisingly fun, despite (or maybe even because of) the 8-bit optics. Graphics aren't everything, that's for sure... 👍

It's in the serial number, the second digit (not counting the B) tells you the year (3 for 93) and the third tells you the month (6 in this case). There is an Atari internal document explaing this; I will include it in the 3rd edition of Clipped Claws.

The design is closely related to the design of the Panther console. Leonard Tramiel, who did not remember exactly, said it was plausible that they reused the design for this pad (and made it happen). John Mathieson said that these designs existed when he started working there. Prototypes of this design might have been around somewhere even earlier, as magazines were referencing it around 92 or even 91 - I dont' remember from the top of my head, but there is a reference (and chapter about this stuff) in Clipped Claws. @walter_J64bit : Thanks for the addition! Same date code there.

Another one from a friend of mine. Still fits the same pattern.

Absolutely, especially the new "Fire Jaguar" looks pretty good. Make Songbird's releases stand out even more in a collection. Just was wondering what was behind all this. And next up might be Piko Interactive then as well, as their releases sported the Jag logo too (so far). Just noticed that only Switchblade II for the Jag can be found on their shop, with the boxart showing the logo. Did not preorder this one, but will be interesting to see what they'll do.

I recently got a grey Jaguar "Power Pad" and wondered when they were built and how many of them had been made. Having dug through the net, I already have a suspicion, but would be interested in more serial numbers. So if you have one, please post a photo of your serial number in this post. Currently, my assumption is that there were only 1.000 of them made, all produced in June 1993. (The no. 1 in these photos is mine 😎 ).

Thank you very much guys! Interesting. In the link to Songbird, they do not state any reasons, but oh well, as the sale is still ongoing, I got myself a copy of Total Carnage while I'm at it and hope it will be the one with the old logo 🙂 . Speaking of the logo and trademark: Yes, seems like Atari trademarked this one, but only as "word mark" and "STANDARD CHARACTER MARK", which basically means plain text, and only this combination: "Atari Jaguar". So the "Jaguar" logo itself without connection to anything else would still be fine to use, unless they did additionally secure a trademark for that as well. That being said, the entry makes it even more likely that Atari contacted Songbird and kindly asked to not longer use the logo on their products anymore. And I guess because he did not want to go through the effort of legally challenging them and maybe even because wants to maintain a good relationship, he agreed. Seems there was some negotiation going on in the background, as he is able to sell off his existing stock, which is nice. But honestly, Atari should have trademarked the "word and design mark" for Jaguar instead of the plain text. That would not have been that much more expensive, but hey: Guess they are certain nobody will challenge them anyway about a logo for a conosle next to noone cares about (and I mean that not in a bad way, but with regard to target audiences). And all that being said, if I were in Atari's place, I would be very interested in snapping up Songbird as well, as Carl has secured some interesting Jaguar licenses over the years, and certainly some more interesting stuff for future releases.

Back before Towers II was released, I noticed that Somgbird had changed to logo on the game's boxart in one of the newsletters to "AJAX64". I thought that was odd, so I asked Carl about it and he said that he was not planning on releasing that game under the Jaguar logo. Hm, strange decision, I thought back then. And I was not the only one, as at least over on AA, people started asking about it. Then, some months later, a new logo appeared on the next newsletter (and thankfully so, to be honest, because the "Fire Jaguar logo" looks waaay better than AJAX, which is a cleaning product over here in Europe). And then even some time later, Songbird announced that they would not be using the Jaguar logo at all anymore, the same goes for the Lynx one. The recent sale over at his store underlines that again. So from everything that can be read online, it seems someone forced Carl's hand to change the Jaguar logo on the games he publishes. However, nowhere (as far as I've seen) can be read more about why exactly this is happening. I mean I can guess that it's probably Atari who are behind this, but this is nothing more than a guess. Are they interested in the Jaguar logo again all of a sudden? Do they want AA to be the only store to sell games with the official Jag logo? What exactly is going on and are they planning more with that logo? Hasn't the trademark expired long ago? Does anyone know more specifics about all this?

Good stuff that shows: The Jag could have easily had a next-to-perfect arcade port of MK back in the day. If only they wanted to spend the money on it. But anyway, better late than never, as they say 🙂. Looking forward to the progress there. With MK, Doom and Heretic in the works, it's quite an exciting time to be into the Jag 🙂

Wow, I just learned about this game from your post here and had to look it up. Nice! Seems AtariAge does not yet sell the game via their online store.

Nice, glad to see this coming along nicely! Really looking forward to this one.