Shinto

Thank you, Lost Dragon.  Out of curiosity, what did games for the CD32 cost at the time?  This would be a good data point for my next episode.
 
Atari was mostly interested in getting titles on the shelves, as well as filling gaps in the Jaguar lineup (this is more true for sports titles than fighting games, but either way).  I like to think of this in terms of the app store wars.  Apple and Google and Microsoft would announce how many apps they had in their respective app stores, nevermind the quality of or overlap between those thousands of apps, but numbers mattered more.
 
If Atari only allowed games that effectively used their hardware, your Iron Soldiers and Tempest 2000s and DOOMs and Aliens vs. Predator, people (well, the gaming media especially) would have complained loudly about the sheer lack of available games.  Games of such quality are hard and time-consuming to make.  It was more important and valuable to say "We have nine new games coming out for the 1994 Christmas season" to say "we have three really impressive 64-bit-like games coming out for the 1994 Christmas season."  You could say that the core of Bubsy, Checkered Flag, Zool 2, Dragon, Val d'Isere, etc. could be handled just as well on 16-bit systems, but without those "ropey" titles filling the shelves and giving Jaguar owners more options, perhaps the Jaguar would have died a quicker death.
 
However, it's disappointing that Atari thought the higher color depth alone would sway gamers and magazines.  Yeah, there's no way the Super Nintendo could display anywhere near as many colors, that's certainly true, but that's not enough of a differentiation to validate the boastful claims of 64-bit power in the jaded eyes of consumers and media.  Many people wouldn't even notice, many more wouldn't care.
 
To me, personally, a "ropey" game on the Jaguar (I'm starting to like using that word) was worth more than the same game on the SNES.  It might get lost in the noise on the Super Nintendo, but existing on the Jaguar made me pay attention, and money, simply because I was an Atari fan and wanted to bolster my personal library.  I got to enjoy a lot of games that I otherwise would not have even considered.

Episode 15 for Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is now available directly, on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite RSS podcast app.  Thank you for listening, and for your patience.
 
In the next episode, we'll be platforming in the Nth Dimension with Zool 2.  If you have any feedback for this one, please post here, or send it in (text or audio) to jaguar@gamebygamepodcast.com.

Thank you for the kind words, Lost Dragon.  It was a lot of work putting that episode together, more so than any previous episode, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  There are things I forgot to mention, though, like who wrote the music (Bobby Prince!), how long the songs are (the intermission theme is surprisingly the longest), how there's a volume control in the Options screen, and how when you die, you turn to face the monster which dealt the killing blow (even following it around the screen after you die).  These are the types of things that come to me when I'm around 80% done editing.  I'm pretty good at editing, but there's only so much I can do.
 
Just yesterday I downloaded a demo of the new DOOM for the PC.  I haven't tried it out yet, and I'm not sure when I will, but from what I've seen, it does seem to be more of an attempt to re-capture the guns-blazing feel of the original DOOM, as opposed to the spooky jump-scare environment of DOOM 3.  I was surprised in 1993 when I saw the DOS shareware version took up TWO floppy disks.  The new DOOM demo would take about 4,500.

Thank you, Lost Dragon.  Out of curiosity, what did games for the CD32 cost at the time?  This would be a good data point for my next episode.
 
Atari was mostly interested in getting titles on the shelves, as well as filling gaps in the Jaguar lineup (this is more true for sports titles than fighting games, but either way).  I like to think of this in terms of the app store wars.  Apple and Google and Microsoft would announce how many apps they had in their respective app stores, nevermind the quality of or overlap between those thousands of apps, but numbers mattered more.
 
If Atari only allowed games that effectively used their hardware, your Iron Soldiers and Tempest 2000s and DOOMs and Aliens vs. Predator, people (well, the gaming media especially) would have complained loudly about the sheer lack of available games.  Games of such quality are hard and time-consuming to make.  It was more important and valuable to say "We have nine new games coming out for the 1994 Christmas season" to say "we have three really impressive 64-bit-like games coming out for the 1994 Christmas season."  You could say that the core of Bubsy, Checkered Flag, Zool 2, Dragon, Val d'Isere, etc. could be handled just as well on 16-bit systems, but without those "ropey" titles filling the shelves and giving Jaguar owners more options, perhaps the Jaguar would have died a quicker death.
 
However, it's disappointing that Atari thought the higher color depth alone would sway gamers and magazines.  Yeah, there's no way the Super Nintendo could display anywhere near as many colors, that's certainly true, but that's not enough of a differentiation to validate the boastful claims of 64-bit power in the jaded eyes of consumers and media.  Many people wouldn't even notice, many more wouldn't care.
 
To me, personally, a "ropey" game on the Jaguar (I'm starting to like using that word) was worth more than the same game on the SNES.  It might get lost in the noise on the Super Nintendo, but existing on the Jaguar made me pay attention, and money, simply because I was an Atari fan and wanted to bolster my personal library.  I got to enjoy a lot of games that I otherwise would not have even considered.

Episode 15 for Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is now available directly, on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite RSS podcast app.  Thank you for listening, and for your patience.
 
In the next episode, we'll be platforming in the Nth Dimension with Zool 2.  If you have any feedback for this one, please post here, or send it in (text or audio) to jaguar@gamebygamepodcast.com.

Episode 15 for Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is now available directly, on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite RSS podcast app.  Thank you for listening, and for your patience.
 
In the next episode, we'll be platforming in the Nth Dimension with Zool 2.  If you have any feedback for this one, please post here, or send it in (text or audio) to jaguar@gamebygamepodcast.com.

Thank you for the kind words, Lost Dragon.  It was a lot of work putting that episode together, more so than any previous episode, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  There are things I forgot to mention, though, like who wrote the music (Bobby Prince!), how long the songs are (the intermission theme is surprisingly the longest), how there's a volume control in the Options screen, and how when you die, you turn to face the monster which dealt the killing blow (even following it around the screen after you die).  These are the types of things that come to me when I'm around 80% done editing.  I'm pretty good at editing, but there's only so much I can do.
 
Just yesterday I downloaded a demo of the new DOOM for the PC.  I haven't tried it out yet, and I'm not sure when I will, but from what I've seen, it does seem to be more of an attempt to re-capture the guns-blazing feel of the original DOOM, as opposed to the spooky jump-scare environment of DOOM 3.  I was surprised in 1993 when I saw the DOS shareware version took up TWO floppy disks.  The new DOOM demo would take about 4,500.

Hey look, Jaguar DOOM: Episode Download & Show Notes
 
(I'm keeping this post short because the podcast episode is so long.  I hope you enjoy it.)

I would strongly recommend checking out the ANTIC podcast's interview with Bob Brodie, who was Atari's Director of Communications.  He has surprising (well, to me) insight on why Atari exited the computer market.  I need to find some way to include mention of this interview in an upcoming episode of the Atari Jaguar Game by Game Podcast; it's pretty significant.
 
So with the Jaguar now serving as the basket for all their eggs, Atari wanted Jaguar games more than they wanted Falcon games, and since the Jaguar already had an abundance of space(-ish) games on the lineup, Atari wanted something different, and we got Iron Soldier (yay!).
 
That's the impression I got from Eclipse interviews like this and this, both included in the show notes for the Iron Soldier episode.

Thank you!
I assume you meant to say Panther here instead of Jaguar.
It's funny how rumor and speculation can morph into "common knowledge" over time.  I once subscribed to the thought that some/most of the early Jaguar games started out life on the Panther.  It made sense.  But the more I researched it, and interacted with actual people inside Atari at the time who were in the position to know, I found not only a lack of supporting evidence, but outright refutation of a Panther origin for Jaguar launch titles.
 
It was surprising to me, since I, like others, am fascinated by What Could Have Been with the Panther, and found some appeal in having a firm link between that abandoned console and a few of the Jaguar games which actually saw the light of day.  But the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming, and in my opinion, rather conclusive.  The rumors will persist, I'm sure.  After all, my podcast has a fairly small listener base.

Achung!  The episode all about the Jaguar port of the pioneering FPS, Wolfenstein 3D, is now available for download.  You can find it here, or hit up iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app.  jaguar.gamebygamepodcast.com has all the links and show information.
 
The next episode is covering DOOM.  I'd love to hear your feedback on this one!  Please send text or audio to jaguar@gamebygamepodcast.com, or PM here, that's fine, too.  I'm hoping to have all feedback in by the end of the month to make sure it gets in the episode.
 
Thanks!

Episode 15 for Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is now available directly, on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite RSS podcast app.  Thank you for listening, and for your patience.
 
In the next episode, we'll be platforming in the Nth Dimension with Zool 2.  If you have any feedback for this one, please post here, or send it in (text or audio) to jaguar@gamebygamepodcast.com.

Episode 15 for Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is now available directly, on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite RSS podcast app.  Thank you for listening, and for your patience.
 
In the next episode, we'll be platforming in the Nth Dimension with Zool 2.  If you have any feedback for this one, please post here, or send it in (text or audio) to jaguar@gamebygamepodcast.com.

Hey look, Jaguar DOOM: Episode Download & Show Notes
 
(I'm keeping this post short because the podcast episode is so long.  I hope you enjoy it.)

Thank you for the kind words, Lost Dragon.  It was a lot of work putting that episode together, more so than any previous episode, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  There are things I forgot to mention, though, like who wrote the music (Bobby Prince!), how long the songs are (the intermission theme is surprisingly the longest), how there's a volume control in the Options screen, and how when you die, you turn to face the monster which dealt the killing blow (even following it around the screen after you die).  These are the types of things that come to me when I'm around 80% done editing.  I'm pretty good at editing, but there's only so much I can do.
 
Just yesterday I downloaded a demo of the new DOOM for the PC.  I haven't tried it out yet, and I'm not sure when I will, but from what I've seen, it does seem to be more of an attempt to re-capture the guns-blazing feel of the original DOOM, as opposed to the spooky jump-scare environment of DOOM 3.  I was surprised in 1993 when I saw the DOS shareware version took up TWO floppy disks.  The new DOOM demo would take about 4,500.

Hey look, Jaguar DOOM: Episode Download & Show Notes
 
(I'm keeping this post short because the podcast episode is so long.  I hope you enjoy it.)

Hey look, Jaguar DOOM: Episode Download & Show Notes
 
(I'm keeping this post short because the podcast episode is so long.  I hope you enjoy it.)

I would strongly recommend checking out the ANTIC podcast's interview with Bob Brodie, who was Atari's Director of Communications.  He has surprising (well, to me) insight on why Atari exited the computer market.  I need to find some way to include mention of this interview in an upcoming episode of the Atari Jaguar Game by Game Podcast; it's pretty significant.
 
So with the Jaguar now serving as the basket for all their eggs, Atari wanted Jaguar games more than they wanted Falcon games, and since the Jaguar already had an abundance of space(-ish) games on the lineup, Atari wanted something different, and we got Iron Soldier (yay!).
 
That's the impression I got from Eclipse interviews like this and this, both included in the show notes for the Iron Soldier episode.

Thank you!
I assume you meant to say Panther here instead of Jaguar.
It's funny how rumor and speculation can morph into "common knowledge" over time.  I once subscribed to the thought that some/most of the early Jaguar games started out life on the Panther.  It made sense.  But the more I researched it, and interacted with actual people inside Atari at the time who were in the position to know, I found not only a lack of supporting evidence, but outright refutation of a Panther origin for Jaguar launch titles.
 
It was surprising to me, since I, like others, am fascinated by What Could Have Been with the Panther, and found some appeal in having a firm link between that abandoned console and a few of the Jaguar games which actually saw the light of day.  But the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming, and in my opinion, rather conclusive.  The rumors will persist, I'm sure.  After all, my podcast has a fairly small listener base.

I would strongly recommend checking out the ANTIC podcast's interview with Bob Brodie, who was Atari's Director of Communications.  He has surprising (well, to me) insight on why Atari exited the computer market.  I need to find some way to include mention of this interview in an upcoming episode of the Atari Jaguar Game by Game Podcast; it's pretty significant.
 
So with the Jaguar now serving as the basket for all their eggs, Atari wanted Jaguar games more than they wanted Falcon games, and since the Jaguar already had an abundance of space(-ish) games on the lineup, Atari wanted something different, and we got Iron Soldier (yay!).
 
That's the impression I got from Eclipse interviews like this and this, both included in the show notes for the Iron Soldier episode.

I'm really enjoying the IS podcast, Shinto. This was one of my favorite games on the Jaguar and is a great exclusive. Down with Iron Fist!

Thank you!
I assume you meant to say Panther here instead of Jaguar.
It's funny how rumor and speculation can morph into "common knowledge" over time.  I once subscribed to the thought that some/most of the early Jaguar games started out life on the Panther.  It made sense.  But the more I researched it, and interacted with actual people inside Atari at the time who were in the position to know, I found not only a lack of supporting evidence, but outright refutation of a Panther origin for Jaguar launch titles.
 
It was surprising to me, since I, like others, am fascinated by What Could Have Been with the Panther, and found some appeal in having a firm link between that abandoned console and a few of the Jaguar games which actually saw the light of day.  But the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming, and in my opinion, rather conclusive.  The rumors will persist, I'm sure.  After all, my podcast has a fairly small listener base.

Thank you!
I assume you meant to say Panther here instead of Jaguar.
It's funny how rumor and speculation can morph into "common knowledge" over time.  I once subscribed to the thought that some/most of the early Jaguar games started out life on the Panther.  It made sense.  But the more I researched it, and interacted with actual people inside Atari at the time who were in the position to know, I found not only a lack of supporting evidence, but outright refutation of a Panther origin for Jaguar launch titles.
 
It was surprising to me, since I, like others, am fascinated by What Could Have Been with the Panther, and found some appeal in having a firm link between that abandoned console and a few of the Jaguar games which actually saw the light of day.  But the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming, and in my opinion, rather conclusive.  The rumors will persist, I'm sure.  After all, my podcast has a fairly small listener base.

Bubsy in: Fractured Furry Tales is the latest episode of the podcast, available on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, and wherever RSS feeds are accepted.

The next episode will cover Iron Soldier. If you have any thoughts or memories you'd like to share about this game, please send an e-mail (text or audio) to jaguar@gamebygamepodcast.com, or just reply/PM here by Friday, June 24th to make sure your comments make it into the show. Thanks!

Hello, everyone.
 
Episode 6 for Evolution: Dino Dudes is now available directly, on iTunes, and on Stitcher.