X-cult has found many protos for the Atari Jaguar in the Jaguar Sector website. You can download them here. Here’s the list:
2600 Emulator (Stella)(Unreleased)
Arena Football 95 (JSII Release)
Barkley Shut Up And Jam (Prototype)
Blue Lightning Tour 4 Beta
Blue Lightning Tour 5 Beta
Blue Lightning Tour 6 Beta
BrainGames (unreleased)Breakout2000 (Prototype)
Brett Hull Hockey (Cart Version)
Cybermorph (Early Prototype)
Dante’s Inferno PC Demo (Unreleased)
Defender 2000 (Prototype)
Fight For Life (BETA 3-22)
Fight For Life (BETA 9-7)
GPU26 2600 Emulator (Unreleased)
Jack Nicklaus Golf (V002)(Unreleased)
Jack Nicklaus Golf (V002A)(Unreleased)
Jack Nicklaus Golf (V003)(unreleased)
Jack Nicklaus Golf (V004)(Unreleased)
Missile Command VR (not 3D)
Oswald’s Invention – PC Demo (Unreleased)
Phase Zero (Prototype)
Rayman (Early Prototype)
Slam Racer (Unreleased)
Spacewar2000 (unreleased)
Tiny Toons Plucky Duck (unreleased tech demo)
Ultra VorteX (Prototype)
What do you think about this unseen game? Give your vote!
(4 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)
Loading...Would you like to add more info, screens or videos to this page? Add a comment below!
- Aliens: Colonial Marines [PS2 – Cancelled] - 14-10-2023
- Outcast 2: The Lost Paradise [PC, PS2 – Cancelled] - 12-12-2022
- Metal Lancer [Genesis / Mega Drive – Cancelled] - 24-10-2016
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/234638-my-interview-with-faran-thomason/
Some info there that might be of use.
YAK (Jeff Minter) talking about Spacewar 2000:
‘ I was at Atari and I saw a near-final
Space War 2000. When you see this title you’ll notice that Mr. Zdybel
has been borrowing rather heavily from Yak’s Little Book of
Melt-O-Vision Tricks and Spells! There’s a cool bit at the end of a
round where Lance Chromedome appears in a field of melting with a third
eye and grins at you! Hoots of laughter were heard around the test
dept. when that came on…’
Sadly of course we never saw the game, seems it used the same game engine as Hoverstrike:Unconqured Lands, but due to nature of the game was able to have more detailed models etc without effecting the frame rate etc.
Bill Rehbock in his interview with Arcade Attack,talks of Atari playing with the big boys with regard F.F.L…
Since Sega’s Virtual Fighter was not fully texture mapped,Atari wanted to do a fully texture mapped game on the Jaguar and Bill himself admits the system wasn’t geared up to do this.
He also talked of Sam Tramiel focus group testing the game,knew it would review badly,ecen though some in the group thought the game was pretty cool,but Jaguar badly needed a game in this genre so it was green lit to be shipped,where as other companies would of simply pulled the plug on it.
Bill went onto say the game needed another 3 artists for art and animation and entire thing needed a bigger budget.
Arcade Attack do it again, more on Fight For Life from those who worked on it:
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/279986-silvio-porretta-fight-for-life-graphic-artist-recounting-the-atari-days/
More from Minter on Space War 2000:
All I know is it’s gonna have some killer poly graphics (explosions
which look like someone sneezed into a pile of confetti, so many polygons
blowing away) and a splitscreen (vertically!) 2 player mode…
\
(:-)
/
Jeff talking plans for D2K and Major Havoc being held back for him:
Posted Today, 1:15 PM
Another snippet from Jeff Minter where he talks about Atari saving Major Havoc for him:
(Regarding Defender 2K) It’ll happen as fast as I can make it
happen, and I’ll probably start at the beginning of October. I think the approach will be to glory up the scrolling, work out some coollooking
ways to show ships exploding or being otherwise destroyed, design some devious new enemy types and then some viciously-efficient death-delivery systems to allow you to deal with them, throw in a sleek and
manoeuverable starship which looks completely unlike a cow, and some
seriously ferret-bending bonus levels. Sprinkle liberally with bonuses and powerups, add a bottle of tequila and stand well back.
I would not rule out the possibility of llamas or other ungulates.
John at Atari sez they’ll hold Major Havoc so I can do it after D2K.
\
(:-) Little fluffy clouds look a bit like sheep.
/
Regarding Space War 2000…
I’d previously been lead to believe (via comments from the team behind the game), that once Atari saw what would go onto become Battlesphere, Space War 2000 was canned.
It looks as if there’s more to it than that:
Zero 5 coder Matthew Gosling:”After showing little or no interest in us, Atari suddenly asked for a demo two days or so after I got the AI up and running. It turned out they secretly put it to a focus group against one of their own completed titles, Space War 2000, and when we clobbered them in comparison tests, they canned theirs.
Matthew has also said the only reason Zero 5 has the (limited) texture mapping it has,was to keep Atari happy.
Yet another case where Atari asked for texture mapping rather than developers wanting to include it..
Matthew also talked of being told Caspain were” making waves ” at Atari USA and Leonard Tramiel was p#seed about Space War 2000 being canned.
So…according to Jeff Minter, Space War 2000 started out as Star Raiders 2000:
“All I know is that what was going to be SR2K has now ended up being Space War. The fate of the SR title is undecided at the moment. Maybe
after I’ve done Defender, and Robotron, and Major Havoc, and Revenge of the Mutant Camels (if only!)…
\
(:-) – now, I gotta put in the wave structure and the planet blowing up
/
Bump load of FFL info.
Will have to split so site can post it:
Ted Hoff: I would like to also share with you that Francois Bertrand
has been asked back to complete work on Fight for Life.
It’s important that I also tell you that our official
position is the same as it has been for months…. that FFL
will be released IF and WHEN it meets Atari standards.
As you may have heard, the latest test reports have been
favorable and I’m delighted to review it, but if Atari
personnel answer your inquiries that the title remains on
hold, then they are answering your question accurately.
Atari remains faithful to publishing software under strict
guidelines so that the product Atari customers buy meets
or exceeds their expectations.
From the coder himself, F.Y.B:
FFL is going to be a 4 Mbyte (32 Mbits) cartridge for the Jaguar64
Most of the character are fully Texture mapped (not as Virtua Fighter), and the type of fight is closer to TEKKEN than to Toshiden.
..the frame rate in FFL is very good (up to 27 frame/second) and an
average of 22.We has some design problem and some visual problems.If you look at the latest screen shot from the game, you will see that the graphics have improved a lot, and the game is now pushing the Jaguar as it should have done from the beginning.
I am just finishing to clean up the latest texture for some of the
characters, and debugging whatever the test department doesn’t like.When you devellop a game, you can make some choice which seems logical to you but are sometime not the best solution.The test department is doing a great job on this side.GA
FFL does include a lot of thing you will not find on any of the other
platform.The fact that you can devellop your own fighter, fight after
fight is unique.I did include a combo system in the game, which give it a deeper gameplay.And I did devellop a morphing system, that is a first on a 3d fighting game.Stick with your Jaguar.Nobody else give you this sort of thing.
The Jaguar architecture is different than the playstation’s one. I do
believe that the Jaguar may be stronger in certain area, but not all
of them. The Jag+Jag CD is a strong environment, and you should see some
beautiful products coming out for those two.
More from FYB: During the development of FFL, I did discover some new way (faster way) to do things.Sometime, it wasn’t too late to make the modification to include those new tricks in the code, but not all of the time. If I had to redo FFL from scratch today,I do believe I may go faster on some area.But the actual result is still pretty impressive.
Statement from Don Thomas :
FIGHT for LIFE
To me, it seems like a decade since the Fight for Life
project began. For a long time, Mr. Francois Yves Bertrand,
it’s creator, worked in a cubicle next to mine at 1196 on
Borregas Avenue. Every once in a while, Francois would
invite to peer over the wall at his latest revisions and
little by little I saw Fight for Life come together as if I
were watching time lapse photography.
Francois is an extremely talented individual. He initiated
the project virtually on a single handed basis. As he
developed the project, he solicited the talents of other
wizards to help with some of the bit maps, texture maps and
sound effects used in the game. By the time Francois was
finished and submitted the final copy, the Fight for Life
team was numerous, exhausted and proud… and they should be
proud.
Atari Corporation has always prioritized the famous “fun
factor” over almost any other element in a game. The reason
for this is because eye candy is only appealing in the store
or when you show off a game to a friend for the first time.
If the game isn’t fun, then consumers look for ways to
return or sell it as soon as they decided it is boring to
play.
Bill Rehbock, the executive producer, and J Patton, the
producer of Fight for Life believed very much in the “fun
factor” formula and asked Francois to work on those parts of
the game engine first. As he did, news began to leak out
that Atari was working on a polygonal fighter and before
long, Atari was pressed into providing work-in-progress
demos to the gaming press. Unfortunately, the gaming
magazines decided to evaluate the game by terms other than
how it was being developed. While Francois was spending
relatively little time making it look good and a lot of time
at making it play well, the magazines insisted on
evaluations based on how well the screen shots appeared in
their glossy magazine pages. By the end of the third quarter
of 1995, Atari felt compelled to announce that Fight for
Life was “indefinitely postponed” while, behind the scenes,
Francois and his team accelerated final development with a
focus on the graphic elements of the game.
On Friday, April 19, 1996, Atari released Fight for Life to
the Jaguar community. As you will see below by unsolicited
Internet feedback, the game is being touted as an excellent
new addition to the Jaguar library. I finally got a chance
to look at it this morning. Please let me say first, that I
am not pretending to be a polygonal fighter expert. I’ve
seen the Virtual Fighter clones, but I have not played them
any more than maybe a quarter’s worth each. That being
established, Fight for Life definitely has the fun factor
elements I’d expect from an Atari product. Not only does the
game look GREAT!, but the mechanism to “earn” new moves as I
win bouts is a challenging motivation. I also like the fact
that each bout feels like a real time fight. Even in
instances where I found a particular one move that seems to
defeat my opponent, I have to work hard using it to win.
I’ll let the comments that follow speak for themselves, but
overall, I’d say Fight for Life kicks BUTTered buns!
Jeff Minter talking about changes made from early version of D2K:
Jeffrey Minter
12/03 Llatest
Well, after a slowish start, what with the fag-end of jetlag and a nasty cold,
got some nice stuff running this week. Started out with an overhaul of the
graphics – my artist has re-done a lot of the stuff he’d drawn by hand as
rendered models, and they look pretty cool. In particular, the Phish has
been replaced by this *massive* rotating space-station affair which just looks
gorgeous.I have modified its behaviour, to reflect the characteristics you’d
expect from such a huge enemy – now it takes a lot more shots to kill, and
has a nasty habit of lurking off the bottom of the screen until you appear,
when it zooms up and surprises you – nasty. The 250 and 500 bonuses also
look a lot cooler now, as they’re little rendered rotating 3D digits.
All this tarting-up is leading up to D2K’s first public outing, which is
going to be at the ECTS in London at the end of this month. By that time
Defender Plus should be largely done, and there may be some early progress on
the 2K mode to be seen, too.
Finished up the week by starting into the tiling generator for doing the
multilayer parallax in 2K. At the moment there’s a screenful of parallax-
scrolling Flossies on the screen of my Jaguar… got the object
builder and tile map reader bits running now, just going to add a bit of
optimisation in the object list builder section, to ensure that the OLP only
has to traverse objects it really really needs on any given scanline, and then
I’ll be ready for a full test, running the existing game over the scrolly
background, to find out just how much background I can put in there before I
max out the OLP or drop out of my lovely fluffy 60Hz…
Next week: some more new graphics and more work on the tiling routine. We’re
also expecting some new sound FX soon, and… the first three tunes on CD!
We’re hoping to have the game running off CD and playing the tunes by ECTS.
Apparently Imagitec got a bit freaked out when they knew that they were
composing for CD instead of cart, and begged for a bit more dosh from Atari…
to pay for all the session musicians they’ve had to get in now, to do
screaming guitar solos and that sort of thing… yum yum yum!
\
(:-) – Maybe they’ll get in Dave Gilmour for my *next* game…..
/
Taping session for new Atari video game.
Atari producers are using live Martial Arts experts and BioVision(tm)
full motion technology to create the most accurate and realistic
Martial Arts fighting game ever made. Thanks to BioVision technology
and the Jaguar’s 64-bit power, the characters in the Fight For Life
video game will have fluid and natural motion.
At the video shoot, Martial Arts experts will perform the required 250
different moves (attack, defense, collision, moving, etc.) needed for
the game’s 3D animation.
25 different markers will be attached to each of the Martial Arts
experts. Signals from each marker will be picked up by the camera and
sent to a central system (monitors will be set up to view this
action). The rate of the shooting is an incredible 200 frames per
second. All the data will then be processed, adjusted and modified for
the Jaguar’s 3D engine.
Atari has invested in BioVision’s advanced production technology to
fully utilize the superior power of the Atari Jaguar 64-bit
technology. Although BioVision’s technology has been used to create
other video games, it has never been used to produce 3D games for a
system as powerful as the Jaguar 64-bit system.
BioVision offers state-of-the-art motion capture service for the
Video Game Development and Computer Graphics Animation Industries.
BioVision software in conjunction with 3D optical data acquisition
system, captures, calculates and animates motion.
Jeff Minter on how Defender 2000 would of been as a CD title:
It’s looking more and more like this is gonna be on CD, so you can look forward to totally awesome music, no limitations as we’ll be doing direct redbook audio.
Also we can have a shitload of levels, and I’d kinda like to do a historical section on there as well, as we get so much room; an interview
with Eugene Jarvis, maybe, and other historical data about Defender.
Anyway, that’s it for now… right, I’m gonna have four masala pappadoms, a
nan, and a chicken vindaloo with pilau rice, not to mention a couple of pints
of llager… I’m salivating already.
\ (:-) – playing T2K on my llaptop on the flight, no doubt…
Atari apparently had a very early version of F.F.L up and running at the Spring 1995 ECTS show despite having a BETTER looking version hidden behind blackened glass at the back of the booth.
At same show Sony were showcasing Tekken and Toh Shin Den on Playstation. .
Sega had Virtua Fighter running on both coin-op and Saturn.
Troy Aikman Football Atari had early showing of at the Winter 1994 Future Entertainment Show…
Whilst they were happy to show the finished box art, they hid the actual Jaguar console the game was running on ????
Just throwing this out as misc lost Jag game info.
Varuna’s Forces by Accent
Media.
Rumour had it the game waa essentially DOA due to lack of momentum on the part of the programmers.
Jaguar V.R:
LONDON, March 16 (Reuter) – Britain’s Virtuality Group,
which says it has an 80 percent share of the world market for
virtual reality entertainment, on Thursday announced a new
licensing pact with computer games maker Atari.
It also said turnover rose in 1994 to 9.1 million pounds
($14.5 million), from 5.4 million ($8.6 million) in 1993 and
pre-tax losses rose to 1.4 million pounDS ($2.2 million) from
370,000 pounds ($587,300) in 1993.
The new Atari deal means Virtuality will develop two games
for the Atari 64-bit Jaguar games console and follows an earlier
agreement with Atari for virtual reality headgear.
Delivery of the first two titles is expected for late this
year and sales are expected in time for Christmas 1995.
Virtuality also said that 1995 should be the year it makes a
profit after two years of start up losses.
The company said its 1994 performance exceeded expectations
and provided a base to grow into a profitable business.
“1994 was the year when the VR (virtual reality) business
really came of age,” it said, adding that it installed systems
in seven new territories, ranging from Dubai to Russia and
Thailand.
After the company announced its results, the share price
eased one penny to 208p.
“Atari has agreed to pay advance royalties to Virtuality to
fund the development of two VR games to be used with the Jaguar
VR upgrade,” Virtuality said in a statement.
“Virtuality will receive royalties of each copy of the game
sold,” the group added.
The company has also developed a security code to ensure
that only approved software firms can develop games for the
Jaguar virtual reality upgrade.
The code is jointly owned so if either of the partners
commissions and publishes games from a third party, it will pay
a royalty to the other partner.
Atari president, Sam Tramiel, said that Virtuality’s
development of the head gear was on schedule.
“We have made a significant investment in low-cost immersive
VR and are absolutely committed to bringing this revolutionary
technology to Jaguar customers by the year end,” he added.
The new pact is the fourth major deal for Virtuality, which
already has agreeements with Sega and IBM.
More press on some of these sent over.
Another source of Jaguar speculation has been found:
ST Format issue 60
And i quote…
‘Currently working on a sound-to-light synthesiser for the Jaguar CD-Rom, with his next game rumored to be Star Raiders 2000’.
GAP Fanzine talking about the Jaguar VR Headset at the time:
The current crop of 3D games on the Jaguar haven’t been very impressive and to get true 3D,you need to double the amount of polygons.
We can see the first crop of games for the system having sparse landscapes and single-colour polygons
They had their own Jag version of Star Raiders in development internally, “Star Raiders 2000” IIRC, I think it was Rob Zdybel doing it. But it never made it to completion, they pushed it towards being texture mapped (I think they wanted to push texture mapping since the Playstation could do it), but the Jag wasn’t strong with texture mapping and as a result it looked muddy and ran at a low frame rate. IMO they should have played to the Jag’s strengths and done nice gouraud-shaded stuff at a decent clip rather than try to force it to do what it couldn’t do well at a bad frame rate.
And I don’t mean that to reflect badly on Rob Zdybel at all, he was a great coder and a great asset to Atari, just I am sure he was probably being pushed to make things a certain way when perhaps they’d’ve been better another
Jeff Minter giving further insight.
More for the FFL archive of quotes, thanks to Atari Explorer Online for these.
Ted Hoff from Atari being asked the questions.
AEO] Did you have anything to do with the decision to rework Fight
for Life?
[Ted] Not really. You did. My staff was telling me what the onliners
were saying based on early magazine reviews and I thought the gamers
spoke clearly on what they want.
[AEO] How many programmers were working on that title, given that its
Japanese counterparts usually have teams of programmers on such
projects? Also, what is to become of FFL now?
[Ted] Francois Bertrand is working with Bill Rehbock and his staff to
review their needs on that project. Enough work has to be done that
many parts of it will need to be reviewed anew. Since it clearly will
not be something ready this Holiday season, I’m demanding that no
hasty decisions to be made.
Ted Hoff A reworked prototype of FFL was sent to ECTS
for showing with the intentions… of getting feedback from the
developer community for comment. we are… encouraged by the
response and an update will be forthcoming.
More AEO talk over FFL:
The game’s programmer, Francois
Yves-Bertrand, comments on the controversy and remarks on his game’s
features:
A lot of work has been done on FFL (maybe not a ton, but not far),
and I really think that our texture are better than the one in Toh
shin den. I am not talking about the graphic style itself (you like
or you don’t like it) but about the model on which you put the
texture. In Toh Shin Den, legs of character are square, we use 8
polygons. In T.S.D. the chest of a character is made by 2 or 3
polygons (look the victory pose, and you will see what I am talking
about). In FFL Jenny’s breast is made with 18 polygons, all texture
mapped, and whatever angle you look at her, you can see that this
girl is really a…. girl, not just an image. Virtua Fighter 2 is a
great arcade game, but after what they did with VF on the Saturn
(on the graphic side), I really doubt that you will ever see a
perfect conversion on this system.
A few more snippets from Atari folk at the time:
An open message from Mr. Ted Hoff, President of North
American operations for Atari Corporation…
July 1995
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Of those of you who follow Atari’s progress and 64-bit
Jaguar momentum, some have expressed interests (and
concerns) with regard to the disposition of the much
anticipated Jaguar software title, “Fight for Life.” Right
away, let me address the rumors/flames by stating that
“Fight for Life” is alive and well and a solid Atari
development effort continues on that title. Due to the
online concerns passed on to me recently, I see there’s a
need to make Atari’s official position clear with regard to
its current status.
Since the development effort began on “Fight for Life,”
Francois Bertrand and the “Fight for Life” team have seen
significant progress in the development tools and the
capabilities of the Jaguar machine. What was underestimated
was the development time and effort necessary to take
advantage of the machine’s capability. In our most recent
evaluation of “Fight For Life,” we were concerned that the
game (in its current stage) did not exploit the
capabilities of the Jaguar, nor would it deliver to the
gamer the quality or depth of game play expected from the
Jaguar 64 system. For this reason, newer development
efforts are being explored, including the evaluation of new
software engines to enhance the speed, smoothness and
graphics handling of the Jaguar 64.
I personally wish to assure you that every step will be
taken to provide a game that meets your expectations and
shows off the strength and capability of the system. Most
of all, I insist that each game provides hours and hours of
fun and challenging game play. I am demanding these
principals to be maintained on all games from Atari; not
only on “Fight for Life.” If we change schedules, it will
be for good reason; namely to meet high standards of
graphics appeal and incorporate the “fun factor” for which
Atari products are so well known.
Francois wants to add…
“Due to the acquisition and implementation of new
resources, my ‘Fight For Life’ team has been inspired to
enhance ‘Fight For Life’ in the areas of graphics and
animation. We are really excited with the changes we have
made so far. The enhancements will well be worth the
wait.”
I know the online community has hung in there with us!
Thank you. You are our loyal user base and we are
determined not to disappoint you.