Sauron

You realize we're talking about the Jaguar, right? I doubt 30 years of a bad reputation is going to be erased by a few enthused gamers and/or game journos. Hell, even DieHard GameFan's overly enthusiastic take on Jag games back when it was a commercial product didn't help.

You might want to ask permission from the developers before sharing those.

What do they have to do with getting commercial-quality homebrew games made for the Jag?

Yes, I read the whole thread, thankyouverymuch. Stating something doesn't make it true. Like I said, this thread was going in the same direction that many other discussions of this type have gone in the past.

This isn't the first time someone has come in here with this type of question. There's been countless others over the years who have come in here just to give "backhanded compliments" or outright insults to the homebrew developers, accusing them of making "8-bit games" for a 64-bit system, or other such nonsense. It's become beyond tiresome, and naturally that's made a lot of us old-timers a bit wary whenever yet another thread of this type is created. If your intentions here are NOT to insult the existing Jag homebrew devs, then my apologies.

By the time the Jag came out, pretty much every new PC was at minimum using VESA Local Bus video cards, if not PCI. I don't think I've ever seen a full 32 bit Intel CPU (386DX minimum) system using ISA for graphics, and likewise, that is what you needed at a minimum to run any game that was analogous to what came out on the Jag.

IIRC Native was developed using either JagServer or BJL (don't remember which), which basically means that all of the data had to fit within the Jag's 2MB of RAM. In order to fit all of that data and still have enough RAM left over for the game to actually run, the graphics were all compressed, with the DSP being tied up with uncompressing data on the fly throughout the first level, which is why no sound was in that demo. Had they been using an actual development kit (no Skunkboard existed at the time, of course), things would've been a different story. If the Duranik guys come across this, I'm sure they can either confirm this or correct my faulty memory. You're seriously overselling that Genesis port of R-Type. Outside of using some larger sprites, and with more frames of animation of the player ship, there's little that would be more visually appealing over Last Strike, regardless of the person's viewpoint. Last Strike uses far more colors on-screen, has much faster and smoother scrolling with more layers of parallax and no slowdown, and plays sampled music continuously that simply can't be done with the same detail on the Genesis. Anyone with the tiniest bit of a discerning eye can see this. I'm starting to think you're simply trying to stir up trouble since you're making rather ridiculous claims here.

https://www.reboot-games.com/ Plenty of free downloads there.

I'd say a memory card slot is a must for all three devices, whatever they are.

What graphical quality are you referring to, exactly? I'd say none of those Genesis/MegaDrive homebrews can match the number of colors on-screen that you get in Jag homebrews like Gravitic Mines or Last Strike, or the voxel graphics of Fallen Angels. Having said all that, there are certainly a good number of talented homebrew devs on the Genesis side, considering its far larger fanbase, so you're bound to get a lot more variety of games than you'll see on the Jag.

My take-away from the video: the mullet was still alive and well in 1995.

Hey MegaManFan! Haven't seen you 'round these parts much lately, although I'm sure the same can be said for me. I managed to pick up a VCS on that same sale too, but it's still sitting unopened in its box. I simply don't have the room to set it up at the moment, but I couldn't resist it at that price anyway. I might clear up some room and hook it up sometime this weekend if I get the chance.

I've always wanted some kind of JRPG on the Jag, would love to see how this turns out.

I did a lot of writing in Word Writer back in the day. I ended up trying out some other word processors (name 1st Word and Atari Works) but always went back to Word Writer due to its easy to use layout, and probably just my own familiarity with it.

Yeah, JagChris is right about this. Hopefully the guy who contacted you is willing to open up a bit more about that project at some point in the future.

Wow, all of those hours of me playing Buggy Boy on my ST must have been a false memory then.

Mad props to Rich for creating this emu and then releasing it to the public. If I can pry myself away from my Mac long enough to install it on my Windows box, I'll give it a go.

Just got my copy a few days ago, and have to say I'm quite impressed with the amount of content they have in it. And I have to agree that the Jag games do seem to run a bit better than on the original hardware. Still, though, it's nice to be able to play T2K on my Nintendo Switch.

And that's not even mentioning interlacing. Never understood how Amiga owners could even want to try bumping up their display resolutions without a line doubler and flicker fixer.

Just my own two cents here, but this statement rings extremely true, to the point where I'd place its priority above something like framerate when it comes to determining a game's graphical fidelity.

Nothing other than badly photoshopped images or amateur 3D mockups that take about 0.001% of the effort of the "amateur 16-bit shovelware Jag releases" made by "programmers trying to cash-in on die-hard fans' nostalgia". Make of that what you will.

I bought No Man's Sky on the PC ages ago when it was on sale like a year or two after launch, and enjoyed it a bit. However, I say "a bit" because the gameplay seemed rather shallow, and mining simply became tedious after a while without much else in the game to keep my attention. I've tried to jump back in a few times since then after major updates to see if it's become more fun to play, but some frustrations with the game have made that a short-lived experience each and every time. As much as I've been tempted to buy the Switch port, I'd really hate to waste that money on a game that I've already given up on several times in the past. As it stands, I simply can't fathom paying $60 for this port.

I think you can find them just about anywhere.