Unreleased Jaguar Games.

[leech]

4 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

Last lot of Freelancer, plus the most bizzare press claim about hidden Easter Egg for a topless female character Fight For Life... 

Blocky boobs FTW?

[Lostdragon]

15 minutes ago, leech said:

Blocky boobs FTW?

? Almost puts the infamous Tomb Raider nude cheat April's Fool joke UK press ran, into perspective. 

 

If someone like Arcade Attack could put this clipping to Darryl Still and have it confirmed or denied he said it, that'd be great. 

 

If he did, did he expect it to get printed i wonder? 

 

 

I know Atari UK was on it's last legs, but... 

[JagChris]

Hahaha that comment would get him cancelled these days.

 

Did Freelancer ever come out for anything?

 

Good work LD

[Lostdragon]

49 minutes ago, JagChris said:

Hahaha that comment would get him cancelled these days.

 

Did Freelancer ever come out for anything?

 

Good work LD

Your far too kind. 

 

The original plan was for GTW to do a professional write up on Freelancer  to follow the Space Junk article i would just provide the very rough material, but Frank has such a huge backlog of Games to cover and i am doing a HDD purge of old materials, thought i might as well throw every out here and now. 

 

 

Freelancer was annouced for:

 

PC CD and seemingly the version Furthest in development code running using Argonaut's BRender software, but even on a 486 PC, it was running badly. 

 

Intro fully done 

 

But this version used for screens in the UK and French Press, PC CD and Jaguar CD. 

 

As much as I know about Jaguar version, I have shared. 

 

The stop motion animator never replied to my enquiry about his work on it, rather telling ?

 

 

The Amiga version seems to be another Lobo from Ocean type scenario, annouce it initially on that platform then swiftly move it onto other platforms, no coding done 

 

Last we knew, the games Producer not coder as Martin Hooley has claimed took it with him, when he left Imagitec and joined Gremlin, tried to get them to develop it on Playstation and there it finally died. 

 

 

There's enough here now if likes of Jenovi want to include it on Future Videos. 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Lostdragon

[Lostdragon]

Never played a single Zork title in my life, so never really followed the progress, if there was any, of the planned Jaguar game, it just seemed to join the Sega CD version, annouced and then nothing. 

 

Seem to remember a brief battle of words between Bill Rehbock and Activision in the UK press, Bill claiming work had started, Activision saying it hadn't?? 

[Lostdragon]

A few other odds n sods, including Martin Hooley's original statement to myself, regarding Jag CD Freelancer being canned, a statement he changed in the years that followed.. 

[JagChris]

I just remembered the Atari guys once in charge of NUON then also turned down Native on the it.

 

What a bunch of morons

[Lostdragon]

22 hours ago, JagChris said:

I just remembered the Atari guys once in charge of NUON then also turned down Native on the it.

 

What a bunch of morons

Complete side note, but did the sequel to Atari Karts, Merlin Racing, really get split into 3 seperste titles on Playstation?

 

 

Rascal Racers, XS Airboat Racing and Miracle Space Race? 

 

 

 

[KidGameR186496]

14 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

Complete side note, but did the sequel to Atari Karts, Merlin Racing, really get split into 3 seperste titles on Playstation?

 

 

Rascal Racers, XS Airboat Racing and Miracle Space Race? 

 

 

 

I'm gonna put it this way: each release by Miracle Designs was a module from Merlin Racing (Rascal=Kart/XS=Boat/Space=Hover). They could've ported Merlin Racing to PS1 but Miracle went for the cheapest solution and made what they did.

Edited August 31, 2021 by KidGameR186496

[Lostdragon]

Simon Butler  has kindly passed on this information regarding the Jaguar version of Witchwood:

 

 

"I worked on Amiga/PC Witchwood at Team 17. It was never going to get off the ground on those platforms so no Jaguar version was planned." 

[Lostdragon]

On 1/20/2019 at 9:58 PM, jenovi said:

I just released the first part of my Unreleased Jaguar series and thought you might enjoy it. It's going to be lengthy as I'm covering every game planned for the system during its active years, but not released. Part one details seldom if ever discussed sales figures and statistics before getting into the games. It runs in mostly alphabetic order, and at this point, I've covered A-AR. Some games will be held back as I try to verify information or get in touch with people involved, so don't fret if a game gets passed over.

 

Anyways, I've done a massive amount of research to verify and dismiss a long list of games. If you want to check out the series, I wholeheartedly welcome you to.

 

If you were involved in the creation of unreleased/canceled Jaguar games or If you've been involved in preserving Jaguar history relating to games and would like to contribute your story, please reach out to me. I would love to chat. -Jenovi

 

Unreleased Atari Jaguar

https://youtu.be/3A4P_oDB0TY

 

I like to try and update research whenever and wherever possible. 

 

 

Regarding once again, that eyebrow raising  2 million European Pre orders claim that was doing the rounds.. 

 

In the UK Press (Xmas '93)

 

Bob Gleadow of  Atari UK was still telling people to expect the UK Jaguar to launch at £200 and that he expected some 10,000 machines in the first wave to hit the UK and these would  be allocated to specific branches of HMV and Virgin games. 

 

Thornley Distribution would be handling allocation of machines to independent stores/chains. 

 

SDL also named as UK distributors for the Jaguar 

 

So once again, Darryl Still wouldn't of been the person to know UK, let alone European pre-order numbers. 

 

There appear to of been multiple UK distributon networks.. 

 

 

Atari UK boss never indicated anything like such absurd expectations. 

 

The claim gets more ludicrous the more that's uncovered. 

 

 

[Lostdragon]

Dug a little deeper still. 

 

By January 1994..

 

 

An unknown spokesperson for Thornley Distribution, was being  quoted as saying they had run out of machines and had no idea when they'd get new stocks in. 

 

The limited availability of Jaguar machines had simply meant a rise in prices for import machines here in the UK,with the proposed UK launch date of the 

1 Sth March, being put back until  there were decent 
supplies available for the UK. 

 

 

The intended UK distribution of 
thousands of consoles before 
Christmas failed to materialise, with  only a small number reaching HMV 
and Virgin on the 23rd December.

 

That was the real UK situation, if you wanted a machine early, went the import route, you could be paying upto £400 for a console and £80 a game. 

 

 

 

Atari UK responded by saying:

 

 

"... those people who 
have ordered early will be 
supplied on a first-come, 
first-served basis." 

Darryl Still, 
Marketing Manager, 
Atari UK. 

 

Peter Walker, Atari UK's public 
relations officer "The 
company recognises that the 
overwhelming demand for the jaguar 
in Europe has led to enthusiasts 
willing to pay up to double the price. 
Atari UK regrets this and will not be 
able to catch up with demand unt1l 
after the official launch later this year. 
However, we are in the process of 
setting up a consumer hotline to 
advise the public of which retailers 
have Jaguars in stock." 

 

That was it. 

 

Nobody from Atari UK was talking about 2 million machines on Pre order. 

Edited September 28, 2022 by Lostdragon

[Lostdragon]

Just updated GTW regarding Space Junk by Imagitec Design, after being informed the infamous Martin Hooley has once again changed his version of events, regarding why the game was canned. 

 

 

Just noticed, Kieren has allowed Martin Hooley to give him 2 seperate accounts of why Space Junk was cancelled.

In his original account to RetroGamer magazine, Martin claimed it was canned after it became clear that that Atari Jaguar CD was going to flop and that Imagitec Design  wouldn’t get their investment back.

 

 

This alone didn't account for the WIP Sega CD version... 

 

 

Now it appears, in a follow up interview with the same interviewer, Martin is claiming it was canned as it ran out of resources. 

 

 

This is why we never use single source resources. 
 

[CrazyChris]

Never heard of this game. Thanks for posting.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

On 8/24/2021 at 1:32 AM, Lostdragon said:

Never played a single Zork title in my life, so never really followed the progress, if there was any, of the planned Jaguar game, it just seemed to join the Sega CD version, annouced and then nothing. 

 

Seem to remember a brief battle of words between Bill Rehbock and Activision in the UK press, Bill claiming work had started, Activision saying it hadn't?? 

I know I'm quoting you from a long while back but I just have to chime in that Return To Zork would have been a far better game to have on the JCD than Myst. Apart from a sense of humor, RTZ had many people you would talk to and interact with. IMHO, it was a far more entertaining and just a better game than any of the Myst games ever were...but, Myst was hot back then so it got all the attention.

[leech]

17 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

I know I'm quoting you from a long while back but I just have to chime in that Return To Zork would have been a far better game to have on the JCD than Myst. Apart from a sense of humor, RTZ had many people you would talk to and interact with. IMHO, it was a far more entertaining and just a better game than any of the Myst games ever were...but, Myst was hot back then so it got all the attention.

Myst was ported to pretty much any platform that could play it at the time.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were a Falcon version started even.  I know the Amiga got a port.  I actually beat it on my JagCD as that was right before we got a Windows 95 PC (which was the first Windows based computer my family owned).

[+BitJag]

17 hours ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

I know I'm quoting you from a long while back but I just have to chime in that Return To Zork would have been a far better game to have on the JCD than Myst. Apart from a sense of humor, RTZ had many people you would talk to and interact with. IMHO, it was a far more entertaining and just a better game than any of the Myst games ever were...but, Myst was hot back then so it got all the attention.

Love both games.  I found Myst more of a thoughtful piece of interactive puzzle art when compared to Return to Zork.  Return to Zork feels like it was catered a bit more to the crowd that expects a caravel as opposed to an art gallery.  Both approaches have their virtues. It would have been awesome to have both on the Jaguar, as I believe these games compliment each other well.

 

I recently live streamed Myst on the Jaguar, and had never realized that it was one of the first versions of the game to be released with more colors.  It actually looks quite nice compared to the original.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

19 hours ago, leech said:

Myst was ported to pretty much any platform that could play it at the time.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were a Falcon version started even.  I know the Amiga got a port.  I actually beat it on my JagCD as that was right before we got a Windows 95 PC (which was the first Windows based computer my family owned).

Yeah, I vividly remember the Myst hype. I played it first on PC and later the JagCD. But later on PC I discovered RTZ and had more fun playing that one, so just a personal preference

2 hours ago, BitJag said:

Love both games.  I found Myst more of a thoughtful piece of interactive puzzle art when compared to Return to Zork.  Return to Zork feels like it was catered a bit more to the crowd that expects a caravel as opposed to an art gallery.  Both approaches have their virtues. It would have been awesome to have both on the Jaguar, as I believe these games compliment each other well.

 

I recently live streamed Myst on the Jaguar, and had never realized that it was one of the first versions of the game to be released with more colors.  It actually looks quite nice compared to the original.

Yeah, the Jag version enjoys the rich color palette whereas the PC version was just 256. 

I did get to the end of Myst on the Jaguar once but at the end of the day, I had more memories made playing RTZ just due to the nature of how it was designed (just say "Want some rye? Course' ya do!" to anyone in my family and they immediately know what game it is since they heard that phrase so often  ) 

[KidGameR186496]

Well, well, well. It seems that the original programmer for the unreleased Casino Royale by Telegames appeared on Unseen64 (https://www.unseen64.net/2008/05/12/casino-royale-atari-jaguar-unreleased) to give details about the Game:

"The game had the following ‘games’ inside the casino.

Roulette, Horse Racing and Bridge.
We built some cheat words into it, choose the wrong one and it would take your money.

It never was published as it was sent for approval at almost the exact same time Atari pulled the plug on the Jaguar.

The game was written by three people. A coder (me), a designer and a graphics artist."

Edited January 3, 2023 by KidGameR186496

[Lostdragon]

Apparently there's recently been a claim made that a source - not named) at Beyond Games, suggested Jaguar BattleWheels 2000 was around 50% complete 🤔

 

That conflicted with every source i had managed to piece together, which suggested the PC version was the lead version (at least screens of that were shown in the PC press at the time). 

 

So I reached out to Clark Stacey of Beyond Games, who was kind enough to reply with.. 

 

 

“To my knowledge BattleWheels never progressed beyond discussion and perhaps a very early prototype on the Jaguar”

 

 

And pointed me in the direction of other sources who might know more.

 

So if such a claim was made, it wasn't by Clark. 

 

Further investigations needed. 

 

Beyond were a small team, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get a degree of clarification on said claim. 

 

I'd like to thank Clark for his kindness in replying. 

 

 

[Lostdragon]

Dale Jay Meier from Beyond Games also got back to me, regarding Jaguar BattleWheels 2000:

 

 

"To my knowledge, there wasn't any work done with battle wheels that was actually implemented on the Atari..."

 

Again, thanks to Dale for his kindness in getting back to me. 

 

 

 

People making claims of 50% completion, really should name their sources and check the claim with other sources where possible, before making statements. 

 

It's not helping the community archive what actually happened. 

[Lostdragon]

On 1/20/2019 at 9:58 PM, jenovi said:

I just released the first part of my Unreleased Jaguar series and thought you might enjoy it. It's going to be lengthy as I'm covering every game planned for the system during its active years, but not released. Part one details seldom if ever discussed sales figures and statistics before getting into the games. It runs in mostly alphabetic order, and at this point, I've covered A-AR. Some games will be held back as I try to verify information or get in touch with people involved, so don't fret if a game gets passed over.

 

Anyways, I've done a massive amount of research to verify and dismiss a long list of games. If you want to check out the series, I wholeheartedly welcome you to.

 

If you were involved in the creation of unreleased/canceled Jaguar games or If you've been involved in preserving Jaguar history relating to games and would like to contribute your story, please reach out to me. I would love to chat. -Jenovi

 

Unreleased Atari Jaguar

https://youtu.be/3A4P_oDB0TY

 

Sorry to necrobump, but I'm a firm believer in backing up my claims and sharing 'fresh' information with the community. 

 

Returning once again to that ludicrous 2.5 Million European Pre-orders figure, that YT channels still drop into their videos.. 

 

 

I'm going to try and find  an apparent interview with Bob Gleadow in Atari ST Review, Spring 1994, where Bob is supposed to of made the  claim  that:

 

 

* 1000 Jaguars are being built per day (approx) with a target figure
of 5000 per day---estimated sales for the system were  between 700,000 and 9000,000."

Bob was Darryl Still's boss, so would of had access to far more information than Darryl. 

 

It's very unlikely Bob would of missed an opportunity to point out such staggering figures for the Pre-Order market, regarding the Jaguar in Europe

 

 

[Lostdragon]

The interview with Gleadow is HERE:

 

https://mega.nz/file/kYN2ACQQ#Cs9xxAtfv8e_7E1A7oJy05tsj8IyaeKOrMuQaQSrnvc

 

He talks about sales estimates for the USA. 

 

Here's the  supposed 2 Million claim by Darryl Still, for the UK:

 

 

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/retro-gamer/20181228/281779925219884

 

Maybe people should stop running around on social media platforms, talking of others putting in thev bare minimum of work! and ask themselves why they never found the likes of :

Peter Walker and Bob Gleadow for starters, you know, follow basic rules of writing and don't go off single sources, when contributing for paid-for work at the time. 

 

To suggest the UK Market was bigger than that of the USA and by such a huge margin.. 

 

They should be embarrassed. 

 

[KidGameR186496]

7 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

The interview with Gleadow is HERE:

 

https://mega.nz/file/kYN2ACQQ#Cs9xxAtfv8e_7E1A7oJy05tsj8IyaeKOrMuQaQSrnvc

 

He talks about sales estimates for the USA. 

 

Here's the  supposed 2 Million claim by Darryl Still, for the UK:

 

 

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/retro-gamer/20181228/281779925219884

 

Maybe people should stop running around on social media platforms, talking of others putting in thev bare minimum of work! and ask themselves why they never found the likes of :

Peter Walker and Bob Gleadow for starters, you know, follow basic rules of writing and don't go off single sources, when contributing for paid-for work at the time. 

 

To suggest the UK Market was bigger than that of the USA and by such a huge margin.. 

 

They should be embarrassed. 

 

At this point, it's pretty much safe to say that the 2 million figure is not based on units but rather what was worth in sales, but knowing who did the RG article, the author didn't care about double fact-checking...

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

7 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

The interview with Gleadow is HERE:

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/retro-gamer/20181228/281779925219884

 

Maybe people should stop running around on social media platforms, talking of others putting in thev bare minimum of work! and ask themselves why they never found the likes of :

Peter Walker and Bob Gleadow for starters, you know, follow basic rules of writing and don't go off single sources, when contributing for paid-for work at the time. 

 

To suggest the UK Market was bigger than that of the USA and by such a huge margin.. 

 

They should be embarrassed. 

 

Linked to a RETRO GAMER article by KIEREN HAWKIN aka THE LAIRD............

Well, you can pretty much dismiss the integrity of the article content right there..........🤷‍♂️😝