Leonard Tramiel Exclusive Text Interview - Great Commodore & Atari Insight

[Editorb]

I've never understood the purported "hunting" AI employed in AvP. It seems to be, based on motion detector, they follow player's movement and get as close as possible, even if it means hanging out in the corners of the canteen until you get to a place that allows them a path toward you. Does getting stuck behind tables while you blast them count as hunting?

[Lostdragon]

3 hours ago, MrMaddog said:

 

He litterally claimed to single-handedly wrote AvP by himself on the IRC channels, I wished I kept log files had I known how absurd he was...

 

 

It's bad enough he inflated a minor role, which he screwed up, for one game on his CV which ended up making him a "celebrity", but then he starts up these bogus development studios and recruit young & naive people (like I was at the time) only to leaving them hanging and unemployed while he trouts off to some Hollywood studio with his fake ass resume.

 

And he still does it now over Twitter!

 

The sad thing is even with the instant fact checking on the Internet that exposes Jane as a fraud and yet 'they', his loyal followers, refuse to see the sad truth because they want to be a programming "star" like Jane...

 

The more Whittaker was asked about his involvement on AVP, the wilder the stories became. 

 

Talk of hidden code with cigarette smoking, beer drinking Predators getting exhausted after chasing the player, talk of wall climbing Xenomorph's, even though this woukd of been physically impossible using the existing game engine, talk of Pirouetting Xenomorphs, again, physically impossible on the engine and people just bought into it, time and time again. 

 

Whittaker never providing a shred of physical evidence to back up these claims, he had the code somewhere, my Jane how convent, he'd make public his A. I routines and never did.. 

 

He woukd make statements Lance Lewis and Purple Hampton strongly disputed.. 

 

He couldn't even stock to the same anecdotal story about his bonus from Sam Tramiel for his work on AVP.. 

 

And still his supporters hung on every single word. 

 

 

We should be grateful in some way  Athena World's did happen, if not, Whittaker probably would of run some crowd funding scam to generate cash for his supposed spiritual AVP successor, which he claimed he'd do for Jaguar and modern systems and guillable AVP fans would never see a single bit of code, never mind their money back. 

 

I wonder what Jaguar AVP could of been like, had Rebellion hired a far more capable A. I coder.. 

 

 

They were a small studio, working with a very limited budget from Atari a budget which was soon exhausted... 

 

Had Whittaker not of landed on his feet thanks to the AVP gig, could we of been spared much of what happened after? 

 

Could the game itself achieved a superior frame rate? 

 

I doubt anyone would of given Whittaker much coverage if he'd simply been known as being behind an ambitious, but unreleased 3DO M2 RPG.. Power Crystal, after all, what does Project Artemis and Springer Spaniel Software mean to anyone these days? 

 

Absolutely nothing,it was the Athena Worlds of it's day, nothing but a P. R statement, promising software that never even got off the ground. 

 

 

Jane had to name drop Goldeneye, Dark Seed, Populous, Theme Park etc.. 

 

Individuals like H. R Giger, John Hurt, Stan Winston, Mike Singleton, Wild Bill Stealy etc 

 

As it was the only way Jane could get instant recognition. 

 

 

Not quite the same as saying, yep, I was the one who's code crippled the frame rate on Atari's flagship Jaguar title at the time, sorry guys.. 

[+Stephen]

Maybe his AI routines were so slow because all the aliens were searching out socks to sniff?

[Zerosquare]

15 hours ago, MrUnwondering said:

"I... interfered in many projects" [sic].

 

Do you think this part was an random flash of honesty, or a Freudian slip?

[Lostdragon]

He's still pulling this "Just been asked..." nonsense. 

 

 

Funny this Jane, you just being asked about the AVP coders and not why Athena Worlds was your biggest blunder on Twitter etc for a very long time, all that hype and now no money nothing to show. 

 

Nobofy asking you about your court case? 

 

Nobody asking why, now your clearly fit and well, your not doing that Q+A session you were promising some months back before you became poorly?

 

Nobody has asked why your still to share your AVP A I routines, you promised the Twitter community?

 

 

Nobody is asking if you plan to return to write your spiritual successor to AVP?

 

No, they just want to know more about the coders, coders whom for a great part of your life, you choose to leave out the role Mike Pooler played, instead presenting it as you and Mike Beaton.. 

 

And again they've asked to remain anonymous? 🤔

[MrMaddog]

On 11/19/2022 at 9:21 PM, Stephen said:

Maybe his AI routines were so slow because all the aliens were searching out socks to sniff?

 

I had a go at AvP on an emulator just now just to see how the Alien AI really works...oh boy where do I start?

 

They stay put until you're in line of sight, so I was able to "cheese" them by sniping them from around the corner at a distance.

 

When they do swarm at you they come at a straight line, they don't even strafe (like the Doom Pinky) to avoid your fire.  That makes them a PITA in tight corridors, especially when you have to walk through their acidic corpses.

 

And forget trying to stun lock them, it doesn't work period.  That's why anyone who tries to play the game like Doom instantly dies.  The limited ammo you find doesn't help either!

 

In the other campaigns, the Marines just stand there and fire w/o trying to move in on you (like Doom zombies) and you can hear the Preditor making dead easy to avoid unless you bump into or actively hunt him.

 

The game is enjoyable if you play it like a survival horror game, but compared to other FPS games from the time there's no trace of any "Alien Chess" like there was in DOOM (2016)...

[+MrUnwondering]

On 11/20/2022 at 9:36 AM, Lostdragon said:

Nobofy asking you about your court case? 

 

Nobody asking why, now your clearly fit and well, your not doing that Q+A session you were promising some months back before you became poorly?

 

Nobody has asked why your still to share your AVP A I routines, you promised the Twitter community?

 

 

Nobody is asking if you plan to return to write your spiritual successor to AVP?

 

"fan questions"

 

Certainly not answering any real questions.

I've a question to add Jane - What drives you to such malicious ends to maintain such a silly farse?

 

 

[+MrUnwondering]

On 11/20/2022 at 9:36 AM, Lostdragon said:

asking you about your court case?

 

It's worth mentioning that the court case was for 3 million, the court fees for a claim on this scale is 10k, someone would have had to pay this upfront. It is unclear as to whom this was exactly.

 

[Lostdragon]

On 11/23/2022 at 11:26 PM, MrUnwondering said:

 

"fan questions"

 

Certainly not answering any real questions.

I've a question to add Jane - What drives you to such malicious ends to maintain such a silly farse?

 

 

Well, he's certainly got the time to answer 'fan questions' (of his choosing). 

 

It's not like he is busy coding or producing Athena Worlds first, multi-platform mega game is it? 

 

 

They all play this farcical card.. 

 

Never been so busy.. 

 

Working on a top secret project, with a top secret publisher...

 

It's become the running joke and if anybody still buys into it after all these years, all these repeated nonsense statements.. 

 

Maybe they are out there buying magic beans this Black Friday. 

[ThatGuyMike]

A little early Christmas present for you all. You've seen the particulars of claim (posted a couple pages back, I believe), but now you can have the complete set with the official defence. This is all officially filed stuff, nothing Jane can contest. And since we got the case dropped with no gag-orders, we can post this freely. 

Once this was written up, Jane tried hard to get the case dropped under the condition we'd never be able to talk about it. But then nobody would ever get to see this comedy.

Defence.pdf

[+Stephen]

2 hours ago, ThatGuyMike said:

A little early Christmas present for you all. You've seen the particulars of claim (posted a couple pages back, I believe), but now you can have the complete set with the official defence. This is all officially filed stuff, nothing Jane can contest. And since we got the case dropped with no gag-orders, we can post this freely. 

Once this was written up, Jane tried hard to get the case dropped under the condition we'd never be able to talk about it. But then nobody would ever get to see this comedy.

Defence.pdf 236.74 kB · 3 downloads

Priceless.  Good to see this will hopefully all come back and fly in his face.  I wonder how many questions about this will be on Twitter?  Maybe he can find time to answer them in between still talking about how awesome his work on AVP for the Jaguar was.

 

Today I learned a new phrase - "incompetent fantasist".  I will endeavor to use this in a sentence at my earliest convenience!

[+MrUnwondering]

1 hour ago, Stephen said:

"incompetent fantasist"

"To the extent that the claimant believes what she says, her world is delusional."

[+x=usr(1536)]

It would be dishonest to say that I'm not taking some small measure of schadenfreude from Jane's recent misadventures in being shown to be a complete and utter liar.

 

Clearly, Jane is mentally ill, and that's at the root of the lying.  But how this behaviour managed to continue unchecked for as long as it did still baffles me.

[CommodoreCEO]

I've just read through this entire thread, already being aware of Jane's fantastical claims.

 

I think the biggest red flag though was Jane choosing to attend the première of 007: Goldeneye in... Hull.

[Lostdragon]

MrUnderwondering kindly pointed me in the direction of this thread regarding the truth behind Whittaker and his Amiga Uridium claims. 

 

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=13054&highlight=uridium

 

 

Highlights from it include :

 

 

"The Amiga Uridium 'demo' was something a few friends and I put together I think back in I think it must have been 1991, application coding was done by myself, some low level bits by Andrew Whittaker, who created the base layer as cross platform for the Atari ST also, but I don't think the main app code ever ended up on the ST.

The main graphics were crafted by my friend Andy Noble, pretty sure he did the sound fx also.

We'd been in the demo scene from C64 and Amiga for some years and began looking into games, this was one of our first attempts.

There's a bit of a story to this, as Andrew Whittaker did have a previous relationship with Graftgold, we both travelled down to visit the GGold offices and ended up meeting with Andrew Braybrook and Steve Turner. AEB was kind enough to print out the original C64 Uridium alien wave pattern source, which I still have here as dot matrix print out."

 

So Whittaker merely did some low level bits, base coding 🙄

 

 

And :"I guess it was more than a fan project, in that AndyW had perhaps unrealistic expectations that we might release the completed project as a retail Amiga/ST conversion. I was only a kid back then." 

 

What? Whittaker having unrealistic expectations? 😂

 

Expectations which he then turned into flat out lies, using this incident to fabricate the impression he'd coded an entire retail ready version of the game, single handily. 

 

 

Even after the court case is over the extent of his lies continues to be discovered. 

[+MrUnwondering]

[+Andrew Davie]

8 hours ago, MrUnwondering said:

 

"Waivered" - I don't think that word means what you think it means.

 

[LynxJagLunatic]

Very great interview. I’m very partial to the Tramiel’s. Their work was a huge part of my childhood. 7800, Lynx, Jaguar. To this day some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing video games was on these systems. Without the Tramiel’s we not have gotten anything past the 5200.

[MrMaddog]

On 3/6/2023 at 11:48 AM, MrUnwondering said:

 

A five star rating for a case that was impossible to win!?

 

Jane picked the wrong lawyer...

 

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by MrMaddog

[+Stephen]

4 hours ago, MrMaddog said:

Jane picked the wrong lawyer...

Please let it never be forgotten, that HIS name is Andrew, and he is a he, regardless of what the politically correct stance is.  I've never seen a Jane with a full beard (and a penis) before.  You don't get to choose a side, you don't get to identify with an alternate reality.  Wearing "pretty" socks and dressing like a girl doesn't change reality.  As Austin Power said - "That's a man baby".

 

[MrMaddog]

On 4/10/2023 at 10:13 PM, Stephen said:

Please let it never be forgotten, that HIS name is Andrew, and he is a he, regardless of what the politically correct stance is.  I've never seen a Jane with a full beard (and a penis) before.  You don't get to choose a side, you don't get to identify with an alternate reality.  Wearing "pretty" socks and dressing like a girl doesn't change reality.  As Austin Power said - "That's a man baby".

 

 

That's a man's body but Whittaker ain't got the balls to tell the truth...

 

🎤 Dropped...

[Lostdragon]

Look who's back.. 

 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/janerachelwhittaker_disability-determination-gardening-activity-7071536176267964418-47HR

[Editorb]

Buh ... I'm guessing all four limbs were not cut very short if they allowed crawling and installing landscaping. Course, what are the odds this purported person exists? (Did the quadruple amputee also build the greenhouse?)

[DoTheMath]

8 minutes ago, Editorb said:

Buh ... I'm guessing all four limbs were not cut very short if they allowed crawling and installing landscaping. Course, what are the odds this purported person exists? (Did the quadruple amputee also build the greenhouse?)

Knowing this person's fetish for stumps...

[+x=usr(1536)]

25 minutes ago, Lostdragon said:

Look who's back.. 

 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/janerachelwhittaker_disability-determination-gardening-activity-7071536176267964418-47HR

Oh, FFS 

 

Growing up, my summers were spent (in part) maintaining not totally dissimilar gardens on my parents' property.  There is no way in hell a quadruple amputee with compromised vision is going to come up with an end result like that, no matter how much determination she may have.  The amount and type of physical labour required to make that happen simply cannot be done by someone who is not suitably able-bodied.  There's a point beyond which physical handicaps will limit ability, and while that's unfortunate in the extreme it's also going to be a hard limit at some point.

 

I can fully understand marrying a person with a disability or disabilities.  But if this 'Claire' even exists, given that Whittaker is involved it's disgustingly easy to imagine him keeping her as a trapped pet of sorts.