Leonard Tramiel Exclusive Text Interview - Great Commodore & Atari Insight

[+Stephen]

When will this human turd just disappear?

[torfmeister]

Thought I was finished, then got "villainised" by his loyal cronies (as predicted here). Had to blast this out. That thread will very likely be heavily censored and locked on Monday, so stay tuned.

[ThatGuyMike]

It always happens unfortunately. They all come around eventually, or at least slowly disappear into the shadows. But the reality is nobody likes to admit they got taken for a ride, it’s easier to pretend they were right the whole time no matter the evidence to the contrary. I mean that realisation messed me up bad considering how involved I was with Janes work at the time.

 

I’d not waste more energy on it, you’ll only be going in circles and Jane is already done there (even if he tries pretending otherwise). The sick wife (who has been terminal at least once a year for the past decade now) and excuses for silence are usually the indicators. 

[ThatGuyMike]

I also know that Jane does read these threads, he’s far too narcissistic not to.

 

That being the case, I’ll offer a small reminder:

 

I still have the entire Slack chat logs from Blue Sock ready to share. Full email chains between our lawyers. Chat logs from when you asked me to doctor a logo out of an article. And of course, the full court documentation uploaded here to the forum (and backed up in several places in anticipation of your games).

 

I only have basic rules: Don’t slander me or anyone else, don’t threaten to ‘expose’ us for the hate-crimes you know full-well never happened. Stop claiming there was ever a hate-crime case, we all know there wasn’t. 
 

I don’t care what you lie about otherwise, you’re bad at keeping them straight and they always tumble down around you eventually. But keep me and others out of it, I’ll not have to intervene again (I can’t say the same for anyone else, only me)

 

and for anyone else reading and still figuring out what’s true or not: just check out Janes business history over the past few years. Literally every one failed after some big ‘groundbreaking’ announcement at the start. Not one product actually delivered. Whether a fraud or not, that’s an abysmal failure rate.

[torfmeister]

You're right. If they want to be tricked, I'll leave it up to them, it's really become a bit exhausting. Glad to see a forum where people still have common sense.

[Lostdragon]

13 hours ago, JustAGameDev said:

That was me also; I was the truth, not Mike. I don't want you to share what I sent you.

Blah anyway, what I sent you was the truth. I am Pea Head Games. Jane did claim he was bullied by us and claimed we were some sort of bigots. I was down as a witness in the court case.
Me and @Lostdragon had dealings with the BBC, which was at one point in time investigating all this, but they were using us to gain all the information.
 

Just a recap on how the BBC reporter treated us. 

 

 

Basically, at one point they had apparently been looking to do a celebration style program on Jane's glittering career in the games industry, until their research started turning up too many incidents that indicated all was far from what Jane had been claiming and there were indeed much darker events connected to Jane. 

 

 

A female reporter got in touch, claiming the BBC were now looking at doing a massive exposure event style program on the real Andrew/Jane Whittaker, typical blowing the thing wide open style stuff, but they had to tread carefully at this point, everything had to be run past legal teams. 

 

 

She honestly demanded of us that we cease making public all our findings, instead everything had to be passed onto her, so she and her team coukd work through it and implement in this mythical exposure program, she wanted the exclusive rights to all of it. 

 

 

We kept asking for some guarantees the program would indeed be made, has been started, yet she confessed at one point it hadn't even been green lit, it was all at the discussion stage. 

 

 

Needless to say she was told to jog on basically. 

 

The whole episode was a disgrace and the arrogance shown by the BBC reporter rubbed me up completely the wrong way. 

[Lostdragon]

Just looked at Jane's post on that Skyhook thread 🤔

 

".. . I grew up spending my childhood cab riding Deltics (I was on the last train to Kings Cross), chasing around on Class 40 railtours (any of you guys were on the famed Christmas Cracker tours too?) and dashing around all over the UK. My family come from a railway background, stretching back to LNER days. I also have spent my entire career in simulation development."

 

 

Sorry Jane but NO, your childhood, according to the gospel of Whittaker, involved you undergoing multiple surgeries, coding various best selling games from a hospital bed, games which have never been found I might add. 

 

The only train ride you talked of, was to deliver  a master copy of Flying Shark for duplication, to Firebird. 

 

 

You bragged of your career being in the area of A. I coding, not Simulation, your infamous spaghetti code killing the frame rate on Jaguar AVP, you then foolishly lied about doing the A. I routines for Rare's Goldeneye on the N64. 

 

 

Your work on simulators claim, didn't appear until you duped Neil The Man Cave, when the fool interviewed you for his CDTV Repair video. 

 

Where you took credit for misc Amiga Flight Simulators, you of course couldn't name any, as you never worked on any, you weren't part of the UK Microprose Team, as we pointed out at the time. 

 

You've spent your entire career taking credit for work you haven't done, name dropping big names from the film and Game industries, knowing full well none of them are with us any longer, so can't counter your claims. 

 

 

You've clearly learnt nothing. 

 

 

[ThatGuyMike]

I will note one funny anecdote during my interactions with Jane. 

Somewhere along the line he used to claim some connection to Peter Molyneux, and Bullfrog staff. A few months after I called Jane out on the lies about their Athena tech, guess who I started working for? (Ok I went from a con-artist to a more successful grifter, but I needed a job and at least the latter has delivered a couple gems in the past).

Suddenly that Molyneux connection disappeared. Weird one eh? And every ex-bullfrog person Ive worked with or spoken to has zero recollection of Jane save for one, who suspects they werent around for particularly long.

Then if you follow some other stories following the Indestructables, which Jane likes to brag about having a large part in, its said the project was canned because it was showing no meaningful progress. Sounds familiar right? Almost like its a repeating pattern over literal decades. Then lets look at Homicide Detective at Keystone Games. Another non-delivery (unfortunately one I was part of. Ask me what Janes direction was like on that one, there are some real special moments to share from that). Then look at what was delivered in Blue Sock Studios (once again, unfortunately I was part of this for a few months before Id had enough). Then Bad Panda. Then Athena Worlds. Each and every time the studio was abandoned, shut down or faded into nothingness. And whats the newest name he registered? Fantasy Parks or something? Lets see what miraculous world-changing thing gets announced this time around.

I may have been fooled when I was still fresh-faced and eager to break into the games industry, but I broke in myself despite the stain Jane left on my career. And it turns out the industry is very small. Maybe one or two degrees of separation from any dev to another. We network a lot. And we all talk. Jane is basically an unknown in the industry, and the few that DO know, know. Theyre not shy about sharing what they know either.

Jane lucked into a semi-success at one point and tried riding that for the rest of his life. Never seemed to try actually learning how to do the things he claims to do. I mean hes had more than my lifetime to learn something other than lying. 

[Lostdragon]

1 hour ago, ThatGuyMike said:

I will note one funny anecdote during my interactions with Jane. 

Somewhere along the line he used to claim some connection to Peter Molyneux, and Bullfrog staff. A few months after I called Jane out on the lies about their Athena tech, guess who I started working for? (Ok I went from a con-artist to a more successful grifter, but I needed a job and at least the latter has delivered a couple gems in the past).

Suddenly that Molyneux connection disappeared. Weird one eh? And every ex-bullfrog person Ive worked with or spoken to has zero recollection of Jane save for one, who suspects they werent around for particularly long.

Then if you follow some other stories following the Indestructables, which Jane likes to brag about having a large part in, its said the project was canned because it was showing no meaningful progress. Sounds familiar right? Almost like its a repeating pattern over literal decades. Then lets look at Homicide Detective at Keystone Games. Another non-delivery (unfortunately one I was part of. Ask me what Janes direction was like on that one, there are some real special moments to share from that). Then look at what was delivered in Blue Sock Studios (once again, unfortunately I was part of this for a few months before Id had enough). Then Bad Panda. Then Athena Worlds. Each and every time the studio was abandoned, shut down or faded into nothingness. And whats the newest name he registered? Fantasy Parks or something? Lets see what miraculous world-changing thing gets announced this time around.

I may have been fooled when I was still fresh-faced and eager to break into the games industry, but I broke in myself despite the stain Jane left on my career. And it turns out the industry is very small. Maybe one or two degrees of separation from any dev to another. We network a lot. And we all talk. Jane is basically an unknown in the industry, and the few that DO know, know. Theyre not shy about sharing what they know either.

Jane lucked into a semi-success at one point and tried riding that for the rest of his life. Never seemed to try actually learning how to do the things he claims to do. I mean hes had more than my lifetime to learn something other than lying. 

It's been covered before but.. 

 

This is what a  senior staffer from Bullfrog's Populous III:The Beginning said about Andrew/Jane Whittaker, when I made enquires.. 

 

 

 

 

"All I know about Andrew Whittaker is that his name seems to appear as the last entry in the 'Thanks To:' section of the Populous:The Beginning credits list within the game anual.

I never met anyone called Andrew Whittaker, and I have no idea what, if he had one at all, his role was in the development, nor what, if anything, he contributed.

There were a lot of people involved in the making of the game, including people from EA based in Langley, Berks, whilst the main development team was in Guildford, so it's possible that he might have contributed towards some library or support code that EA had developed, but if that was the case, I would have thought he would have had more of a credit than a 'Thanks'.

It's worth noting that of all the names on the credit list, about 99% I know who they were, or at least where they worked and what they contributed. With Andrew Whittaker, I have no idea.

It's also worth noting that I was part of the Senior Management team at Bullfrog around that time, and of course management (as well as developer) on the game itself, and one thing I can say with certainty is that nobody called Andrew Whittaker had a management role in the making of that game."

As for the other points.. 

 

1) Whittaker always  stated he didn't join Bullfrog until till Peter Molyneux had  left, thus ruling out any  roles on Dungeon Keeper II as he's claimed at times. 

 

 

2)The Indestructibles was Sean Coopers baby, not Peter Molyneux's, so he can't make a connection there either. 

 

The games original concept was born from a throwaway comment Peter had made, that was it. 

 

'Indestructibles was our take on MIST – My Incredible Superhero Team, a superhero game that saw you patrolling a city, fighting crime. Create your own hero and do battle with the criminal underclass. That went because “no-one wants to design their own hero and we can’t get the Marvel license”. What we’d come up with was the love-child of Crackdown and City of Heroes. The main guy – Captain Indestructible – was even immortalised in a small statuette, where he remains – keeping a watchful vigil over an apartment in Brighton.

http://alextrowers.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-ones-that-got-away.html?m=1

 

 

The project Jane Whittaker headed up, was the third and final  attempt to make something of the project  now known as The Indestructibles,  and was a far more LINEAR title than the one Peter Molyneux, Sean Cooper and Glenn Corpes had in mind.

The original vision was for the city to be able to be completely destroyed by the player, incorporate a significant strategy element, but be multi-player all the way

 

Reasons for it's cancellation :

 

 From the RetroGamer interview with Glenn Corpes issue #160

 

Glenn: The Indestructibles would of been cool. It was like multiplayer Quake in that you’d get to know the level well. It didn’t happen because Marvel said here’s a list of several 100 superheroes, if any of yours are like ours…we’ll be talking to you..

 

 

Jane made an absolute fool of himself promoting Athena Worlds, anyone who's followed Nolan Bushnell's career over the years, knows all too well it's littered with failed projects, this just joins a very large list. 

 

The team ran out out of money before announcing a single title for any platform, went E_beghing, cane up empty. 

 

It's as big a failure as Jane's earlier pitch to try and resurrect Power Crystal on modern platforms, as if in the era of Oblivion, Skyrim etc it would of ever stood a chance 🙄

 

Jane's lies to his twitter followers about his spiritual successor to Jag AVP.. 

 

To all those who post comments like they aren't interested in Jane's personal life, feel he's being trolled, just want games that work.. 

 

 

Just stop and ask yourself why Jane never delivers what he promises.. 

 

Still waiting on those Jag AVP A. I routines Jane.. 

 

 

Why he constantly runs when put in the spot, he's suddenly suck, so can't do a live online Q+A session, he will rebook, it never happened. 

 

He leaves a Forum to look after a sick family member, one who became I'll just as he was being put on the spot it seems. 

 

Ask yourself why the likes of John Hurt, Stan Winston, Jack Tramiel, Mike Singleton H. R Giger, all R. I. P have never spoken of him, he's never in any Photographs with them. 

 

Ask Jane why, if he was digitised for the main character in Dark Seed, the character looks like Mike Dawson. 

 

Then simply accept Jane has played you. 

 

 

Jane lucked out with his minor role on Jag AVP, a role he's overplayed and milked to death ever since, his code was apparently absolute dogshit, it crippled the games frame rate and thankfully due to the sterling work of others, working on the most modern Jaguar Emulator, can now be played at a decent speed. 

Edited July 9, 2023 by Lostdragon

[torfmeister]

How is that creep allowed to keep his website up?

[+MrUnwondering]

On 7/11/2023 at 9:58 AM, torfmeister said:

How is that creep allowed to keep his website up?

It's certainly very carefully worded compared to past itterations. The interview posted on there has been taken down i note.

[torfmeister]

Would be interesting to know if Lord British would repeat his quote again today.

[torfmeister]

I never would have thought it would reach this level of absurdity, DTG have announced they're happy to continue working with Jane Whittaker. Had a really hard laugh when I spotted this 🤣

 

 

Company that releases buggy content, and break their own content with subsequent patches, confirms continuation of partnership with company that releases broken content, pretends feedback and never fixes.

 

I mean the start of the sinking of the "MS DTG" was already obvious when the Focus buyout was announced. Now they're heading for a total crash it seems, still trying to keep people faithful to buy their crap. And still asking for feedback instead of delivering what has already been reported. What a bunch of clowns.

 

I'll have my DTG account removed, do not want to have anything more to do with this shady stuff, getting my popcorn out and watch what happens. DTG will never get another penny from me.

 

Btw, this is what Skyhook have released with their Midland Main Line - they are disappointed it does not match expectations.

Year: 2023, Unreal Engine 4, cost: €35,99 - the driver's cab of the High Speed Train (RTX4070, Ultra Settings ). (I've checked on that to see for myself, just to have it quickly refunded.)

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2023 by torfmeister

[+MrUnwondering]

On 7/13/2023 at 2:14 PM, torfmeister said:

I never would have thought it would reach this level of absurdity, DTG have announced they're happy to continue working with Jane Whittaker. Had a really hard laugh when I spotted this 🤣

 

 

Company that releases buggy content, and break their own content with subsequent patches, confirms continuation of partnership with company that releases broken content, pretends feedback and never fixes.

 

I mean the start of the sinking of the "MS DTG" was already obvious when the Focus buyout was announced. Now they're heading for a total crash it seems, still trying to keep people faithful to buy their crap. And still asking for feedback instead of delivering what has already been reported. What a bunch of clowns.

 

I'll have my DTG account removed, do not want to have anything more to do with this shady stuff, getting my popcorn out and watch what happens. DTG will never get another penny from me.

 

Btw, this is what Skyhook have released with their Midland Main Line - they are disappointed it does not match expectations.

Year: 2023, Unreal Engine 4, cost: €35,99 - the driver's cab of the High Speed Train (RTX4070, Ultra Settings ). (I've checked on that to see for myself, just to have it quickly refunded.)

 

 

 

It has become ludicrous. Oh well, good luck there then!

"we have known him as" is a bit odd too, presumably then they definitely don't know him as a thoroughly dishonest and malicious scum bag?

 

I don't know the details about how it was made, but it looks a bit sloppy, probably made on a tight timeline/budget by jnr staff. It's telling when the key environment isn't bang on.

 

[+MrUnwondering]

19 hours ago, torfmeister said:

Would be interesting to know if Lord British would repeat his quote again today.

Indeed, hopefully someone asks him to elaborate upon it, it'd be interesting to know how and in what capacity he worked with Jane, where and for how long given Jane was at EA 5 months in 1998 in a senior producer role.

[Lostdragon]

21 hours ago, torfmeister said:

I never would have thought it would reach this level of absurdity, DTG have announced they're happy to continue working with Jane Whittaker. Had a really hard laugh when I spotted this 🤣

 

 

Company that releases buggy content, and break their own content with subsequent patches, confirms continuation of partnership with company that releases broken content, pretends feedback and never fixes.

 

I mean the start of the sinking of the "MS DTG" was already obvious when the Focus buyout was announced. Now they're heading for a total crash it seems, still trying to keep people faithful to buy their crap. And still asking for feedback instead of delivering what has already been reported. What a bunch of clowns.

 

I'll have my DTG account removed, do not want to have anything more to do with this shady stuff, getting my popcorn out and watch what happens. DTG will never get another penny from me.

 

Btw, this is what Skyhook have released with their Midland Main Line - they are disappointed it does not match expectations.

Year: 2023, Unreal Engine 4, cost: €35,99 - the driver's cab of the High Speed Train (RTX4070, Ultra Settings ). (I've checked on that to see for myself, just to have it quickly refunded.)

 

 

 

Lest we forget how Whittaker ended his time on Jaguar AVP.. 

"I wish to thank everyone who has supported me throughout the coding of AVP,
and the kind reviews I received. Coding AVP was hard work having to contend
with a tumour, major burns and a bereavement during the course of development!
and all support was well received.
Unfortunately Atari have informed me that they have no further need of my
development work, having left Rebellion to join them! and terminated my
employment.

So, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all before leaving the Atari
scene and moving on to new pastures and wish you many games in the future to
the standard of AVP that you may enjoy on your jaguar systems.

Anyone with work for an unemployed coder please call me (44+482+564431)

thanks again

Andrew Whittaker
programmer AVP"

 

 

Typical Whittaker, made out he was the games sole coder, puts out a drama laden post.. 

 

Rebellion responded with.. 

"Just to make this clear (and feel free to object, Andy, if you think
this isn't fair):

Andrew Whittaker wrote the alien (marine, predator, as appropriate) AI
code, and the code for the computers.

A programmer at Atari wrote part of the startup code.

Mike Beaton wrote everything else (graphics engine, HUD code, etc).
 

-- dan @ Rebellion

 

A level headed and polite explanation of what role Whittaker actually had, Whittaker was part of a team. 

 

 

And:

"Jason, MD here, says, just in case anyone was wondering:

"We currently have no plans to rehire Andrew Whittaker.

He did his job on the alien AI in AvP, and that's what he was hired to
do; he was no longer needed at Rebellion, and went back to being
freelance, and we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours."

 

Ditto from Jason Kingsley. 

 

Now Kingsley himself is no saint, trying to claim he wrote A8 Star Raiders at one point in an interview, tries taking credit for the 3 seperate campaigns in AVP.. 

 

But Rebellion staff conducted themselves in a far more professional manner than Whittaker. 

[MrMaddog]

12 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

Lest we forget how Whittaker ended his time on Jaguar AVP.. 

"I wish to thank everyone who has supported me throughout the coding of AVP,
and the kind reviews I received. Coding AVP was hard work having to contend
with a tumour, major burns and a bereavement during the course of development!
and all support was well received.
Unfortunately Atari have informed me that they have no further need of my
development work, having left Rebellion to join them! and terminated my
employment.

So, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all before leaving the Atari
scene and moving on to new pastures and wish you many games in the future to
the standard of AVP that you may enjoy on your jaguar systems.

Anyone with work for an unemployed coder please call me (44+482+564431)

thanks again

Andrew Whittaker
programmer AVP"

 

 

Typical Whittaker, made out he was the games sole coder, puts out a drama laden post.. 

 

Rebellion responded with.. 

"Just to make this clear (and feel free to object, Andy, if you think
this isn't fair):

Andrew Whittaker wrote the alien (marine, predator, as appropriate) AI
code, and the code for the computers.

A programmer at Atari wrote part of the startup code.

Mike Beaton wrote everything else (graphics engine, HUD code, etc).
 

-- dan @ Rebellion

 

A level headed and polite explanation of what role Whittaker actually had, Whittaker was part of a team. 

 

 

And:

"Jason, MD here, says, just in case anyone was wondering:

"We currently have no plans to rehire Andrew Whittaker.

He did his job on the alien AI in AvP, and that's what he was hired to
do; he was no longer needed at Rebellion, and went back to being
freelance, and we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours."

 

Ditto from Jason Kingsley. 

 

Now Kingsley himself is no saint, trying to claim he wrote A8 Star Raiders at one point in an interview, tries taking credit for the 3 seperate campaigns in AVP.. 

 

But Rebellion staff conducted themselves in a far more professional manner than Whittaker. 

 

I'm curious as where these quotes where from at the time.  I had the misfortune of knowing Whittaker on IRC from '95-97 believing everything it said since I was naive and didn't know what really happened.  I did find it odd that there was no other mention of Whittaker's work on AvP anywhere aside from occasional interviews in both GamePro and Current Notes.

 

Also find it (literally) incredible that an out of work "freelance" programmer all the sudden started a gaming studio called Perceptions that planned on making an open world RPG back in the late 90's.  I suppose it was the start of many Whittaker's scams to take in young impressionable people who want to break in the gaming business...

[Lostdragon]

10 hours ago, MrMaddog said:

 

I'm curious as where these quotes where from at the time.  I had the misfortune of knowing Whittaker on IRC from '95-97 believing everything it said since I was naive and didn't know what really happened.  I did find it odd that there was no other mention of Whittaker's work on AvP anywhere aside from occasional interviews in both GamePro and Current Notes.

 

Also find it (literally) incredible that an out of work "freelance" programmer all the sudden started a gaming studio called Perceptions that planned on making an open world RPG back in the late 90's.  I suppose it was the start of many Whittaker's scams to take in young impressionable people who want to break in the gaming business...

Quotes like these from Whittaker in 1995?

 

Quotes he'd love to have deleted as they showcase the true nature of the individual? 

 

 

"... incidentally I did have the task of being the head programmer of AVP.
Other team members coming to my house to sleep on the living room
floor. It was taken out of Rebellions hands a long time before
completion and ended up being completed at my house with my being
an Atari employee with no further communication with Rebellion,
however thats another story but wanted to set the record straight."

 

 

This exhausted story got so twisted over the years he told it, it was his house, no, his parents.. Whittaker and Beaton flew back to his parents house as Beaton homesick, Purple Hampton put the record straight, Beaton stayed working at Sunnyvale till AVP was completed. 

 

You weren't head programmer, just A. I coder, something Dan from Rebellion put straight as far as the record went. 

 

We know Rebellion sent AVP to Atari to have finished in the USA, they had done what they were under contract to produce, they were eager to start work on multiple other projects, for multiple platforms, the company was expanding, the real money lay in making games on PC CD, Saturn and PlayStation, not Jaguar!/Jaguar CD. 

 

 

 

These comments from the time, by yourself Jane, aren't going to dissappear, they are safely in the public domain and i am not going to signpost where to find them for you, as you'll only do what you did with comments on Mastercast TV's YT videos, do your best to have them deleted. 

 

Just like you removed your old website, not realising Wayback machine had it stored ready for easy access. 

 

You used the Internet to self promote Jane only fitting it now becomes a millstone around your neck. 

 

 

 

And again, lest we forget, prior to Perceptions, Whittaker had his beady little eyes set on the RPG world, different game, different company, but same Whittaker... 

 

 

 

 

Visionix (USA) and Mr. Andrew Whittaker (UK) have announced the immediate
creation of a new joint-venture company, Springer Spaniel Software
(SpringerSoft). SpringerSoft has already started the design and
development of a revolutionary new video game, under the project-name
"Artemis, which will be released for IBM and compatible PC systems in the
first quarter of 1996. Versions of the game for the Atari Jaguar, Sony
PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and other high-performance, CD-ROM systems are
tentatively planned for second and third quarters of 1996.

Andrew Whittaker will be leading the development of the new game. Mr.
Whittaker is a UK based game developer with over 15 years of experience.
Recently released games developed by Mr. Whittaker include the smash-hit
"Alien Vs. Predator" for the Atari Jaguar, a game which has been rated as
"Most wanted of the 1994 holiday sales season" by both US and UK video
game publications. Mr. Whittaker's other recent releases include "Dark
Seed" and "Ashes of Empire".

Visionix is a US based software development house that specializes in
video game, multimedia, graphics imaging, and operating system design and
development. Visionix employees previously worked on the best-selling
"Scott Adams Graphics Adventure" series for Adventure International/Scott
Adams, Inc.

Carol Street, the Vice-President of Production at Springer Spaniel,
commented that "SpringerSoft has been formed to take advantage of the
skills of both UK and US based graphics, sound, design, and development
specialties. Our games will be distributed worldwide, including the
domestic, European, Asian, Australian and South African markets."

SpringerSoft will have offices in Orlando, FL, USA; the United Kingdom;
and New York, NY, USA.

 

Interesting wording, Andrew Whittaker WILL be leading the games development, yet the development had already started? OK, under who's guidance? 

 

Whittaker didn't develop AVP, nor did Whittaker release Dark Seed nor Ashes Of The Empire. 

 

Did any offices actually exist anywhere for Springer Spaniel Software? 

 

[Lostdragon]

20 hours ago, MrMaddog said:

 

I'm curious as where these quotes where from at the time.  I had the misfortune of knowing Whittaker on IRC from '95-97 believing everything it said since I was naive and didn't know what really happened.  I did find it odd that there was no other mention of Whittaker's work on AvP anywhere aside from occasional interviews in both GamePro and Current Notes.

 

 

 

Going off memory, but didn't Jer Horwitz do the GamePro interview with Whittaker? 

 

Horwitz never bothering to check with the likes of Andrew Braybrook or Steve Turner. regarding claims to fame at Graftgold, if he had, he'd of known all Whittaker did regarding Uridium, was present someone else's Amiga demo to them. 

 

He never pressed  Whittaker on which version of Magnetron he was involved in (answer :NONE) and went onto make an even bigger fool of himself, by later claiming Whittaker had been involved with Paradroid (again, Whittaker hadn't touched that either). 

 

He totally bought into the lies  Whittaker fed him about his role on Dark Seed. 

 

If he has, he would of known all Whittaker did, was a few days playtesting the Amiga version whilst at Mirage before the UK version shipped. 

 

 

But then again, RetroGamer Magazine did exactly the same, many years later, just let Whittaker own the interview, did zero background checks on claims before running the interview. 

 

Games Journalism on both sides of the pond has never been of the highest calibre, has it? 

[DavidD]

The press release is odd:

 

Quote

Visionix is a US based software development house that specializes in video game, multimedia, graphics imaging, and operating system design and
development. Visionix employees previously worked on the best-selling "Scott Adams Graphics Adventure" series for Adventure International/Scott
Adams, Inc.

Why would anyone in 1994/5 promote a company solely on the basis that some employees worked on the Scott Adams Graphics Adventure series, which hadn't been notable since the very early 80s?  Did they have no game experience since 1983?

[Lostdragon]

1 hour ago, DavidD said:

The press release is odd:

 

Why would anyone in 1994/5 promote a company solely on the basis that some employees worked on the Scott Adams Graphics Adventure series, which hadn't been notable since the very early 80s?  Did they have no game experience since 1983?

The Press Release was basically a classic case of Straw Clutching. 

 

 

It's evident  they had very few staff and very little in the way of  combined experience, so the spin comes into full effect. 

 

The Jaguar was far too niche a system to be meaningful to a wide audience and you don't want people knowing all Whittaker did was some A. I coding. 

 

You certainly don't want folk to know all he did was misc play testing and even worse, data entry on the other titles.. 

 

And just how many people knew of Ashes Of The Empire? 🤔

 

So they pull another 'big nane' out the hat for attempted credibility, Scott Adams, not exactly a household name at that point in time though. 

 

 

When your keen to promote yourselves as a studio embarking on a supposed revolutionary new video game, you might want to tell folks what genre it's going to be in.. 

 

As all your saying in that statement is our staff have worked on (but your not specifying their exact roles) point and click adventure games, text adventure games, strategy/role playing games and FPS style games. 

 

So which genre were you planning to revolutionise??? 

 

 

[Lostdragon]

On 7/14/2023 at 11:49 PM, MrMaddog said:

.  I did find it odd that there was no other mention of Whittaker's work on AvP anywhere aside from occasional interviews in both GamePro and Current Notes.

 

 

Here's that infamous interview. 

 

Gamepro Issue 59. 

 

 

Jer Horwitz carried out no due diligence research into Whittaker taking credit for no less than 8 Graftgold Amiga titles!!!

 

Including MORPHEUS 🙄

Which stayed a C64/128  exclusive, there never were conversions to any other platforms.. 

 

I appreciate the Amiga wasn't big in the USA, but come on Jer.. 

 

 Whittaker also  makes claims relating to being part of the team at Rebellion working on Legions Of The Undead and that creature designs were being done by Stan Winston.

 

For a start here, did  Horwitz not find it just a little bit curious that A) Winston had lent his talents to such a title, previously unheard of i believe.. And B) Rebellion themselves weren't using this aspect as a major selling point for the title.. 

 

 

#Whittaker did talk about Jag AVP elsewhere, see the attached interview shots, at the time.. 

 

 

Whittaker had at one stage, tried claiming the reason we never saw a photo of himself, working alongside the likes of Mike Singleton, HR Giger, RARE etc was a due to a deliberate move on his part.. 

 

 

 

"There's not a lot of imagery of me on the net, there's not a lot of interviews and stuff - and that's because I was deliberately keeping to the background because I didn't want to promote myself as somebody else.". 

 

 

Source:

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20180907133417/https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-08-10-death-threats-false-personas-and-philanthropy-the-untold-story-of-jane-whittaker

 

 

Complete and utter nonsense. 

 

Jane as Andrew, happy to appear in the ZX Spectrum Press, photographed during his brief stint at Mirage.. 

 

Interviewed by the ZX Spectrum Press, Game Pro Magazine, The official. Atari Jaguar Gamers Guide, Pocket, Alive 8.. 

 

Happy to lie when interviewed, claiming Jag A. I routines  were used in N64 Goldeneye, he'd been involved in PC AVP  (built from the ground up), Dungeon Keeper. 

 

It's a sorry state of affairs looking back it now, nobody bothered to fact check claims made by Whittaker, we can include Gamestm in the long list of people duped by him.. 

 

 

 

And so he grew more and more confident, drew more and more fans to his cause. 

[Lostdragon]

On 7/14/2023 at 11:49 PM, MrMaddog said:

 

 

 

Also find it (literally) incredible that an out of work "freelance" programmer all the sudden started a gaming studio called Perceptions that planned on making an open world RPG back in the late 90's.  I suppose it was the start of many Whittaker's scams to take in young impressionable people who want to break in the gaming business...

Whittaker was never backwards in coming forwards, when it came to trying to take in impressionable people.. 

 

He said.. 

 

 

"Im not planning a sequel to AVP but am working on a huge RPG game called Artemis, which I will also be publishing, it will be available on Jaguar CD
early next year. all being well....

best regards

Andrew Whittaker
Programmer AVP" 

 

 

Again, proclaiming himself as THE programmer of AVP, not part of the AVP team.. 

 

Claiming HE would be publishing Artemis, not Springer Spaniel software. 

 

He always ensured everything was about HIM. 

[Lostdragon]

Some misc points. 

 

Second part of the infamous Game Pro Interview.. 

 

Whittaker tweeting to say he remembers the interview, but just happens to forget all the lies he told in it.. 

 

Whittaker confirming in 2021 and 2000 he kept all his source code for AVP:

 

 

Whittaker:"I certainly keep all my source, I think most developers do, so all the
source for all the titles should be out there somewhere..*

 

And.. 

 

'.. he code certainly isnt lost, I was only reading through it recently and thinking of the old days..." 

 

sooo.. 

 

Why hasn't he shared his A. I routines?  leaving his Twitter followers wanting? 

 

 

Would be because it'd prove once and for all his claims about hidden Easter Egg's in the game and the game engine, doing impossible things (the Aliens can't physically climb walls, due to the way in which the game renders the walls 🙄), were lies of the biggest order? 

 

 

Whittaker:"I have a version of the game that I will probably release on AVI at sometime where the predator gets tired chasing you, stops and says "Im tired
from all this running", leans against a wall and starts smoking a cigarette!"

 

 

And... 

 

 

"  I did develop a version with Aliens climbing walls, predator nets etc, but
it just wouldnt fit the cartridge, and at the time I used the biggest
cartridge that was available for the machine. Something had to give, and it was features such as those, as much to my disappointment as anyone."

 

 

Jane, you have nothing but fabricated story, after fabricated story, regarding Jaguar AVP, there are no wall climbing Xeno's, there's no cigarette smoking, exhausted Predator.. 

 

Also, not keen to credit your own Father for his work on the game Jane? 

 

 

Whittaker :" The Dr Whittaker, Chief Medical officer, contrary to popular
belief doesnt refer to me, rather my father. I got him to type all that log
text into ascii files for me!" 

 

I only ask, as you yourself were more than happy to over blow your 'data entry" role on Ahes Of The Empire.. 

 

[Lostdragon]

Jane as Andrew again, 

deliberately keeping to the background because he didn't want to promote himself  as somebody else. 

 

So much so, he created a website to promote himself, deleted it years later, but lucky for us, Wayback Machine doesn't forget.. 

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20030829044456/http://andreww.atari-users.net/