Why did they deliberately change the name from Ultra Vortex to Ultra Vortek?

[sirlynxalot]

I was watching a video about jaguar at E3 in 1995 and the prototype version of Ultra Vortek they have running is called Ultra Vortex (see image on left)

 

As we all know, the game was released under the title Ultra Vortek (see image on right).

 

Not only that, but the game really doubles down on this vortek idea, referring to the "vortek" on the back of the game box and in the endings.

 

It seems like a fairly last minute change considering at E3, one of the people demoing the game in the video I watched said it would be finished in a week. 

 

Maybe it was designed as a marketing thing, or like the equivalent of being cool by incorrectly spelling combat with a K like in Mortal Kombat, or beetles as Beatles.  Nevertheless, it had the opposite effect on me when I first heard of the game and went "vortek? do they mean vortex?  Was this an unintentional misspelling?"

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by sirlynxalot

[Leonard Smith]

Probably because they discovered a potential copyright infringement somewhere.  
Just like Nintendo did with the Ultra 64 and so on.

 

[Gummy Bear]

There was a game on the SNES called Vortex. 

They probably didn't want Ultra Vortek to be mistakenly associated with it. 

[Atlantis]

Because on the Jaguar everything must be as odd as possible.

[+Stephen]

All things Ultra Vortek(x) must end with the obligatory:

[Jag64]

I don't remember. Did she make it into the sequel?

31 minutes ago, Stephen said:

All things Ultra Vortek(x) must end with the obligatory:

[+Stephen]

1 hour ago, Jag64 said:

I don't remember. Did she make it into the sequel?

Never heard of a sequel?

[Editorb]

It might have been ploy to piggyback on public awareness created by GM's Vortec engine advertising.

[captainblack]

I was wondering if it was a less conservative spelling, but actually the word first became vertex before any other changes. So realistically they just wanted to copy the kool kids who put K in everything.

[Jag64]

2 hours ago, Stephen said:

Never heard of a sequel?

I was just kidding around. That's one of the pseudo sequels I made.

 

As for the name, it was the 90s. Cool Kidz spelled things Xtreme, like Kombat.

 

Maybe ... throwing wild ideas at the wall: Ultra Vortek used the modem ... Tech ... 90s Tek.

 

Honestly, just glad the thing was playable. That makes it a Top 10 Jaguar game out of the gate.

[atarian1]

On 3/24/2022 at 3:34 PM, Gummy Bear said:

There was a game on the SNES called Vortex. 

They probably didn't want Ultra Vortek to be mistakenly associated with it. 

That is what I remember Beyond Games saying too.

[PFG 9000]

This is interesting.  I always assumed it was a typo by whichever magazines at the time were calling it Ultra Vortex.  But that screenshot shows the game's name really was changed.

[alucardX]

On 3/25/2022 at 4:40 PM, Editorb said:

It might have been ploy to piggyback on public awareness created by GM's Vortec engine advertising.

And we never did see the GM Ultra Vortec, nor the Ultra Vortec 2. Damn.

[tripled79]

On 3/25/2022 at 8:12 AM, Stephen said:

All things Ultra Vortek(x) must end with the obligatory:

I recall these images from the Beyond Games website.

I don't recall seeing or hearing anything about Ultra Vortek 2, however...