Bubsy 3D on the Atari Jaguar (Not a clickbait)

[agradeneu]

5 minutes ago, cubanismo said:

Isn't that how many guys they had doing the programming for the entire game in many cases (E.g., Checkered Flag)? I'm not saying those games were all great, but rather pointing out that one programmer is indeed a lot for that era, especially given it was presumably "just" a port.

One programmer was a lot for the 2600, not sure if that was the same era as  SNES, Jaguar, Genesis,  3DO  😄

[agradeneu]

40 minutes ago, alucardX said:

Indeed, for sure! But even one full time employee dedicated to a fully 3d game for the Jaguar version of a game that was also planned for two other systems, major systems, is a lot. 

It isn't.

[alucardX]

3 minutes ago, cubanismo said:

Isn't that how many guys they had doing the programming for the entire game in many cases (E.g., Checkered Flag)? I'm not saying those games were all great, but rather pointing out that one programmer is indeed a lot for that era, especially given it was presumably "just" a port.

You have a good point here. The unique part to me is that this was a third party developer and in many cases they were either porting 2D games OR Atari was paying directly to have something done. From the outset this was a big undertaking and they had large ambitions and were coming up with ideas and innovating trying to make a game that was intended to be a successful transition of a 2D franchise to 3D. I know there is a chasm of difference here but imagine if Shiny had chosen to develop Earthworm Jim 3D for the Jag, paid a dev and done this all independent of any Atari funding. In my opinion there is a twist of uniqueness to the Bubsy 3d on Jag situation.

[alucardX]

3 minutes ago, agradeneu said:

It isn't.

Well they did can his ass (allegedly) and cancel the Jag version so that's something.

[agradeneu]

6 hours ago, alucardX said:

Well they did can his ass (allegedly) and cancel the Jag version so that's something.

No, they made him work on the PS version. 

 

There is no info about budget, working time or progress on the Jaguar version. How someone could assume they did "a lot" based on flaky ideas?

Edited September 18, 2023 by agradeneu

[alucardX]

15 hours ago, agradeneu said:

No, they made him work on the PS version. 

 

There is no info about budget, working time or progress on the Jaguar version. How someone could assume they did "a lot" based on flaky ideas?

You're quite right, there are many assumptions in my statement. I guess it was more of a musing on my part and not grounded in concrete facts.

 

Just that they worked on it at all means that they had some idea that it was worth their time at some point. Nothing more than that. I'm curious, again as a musing, what made them think that. Was it the huge install base? The amazing dev tools or the powerful and familiar Motorola 68k?

 

Cheers!

[Seedy1812]

On 9/18/2023 at 3:13 PM, Editorb said:

 

 

I'm very frequently wrong, but don't these credits belong to Mr. Seedy1812?

 

https://www.mobygames.com/person/1347/andrew-seed/credits/

Yes they do .

Non technical people such as designers and producers at the start of a project will big up a game. They will  say this , that and the other and will run on platforms x,y,z. It will be these "facts" which will get the backing for the game. Only when the hard work is being done will you know what can be made. I once worked for Argonaut Games on a PS and PC game called Kanaan. ( PC pentium 120 + 3fdx voodoo 2 card ). It was a pretty impressive idea , bezier patch landscapes with 3d model buildings , vehicles and players. I think Infogrammes (might be wrong but was a French company ) was financing the game but on that original Playstation the maps filled up all of memory and more and could not be done. Infogrammes knew the big money would come from the PS so when that got dropped the amount of money was also vastly reduced. The game was scaled back , people were made redundant and eventually the game got cancelled.

 

On Bubsy fractured furry tales we had 3 weeks to get each world done , this was 3 worlds drawn ,and mapped out , new  baddies implemented and tested and fix any issues fixed from the previous world. We had another programmer and artist doing the boss fights. A third programmer who was in between games did the frontend. 4 additional programmers were on Bubsy as appart from the 2 i mentioned ( Karl and Nigel ) we had Martin who wrote and maintained the Map editor and sprite cutter and the finally Trev who wrote the sound driver ( he might have left the company by then )

 

Yes one game progranmer could have done it all but would have take a lot more time to complete the game.

[agradeneu]

On 9/19/2023 at 5:32 PM, alucardX said:

You're quite right, there are many assumptions in my statement. I guess it was more of a musing on my part and not grounded in concrete facts.

 

Just that they worked on it at all means that they had some idea that it was worth their time at some point. Nothing more than that. I'm curious, again as a musing, what made them think that. Was it the huge install base? The amazing dev tools or the powerful and familiar Motorola 68k?

 

Cheers!

The Jaguar was an interesting machine at the time. I can understand a coder/programmer/producer wanted to work on this thing and give it a fair chance.  It is a money driven business, but the people were passionate about the same things as we are now.

Well, Ubisoft actually finished a wonderful game, Rayman, you could muse on why they did that batshit crazy thing! 

[Seedy1812]

Was not 100% sure about Infogrammes so just looked it up on the web. It was Ubisoft who was publishing / financing Kanaan

[Editorb]

On 9/21/2023 at 5:28 PM, Seedy1812 said:

Yes they do.

 

Thanks for taking time to provide insights to me and my fellow patients in the Jag Asylum. And thank you for I-War, one of my forever faves despite only discovering it a few years ago; a wonderful mix of blasting action followed by a chance to quaff from a flagon while admiring the scenery.

[alucardX]

35 minutes ago, Editorb said:

 

Thanks for taking time to provide insights to me and my fellow patients in the Jag Asylum. And thank you for I-War, one of my forever faves despite only discovering it a few years ago; a wonderful mix of blasting action followed by a chance to quaff from a flagon while admiring the scenery.

I didn't realize the connection here! Very cool!