Jag CD Development

[MegaData]

Are all of the CD software development tools available for download, or should I purchase the StarCat development CD? I have the original Jag Dev Club release, without cd software tools. I have absolutely no software that came with my developer system, though I was fortunate to get a dev manual.

 

Also, I have "mov" or "moov" cinemas created for Jaguar that cannot be accessed from Quicktime. Are these jag film format files, possibly? Any thoughts on how I can test/access these? Again, I have no CD software tools, though I have seen cinepak for jaguar, among other files, for download.

 

I just need some guidance on what CD related files I need and where to begin with the CD side of Jag development.

 

Thanks for any help that you can provide ...before I figure it out myself. ; )

[Guest]

starcat development cd.

 

go bunny! gooo!!!!!!!!!!

[justclaws]

Are all of the CD software development tools available for download, or should I purchase the StarCat development CD? I have the original Jag Dev Club release, without cd software tools. I have absolutely no software that came with my developer system, though I was fortunate to get a dev manual.

There are no development tools for the Jaguar CD as such...

There are just development tools, and you already have them,

once you have a partly working game it is possible if you have

planned your code to consider how to get data from CD, or to

add-in things like playing movies. The core code is the first and

most significant challenge in my opinion, not accessing the CD.

 

The only other tools were tools to create a CD, or to connect a

Jaguar/Alpine with an add-on to an Atari Falcon setup, that is all

documented in the Atari develeopment manual (not very well)

but we don't have the tools, or the boards. Basically, you write

your game, and can load data from CD, but you already have

(in the developer manual) the details of using the Jag-CD BIOS.

 

Also, I have "mov" or "moov" cinemas created for Jaguar that cannot be accessed from Quicktime. Are these jag film format files, possibly? Any thoughts on how I can test/access these? Again, I have no CD software tools, though I have seen cinepak for jaguar, among other files, for download.

I bought an old Apple Power-Mac to investigate creating these files, but to-date have not been able to get everything I need, together. StarCat is in the same situation. However, using these for me is a long way ahead.

 

Glenn might be the best person to ask re: Jaguar-CDs and things.

 

I just need some guidance on what CD related files I need and where to begin with the CD side of Jag development. Thanks for any help that you can provide ...before I figure it out myself. ; )

If your projects are already running on an Alpine or with a BJL in Jaguar RAM, then your project could be enhanced by playing movies, if that is the case, it's just a matter of plugging in the extra routines for playing movies and things like that, although the Atari code was so inefficient that it broadly takes-over the Jaguar while it's in use from what I understand. Games like Teque World Tour Racing totally rewrote the streaming video.

 

Cheers,

JustClaws.

[MegaData]

Thanks for the information! I've been told I can program a Jag CD on the Alpine, but I thought there was more software available that I needed first. The manual does mention AutoCAD 3-D Studio and along with some other files (I think) that I'd like to find and I did find Electronic Arts DeluxePaint program recently along with another show anmimation program that helped me view the files High Voltage had done in anm format. There's a "programmers kit" packed in with DeluxePaint that I will have to look into further... with source code.

 

Unfortunately, there's no way for me to use the Alpine to view the current cinema files in a program. You see, the "mov" files are 31.1MB, 7.41MB, and 4.62MB in their current form. I would have to compress these files considerably to attempt a run on the Alpine and I'm not certain what the format of these files are if quicktime cannot recognise the format.

 

I've been messing with the dev manual samples and having minor difficulty getting things running. I should be able to find some way to access these cinemas eventually. I'll just have to keep experimenting, I guess.

[atarifan49]

Thanks for the information! I've been told I can program a Jag CD on the Alpine, but I thought there was more software available that I needed first. The manual does mention AutoCAD 3-D Studio and along with some other files (I think) that I'd like to find and I did find Electronic Arts DeluxePaint program recently along with another show anmimation program that helped me view the files High Voltage had done in anm format. There's a "programmers kit" packed in with DeluxePaint that I will have to look into further... with source code.

 

Unfortunately, there's no way for me to use the Alpine to view the current cinema files in a program. You see, the "mov" files are 31.1MB, 7.41MB,  and 4.62MB in their current form. I would have to compress these files considerably to attempt a run on the Alpine and I'm not certain what the format of these files are if quicktime cannot recognise the format.

 

I've been messing with the dev manual samples and having minor difficulty getting things running. I should be able to find some way to access these cinemas eventually. I'll just have to keep experimenting, I guess.

 

 

As far as tools, if you have an Alpine setup and can write and compile code, you have the majority of it. Other critical needed tools are the MAKETRK.EXE program (to make properly formatted Jaguar CD tracks) and CDR writing software that will support RAW data write (like the freeware CDRECORD.EXE program). You could probably use some tools to convert the raw data into a WAV format to be used by other CD writing programs but you run the risk of possibly having data alterted.

 

There is a CD simulation tool that Atari wrote for the Falcon. But this requires a hardware setup that can be difficult to obtain and is costly. This setup has proven to be more of a pain in the butt to use than of help. You can do a lot better using an Alpine setup with a developer CD unit (CD unit with the dev boot ROM installed) for debugging code.

 

As far as those 3D / CAD programs you mentioned, they're not really necessary unless you plan on doing something like Club Drive where you need to develop models and want to take advantage of some of the work Atari did with using the .3DS file format for using the model data.

 

And the movies that you mentioned, they sound like the are Macintosh movie files. They are Quicktime but are probably only playable on a Macintosh. Whoever created them probably didn't select the feature to make the portable to other systems that can play Quicktime. Let me know, but I think I can get those into the right format so you can play them and even get them into Jaguar film format for you.

 

Regards,

Glenn