Jag-Wired
Carl Rowlands
looks at Jaguar web sites and finds an old
beast that won't lie down
The fact
that Atari's last console was a miserable
commercial failure has not prevented recognition
of some of its games as classics. Wolfenstein
3D, Tempest 2000, Ultra Vortek and Alien
vs Predator spring to mind as games which
are a lot of fun on the Jaguar, so it's
only fitting that web sites should tap into
the sense of oddball humour which marks
so many Jaguar games.
The essential
starting point is the "Jagu-Dome"
(http://www.jaguar.holyoak.com) with its distinctive
psychedelic backdrops. Featuring a bizarre
assortment of "Cybermorph"-style
gouraud-shaded landscapes and spooky techno
tracks, the scene is set from the start
and you know that this is something a bit
special.
To be honest,
the Jagu-Dome beats anything that the old
Atari Corp would ever have been capable
of. There's a totally comprehensive reviews
section, with screenshots, previews, posters
and interviews with some of the Jag-faces
from down the years. There are also many
links to other sites, some of which still
work!
The huge
amount of research that has been conducted
here is fantastic. There are pictures of
various prototypes and semi-developed games,
some of the debris scooped out of the ashes
of the old JTS/Atari. The Jagu-Dome is the
place to start for all things Jaguar - in
fact, it might persuade you to go out and
buy one...
With the
Jagu-Dome being such a strong focus for
what remains of the Jaguar scene, other
sites may look pale by comparison, but for
a totally comprehensive overview of the
Jaguar the best, if plainest choice would
be to go to the Atari Games HQ (http://atarihq.com/jeo/) and look through
some of the old archives of the e-zine Jaguar
Explorer Online.
Naturally,
the line taken is extremely pro-Atari, but
the reviews are, on the whole, fair, and
some of the early awful releases are duly
given a thorough kicking (although the despicable
Hoverstrike is still rated too highly).
All of the game ratings are posted in every
issue.
Browsing
through back-issues, it's all comprehensively
documented here... the Virtuality headset
that never happened, the hopelessly expensive
CD-ROM and the many games that never actually
saw the light of day. JEO issues seem to
have slowed down though, to around one annually,
so atarihq and JEO may not the best place
for news, and JEO is plain text only...
However, it is extremely comprehensive and
also provides a fair bit of Falcon/Lynx
info in the early part of the archive. So
there's something here for everyone.
For the latest
news on the Jaguar, apart from the Jagu-Dome,
it's worth visiting Jaguar Front Page news
which still seems to be updated on a regular
basis at http://www.classicgaming.com/jfpn/frames.html. Also worth a look
for any new developments is http://home.sprynet.com/~thunderbird/.
 To be positive, it
is the people who are behind JEO and Jagu-Dome
who can claim credit for the continued release
of previously lost Jaguar games up to this
time. There are a couple of companies still
manufacturing cartridges. One of these is
Songbird Productions (http://songbird.atari.org) who have managed
to release Skyhammer, a Rebellion game which
Atari mysteriously dropped, and by all accounts
is pretty good. The Songbird web site is
easy enough to browse around and shows how
much Songbird contribute to the Jag scene.
Whilst not wishing to offend anyone, I could
personally have done without the evangelical
Christianity. Meanwhile, small outfit 4-Play
(http://www.battlesphere.com) have concentrated
on completing Battlesphere, another game
rejected at a late stage by Atari. This
looks like an amazing effort.
There is
sometimes a price paid for looking at North
American web sites; there can be a lot of
content, everything looks nice, and then
you get a link to the National Rifle Association
and the local Klan HQ. The Jaguar crowd
on the whole seem to be quite a well-balanced
bunch, so many of the Jaguar web sites are
basically homepages with other bits and
pieces on them about other, non-militia
interests. Check out http://www.fortunecity.com/tatooine/sturgeon/22/ and the amusing
http://cmsu2.cmsu.edu/~mrs27230/IronFist.htm.
To ask techie
questions about the Jaguar it may be best
to steer clear of usenet, as the Jag groups
are... quiet, and try the Jaguar forums
at http://www.atari.org or www.ataricentral.com. To buy a used but
unbruised Jaguar, you may find one on usenet
or the forums I mentioned. Alternatively,
in the UK, Retro Computer Exchange (http://www.cex.co.uk) can usually post
one fairly cheaply if you've got itchy trigger
fingers (or in the Jag's case, thumbs).
For those in the USA, Video Games Liquidators
(http://www.vglq.com) have established
themselves as one of the primary suppliers
of Jag bits and pieces.
It seems
fair to mention Jaguar descendant, the Nuon
(http://www.nuon-tech.com), which is basically
a graphics board-in-a-chip for DVD players.
Familiar names crop up in connection with
this - Eclipse Development, responsible
for Iron Soldier (http://www.eclipse.at), Jeff "Tempest"
Minter and Richard Miller, technical director
of the Jaguar project.
When the
Jaguar was finally dropped by Atari, stores
went on a massive stock clearance exercise.
The low prices encouraged DIY enthusiasts
to move in, so it comes as no surprise to
see web sites dedicated to hardware hacking
the Jaguar including http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1460/index.html. It would have interesting
to see what the Jaguar 2 could have done
and I still hope somebody will one day be
able to engineer a superJaguar! Failing
this, you can find instructions for building
a rotary controller for Tempest 2000 at
http://www.jaguar.holyoak.com/rotary.htm.
Gaming perfection
could be a click away. |
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Issue
12