JagMag! <-- I just picked this name, is anyone else using it? Well, CES has come and gone, and you can be sure Atari was there in full swing. It looks like we have some very cool games (that no one else will have!) coming soon from the folks at Atari and their third party developers. Atari's booth was packed for all of the show, and Alien vs. Predator, Rayman, Ultra Vortex, Kasumi Ninja, and Iron Soldier were all big draws! The display was much nicer than expected. If you ordered the CES video from AEO (if you didn't, better hurry!), you'll probably get to see what it looked like. Anyway, the booth was black, with the Jaguar logo painted all over. It was very visible being just to the right of the entrance. Nintendo (Donkey Kong Country) and Acclaim (Mortal Kombat II) took the absolute entrance spots. There were two disappointments with the Atari booth...Not big enough (enough games, but no room to move, it was jammed with people!), and no modem on display. The modem was probably down in their press room which I'm not allowed into. For more information on the CES, be sure to check out Atari Explorer and A.P.E. (I hope I got that name right) Many of the games below are far from complete. If they don't sound good now, that does not mean they won't be fabulous upon release. Video games take a long time to develop, and aren't expected to be great at first showing. Just by the virtue of these games being displayed so far from release should say that the vendors are very committed to the Atari Jaguar Platform. Disclaimer: This is my first attempt at writing something informal for all my computer friends out there. I'm sure you'll see many spelling and gramatical errors. Please don't write me criticizing me on this, I already know I don't know my native language. Email: FIZSOFT@GENIE.GEIS.COM <-- I hope this is right. I know the FIZSOFT portion is correct :) Rayman ------ This is a 24 bit graphics game running at 25 frames per second. It seems as it will be in the Sonic/Mario genre of games. I couldn't really figure out how to play this game as I could find nothing to pick up or kill, or anything. There was an oppenent that kept running away from me. I overheard a guy from a Babbage's in Wisconsin say, "Color's are beautiful." Rayman is an odd character. He lacks arms and legs, but has hands and feet. I assume this is how the final release version of Rayman will look as well. Rayman can walk on his hands, do a helicoptor spin, and various other moves. In line with Sonic, Rayman will stick out his tounge or do a dance when he gets impatient with the person controlling him. This game has more than 10 levels, all 40 horizontally and 4 screens vertically. This does not mean the pictur changes when the side of the screen is hit, the game has very smooth scrolling in all directions. Expect this game to be a major hit! I did not see this game running on any other platform. Will this be another Jaguar only superhit? Iron Soldier ------------ Oh how I wish I had a chance to play this game! From what I could see by looking at it, this will be another major hit for the Jaguar. You are a robot, I think kind of like Battletech guys, or something, running around a 3d city blowing things up. You can look all around the city, without any choppiness! I'm sure Clint, Tal, and others will have much more to say about this one! Alien vs. Predator ------------------ I don't think anyone has even heard of this game! Here you run around in a dark green 3d enviorment blasting away all the baddies. It's a little choppy yet, but very playable. It could be released at current frame rates without many complaints. Unfortunately, I could only figure out how to control one of the characters. Which one it was, I don't know. I did have that big blob (sorry, I never saw the movies) thing jump on my face, that was cool! Anyone know how to get him off? The game is pixelated up close, this is where it looks like the 160 horizontal resolution. As far as I could tell the game was completely flat (no ramps or steps). The floors and cielings like very nice in this game. When you kill one of the baddies, they leave behind yellow blood on the floor. I'm sure this will be another hit. Doom ---- I didn't see it on Saturday but I did see it on Thursday, so yes, it does exist! I didn't get a chance to play with it though. Graham Gooch World Class Cricket - Telegames -------------------------------------------- I don't know the slightest thing about Cricket, and what was shown was a self running demo. It does look like it will have good graphics. Who knows, I've never seen a cricket game before, maybe this will be a suprise hit. Brutal Sports Football - Telegames ---------------------------------- This one is done folks! This is definately going to be a suprise to everyone! This is one good game! I've never liked this type of game before. I was very disappointed with Bill Lambier's Combat Basketball for SNES, I thought this kind of game would never be good. I was wrong! There are many teams, all with brutal names and brutal looking characters. There are also many weapons you can use out there on the field. Oh, you can also make lots of nice "potholes" in the field. This is no-rules football at its finest! Troy Aikman NFL Football - Williams/Telegames --------------------------------------------- This game is far from completion, but at least it was shown! As it stands, the graphics are very choppy, and the field looks like astroturf. I don't know if the field will change any, but someone from Telegames stated that each player is missing 30 frames for each movement. When these 30 frames are placed, this game should run as smooth as a babies butt. You can play 1-player, 1-player coach, 2-player, and 2-player coach. There will be three season modes, six field options (astroturf vs. grass vs. mudd?), variable quarter lengths, 3 difficulty levels, a pre-game report, customized plays, 54 offence plays, and 27 defence plays. Double Dragon V - Williams/Telegames(?) --------------------------------------- This game is in the same genre as Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter. The backdrops are probably the most colorful I've seen. I did not play the game, so I can't give to much of a review. When released, this game will have four fighting modes: Tournament, Vs. Battle, Quest, and Battle demo. The game will also have four levels of gameplay, twelve unique characters, twelve different battle locations with an overview map, four to six special moves per character, four turbo modes, and fifteen music scores. This game is also available on other popular video game consoles. Arena Football League - V-Real ------------------------------ I'm glad to know I'm not the only fan of Arena football in this world! If you don't know what this is, watch ESPN, they have it on weekly. The game does not have much in it yet, but the factoid sheet is as follows: 8-on-8 Ironman football as seen Weekly on ESPN, broadcast quality graphics, fully rendered and texture mapped players, real Arena football league teams and players, V-Real's exclusive Pinpoint Passing Interface, up to twelve players in league play, build your own expansion team, and modem play! Blue Lightning -------------- From what I can tell, this game is much like the Lynx version. I have only seen one mission, and in that mission, the graphics were very repetitive. There was no graphics for the plane banking, and there were no enemies to shoot. This game was running on a cartridge, but the final version will be on CD. You can bet there will be many more missions and much less repetition when this game is in its final form. I'm sure this will be a big hit, just as it was on the Lynx. Ultra Vortex - Beyond Games --------------------------- Another fighting game like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. Backdrops are good. I saw this, I think eyeball, which was twisting around, very neat! There will be ten warriors and a "modern soundtrack with cutting edge music" when this game is released. The game is not nearly as bloody as Kasumi Ninja, but there will be a parental lock-out feature none-the-less. Unlike many of the fighting games, you use weapons instead of your hands in this one! White Men Can't Jump - High Voltage Software -------------------------------------------- Another far from done game. All I can really say is that the two players were on a street basketball court in California, playing with an invisible ball :) I'm sure it will be visible upon release. Ruiner - High Voltage Software ------------------------------ Well, I have yet to find a good pinball game as a video game (except for maybe 3DO's 3d pinball). I don't think this game is very far along yet. The graphics are definately there though! There were a couple of bumpers, and some birds or something that pushed the ball up, but other than that, the pinball machine was bare. I hope they add a lot to this one, it has potential! Star Battle - 4-Play -------------------- This game is in the very early stages of development, but there are already several ships in it. One is a very good replica of the male half of the baby creator. All ships looked like they were Gourad shaded and were rotated smoothly. Kasumi Ninja ------------ Another game no one has ever heard of. OK, so maybe it was drawing crowds. This thing isn't even done yet and it's already excellent! This game is running at 30 frames per second. The characters in the game move very smoothly and are very detailed. The life indicators are represented by swords, and guess what, blood drips from them! The backgrounds are very pretty, but nothing to write home about. When released this game will have a turbo mode, hidden features, and hidden characters. You bet this one will be a hit. I looked at Mortal Kombat II just to compare, and yes, MKII is very nice, but I don't think we'll be hearing many complaints about the Jaguar not having it as long as we have this game and the above Ultra Vortex! Club Drive ---------- I wasn't very impressed by this one. Maybe I was expecting too much. The graphics are polygon based, but all the polygons are huge, so a blocky look appears. I only saw what I think is an underground portion of the game. I had a hard time figuring out where I was. I have a feeling if I played this for a little while longer, I would have gotten in to this game. I think I'm just gonna have to take a wait-and-see attitude towards this game. It could be very good, or could just be mediocre. Zool 2 - Imagitec Design ------------------------ This is a Mario/Sonic type of game with 5 levels. The level I played seemed to be full of sweets. It was kinda neat. Wolfenstien 3D -------------- Hey! This one is done! The game is much like the PC, except there is very little blockiness up close, and it is smooth! The frame rate is very good in this one. Checkered Flag -------------- Oh come on Atari! This is just a normal racing game. Nothing special. Now, the racing game I saw on the Silicon Graphics Onyx station, that was a good racing game! Indy Car for the PC is also very good. I found Checkered Flag hard to control, and by watching others, they felt the same. Then again, I couldn't control F-Zero at all when I first got that and it turned out to be one of my favorite games. What was displayed is not what will be released. As far as I can tell, there was only one track on the version I played, there will be ten in the final version. When the car crashes, you just roll over, when released, sound and visual effects will be there. There will also be a pit crew in the final release. I have a feeling this game will be so much improved over what I saw today that I will be racing out to buy it! Space War --------- I have no idea what this is. All I saw was two cockpits and a star field. Battlezone ---------- Texture mapped battlezone. We have a river in this one! I didn't really take a look at this one, and I believe it's far from release. Bubsy - Accolade ---------------- Sorry, I didn't get a chance to look at this one. I believe it's available on other systems, so you may already know what this game is.