Starcat
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Hi folks!
Just wanted to tell those who missed the original announcement of my new site, that there is a blog on my new site, where I will give people some more insight in what I do. Maybe it is interesting to some of you, who want to know what I'm up to. Whenever there is something happening or news regarding anything I do, it will be posted there... check it out if you like...
Also if you like, you are welcome to post comments into the blog.
Regards, Lars.
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Micky:
First of all, I didn't kick you out, we had our arguments during the Star Alliance project and I thought we took seperate ways without bad feelings involved. That's what you we both said, if I remember our e-mail conversation correctly that we had years ago.
But more importantly, this project has nothing to do with Star Alliance or anything we did in the past. There is no team involved besides Holger and me yet.
That's why we are looking for somebody who has game music experience, who can do suitable music for this kind of game and time to help out now.
regards, Lars.
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Hi Lars,
Yes, cool, but I think your girlfriends face was better without mosaics!Long time no see.
Just wanted to let all of you know that my new website is finally online. From now on it will be THE place for everything starcat related and it will replace most of my older sites and covers everything I do. My only problem with the site is that you've accidentally broken your
Eerivale web-site link, and I look forward to seeing restored all your
Jaguar stuff - you should have a page about each project you've done
with some "behind the scenes" stuff, that would make interesting info.
I see that http://www.atari-jaguar64.de/ is still OK, that's good news.
Cheers,
JustClaws.
Hi!
The mosaic is just on the startpage, where you choose the resolution. I thought it was a nice effect, to illustrate different resolutions
On the main page it's absolutely high res
I haven't broken the Eerievale link by accident though. Maybe others see it differently, but I am quite a perfectionist myself and I just can't stand those lousy old pages anymore. So far I always kept it that way, because I thought it wouldn't matter much, as content is more important than design and because I never really took the time to make a site I really liked
This time it's different though. I finally made a site I really like design wise and I'm slowly moving all the content over to the place of silence. Or at least all important information. Regarding atari-jaguar64.de, that site would really need an update too, but as always time is little and it's not such a high priority for me either.
The higest priority web wise, is the place of silence.
Am am glad you like the site though and thanks a lot to all those who posted positive feedback.
Regrads, Lars.
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Hi folks!
Long time no see.
Just wanted to let all of you know that my new website is finally online. From now on it will be THE place for everything starcat related and it will replace most of my older sites and covers everything I do. It might be a surprise to some of you, but doing Jag games is only one of many things I do. I also plan to give some more insight into what I do (including dev), by using the blog and maybe writing some articles about it and stuff like that.Anyway, I better post the link instead of wasting your and my time by just talking about what's new. Check it out. Enjoy exploring the new site. Let me know what you think. (also what you think of the design)
More content will be online soon, keep an eye on the site.
Btw, cookies and javascript are required. Broadband connection is highly recommended and a res of 1024x768 is minimum too.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi Jay!
Yup, the paper is calling. Back to writing...
This night it's quite a dark and rainy with a thunderstorm outside. I haven't seen violet colored lightning in ages. I hear the sound of the rain on my window all the time. Exactly the right atmophere for some writing on the Eerievale story.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi!
That's great news and I really hope this peace works for a long time.
And as Atariowl said, I hope this also means people respect each other more and their hard work. Developers should not badmouth the work of others, espeically because they should know how much time, skill, effort and hard work it takes to do a good game for the Jag. Sadly that happened very often in the past, not only to me, but to some extent to almost every other hobby developer. Developing for the Jag should be fun and it's not a competition. Suggestions and encouragement are much better ways to state your opinion and in the end it will be good for everybody, because it means more software and better software for our beloved kitty. I think that's what everybody wants, isn't it?
Anyway, I hope we all will respect each other a little more and keep this peace for a very long time. And even when there is something we don't like, there are better ways to deal with it, than saying bad things about others. Talk about what you don't like or ask how a situation really is, instead of coming up with your own ideas how it might have been.
When flame wars are there for entertainment of a few only and for the damage of many, as attacked people get frustrated and quit at some point, that would be the blackest day for the Jag scene.
It happened in the past, but it finally has to stop. Let it be history and learn from history. Any discussion can be friendly, honest and productive. That's the way it should be. Just give it a try and you'll see, that it can work and the result might be more and better games in the end. And that's what we all want. Let the Jaguar Roar again.
Note: This post is a general post to everybody who contributed in flame wars. Sometimes it looked like a few people were responsible for it, but that is nonsense. Many people contributed to the tension between AA and JS2 and the situation in the development scene. It doesn't matter who started or who contributed to it. It just matters that we finally put the fights to rest and let peace and common interests be the driving force. We are all here, because we like the Jaguar. That's what matters. We all want new games. That's what matters. So let's all do what we can, to make the dream of new great games a reality. Let's forget about the struggles and support new projects. I'm willing to do that for sure. I always was.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi Chris!
How are you? I haven't heard from you in a while. I think that was in december 2005 or so.
The forums aren't down, they are still there on yahoo as always. The team page is also still online and accessable if you still have your username and password.
Please contact me using PM or ICQ (can be found in the user details link that CPUWIZ posted) and we can talk.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi folks!
First of all, I'd like to thank Justclaws and Stephen for their replys.
Eerievale is of course still in development. It just is a huge project that takes a lot of time. It's as big as a hobby project can get. I know many of you are very much looking forward to the game, but you need to understand how much time such a big project takes. Afterall we are not talking about a clone of something existing or an action game, where the programming is already most of the work.
What most people don't seem to realize is, that games are more than just programming. For action games, the programming is already half way to a good game.
Doing a graphic adventure game is a whole different story and it's next to role playing games the most time consuming and complicated genre one can do, simply because so much work in many different areas is needed. Which also means a lot more factors are important to make a good adventure game. Most time is put into research, writing and plot design. Then come things like graphics, sound and music. The programming is least of the work. Not because it's little work, but because the rest of the work is so much more, compared to it.
Professional adventure games usually take 2-3 years development time with a professional team working on the project, not counting the years of research and writing of the story, which in usually overlooked.
In the case of Eerievale, my goal is to make a hobby adventure game that doesn't have to hide behind professional games from the 90s, at least gameplay wise or playtime wise. Keeping in mind that I am all on my own working on the project without any budget, you can probably imagine that some things are just not possible or take very long to do. I still plan to make it as good and professional as I possibly can. Which means I not only have to do everything myself, but also that there are many things I had to learn in the first place, before I could do certain things myself at all.
It's still a hobby project though and it will remain a hobby. Of course I can't work full time on the project anymore. I used to do that in the past and I used to take jaguar development in general way too serious. I used to put every free minute and every cent into it. But life goes on, things change, other things become important.
I'm still as enthusiastic about the project as always, but I won't put myself into any pressure anymore. I used to take it all too serious in the past. I also took the flame wars and discussions too serious. It's just a waste of time and not fun. It's not good and I won't do that anymore. It's all just a hobby afterall and it's all about fun.
So what I am doing is, I'm working on the game as a hobby for fun in the sparetime, that I can put into it. I am not reading the forums as often as I used to, there are better things that I can do with my time, as you can imagine. It's enough for me to check it out every few weeks, I haven't missed anything. I never announced a release date and I will not do that until the game is done. As Justclaws said, it's great that you are looking forward to it, but don't hold your breath. You would just end up turning green, blue and purple.
Whenever there are important news, you will read them on Atariage. So you are not missing anything.Thanks a lot to all of you who support and are looking forward to Eerievale and my other projects. I'm sure, when it is finished, you will be pleased with the results. It will be worth the waiting.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi Nick!
Best wishes to you. I'm glad to hear that you are out of hospital and I hope you get well soon
Regards, Lars.
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Hi Atariowl!
I'm really sorry to hear what happened
I hope you find a way to get your data back. You know I have been most thrilled about your project, it was the one I have been most looking forward to of all software projects. That would be really a disaster.
Although I can understand your situation very well. I know how frustrating it is to loose data. Sadly that's something that can always happen and usually happens when you least expect it.
Btw, I'd love to talk to you on ICQ again sometime, when you are online. It's been a long time since we talked
Regards, Lars.
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Hi!
Just thought this was too funny and ridiculous to read. You said yourself you don't know much about Jag 3d. Atariowl is probably the best 3d coder i have ever seen on the Jag, since teams like ATD or Eclipse. He definately doesn't have to hide, even though he prefers staying quiet most of the time. I can understand it very well though, posting all the time is simply wasted time. It's just frustrating, because nothing changes. People believe whatever they want to, no matter if it's true or not.
Just a friendly advice, get some insight and experience in jag dev before writing stuff like that.
Or commenting on somebodys skills.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi!
Just wanted to drop by and say, that Atariowl is actually completely right. And he didn't say anything bad about the Jag, he just stated how it is from his own experience. And you can be sure he knows what he's talking about.
I also wouldn't say jag dev wise things look better than ever. When compact flash is there, there is something really new and exciting. But that still takes a few months.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi folks!
You asked for jag coders on AA, so I thought I'd reply, as that's what I am I guess. So just wanted to say, I'm still around and alive. Just don't have too much time for the forums lately.
But I don't think I would work for other companys at the moment.
I have enough to do with my own projects at the moment.
So many important things on my list and so little time.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi Paolo!
Don't listen to those lame rumors!
I never said Eerievale wouldn't come out for the Jag anymore.
Anybody who visits the website can see that the game is in development for several systems including the Jaguar. I never said anything else.
Compact Flash is essential, but I'm not worried about that. It will be there before Eerievale needs it.
I *could* say some things now, but I know people don’t have time to read much anyway these days. So I’ll cut all that writing out of this post and make it as short as I can.
Eerievale is probably the biggest homebrew project for the Jag so far and adventure games take long to develop anyway. I can understand it when people get a little nervous when they don't hear news regularly, but there is not much I can tell, that people would understand.
When doing story driven games, such as role playing games or adventures, most of the work is research, planning, writing and design. Just grab a pencil and paper and maybe a good writing program and the rest is up to you. This is the creative process, in which the game is created. Depending on the exact game, you also have a lot of graphics and music work later on, though. But the actual programming is just a tiny percentage of all the work that needs to be done.
That’s why newsupdates on EV aren’t as frequently as people might like. To me it would just be a waste of time to write them. It doesn't tell people anything, as they are lacking the insight in the development process and in the background of the game and its story.
It's not really interesting for people to read every week, how many pages of story I wrote at that certain week or how many I cut out again due to conflicts that I found out during research. Or in what way I still need to modify the architecture of the buildings to fit rules of static and style of building of that time and area. Or what looks are not possible using the technical means and knowledge people had at that time and so on. Some things sound trivial and some details can be tricky to find out. But everything is important when building a world that should seem as believeable as possible to the player.
I know most players think I’m going into too much detail, but that just proves my point, that they underestimate the effort of creating a game like Eerievale. You wouldn’t trust your eyes if you saw the design document. But in the end, the result will be worth it. Good things come to those who wait.
Regards, Lars.
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Do you have any rought idea yet, when the CF cart will be finished? Or available to developers?I hope that the JagCF cartridge will be available for developers for september.
(time to finish to check the prototype and launch the first production)
That's great news. I can't wait to get my hands on this cool toy.
From what I read and what I saw it really seems to be very far in development.Also I hope all the latest changes don't drive the cost up too much.
All features added to the JagCF don't drive the cost up because of their low price
For example : 8MB of SDRAM : 5$ and it is the componant added that it is the most expansive
True. I tend to forget how cheap memory is these days. Especially if you are not limited to some weird outdated stuff, but can use normal parts.
Another thing that just came to my mind. You said it has 8 MB SDRAM, how can you acces it? Is it accessable in cart space beginning at $800000, just with the difference that you can read and write to it? But if you do that, the Jaguar can only access 6 MB, is the rest addressed with bankswitching?Or is it accessed completely different?
The memory map in the cartridge space will be :
$800000 -> $8FFFFF : Boot ROM (1MB)
$900000 -> $CFFFFF : SDRAM first bank and second bank choose by a bit in a register. (so 2*4MB)
$D00000 -> $DFEFFF : registers & CF cache memory
That's good.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi!
Do you have any rought idea yet, when the CF cart will be finished? Or available to developers?
From what I read and what I saw it really seems to be very far in development.
Also I hope all the latest changes don't drive the cost up too much.
Another thing that just came to my mind. You said it has 8 MB SDRAM, how can you acces it? Is it accessable in cart space beginning at $800000, just with the difference that you can read and write to it? But if you do that, the Jaguar can only access 6 MB, is the rest addressed with bankswitching?
Or is it accessed completely different?
Regards, Lars.
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Hi Paolo!
I'm glad you like it.
Yes, if the music doesn't always start, just do a soft reset a few times until it does (*+#) or start a game.
That has been an issue of the music player, that I couldn't explain or find a solution for. Sometimes it just ignores the "play" command. However when you change the screen (by soft reset or by starting a game or so) it gets another play command and will play. Maybe I should have written my own music player from scratch.
Eerievale will have its own player for sure.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi!
You're wrong !!
All the Jagware Team (A lot of coders, graphics, musician, project leader, etc..) are working on news games, using some special feature from the Jag CF and you must know that a BJL uploader is included, that mean all Bjl programs will run without any modification.Some people has said, not enough place on cartridges, CD using is a big shit, and now you got 10 Megs of ram and a storage support from 16 megs to 2 giga, you will see some new prods, Starcat will use CF for Eerival !!
GT Turbo (Jagware)
Exactly. I can only agree. Once CF is there and assuming it gets finished with all those cool features, you can be sure that it will be the format all my projects will be using. Especially Eerievale is impossible on CD. let alone cart
Regards, Lars.
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Hi!
I don't think you understand compact flash yet. It has nothing to do with the atari flash carts.
It's a whole new format. You can neither run cart nor cd games from it.
And they are right, it IS the Jag's future.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi!
Funny. All copies (non exclusive) were sent out at the same time.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi Linkovitch!
Mine arrived today! YAY!I tipped the driver of the container lorry doing the deliveries I told him about the important load he was carrying and he has promised to drive a bit faster to get the rest of the delivered ASAP
Cheers Lars, this should get some play this weekend at Uber Micro Fest
Great to hear it arrived! Enjoy!
Regards, Lars.
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Hi!
Oh yes, there's nothing quite like the warming flames on a cold winter's day. As if there haven't been enough flames here in the last days
Maybe you should go and complain to the German post office.
Actually you will probably have your game sooner, as if I ordered something that is shipped to me inside of Germany.
Really I something wonder what is wrong with them. Maybe there is just a lazy postman in our neighbourhood or something... I usually have to wait 7 days for a package, when it should be here in 1-2 days.
But that's a different story.
Your game should really arrive soon though.
Regards, Lars.
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Hi!
@mr.kizza and sku_u,
I have nothing more to add. You said it all
Regards, Lars.
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Hi!
Sorry, but are you suggesting to remove the whole Jaguar information and even the Jaguar forum completely from Atariage?
If that happens, you tear appart the last remains of a community.
It may be frustrating sometimes and there will always be people who try to ruin it for others and enjoy that (like all those trolls and flame war addicts), but we may not forget all the loyal people, that prefer to stay out of most discussions.
And we may not forget all those who do not post at all and just read Atariage.
We can't count how many they are, if they don't show their face in public, but all I know is, they are more than we can imagine. I am always surprised how many new people I meet on the events and how many of them say, Atariage was like a home to them, but they do not post, because they have nothing important to say. They just enjoy being here.
Without a community the Jaguar is nothing but a piece of history.
Regards, Lars.
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New game for the Jaguar : DiamJag
in Atari Jaguar
Posted
Hi!
Great! Congratulations on the new release!
Regards, Lars.