Starcat

I guess, one could actually build a pass through cart similar to the Super Famicon import carts with skunk functionality and the skunkboard bios could be rewritten to run an inserted cart if a button is pressed on startup or something like that. It would require redesigning the skunkboard pcb to make it fit and all, but would probably be easier than rebuilding Jaguars.

@ovalbugmann: I guess I will just have to work harder to catch up, then. Hehe. It's good to see some new high quality Jag games and inspiring, too. This is the stuff that keeps the Jaguar community alive and interesting so there are people left to enjoy my games.

@carmel_andrews: You've got a point there. In fact that's exactly what I've been saying (and wondering) for a long time already, when people asked about ports of this or that for the Jaguar. What's the point in porting something if you can also just play the games on the original systems? It can be as much work as rewriting the whole game and there are usually copyright problems involed. It's a lot of work put into a project if the game wasn't your own idea in the first place. I think a much better and more interesting thing is to come up with something new and original. Of course that's a lot more difficult and not everybody has the time or experience to put that much effort into a project. Some people decide, they prefer to focus on the programming part of creating a game (maybe because that's what they are best at) and limit themself to porting or remaking something, which can be a big challenge and a lot of work on its own. Personally I prefer original ideas and new games, over ports, remakes or sequels. It may sound strange, but even commercial next gen games of today hardly appeal to me, because they just don't feel original or interesting anymore. It's almost like each game of a genre is the same as previous titles, just spiced up with more realistic graphics. Knowing how those games are created, I can't even get excited about the visuals anymore. Fondly created pixel artwork is much more impressive to me, because it leaves a lot more to the imagination while still being great to look at. As a player I'm much more involved in a game that lets me imagine something, rather than just being a passive consumer in front of a tv. That's why I love the games of the 80s and 90s. Those were amazing experiences I could really be a part of. Seeing how many game ideas I have in my head and how many more I come up with all the time, it makes me wonder how much more interesting todays games could be, if the industry was more open to good ideas, instead of just caring about HD graphics that are as realistic as possible. Anyway, back to topic. I think about all people in the community who develop games, are already working on something. Including some amazing new and original games.

If I remember correctly Heretic is actually baed on the Doom engine and had with similar limitations, so that may be possible to convert. Hexen used a more advanced engine, possibly doom 2 or a modified doom2 engine, so converting the levels to jagdoom, would probably mean to simplify them quite a bit.

I'd vote for skunkboards too Even if somebody goes through all the trouble you mentioned, I doubt he would sell enough shells to cover the investment.

@Ovalbugmann: As a user it's hard to tell which .jag homebrew file is V2&V3. I guess the important thing really just is, you can now use .jag files with ULS. (true .jag files, not misnamed rom dumps) For example games like Native, Jagmania or other games that were in development in the early years of jaguar homebrew should be available as .jag files. These days, as Jaguar Server kits are a rarity, most homebrew files are released either as bin, abs or cof.

Hi Chris! In this demo you can only explore the outside areas, but not enter the mansion or shed. Thanks. I'm glad you like the demo. Regards, Lars.

The skunkboard is without doubt much more relieable than a JagCD. However too few people actually own a skunkboard, to make it a good medium to create and release games for it alone. As long as that's the case, Jaguar CD or Cart (for those who can afford creating them and if the game fits onto it) is the only way I see to reach most of the Jaguar user base. Maybe JagCF will help when it's finished, but then again, we don't know how the community will respond to it.

Welcome back thund3r! I'm sure you will enjoy what the Jaguar has to offer in the future. There were quite some new developments since you left. Just recently Superfly DX was released, which is definately worth checking out. My own adventure project, Eerievale is coming along nicely, too. You may want to visit the official homepage, which recently relaunched. Atariowl announced an amazing action adventure game project (working title: Atariowl Project), which shows what the Jaguar can do 3D-wise if you push it to the maximum. Matthias Domin is working on promising projects, including a port of Duranik's Falcon game Impulse. Jagware also released several interesting titles in the past, that you may not have seen yet. I've noticed a price increase in Jaguar units at least on ebay germany, if you want them boxed. But those prices are made by the retailers and limited number of auctions, not really because the units are getting so rare. Maybe those outside of the community just want to make money of it or consider the Jaguar more of a retro system now and ask higher prices. On the other hand, as you are from UK, you should get in contact with Nick Harlow of 16/32 Systems. He is a great guy and sells boxed PAL Jaguar systems quite cheap comapared to ebay prices. Regards, Lars.

@Sonic R: Ah, now I understand what you mean. I hardly ever played Raiden DX on the PSX. In fact totally forgot about it for a minute Next time I play Raiden, I'll keep an eye open for the quicker movement. Maybe I'll be the 2nd player for a change.

@lucifershalo: Space games is even more odd to call them, because only about 5 or so can be considered to take place in space So it really is a list of games you are interested in, rather than a genre list. I hope some of the comments helped you. @Sonic R: What do you mean by TATE regarding Raiden? Also is the difference in movement speed that you mentioned in all Raiden 1 versions? I have to admit, I played Raiden in 2 Player mode most of the time and it never occured to me. Neither on the Jag nor in the arcade or PSX Version (Raiden Project). I also liked the music in Raiden on the Jaguar. However I agree on that rapid fire would have made it easier and it's a shame that Raiden 2 was never ported to the Jaguar.

I think your list mixes up quite different genres. While most of those games could be consired shoot em ups, in the sense, that you shoot something, you mixed 2D and 3D and also mission based and pure action games, which are different game experiences in my opinion. Personally I wouldn't refer to most of those 3D games as shoot em ups, because that's not really capturing what the games are about or what they play like. Blue Lightning for example is more of an on-rail shooter, just like Zero5. Battlemorph is more of a 3D exploration, action game. Just like Hoverstrike, Skyhammer, Cybermorph, Iron Solider 1&2 and I-War. Those are more of less mission based games, too, which means you have to do a lot more than just shoot. Raiden, Trevor McFur, Defender 2000 and Protector, now those are shoot em ups. Scrolling shooters to be more specific. Gorf (does it have scrolling?) is of course a shoot em up, too. I haven't played Mad Bodies much, but I think it's rather an arkanoid-type game than a shoot em up, isn't it? Anyway I just figured a more detailed genre description makes more sense. Also why do you create one list that covers good and bad? Without knowing the games, nobody can tell you one you consider good or bad, as they are on the same list So by your definition my top 3 2D shoot em ups: Raiden Native (does that count?, would be #1 but as it's unfinished, just #2) Protector My top 3 3d shoot em ups: Battlemorph Iron Solider 2 Missile Command 3D

You are welcome

I know, that's why I said more can be done. I know the interview and more importantly, I know the Jag and what talented Jaguar programmers can do. Atariowl proved what amazing performance he could get out of the Jaguar. There is no general solution however. There is no secret way to get ultimate speed out of the Jaguar, that you just need to know about to use it. To push the Jaguar further than games like Iron Solider or Doom did, you still need to be a damn good programmer. To push it even further, you need an engine concept that focuses specially on things the Jag is good at and make use of each tiny coding tweak to get more performance. I believe the Atariowl project proves what the Jaguar is truely able to do in terms of 3D graphics, but let's not forget all the years of effort and experience that went into it. It's one of a kind in my opinion. It would be amazing to see Hypertension on the Jag, though. So best of luck to the team.

Congratulations on a great looking and very fun release! Keep up the amazing work.

Great to see more of Impulse X online. I thought it was really nice to see it on E-JagFest as well. Keep up the good work.

Very good point, ksunk! You are very right. If one puts his mind to it, almost everything can be learned to some degree. I saw it happen in my game design study often enough. Most people there were not cut out to be graphic artists, let alone programmers or game designers. Still most of them managed to get good enough to at least pass the exams and write their bachelor thesis. I was very different to them in my way of thinking. They were the Xbox and PC generation of today and always talking about the latest fps and expensive graphics cards and latest chart games. I never understood how one could believe to get good at something while skipping everything but the latest developments. Turned out I was right starting at the beginning. They looked at me and thought I was outdated and old fashioned, because I taught myself how to program, not in flash or some point and click game studios, but in assembler first, then C, then a bit C++ and so on. You get the idea. Once you understand where it all started and how it works, you can learn anything new in quite a short time. Same was true for me when it came to graphics, writing and game design. On a related note, look at Doom on a PC. Look at Duke Nukem 3D on a PC. There are three years of technology between them. To run duke enjoyable you needed a 486 DX/4 100MHz with 16 MB. 66MHz and 8 MB is the absolute min spec. The console versions had a hard time even getting close to the PC version, although the engines were entirely rewritten to use the custom graphics hardware of the consoles for texturemapping etc. Which the Jag doesn't have. Now Shadow Warrior required even more hardware than Duke on PC and there is no console version, possibly for a reason. While games like Doom are great on the Jag, I doubt anything later will be so enjoyable. The Jaguar version runs at half the resolution of the PC version to get the framerate it has. I believe a really talented Jag developer could create a doom-like engine that runs smoothly without reducing the screensize. But everything more sophisticated, I have my doubts. You are welcome to surprise us all, though

Hey folks! The Eerievale Demo of 2004 is now available as download on the Eerievale Homepage in the media section. Compared to the better known tech demo that was part of Ocean Depths, this one featured a fully rewritten engine and new environments. While it doesn't reflect the project of today, it's at least shows another step where the project came from. The demo is available as encrypted CD image. The zip file contains the files to create a CD using cdrecord, NTI CD/DVD Maker or Discjuggler. I just wanted to let you know, in case you didn't notice it already. Enjoy! Eerievale Homepage Regards, Lars.

You may want to take another look at the Eerievale homepage. The first download for Jaguar CD just went online. Enjoy!

Great to see more Jaguar games coming along! Keep up the good work!

That's the plan Thanks for the positive words.

Hello everybody! After several weeks of hard work, the new completely revised Eerievale Homepage is finally online! A lot has changed around the project, as you can read in the blog section of the website. In many ways we took a new direction. To do justice to the progress, the website was redesigned and filled entirely with new content. It will be bilingual, in English and German. From now on there will also be regular updates, background information, progress reports and further special content. Before I drift off or go into too much detail here, please head over to the new home of Eerievale and give it a look yourself. http://www.eerievale.com Regards, Lars.

When it comes to motion sickness, there is one Jag game that always made me feel a bit dizzy. That game is Wolfenstein 3D, I think this is because the turn speed feels higher than walking speed in the game. So when I turn a lot, I get a bit dizzy and always had to stop playing the game. Never had this problem with any other game ever. Things get terrible when using something like the early "VR" units out there. I once had one of those Victormaxx units and with such a thing on your head, about any game will give you terrible headaches and dizzyness until your sick... For me it's also a matter how far away I am from the TV. I have a certain distance to the screen that I'm used to. When I am further away I really have to focus more and try harder. It seems like it affects how much I feel "in" the game or just sitting in front of a TV. Everything more than 1.5 meters (depending on Screensize) makes me feel kind of disconnected from what is happening on screen. If I still try my best to play well, I can also sometimes get dizzy or get headaches. Just doesn't seem to be the distance I am used to.

Trevor McFur is definately one of the games I would avoid. It's pretty much just a proof of concept that the Jaguar could display high color jagpeg graphics. It just has a repeating scrolling background and nothing really motivating to begin with. If this was done by a homebrew developer who just started, I would say, it's an okay try. But as a professional game, it's just awful. It doesn't have anything a good shooter should have. The games I still play most are: (not sorted) -Raiden -Super Burnout -Tempest 2000 -Worms You might also enjoy: (not sorted) -Missile Command 3D -Atari Karts -Doom / Wolfenstein 3D -Rayman -Iron Solider 1 & 2 -Theme Park -AvP -Ultra Vortek -Cybermorph In case of CD titles I recommend: -Battlemorph -Iron Solider 2 -Myst (if you like it) -Several Homebrew releases Games to avoid: (unless you want it for the joy of trash) -Trevor McFur -Kasumi Ninja -Checkered Flag -Club Drive (can be ridiculous fun in 2 player though) -Double Dragon V -Supercross 3D -Air Cars In either case, I suggest watching youtube videos before buying a game blindly.

As far as I know, ISO files actually just work for data CDs, they don't support audio tracks in my experience. So using iso files for Jaguar CD games is not possible.