Lost Dragon

Also, only fair as someone who's had a v. small role in ST Gamer: My personal aim in articles i've helped with, was to deliver the content i'd simply not seen in magazines i'd been subscribing to for years (RG/Edge/Gamestm etc) when ever the ST was mentioned, hence i had a crack at Lost ST games that never seem to be mentioned, along with those that do crop up ( i love my 'what could of been...'when it comes to games, did a bit of Triva that put ST in a much fairer light than being constantly seen as the poor mans Amiga' and interview wise- mixed content with familar names whom i felt had to be included, with a few coders who never seemed to get coverage or if they did, it was very little and long ago, if any at all, interviews wise!. Hopefully it'll go down well with the buying public and help convey the sense of VFM in Vol 1 and folks will feel they've got more bang per buck with ST Gamer (for ST coverage), than an entire years sub to a commercial magazine.

Few years ago, good friend of mine (guy who now runs Timewarp Arcade) had a go at self-publishing a magazine called Fiction which dealt with sci-fi/horror etc short stories, aim was to promote the up and coming talent that could'nt get a break elsewhere. He paid a small fortune to advertise in UK magazines like:Sci-Fi Now, SFX etc, did a promo.Issue Zero to get people interested, launched Issue 1 at discount price of 99P for a 60 Page physical magazine and self-published 2,000 copies (i'd loathe to guess how many he's still sat on now).Plan was to discount issue 2, yet increase page count and offer it at £1.99 and start offering subscriptions for issue 3 etc.Hope was by Issue 3 there'd be enough advertisers on-board, shops stocking it to have it professionally printed. He lost thousands on the project and i don't think i ever saw issue 3. Hard lesson learned well for him, it's a nightmare to keep costs down on projects like these in the UK.

Please forgive my utter ignorance on the 5200, but i really know nothing on it.Just been clearing out old magazines, saw ' A Love Resurrection:The Forgotten History Of The Video Games Industry' article in old issue of EDGE (Issue 45/May'97) 5200 gets lynched by whoever wrote said article: 'This dubious piece of equipment was essentially an A400 home computer with the keyboard sawn off.....stillborn in the USA' and as far as 5200 Space Invaders went ' (it)...introduced a scrolling regiment of aliens and almost totally destroyed the games eerie ambience' Now Edge has had a love/hate realationship with Atari coverage as far as i can recal (Darryl Still even wrote in to correct them on a Jaguar 'news' story back in the day). So are they again being rather bloody harsh on an Atari system?. They did like 5200 Kangaroo mind.......

I loved the 1st 2 Colony wars games, but Red Sun just left me cold.Sony had the Colony wars engine re-used for Blast radius i think and that was far too arcadey for what i wanted. After that, i tried Mace Griffon:Bounty Hunter (Xbox)-awful and had high hopes for Falcone: Into The Maelstrom (http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Df-RBUPOmuyM&sa=U&ei=IyT2U4KNLYKd0QXcjIHoCg&ved=0CBwQtwIwAQ&usg=AFQjCNHQhCHGhx45lGDYVgLnSeqK-am6GA) But that was canned, as was Freelancer sequel, so yep, think your spot-on, publishers think genre is dead. :-(

Each time Sony has launched a new piece of hardware (PS2, PSP, PS3, Vita etc) i hoped to see a new Colony Wars (and G-Police) game, yet nothing.There was talk of Sony looking into bringing Colony wars to PS2 to be a flagship game for the online side of PS2, but guess that never got beyond talk. DS/3DS and now Vita would indeed seem to ideal platforms, but plublishers still i fear think the genre is firmly the domain of the PC.

Fantastic to hear they are making a comeback, last decent 1 i had a crack on (console wise)was Starlancer and that was on Dreamcast, other than that it was Freelancer on PC.MS canned the Freelancer sequel on 360 (gutted). I've just interviewed 1 of the guys behind Colony Wars on Playstation 1 and among his canned games, was an Elite-style game for PSP!. Interview is up, HERE: http://www.grumpyoldgamers.co.uk/index.php?/topic/2429-andy-satterwaite-interview/

Never a fan of it either myself.Never could understand why Zzap64 went all moist over it either.Front cover, gushing praise type review etc. Still, nice to know it's not just myself who wondered what all the fuss was about.

Regarding the C64 port of Rastan as basis for 7800 conversion etc.I looked into the C64 version, coded by John Meegan who loathed the arcade original, just got stuck with the C64 version, coded in 8 months, graphics artist (Jane Lowe) was inexperienced and had never used a computer before, let alone worked on graphics for a C64 game and if he could re-do it, he'd get the rope sequence right, even if it meant graphics being comprimised. So...good chance a 7800 version if given to right team would of been (could still be..) better than the C64 version

Bit of an update the Thundercats games/s we were talking about, back along: Nick Jones i recal talking in an interview, brought the subject up, said he'd been approached by Dave Perry who wanted him to work on the (C64 version of...) game (which became Beyond The Ice Palace) and he said Dave had negotiated a 'package deal' to do 5 versions of the game for a lot of money.

:-) Think at the end of the day, you pays yer money/makes yer choice etc. Which ever option you go for, if it were myself, before i took the plunge, i'd look into finding someone that could repair the unit, should the worst happen. I've heard horror stories of drives breaking down, sometimes easy to fix, others not coming back, yet others never had any issues... If your paying serious money, i'd say your looking at the unit as an investment, so it pays to make sure you can protect that investment. Which ever option you go for, hope it turns out well and you get a lot of enjoyment from the Jag CD.

Does anyonme have any actual UK sales figurs for the 7800? Atari (i believe) moften used to quote a Mintel Report saying the 7800 along with the 2600, accounted for around 50% of the UK console market (this in late 1980's). But..just what was this report? and did Atari break down that 50% claim into how much was due to 2600, remainder being 7800 etc?

Bit off topic, but...during a clear out, found another UK magazine review of the home conversion of Xenophobe, this time on the ZX Spectrum, same vibe to review...average game, only really 'worked' in coin-op with 3 players, simply does'nt translate well to home formats for long term play, espically not playing solo. UK Press just never seemed to warm to the game, sadly.

Just because it's new, does'nt mean it'll work fine.Optical equipment a bloody nightmare at best of times in my humble exp.Had issues with countless Dreamcast's, 1 Gamecube, 1st generation Playstation, numerous PC CD drives, inc current laptop. Used to be a production engineer myself and we always had pity for anyone buying something made on a Friday afternoon/monday morning...as no-ones mind was on the job :-). That's a lot of money for a new system and buying from USA causes headaches of it's own with shipping costs etc.What are the 6 games and how desperate to buy one are you? I know UK Jag CD Drives are said to be like hens teeth, but which ever option you go for (UK/USA) might be worth trying to find someone who could repair it in UK, IF worst thing happens. Not sure if Total Console Repair would be worth asking? Jag CD just a 'dumb drive' is'nt it, so potential faults would be laser dying/lens replacement/new motor etc i'd assume?

:-( Digging up an old thread (but did'nt think it was worth starting another) but recently saw an interview with Mev Dinc in Retro Gamer Magazine, but it missed a key bit of detail from a much earlier inter (The One Magazine Dec.1991) where Mev (then with Vivid Image) had told The One that he'd had an opportunity to develop for the Panther console, but shied away from the idea, as Atari had'nt a proven record on new consoles. I wonder how many other UK based developers of that era felt the same and had the Panther of launched, just how much of an uphill battle Atari would of had to gain support for it?.

I put the question of 7800/A8 support (or lack of..) to Andrew Hewson as part of a community based interview a while back: Q) I See the Atari 7800 listed among supported formats, but you never did any Atari 8-bit Micro games did you? (I only discovered your works when I moved from the 800XL to the C64) did you never consider the Atari 8 Bit range a worthy market? Not even for your budget range? If not, why? A) Andrew Hewson:Dunno, it never really crossed my mind to get involved. Atari seemed a step backwards to me.

I actually put question of C.Flag's control issues to Rebellion as part of a community interview some time ago, here's what they said (i asked if game had'nt been rushed out, would the extra time of seen improved car handling): Jason Kingsley More time is always good but rarely available to a dev team. I’ve never been much of a racing game player myself so I’m probably not best placed to speak about it. When developing the title we did not noice major differences between north American play styles and European ones. NA players blip the controls, European ones press and hold. Balancing the game for both was tricky.

Where ever possible, i've put questions to developers directly to clear up status of LOST Jaguar (and Lynx) games, 1st as part of community interviews, then interviewing myself for digital publications and websites (still doing some now).Example of how what the press reported VS reality: Q) I saw in Edge that whilst you had no specific Jag CD games in development, your were planning CD versions of cart games, most promising of which as Legions Of The Undead, which Edge claimed the cart. version of, would be finished 'very shortly' and would most likely be a headliner at Atari's ECTS stand, they also claimed Skyhammer was Jag CD bound. Any truth in these claims if not? how did you feel about Edge making such claims? A) Jason Kingsley We had completed SkyHammer and were well on the way with Legions of the Undead. Not sure where Edge got it’s info from back then.'

Think you also need to look at the seemingly change in focus Atari had given the ST range by time STE was being market, the 2-page adverts in likes of Raze etc were promoting the ST Range (Mega and 520STE) as serious home micro's that you'd use for buisness, music, art and ALSO games, with the Curriculum‎pack getting mentioned a lot. Without going into detail here, i talked about the STE when interviewing for ST Gamer, to all extents it appears to have been a stop-game and Atari planning to push the gaming side onto the Panther console....

@ Shaggy the Atarian:I love your idea for a 7800 Star Raiders type game, but with added bonus of side scrolling sections, features like thjis i feel would really of helped 7800 titles stand out from what the NES etc were offering. Also great to see Crime Busters mentioned, often over-looked on A8 range. Now, would something like C64 Project Firestart of been 'do-able' on 7800 cartridge? if not, i'd have settled for a 7800 conversion of Electric Dreams Aliens game, if the C16 could handle it, would assume 7800 could do it justice?.

Upgraded version of MD Gauntlet 4 would have been fantastic (possibly the best MD music in my humble opinion). See the Strike series mentioned, Soviet Strike started out on 3DO and since it's pulling data (for landscapes etc) off the CD, i assume Jaguar CD could of 'handled' a version just as easily as the 3DO version? Starglider 3 or even just something like Super Star Glider 2 i'd have loved also.I mentioned Midwinter earlier, i know Mike Singleton had Midwinter III planned for 'PS2 and Nintendo Dolphin' (as it was known at the time) as he talked about it in Arcade's Timewarp section, but still feel it'd made an ideal Jaguar CD game......

EDGE issue 120 (Unity on front cover, Minter Returns etc).4 Page 'Inside Llamasoft' feature (P46 onwards).Jeff talks of the Panther hardware and how he coded various demo's on it for his 'space game with Star Raider-y aspects....influenced by Iain M Banks Culture Novels, which he was heavily into at the time') the leaping Antelope demo for example was basicaly a test routine for his planned 'planet surface' scrolling sequence. IF you cannot find the interview online, just drop us a PM, i'll happily loan you the magazine.

Possibly the one Jaguar game i'd really love to spend some time with. Huge fan of the genre, loved 1st 2 Colony Wars games on PS1 (Red Sun was dissapointing), Darklight Conflict looked great, but was too damn tough, Xenocracy i paid full price for only to find it was an utter stinker, Blast Radius was little too arcadey for my liking. Since then on console all i've had is Star Lancer on Dreamcast and 1 section on Halo Reach (360) MS canned the 360 Freelancer sequel :-(. Game was always simply too expensive to justify a purchase for myself, so very interesting to hear the mixed reactions to it here.It always seemed to have this mythical status, but did look great on Youtube.

Huge thanks for this.Always thought it ruddy strange that Jeff, who'd been so happy to go into such depth over his concept for a Star Raiders type game on the Panther, when talking to Edge magazine few years ago, never said anything about similar plans for the Atari Lynx, nor mentionbing any Lynx development in any interview or column i've seen him do over the years in magazines like Edge, PC Zone etc etc. Finally i get the facts behind the claims. Would have loved to of seen what Jeff could of done on the Lynx mind you.

Trust me, i'd love to be able to edit my posts, but having an utter nightmare with BT, taken 4 weeks and over 7 hrs (i kid you not) of phone calls just to get an Open Reach Engineer out here to confirm there's nothing wrong with phone line in the house, yet myself and many others exp.major broadband issues. It'll let me read, but not sign in using Internet Explorer, so i'm having to resort to an outdated mobile phone browser, which won't let me edit posts on here.It's very frustrating... BT are worse than Talk Talk for (poor) customer service.

@mos6507: I too would have loved to have seen more home conversions of RASTAN (personal fav.of mine) gutted Ocean's recently re-discovered ST Code never made it to completition. The 8 bit Home Micro's had conversions, i'm no tech head but assume the Commodore 64 version might make for a 'reasonable' basis to compare how a 7800 version might have turned out like?.Assuming this is the case.... Hopefully it'd of fared better, as the stunning SID music aside (Galway great as ever), sprites were messy, Rastan himself looked puffy, orange etc and conversion never seemed to have had a lot of care and attention paid to it.Pity.... Never tried other home versions, so cannot add anything more.