Zool 2 - Discussion

[Zap1982]

On 2/5/2021 at 2:26 AM, doctorclu said:

 One of the biggest complaints about the game is how short the game is.  With all those levels it might have sucked but at least have been a longer game to play.

After watching a video on Youtube by Rerez covering these four games it seems they are literally the same game but reskinned. Same tutorial, same level maps, same everything. Only the environment looks different.

 

So, I wonder why DDI used such an incomplete and unimpressive build to show Zoo and Gremlin? Was it more that they had been tasked with developing the game and the higher ups were not happy with something or had not seen anything of it so asked to see progress before pulling the plug?

 

Would certainly makes sense. Reminds me of Saturns Sonic Xtreme when a 4fps build was shown to Sega of Japan with only two frames of animation. Nobody would be happy showing off something like that willingly.

 

 

[Seedy1812]

On 2/6/2021 at 3:59 PM, doctorclu said:

 

Hey Andrew!   You work for DDI at one time?   If so what was it like?

 

I know you worked for Imagitec with the work on Bubsy.   You ever see much of Zool 2 in development?

DDI ? not sure which company you mean . DotC was Cinemeware , they wrote the PS2 version and APE ( Atomic Planet Entertainment ) were employed to do the conversions on Xbox and PC.

Jaguar Zool 2 ( converted by Trevor) was written in the same room as DinoDudes and Raiden. At the start Trev did the Falcon (and later the Jaguar ) Mod player whilst Freddy ( Raiden) and myself completed the work on Space Junk demo for the Falcon. We got the Jag devkits and assigned our own games. Trev got the amiga code graphics etc from Gremlin Interactive. I got the Humans code and graphics for the Amiga and accesc to the map editor and image tools which Imagitec had created. Freddy had the hardest task - maps and graphics had to be captured from the Arcade machine and no source code to the game. He had to create it all himself.

 

We all focused on doing our own games so we never go got to play each others and the last couple of months I was working at Atari HQ in Sunnyvale so we could split the time their QA time on the games.

 

 

 

 

[awbacon]

I wanted to enjoy Zool 2 way more than I did...but then again I really enjoyed Bubsy on Jaguar so maybe my opinion is flawed lol

[KidGameR186496]

Hey doctorclu! You might want to download this as a MP3 for preservation sake. Someone at YouTube finally uploaded the Jaguar-exclusive track Metal Blockage of Zool 2. This song actually doesn't appear at all in the Amiga versions of Zool 2

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McepqEfOI0w

Edited February 21, 2021 by KidGameR186496
To make the YouTube link visible

[doctorclu]

On 2/14/2021 at 9:23 AM, awbacon said:

I wanted to enjoy Zool 2 way more than I did...but then again I really enjoyed Bubsy on Jaguar so maybe my opinion is flawed lol

I've been through an mastered the gauntlet of Bubsy and now adore that game.   I sit down and play Bubsy when I need to blow off some steam.  Thirty five minutes later the game is done and I feel a bit better.

 

But I've played Bubsy continually since 1999. 

 

I think Zool might be a game like that.   Extremely frustrating for a while, one that you could like more as you perfect it.

 

On 2/21/2021 at 12:26 PM, KidGameR186496 said:

Hey doctorclu! You might want to download this as a MP3 for preservation sake. Someone at YouTube finally uploaded the Jaguar-exclusive track Metal Blockage of Zool 2. This song actually doesn't appear at all in the Amiga versions of Zool 2

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McepqEfOI0w

This is really cool!   I've posted an entry on the Jaguar Mascot Blog.

 

On 2/8/2021 at 8:41 AM, Seedy1812 said:

DDI ? not sure which company you mean . DotC was Cinemeware , they wrote the PS2 version and APE ( Atomic Planet Entertainment ) were employed to do the conversions on Xbox and PC.

Jaguar Zool 2 ( converted by Trevor) was written in the same room as DinoDudes and Raiden. At the start Trev did the Falcon (and later the Jaguar ) Mod player whilst Freddy ( Raiden) and myself completed the work on Space Junk demo for the Falcon. We got the Jag devkits and assigned our own games. Trev got the amiga code graphics etc from Gremlin Interactive. I got the Humans code and graphics for the Amiga and accesc to the map editor and image tools which Imagitec had created. Freddy had the hardest task - maps and graphics had to be captured from the Arcade machine and no source code to the game. He had to create it all himself.

 

We all focused on doing our own games so we never go got to play each others and the last couple of months I was working at Atari HQ in Sunnyvale so we could split the time their QA time on the games.

Nevermind on the DDI question.

 

Had some fun talking to Trevor in the past over on the Free Jag.   I think he did an awesome job converting Zool, and the work on the mod player was some nice work too.   I actually like the direction he (or whoever) went with the slight changes to Zool's appearance.   Sounds like at least Trev had some good source material to work with.

 

As for Freddy and Raiden... wow.   For someone who had no source material, that is an awesome game.

 

Really I like all the Imagitec work on the Jaguar.  Think it started with Bubsy and Raiden.  Zool... really every time I see the logo I'm say "Alright!"     Almost as cool as seeing the large Atari logo at the beginning of the game.

 

Sounds like between the Jaguar, Falcon and all you had a lot of irons in the fire as they say.   Would you just work on one till you hit a wall on inspiration and then just work on another for a bit?   Sounds like they kept you hopping.

 

 

Well, the cool news this morning, Zool VidPro cards have surfaced on eBay.  Thought I would share those here...

 

 

Both a windowed and picture version!!

 

More on the Jaguar Mascot Blog

All the VidPro cards pictures are posted in this thread

And for Bubsy fans, more talk here.

[sirlynxalot]

On 2/21/2021 at 1:26 PM, KidGameR186496 said:

Hey doctorclu! You might want to download this as a MP3 for preservation sake. Someone at YouTube finally uploaded the Jaguar-exclusive track Metal Blockage of Zool 2. This song actually doesn't appear at all in the Amiga versions of Zool 2

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McepqEfOI0w

 

Cool song, kinda reminds me of the Tempest 2000 soundtrack!