Legions of the Undead

[Lost Dragon]

Without getting into the whole Rebellion being forced into watching the movies debate again

 

Suffice to say i have looked into the working relationship between Whittaker and Rebellion and wow, some bad blood there...and Fox had to pressure Atari to increase cart size,so swings and roundabouts...

 

The dead bodies on the floors,Predator taunting you and Xenomorphs lurking in the shadows on Jaguar AVP created a fantastic atmosphere.

 

But the acid blood puddles remaining where you'd dropped the Xeno, took a lot away.

[Lost Dragon]

Had quick look through the old interview Rebellion did in Gamestm Retro 151..

 

They were asked why such a long delay between Jaguar AVP and their next PC title...

 

The annouced games on the Press Release are never mentioned

 

They just talk of working on Legions and Skyhammer, Atari cancelling both but Skyhammer eventually making it out.

 

Then go onto talk about PC Mr Tank.

 

Developers would rather the lost games remain buried.

[Lost Dragon]

Bit more from Rebellion:

 

It's (Legions ) another product for Atari, so they call the shots as to

format. However, where CF and AvP were uniquely for Atari, LOTU remains

our property, so we get to decide what's in it; Atari own the rights to the Jaguar version of it, and that's the only thing that they do own.

As such, we get to decide, for instance, if it comes out on other

formats, and within a very loose framework (must be a 1st person RPG, as

that's what they bought the rights to -- we couldn't do Super Mario

Nethack, for instance) everything else about the game.

 

However, Atari are releasing it on the Jaguar, so it's up to them how

large a cartridge we get, if it comes out on CD, etc.

Just to set people's minds at rest, we're not going to be cutting the

complexity of the game down -- if we do get 2 meg more space, it'll go on

more graphics, more levels, more sounds, etc; the game beneath it all will remain the same.

[Lost Dragon]

Found this, which made reference to improvements made to AVP Engine for Legions:

 

 

A few things of note. Andrew told me that the speed had been intentionally

held back a little, though it moves most rapidly when you're controlling the

Alien. With the Marine, it moves around the same speed as Doom but has a much

smoother frame rate. You'll note that the pictures in GP contrast nicely

the pixelization of Doom and AvP; while both will be good, AvP was custom

built for the Jaguar and even then it doesn't utilize the system to its

peak potential. Believe it or not, the texture mapping engine of Legions of

the Undead has been refined over the one in AvP and will supposedly smoke

all competition, including and especially the Ultima Underworld series.

Doom's sole advantage over AvP (as of the last time I spoke with Andrew,

dunno if this changed since he started revising at Atari's request) was

that there were steps and the like in Doom and *not* in AvP. This was a

feature that will certainly be in LOTU and perhaps they've added it in

their most recent revisions of AvP. (I wouldn't count on it, though, or

even wager on it.)

 

- Jer Horwitz

[Lost Dragon]

Updates:

 

Jane Whittaker now exposed as a serial liar so has zero credibility as a source.

 

Legions was mentioned in Jaguar Development Executive Report by Jon Correl for Atari.

 

Dated 1/22/95.

 

Ted Tahquechi listed as producer.

 

Comments were : Due 4/95 probably 8/85..producer recommends cancel.

Developer not stable nor performs to expectations. 

[Lost Dragon]

Found another soundbite from Dan McNamee talking about Legions:

 

 

 

 'In the interests of good PR and all that stuff, a brief hi to everyone from me; I'm the lead game programmer (as opposedto Jamie, who's writing the graphics engine, or the art team) on Legions of the Undead, the upcoming game from Rebellion.
 
 The idea behind the game is to be, to quote convenient names, a cross between Dungeon Master and Doom; the puzzles from the former with the speed and 'intense combat' (urgh, don't you just /hate/ phrases like that..) of the latter.'

 

 

When asked if the game was running on an optimised version of the AVP Engine,  he replied with a cryptic 'sorta' answer ☺

 

[Lost Dragon]

 

I finally found a copy of GamePro Issue 59 with the Making The Jaguar Roar feature and interview with Andrew Whittaker. 

 

 

The Graftgold claims (8 Amiga titles) made by Whittaker alone are an utter farce. 

 

 

Amiga Uridium :

 

Andrew Braybrook made 2 attempts to bring Uridium to the Amiga, but abandoned both.

 

Steve Turner of Graftgold told us Andrew Whittaker pitched a PC version of Uridium to Graftgold, which a coder friend of Whittaker’s had been working on, but an early demo was all that they saw.

 

 

 

And Morpheus stayed a C64 exclusive, there never were conversions to any other platforms.

 

Whittaker failed his probation period whilst at Graftgold and had been taking credit for the work of many others ever since. 

 

 

As far as Legions Of The Undead talk which  went in the article, Whittaker making out he was somehow connected to both it  (his next project) and Checkered Flag (which he described as incrediblly fast, increbly playable and a terrific racing game)  in the feature. 

 

 

Whittaker was seen  telling people on Newsgroups Legions was nothing to do with him:

 

 

Waiting for Legions of the Undead,

 

nothing to do with me that one

all the best

Andrew Whittaker

Programmer AVP

 

But there were also reports he was earlier pulled from working on Legions to finish AVP. 

 

This has been a fundamental issue with Whittaker, told some many false accounts, he couldn't remember what he had told whom and his accounts vary wildly from interview to interview. 

 

Whittaker makes references to the games Creature Designs being done by same person responsible for the Nightbreed and Hellraiser movies etc, he doesn't name the designer in this feature, but does in other interviews, he means STAN WINSTON (RIP). 

 

 

Nobody from REBELLION has ever mentioned Stan Winston or the studio, being involved in any creature design

 

We have found Whittaker name dropping John Hurt (RIP) Ridley Scott and  H. R Giger (RIP) as being directly involved in Jaguar AVP... 

 

Giger in Cyberdreams Dark Seed... complete and utter nonsense, Giger made very clear in an interview he merely sold Cyberdreams the art and wasn't impressed with the game. 

 

As for who was actually working on Legions... 

 

 

From Rebellion:

Legions of the Undead

——- — — ——

Programmers: Dan Mitchell, Jamie Lokier

Artists: Rebellion art team. (Toby Harrison-Banfield, Stuart Wilson,

Justin Rae).

Director: Jason Kingsley

General nice guys: Brainstorm

 

 

Anything regarding Legions that is credited to Andrew Whittaker should be treated as highly suspect. 

 

 

It's a crying shame Horwitz didn't do some basic background checks before running the interview with Whittaker. 

Edited October 24, 2020 by Lost Dragon