Leonard Tramiel Exclusive Text Interview - Great Commodore & Atari Insight

[Lostdragon]

I'm just going to put these scans from the same issue of Electronic Games magazine up (they were part of my continuing search for press on 32X Alien Trilogy for GTW)... 

 

 

As they highlight why it's really not that clever running around like Jane has, bragging about magazines awarding 'your' game X, Y and Z. 

 

Yes, Jaguar AVP was included in the contenders for the readers 1995 Electronic Gaming Awards, as 'Best Action Video Game', but then so was Tempest 2000...Jaguar wise. 

 

 

Your also talking a publication which nominated Rise Of The Robots, Tomcat Alley and Way Of the Warrior under 'Best Multimedia Action Game', so standards aren't exactly being set high. 

 

 

Perhaps more telling, was just how quickly the Games Press were moving on... 

 

 

A full 7-page feature on the motion capture technology Acclaim were using in upcoming titles, such as Alien Trilogy, screens from it used on around 50% of the feature. 

 

 

 

As far as the press were concerned, Jaguar AVP had seen it's time in the spotlight and the focus was now firmly on the future. 

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2021 by Lostdragon

[Lostdragon]

And here we go with the results of the readers awards.. 

 

Yes, Jaguar AVP did win best action strategy game of the year, but it wasn't a straight win, was it Jane? It was a TIE with Pitfall:The Mayan Adventure on the Sega Genesis. 

 

And it wasn't the only Jaguar title to win an award, Doom picked up best Strategy /Action Strategy game. 

 

Talk about massaging the facts when you talk of all these awards 'your' games went onto win. 

 

You don't give credit to the full team of individuals who created them, you don't give credit to similar titles that won awards from same publication, you gloss over fact it was a joint award. 

 

 

Lying about Power Crystal getting 100% scores was bad enough, but your claims about AVP aren't that far behind. 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2021 by Lostdragon

[Lostdragon]

Sad to report Whittaker back active on Twitter and once again playing the same misinformation game to an unsuspecting Twitter audience. 

 

After all these months, Jane still can't provide anything to clear the Whittaker name of any of the accusations made about him. 

 

 

Not a single 100% score review for Power Crystal... 

 

No actual video footage of Power Crystal running, just a carrot being dangled.. 

 

No video footage or still shots of any cigarette smoking Predator. 

 

 

And shouldn't Jane by this point be updating his Twitter audience with news on what's happened to the spirtual successor to AVP he asked them to submit ideas for? 

 

 

Annouce the first game from this Mega development studio he and Nolan Bushnell etc set up? 

 

Sharing as promised, his Jaguar AVP A I routines? , he's revisited the code enough times since promising them to the community. 

 

 

 

[youxia]

"The now famous letter..." ?

[ThatGuyMike]

2 minutes ago, youxia said:

"The now famous letter..." ?

Jane? Overstating the value or importance of a thing? At this time of year? In this part of the Internet? Localised entirely within their twitter feed?

 

Never!

[Lostdragon]

Jane managed to con his way into Retrogamer Magazine twice as it stands, the original Jaguar article, written by John Sczanpaniek and Jane giving incorrect info on the ill-fated Sinclair Loki, as well as the now yawnsome AVP quotes.. 

 

Plus that infamous Nick Thorpe interview ?

 

 

But it's rather telling when the 3DO M2 was given a feature, it wasn't Jane they went and spoke with when it came to high profile, unfinished M2 titles. 

 

 

Put these on your Twitter feed Jane and let your audience get some true M2 development insights. 

 

 

 

 

[+MrUnwondering]

"just checking, who still believes this stuff?"

 

 

 

 

Also, this flabagaster from the other day -

 

[+Stephen]

I can't decide what is more disgusting.  His disgusting lying personality or that vomit inducing sock photo avatar.  BTW Anthony - HE, not SHE.  Don't fall for the delusion or normalization of this mental ill person.

[Lostdragon]

If Jane is after some questions to keep the momentum going on this planned Q+A session, here are some he owes his Twitter audience. 

 

1)You promised a weekly update on your planned AVP spirtual successor, back in April (game planned for PC+consoles), now there's been complete silence on it. 

 

What is the status of the project and why promise updates you made little attempt to deliver on? 

 

 

2)You promised to share with the community  you personal AVP notes, you talked of revisiting your code being nearly done with the notes months ago, since then? 

 

Nothing. 

 

 

When do you plan to make them public? 

 

 

3)You annouced Athena World's back at the start of June and made it out to be the second coming of gaming talent in terms of people involved. 

 

Yet we are approaching 6 months now and the studio (unless I am very much mistaken) has yet to annouce a single project on a single platform. 

 

 

Can you not accept the fact your behaviour pattern is one that consistently promises the community materials your unable to deliver? 

 

 

https://www.athenaworlds.com/

[Lostdragon]

From what (little) i know of Nolan Bushnell as a business person, he doesn't tend to stay long on any one project, gets bored? eager to try something new?. 

 

 

If he leaves Athena World's before they get a single title out the door, there's not a face cloth big enough for Jane to wipe the egg of his face. 

 

Sooo much hype, with countdowns to this amazing news and then promoting Bushnell as part of it once the annoucement was made public and yet to date not a single title on a single platform even annouced. 

 

 

In the last year alone Jane has promised people there will be a follow up title by him, in his spare time, possibly funded by kickstarter, to scratch the Jaguar AVP itch he keeps bringing back up and it came to nothing. 

 

 

Athena World's has a very brief moment in the limelight thanks to Bushnell involvement and now is sputtering to say the very least. 

 

 

If these  joins:Perceptions, Springer Spaniel Software and Project Artemis, Whittaker's failed attempt to save M. I. S. T/The Indestructibles... 

 

 

Good luck getting backers in 2022 Jane, you'll need it with a track record of over htped projects, broken promises and outright lies. 

[+MrUnwondering]

It's curious as to what his actual involvement is/was with Athena? Bushnell has (to my knowledge) never publicly stated anything about Athena, seems he's not mentioned it on his twitter or webpage, or LinkedIn either.

 

Initially he was a director and senior advisor to Athena, then just senior advisor, then just advisor, then he was moved down to the bottom of the webpage (which was off line for over a month recently).

[youxia]

WWW is littered with this kind of grandiose but ultimately empty and meaningless sites. I guess they serve as some sort of placeholder-honeypots. Obviously, Athena Worlds have about as much of "revolutionary technology" to make "world's most immersive games" as Jane's previous studios - which is to say, zilch - but you never know when some gullible cash cow might happen to stumble by, so then you have a web front ready to show.

 

And, of course, going with the zeitgeist they're on a "mission to become a driving force in the video game industry for diversity and inclusion." And don't mind expressing it in truly stultified English, since saying that  "With over 40% of the board of directors being women, the company proudly represents gender diversity, racial diversity, and disability." weirdly suggests that women are disabled, and also implies that gender is binary, a big no no these days. Tsk, tsk, Jane, you can Do Better!

[Lostdragon]

7 hours ago, MrUnwondering said:

It's curious as to what his actual involvement is/was with Athena? Bushnell has (to my knowledge) never publicly stated anything about Athena, seems he's not mentioned it on his twitter or webpage, or LinkedIn either.

 

Initially he was a director and senior advisor to Athena, then just senior advisor, then just advisor, then he was moved down to the bottom of the webpage (which was off line for over a month recently).

The publicity from what i witnessed of it at the time, seemed aimed squarely at investors and people looking purely for names ' and when they saw them, they will  look no deeper. 

 

 

From the Athena Worlds site:

 

 

From the glory days of Atari to being at the forefront of EA and crushing billions of candies over the years; our paths have crossed in many ways over the past four decades to now bring you the game studio: Athena Worlds.

At our core, we are a team that loves to make games and bring new experiences to everyone. We have launched and grown games such as AVP, Goldeneye, The Sims, and Candy Crush and learned lots along the way engaging and listening to our players.

 

Pure fluff/comfort text, designed to attract and reassure. 

 

 

 

When they talk of 'We' Whittaker was just one of many individuals spread across a UK and a US based team on AVP, he didn't grow it, he only got a role on it as the project itself rapidly grew and Rebellion were expanding and wanted off AVP and onto other projects ASAP. 

 

Fact later Rebellion titles were annouced as Multiplatform, just shows they knew not bank on the Jaguar for a secure future. 

 

 

RARE grew Goldeneye and that's been detailed in so much depth over the years. 

 

Still, not my money being thrown at this studio.. 

 

[+MrUnwondering]

"An Evening With Jane Whittaker"

 

Many many questions need asking...

 

 

[saboteur]

Now i may be an idiot, but if the AVP source is available then it should be possible to seperate out and comment the AI routines quicker than waiting for this shilling individual.

 

Based on his past behavour  you'll probably have a better chance of understanding how it works as well.

 

And at the risk of offending everyone - he's a he unless and until he has the relevant surgery, until then he's either a transvestite or a cross dresser. But again based on the existing track record that will never happen as he never completes anything and it at least gives him the oppotunity to change his mind and to deny any of this was true at a later date - just sayin.

[ThatGuyMike]

If anyone wants some questions to ask Jane, heres a few:

1: Why do you always claim to 'emerge from the shadows', when this same claim has been made for years? You even had your stockings plainly visible (to the point of making them a focal point) in press from the 90s. At no point were you hiding anything.

2: Why do you say Power Crystal was a finished game, when other sources clearly indicate otherwise.

3: Why has nothing been shown from Athena since the first couple announcements? How has Athena been around since 2017 and still had nothing to show for it? Supposedly it was a part of Homicide Detective and an unannounced VR project, yet developers handling both projects (including myself) never saw a single line of code alluding to this.

4: Why were screenshots of Athena blatantly using the demo scene of a Unity asset pack?

4: How is that AvP project going? No screenshots, no code snippets, no nothing except a recycled photo of you sat in a garden (who even took that photo btw? I dont know many devs who set up a tripod and do a 'dev pose').

5: How is that Power Crystal remake going? Again? For like, the third time?

6: How is it that you havent released anything in almost a decade? How is it that any studio or project youve been a part of in that time has failed spectacularly? Your last published game was Rogue Islands which was left unfinished with terrible reviews right after you took over from Big Fat Alien. Prior to that, your only game in a literal decade was Circus World. You have some flight simulator packs, but these all have middling reviews at best, with a lot of negative reviews.

 

[Lostdragon]

Jane's gone into Twitter overload hyping the upcoming Q+A session, makes the fuss made over the Waffling Taylor's podcast fiasco look tame by comparison ?

 

 

We can ask, based on the Tweets so far, ask:

 

1)Why are you so intent on not crediting Mike Pooler for his work on Jaguar AVP? 

 

You constantly talk of being one of 2 coders (you and Mike Beaton), yet it was a 3 man affair. 

 

 

2.Why (after previously promising weekly updates) are you now not going to be discussing your spirtual successor to AVP, until your Q+A session in December and why have you still got nothing but that old photo of you sat in the garden with your laptop, to show for it? 

 

 

Why can't you provide photographic evidence or video footage to prove it's underway? 

 

That Power Crystal was finished? 

 

 

That there was a Cigarette Smoking/beer drinking Predator, Aliens climbing the walls, doing ballet etc etc in Jaguar AVP? 

 

 

3.Why do you simply talk of Atari people, when you try and get in on Cybermorph now? 

 

The game was an Attention To Detail project for Atari, surely you'd be speaking to ATD staff like Fred Gill, Brian Pollock, Chris Gibbs first? 

 

The Atari people, like BJ West (who also worked on the Sims and he and fellow Maxis  staff have never heard of any Jane or Andrew Whittaker) arrived late to the Project, Ted and Carrie Tahquechi had minimal involvement... 

 

 

Your just name dropping Atari as it sounds more impressive. 

 

 

4.Why are you once again, being deliberately vague when discussing specifics? 

 

 

This time the exact nature of your planned special guests. 

 

 

Peter Briggs is best known for Hellboy, but yes he did write a  screenplay for Alien vs. Predator in 1991, which was sold to 20th Century Fox.

 

 

But it  languished in development hell for many years until a version was brought to the screen in 2004. 

 

 

Not knocking Peter's work, but way your hyping the session, I am expecting people a lot higher up the respective ladders than this. 

 

 

No doubt you won't be including anyone from the industry, who's come forward to expose many of your claims for the outright lies they are... 

 

[Lostdragon]

2 hours ago, saboteur said:

Now i may be an idiot, but if the AVP source is available then it should be possible to seperate out and comment the AI routines quicker than waiting for this shilling individual.

 

Based on his past behavour  you'll probably have a better chance of understanding how it works as well.

 

And at the risk of offending everyone - he's a he unless and until he has the relevant surgery, until then he's either a transvestite or a cross dresser. But again based on the existing track record that will never happen as he never completes anything and it at least gives him the oppotunity to change his mind and to deny any of this was true at a later date - just sayin.

And find the Predator Easter Egg Jane has at least once claimed made it into the retail version. 

[Lostdragon]

If anyone wants to know what LIFE at Atari was like Jane they'd be best off talking to Rob Zdybel, he was there for 'life' 1979 to 1996.

 

 

You spent 6 months there, on a single project, in an assistance role and of that 6 months you've given the account of flying back home to finish coding at your parents house. 

 

Doubt you'll be having Sam Tramiel as one of your 'special guests' for the evening with Jane Whittaker or Purple Hampton, as they've already shone a glaring light on so many of your claims relating to your time at Atari. 

 

Ditto Jeff Minter. 

 

 

You going to invite Mike Beaton or any of the Rebellion AVP crew to give independent accounts of what developing AVP was really like? 

[youxia]

I love the idea of a "personal sequel". So perfectly meaningless! ? Here are some art assets from my "personal" AvP sequel.

 

 

 

 

                                                              (@OO)         v _

                       %  (}                             ^-----\  \             \

                         \/  \='==*  .......            ^-----\  \__        /

                         / _ |                                        [  ]   \___/

______________\__\_____________________/___\_____________

 

 

 

[Lostdragon]

6 hours ago, youxia said:

I love the idea of a "personal sequel". So perfectly meaningless! ? Here are some art assets from my "personal" AvP sequel.

 

 

 

 

                                                              (@OO)         v _

                       %  (}                             ^-----\  \             \

                         \/  \='==*  .......            ^-----\  \__        /

                         / _ |                                        [  ]   \___/

______________\__\_____________________/___\_____________

 

 

 

Jane's planning a personal sequel (yet can be seen  constantly waxing on about working with the best TEAM, whilst at Atari.. ? no I in team, just M and E)... 

 

So it will be most interesting to see some fruits from a solo effort this time around. 

 

 

And wants the community (well those naive enough to hang on his every word on Twitter) to put forward the design concepts for it.. 

 

Doesn't the English dictionary define Personal as... 

 

 

'.. belonging to or intended for a particular person and no-one else  '

 

So if the game concepts are being put forward by others, it's not a personal sequel, but a community based one? 

 

?

 

[+MrUnwondering]

8 hours ago, youxia said:

                                                              (@OO)         v _

                       %  (}                             ^-----\  \             \

                         \/  \='==*  .......            ^-----\  \__        /

                         / _ |                                        [  ]   \___/

______________\__\_____________________/___\_____________

 

 

Beautiful work! AAA 100% in Edge and Next Generation.

[+CyranoJ]

14 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

If anyone wants to know what LIFE at Atari was like Jane they'd be best off talking to Rob Zdybel, he was there for 'life' 1979 to 1996.

 

 

You spent 6 months there, on a single project, in an assistance role and of that 6 months you've given the account of flying back home to finish coding at your parents house. 

 

Doubt you'll be having Sam Tramiel as one of your 'special guests' for the evening with Jane Whittaker or Purple Hampton, as they've already shone a glaring light on so many of your claims relating to your time at Atari. 

 

Ditto Jeff Minter. 

 

 

You going to invite Mike Beaton or any of the Rebellion AVP crew to give independent accounts of what developing AVP was really like? 

Why don't you ask him on facebook instead of on a forum he won't read?

[Lostdragon]

5 hours ago, CyranoJ said:

Why don't you ask him on facebook instead of on a forum he won't read?

Not a FB account holder. 

 

Jane can't help himself from reading what people are saying about him on social media he just never replies, unless it's some comment fawning over his work. 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2021 by Lostdragon

[ThatGuyMike]

14 hours ago, CyranoJ said:

Why don't you ask him on facebook instead of on a forum he won't read?

As many people can confirm, if you ask a question Jane cant answer, Jane will accuse you of performing a hate crime, block you and go cry to the people who still believe their BS.