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Leonard Tramiel Exclusive Text Interview - Great Commodore & Atari Insight


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1 hour ago, Lostdragon said:

Just uploaded some missing Press I have been sat on for years.. 

 

 

Edge Magazine and it's making of Jaguar AVP.. 

 

 

Whittaker Free as well ?

 

 

I can't see Jane sharing this one on his Twitter feed, it'll be up on GTW Alien Trilogy section and AVP Galaxly Jane, just so you know where to stumble across it ?

 

 

 

 

Jane Who DAT.png

 

Now who could that be? ?

 

 

Edited by MrMaddog
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  • 1 month later...

One thing I never understood, when dealing with Jane and these accounts of working with the biggest and best teams on the biggest and best games, is how Jane could simply steamroll over the testimonials of others. 

 

 

When I think of Jane's E. A claims and name dropping of titles like Theme Park and Populous, it reminds me of Fin McGechie, talking to DC UK magazine #09. 

 

He joined Bullfrog just as Populous 2 was coming out and the company had only 16 or 17 employees. 

 

All very close knit, regularly going to the pub, a great family atmosphere, everyone mucking in and Bullfrog wasn't just a company name, it was a great place to work, you knew everyone's name. 

 

 

#That was one of the first things that flagged up when we started asking Bullfrog staff about an Andrew:Jane Whitraker and nobody had ever heard of such an individual. 

 

 

Fin describes the atmosphere as changing completely overnight once E. A took over, it lost it's personality, if the staff had wanted to work in a big company, they would of joined one. 

 

 

Fin, Mike Diskett, Guy Simmons and Gary Car (a team C. V with Theme Park, Populous and Syndicate to their names) quit to set up Mucky Foot. 

 

 

For Jane to wax about how great it was working with E. A and being part of teams involved on such titles as Theme Park, was always going to be a farce. 

 

 

By the time he was involved Bullfrog itself had undergone radical changes and many of the original staff no longer wanted to be part of the E. A owned company. 

 

There's always 2 sides to a story, but Jane insists on painting this picture of being at a place at the very best time in it's life.. 

 

Bullfrog, Atari, Graftgold, Maelstrom etc and then goes onto take credit for projects, just for recognition. 

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  • 3 months later...

Well June is rapidly disappearing  and as far as i am aware, Athena Worlds have still to announce a single title on a single platform.. 

 

Meanwhile, just for the sake of archiving everything.. 

 

 

Games X magazine coverage of Dark Seed, uses standard Cyberdreams P. R photos sent to all the press, but we do like to show we've checked each and all publications. 

 

 

 

ST Action group photo of Microprose .

 

Again no sign of any Andrew or Jane Whittaker, but Jane is out there on YT swearing blind he worked on misc Amiga flight sims for the company at the time.. 

 

 

The more evidence we can show that proves the lies, the better. 

 

 

 

All Andrew/Jane Whittaker free. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Gamesmaster Dark Seed. 

 

As expected all Mike Dawson, not Andrew/Jane Whittaker.. 

 

https://retrocdn.net/File:GamesMaster_UK_002.pdf

 

With archive sites making games press so readily available for free, how on earth Whittaker thought he could spin the absolute B. S about being digitised for main role, doing the voice work for CD versions, working with Giger and so on and so on and not be called out, still baffles me. 

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On 6/25/2022 at 8:39 PM, Lostdragon said:

With archive sites making games press so readily available for free, how on earth Whittaker thought he could spin the absolute B. S about being digitised for main role, doing the voice work for CD versions, working with Giger and so on and so on and not be called out, still baffles me.

 

Indeed, got a little carried away there it seems.

 

Not a single mention in the new GoldenEra documentary either I note. Strange that.

 

 

 

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Has there even bit so much as a hint of what Athena Worlds are actually working on, for their premier launch title?. 

 

 

If my timeline is correct, the company was launched 12 months ago, following an avalanche of hype by Whittaker on Twitter.. 

 

 

The company website boasted of the Athena technology which would power their games, had been in development for 5 years...

 

The studio would  use Athena to build proprietary games, projects and IPs across PC, Playstation, Nintendo and Xbox and mobile gaming platforms....

 

They lwould also be licensing the technology to “to some of the biggest game publishers in the world.”... 

 

Has it been used in anything by anyone to date? 

 

It was April 2021 when this was being promised by Whittaker :

 

 

"I am going to start giving weekly #gamedev updates on #projectxenomorph, taking the ideas from my #AvP code to build my spiritual sequel to our original. So please follow to keep updated. #gamedev #aliens 
@avpgalaxy
 #RETROGAMING #fps #rpg #madewithunity #PS5 #Xbox #pc #Atari"

 

 

 

This never came about either did it? 

 

 

Looking forward to meeting many of you in person on the 10th Dec. "An Evening With Jane Whittaker", hosted by 
@JasonShuster24
 where I talk about developing #AvP and life at #Atari with a live Q and A.  All Welcome and links soon! #gamedev #retrogaming #AvP #Aliens 
@avpgalaxy

 

 

Postponed:

 

Apologies, due to health issues, I am unable to meet everyone to talk #AvP this week. We are rescheduling for when I feel better. Sorry everyone!

#gamedev #Atari #RETROGAMING #videogames

 

But that Tweet was 6 months ago. 

 

 

Someone has clearly not learnt their lesson about getting carried away. 

 

 

All these announcements and absolutely nothing to show for any of them. 

 

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1 hour ago, Lostdragon said:

All these announcements and absolutely nothing to show for any of them.

It seemed like an investor honeypot from the get go. I don't even care about JW, that's what they have been doing for decades after all, but how on earth all these other, seemingly serious people allowed themselves to be associated with such a crummy operation?

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The GoldenEra documentary was pretty interesting, and one of the most interesting parts was the distinct lack of JW. In fact a few times it was mentioned that there was only one developer on the team who had made games previously, something Jane liked to claim as themselves a few times in the past. Except here it was obviously Martin Hollis, the director of the game.

I really wonder what the team thinks to interviews where Jane claims to have directed the game, like this: https://geektyrant.com/news/interview-007-goldeneyes-director-talks-about-what-it-was-like-developing-the-iconic-n64-game

Edited by ThatGuyMike
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8 hours ago, youxia said:

It seemed like an investor honeypot from the get go. I don't even care about JW, that's what they have been doing for decades after all, but how on earth all these other, seemingly serious people allowed themselves to be associated with such a crummy operation?

That's what has myself scratching my head, there are enough 'names' attached to it, whom you'd think by now would of wanted something on some platform annouced, but there's just been absolute silence. 

 

Just bizzare. 

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5 hours ago, ThatGuyMike said:

The GoldenEra documentary was pretty interesting, and one of the most interesting parts was the distinct lack of JW. In fact a few times it was mentioned that there was only one developer on the team who had made games previously, something Jane liked to claim as themselves a few times in the past. Except here it was obviously Martin Hollis, the director of the game.

I really wonder what the team thinks to interviews where Jane claims to have directed the game, like this: https://geektyrant.com/news/interview-007-goldeneyes-director-talks-about-what-it-was-like-developing-the-iconic-n64-game

Goldeneye's real creation  has been extremely well documented

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/i-didnt-really-know-what-i-was-working-on-how-nine-people-at-rare-created-a-seminal-classic-with-goldeneye/

 

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/retro-gamer/20180222/282144996813074&ved=2ahUKEwiZkunnps74AhXogv0HHchzCdoQFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw15qd27e37LpIAG8oe2l7Ce

 

 

I just fail to understand why for example, Dr David Doak, has never challenged Jane claiming his AVP A. I routines were used, why others from Rare haven't pointed out Jane was never the director. 

 

 

It's up there with Andrew Braybrook and others from Graftgold, not challenging any of Jane's ST and Amiga claims. 

 

 

Especially those games that never even existed to start with. 

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On 6/27/2022 at 9:45 AM, Lostdragon said:

Has there even bit so much as a hint of what Athena Worlds are actually working on, for their premier launch title?. 

Nothing has been announced or revealed from what i can see. However, recently they have been claiming to be 'fully funded' on LinkedIn, they've also taken on several new hires.

Whittaker has now taken a back seat, putting another director into the CEO's position.

 

 

809782540_JaneWhittakerAthenaEmilyCEO.thumb.jpg.e896a06239d32714f9af6070707ba5e6.jpg

 

 

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16 minutes ago, MrUnwondering said:

Nothing has been announced or revealed from what i can see. However, recently they have been claiming to be 'fully funded' on LinkedIn, they've also taken on several new hires.

 

Whittaker has now taken a back seat, putting another director into the CEO's position.

 

 

 

imageproxy.php?img=&key=f4dcc336a70d5c68imageproxy.php?img=&key=f4dcc336a70d5c68imageproxy.php?img=&key=f4dcc336a70d5c68809782540_JaneWhittakerAthenaEmilyCEO.thumb.jpg.e896a06239d32714f9af6070707ba5e6.jpg

 

 

Does the funding cover a working website? ?

 

Clicking on the meet the team section gets you the following:

 

We couldn't find the page you were looking for. This is either because:

There is an error in the URL entered into your web browser. Please check the URL and try again.
The page you are looking for has been moved or deleted.
You can return to our homepage by clicking here, or you can try searching for the content you are seeking by clicking here.

 

 

They appear to of died on their arse on Twitter also. 

 

 

All the makings of yet another absolute disaster with Whittaker attached. 

 

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Oh well... I can tell you for sure that the biggest announcement in that message is just a blatant lie. I did work together with their new "CEO", and while she had some limited responsibilities within Candy Crush Saga, it was FAR from leading anything big in the project (and they even modified that post once, the original one mentioned that she led the whole thing lol), and I'm being polite here. So my guess is that the "fully funded" part should not be trusted...

 

(and yes I did work on Candy Crush, sorry I was young :D)

Edited by LordKraken
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It's just more investor-baiting. Gazing at my crystal ball I can see that maybe they eventually will "reveal" something, and "work" on it for quite sometime, and that this something will be an absolutely piddling and at-best-average equivalent of gaming elevator muzak.

 

But, hey, there is no law against posting mindbogglingly bombastic and fantastical claims regarding your "projects", so the grift goes on...

 

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35 minutes ago, youxia said:

It's just more investor-baiting. Gazing at my crystal ball I can see that maybe they eventually will "reveal" something, and "work" on it for quite sometime, and that this something will be an absolutely piddling and at-best-average equivalent of gaming elevator muzak.

 

But, hey, there is no law against posting mindbogglingly bombastic and fantastical claims regarding your "projects", so the grift goes on...

 

Yeah same MO as when I worked for Jane. Grandiose promises to investors, curated stories for the dev team, nobody really knows what's going on except Jane and in the end everyone gets f***ed over and Jane runs off.

 

Difference is back when I worked for the c**t there wasn't anyone to warn me what an absolute liar Jane was. In fact it was a couple comments that appeared on the RetroGamer article that made me start looking into Janes claims.

 

It would be hilarious if it didn't all leave a lasting mental impact on me, and put me near financial ruin at the time.

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On 7/3/2022 at 12:54 AM, JagChris said:

Nice.

 

A celebrity guys.

In total honesty I'd rather be "famous" for my homebrew games... when and if they get released... :)

 

(but to be fair, working on CCS at its peak almost 10 years ago now was quite an adventure that I dont regret).

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18 hours ago, MrUnwondering said:

Yes, yes. But how can you sue this?

 

Quote

Athena Worlds exists to bring imaginations to life, to immerse players in new exciting experiences. Our tech enables enhanced, personalized experiences to come alive

Quote

Innovation is at the heart of what we do. With Athena technology, we have the potential to make some of the world’s most immersive games.

Quote

we have spent the last 5 years developing Athena which will redefine the way games are made

 

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1 hour ago, youxia said:

Yes, yes. But how can you sue this?

Personally I could do so since my employment was based on how Jane presented themself. I still have the original introductory email used to start the discussions. (spoiler, investment was minimal, there were no partnerships nor distribution agreements. Nobody from EA. Note how once again this is a 'fully funded' studio) 
image.thumb.png.f05ce6d46a91bb69bbc6d6bd45a25d22.png


It wouldnt be overly difficult for me to go after Jane for fraud by misrepresentation, especially given my time working for Jane actively stunted and may have even harmed my career prospects. Luckilly I have a wife who is incredibly good at keeping documents and correspondence nicely organised so I have so dang much to point at and call foul.

Similarly, anyone who invested in Janes projects could go the same route since they signed contracts based on how Jane was presented as having a wealth of experience, large studio, big connections etc. Then theres the indie developers who signed up to be published through Keystone Games based on Janes claims. Its just that its either too expensive, not worth it or too much effort for most people to care about chasing it up. I myself was content just letting Jane fade into the mist since they inevitably mess up any project they try anyway, but then they appeared again to try suing me for (I kid you not) the stupidest thing Ive ever known (the details of which Id happily share when I can safely do so).


Janes entire thing is just fraud by misrepresentation. Misrepresents themself, their team, their studio. It was deeply uncomfortable when I was described in press by Jane as 'world renowned'. I was a smalltime artist working on smalltime things, if I were so famous it would make my career much easier.

Edited by ThatGuyMike
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1 hour ago, youxia said:

we have spent the last 5 years developing Athena which will redefine the way games are made

Also this particular passage is proveably false since I was in Keystone and Blue Sock Studios at for at least a couple of those five years. I have chat logs around Athena from back then. It was never anything tangible, it was just some PDFs of what Athena was supposed to be (written up as though it already existed and was working). Even back then it was changing every few weeks. But the tech itself never actually existed and given the most recent examples of it 'working' were a scene I was able to replicate in 5 minutes using a demo scene from an asset pack, Id wager it still doesnt exist.

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51 minutes ago, ThatGuyMike said:

It wouldnt be overly difficult for me to go after Jane for fraud by misrepresentation

The personal things regarding JW themselves, especially the older stuff, are a different matter and a bit more actionable. Even so, it might be rather difficult to nail them for these, since a lot of the claims are very hard (or downright impossible) to both prove / disprove and there might be many legal avenues giving them wiggle room. Which is presumably why the actual case they're in still drags on?

 

Anyway, I was referring to these nebulous claims regarding Athena's operations, which are written in a supremely vague language on purpose. There's no way you could possibly use any of this in court with success. Even the "5 years" claim could be easily dismissed with some tale about how they thought about it or worked on at home on their laptop, etc...

 

It's not just them btw, it's the same meaningless language used on most corporate websites because it's safer this way (though at least they have something to show for it) and also for all other "projects" which are just wishful thinking or downright honeypots.

 

 

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11 minutes ago, youxia said:

The personal things regarding JW themselves, especially the older stuff, are a different matter and a bit more actionable. Even so, it might be rather difficult to nail them for these, since a lot of the claims are very hard (or downright impossible) to both prove / disprove and there might be many legal avenues giving them wiggle room. Which is presumably why the actual case they're in still drags on?

 

Anyway, I was referring to these nebulous claims regarding Athena's operations, which are written in a supremely vague language on purpose. There's no way you could possibly use any of this in court with success. Even the "5 years" claim could be easily dismissed with some tale about how they thought about it or worked on at home on their laptop, etc...

 

It's not just them btw, it's the same meaningless language used on most corporate websites because it's safer this way (though at least they have something to show for it) and also for all other "projects" which are just wishful thinking or downright honeypots.

 

 

I dont disagree at all, theres a reason Jane (and others) use vague phrases like this. Unfortunately it works.

As for why the case drags on, without revealing too much or stating names, its because somebody keeps doing everything they can to kick the can down the road. Be that through insanely slow responses, scare tactics or just plain ghosting everyone for a while.

Somebody

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Adding this snippet from PC Review magazine, talking about Mirage Publishing Dark Seed and it's own team coding Ashes Of The Empire. 

 

 

Jane must of had some talent, doing data entry on Ashes Of The Empire here in the UK under Mike Singleton's guidance, whilst simultaneously staying in that seedy hotel and working on Dark Seed for Cyberdreans, being digitised for main role, doing the voice work etc ?

 

 

Even without the personal accounts from Cyberdreans and Maelstrom personal, the UK Press alone was always going to be sufficient to damn Whittaker. 

 

We simply keep finding more and more of it. 

PC_Review_Issue_7_1992-05_EMAP_Images_GB_0009.jpg

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