205 lines
8.8 KiB
Plaintext
205 lines
8.8 KiB
Plaintext
Okay, folks. At last, we've got a first-hand account of a live sighting of
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the Atari Jaguar! Coming fresh from the machine's official rollout on August
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18th, the following is an electronic chat between Chris Millar of Delphi and
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Andy Eddy, well-known video-gaming journalist and net.lurker. B-)
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I've cleaned up the stuff to make it a little more presentable, but I have
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not altered anything vital. Andy and Chris' exchange is below; comments in
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[square braces] are from yours truly.
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'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
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'
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<<Chris Millar>>
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What are the Jaguar's specs?
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<<Andy Eddy>>
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To quote from Atari's press handout, the Jaguar has the following features --
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* 64-bit RISC multiprocessing architecture.
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* High-speed (106.4 Mbyte/sec) 64-bit data path
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* Five processors:
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> 27 MIPs Graphics Processor with 4K bytes of zero wait-state internal
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SRAM that is closely coupled to the blitter, that can perform a full
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range of graphics effects (including shading and rotations) at high
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speed, yet is programmable for maximum flexibility.
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> A programmable Object Processor that can act as a variety of different
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video architectures, such as an advanced sprite engine, pixel-mapped
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based systems, character-mapped based systems, and many others.
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> 27 MIPs DSP [Digital Signal Processor] with 8K bytes of zero wait-state
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internal SRAM for CD-quality sound and full stereo capabilities.
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> A blitter that can perform a full range of logical operations at high
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speed, with hardware support for Z-buffering and Goudraud shading.
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> MC68000 CPU clocked at 13.3MHz as a general purpose control processor.
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[Five processors do not equal five chips; see below]
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* Lifelike quality 32-bit color on NTSC or PAL television screens, yielding
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greater than 16 million colors (16,777,216 exactly).
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* Screen resolution of 720 x 576.
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* ROM cartridge capacity to 48 megabits [6 megabytes] of compressed or
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uncompressed code. When compressed, equivalent to almost 400 megabits.
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[50 megabytes?!?]
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* 16 megabits [2 megabytes] of fast page-mode DRAM.
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* An optional double speed CD-ROM drive. ($200, sometime during 1994)
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* ComLynx I/O for networked multiconsole games (even with Lynx and Jaguar
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mixture).
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[I smell a Lynx adaptor for the Jaguar in here. And the idea of chaining
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Jaguars and Lynxes is tantalizing]
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* Two (expandable to literally dozens) enhanced controller ports, supporting
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digital and analog interfaces, as well as keyboards, light guns and mice.
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[Expansion probably by a multiple-port tap, naturally]
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* High performance, ergonomically designed, controller with joypad, three
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fire buttons, Pause, Option, and 12-key keypad with game-specific
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overlays. ["Ergonomically designed"? Definitely press release hype]
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* High speed synchronous serial port for connection to modems, cable TV,
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networks and other high performance networks.
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[No word of the rumored built-in modem. Darn]
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There are two custom chips, code-named Tom and Jerry, which combined contain
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four processors. Jerry has the DSP, the 8K SRAM, a sound block and a block fo
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r
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"timers, UART, joysticks and clock control." Tom has the "DRAM memory
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controller, object processor, GPU (w/ 4K SRAM) and the blitter." The 68000 is
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separate as it has the DRAM and cartridge/CD-ROM ties.
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No discussion of licensees signed or interested. Formal announcement(s) will
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take place in mid-September.
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<<Chris>>
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What games did you see?
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<<Andy>>
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The games are much like the 3DO stuff that has been shown.
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CYBERMORPH is a side-scrolling shoooter, and there was a way to move ahead in
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the game with a button push (I suspect as a demo), and it screamed the data
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past the screen F-A-S-T. CYBERMORPH has been renamed to something like "Trevo
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r
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McFur in Crescent Galaxy" [Uh-huh...]
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There was also on-the-fly rendering, much like STARFOX, but without the ship
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"on rails", in the words of [Atari Technical Spokesperson] John Skrutch. You
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can go anywhere. [Is this CYBERMORPH, or some other game? CM is a
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side-scrolling shooter, but "going anywhere" requires a first-person
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perspective...]
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Also, a scene from ALIEN VS. PREDATOR.
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I missed all but the last two questions in the presentation, so I'm going to
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try to get a copy of the videotape they made of the event.
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<<Chris>>
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Would you say the 3DO stuff you have seen surpasses what you have seen thus
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far for the Jaguar?
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<<Andy>>
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I'd say it's comparable. That's an important note, given that the Jaguar is
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one third the price, or about half if you add the CD-ROM drive.
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[Maybe not that low. A $199 Jaguar and a $200 CD-ROM drive totals $400. And
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now there are rumors that the 3DO unit from Panasonic may sell for $499. But
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then, you don't _need_ to get a CD-ROM with the Jaguar...]
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<<Chris>>
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Can you describe the physical Jaguar unit?
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<<Andy>>
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Sleek, black, kinda like a Merlin: Rounded corners on a square unit. Like
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someone said, though, when the CD is on top, it looks like a toilet...
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(especially when the CD cover is popped up). [This implies, of course, that
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Atari was showing either a CD-ROM prototype of some kind with the Jaguar, or
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an illustration of the same]
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Also, Atari is dropping the "only Ataris" policy for development and such.
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[YAY!] Because of that, there is an [Atari] TT development station and a PC
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station, but tools are being used on Macs and others. They are still talking
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about using high-end computer rendering software that already exists (like
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SoftImage, which was used on commercials and on Sega's Virtua Racing).
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<<Chris>>
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Can you desribe the scene from ALIENS VS. PREDATOR you saw?
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<<Andy>>
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It was just a representation of what the halls would look like while you move
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d
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through them. Very cursory. I was going to sign an NDA to see more of the
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stuff upstairs, but they didn't have one handy (the guy was out to lunch) and
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I wouldn't be able to talk about them anyway (hehe).
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Also, I'm trying to get disk files of pictures, which Bob [Brodie] is working
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on. Oh, and there will be a detailed conference with Bob and Sam [Tramiel]
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next Wednesday, in the World of Video Games SIG, right here on Delphi!
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They handed out great T-shirts. (hehe)
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'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
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'
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My biggest regret at this point is that there wasn't even more information.
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As Andy said, he missed most of the questions and is looking for the
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videotape. I would have wanted to know more about the games shown, sound
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quality, controller feel, things like that. And the mention of signing NDAs t
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o
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see "more of the stuff upstairs" implies that there was more available than
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what was captured here. But then, Chris was asking questions at around 3:00am
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EST, so let's give him lots of credit for what he did dig up. B-)
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Still, this exchange IS a lot more substantive than anything revealed about
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the machine to date. If the Jaguar is indeed "comparable to a 3DO" for $199,
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things will get very exciting in the next few months.
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Ladies and gentlemen of the net...Let the speculation begin.
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--R.J.
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B-)
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P.S. Chris also had something nasty to say about certain people on the net,
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but civility prompted me to remove it. Though I think someone should fetch a
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waiter or waitress somewhere -- I believe Mr. Raul "Die Jaguar Die" Romero
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has a triple-order of crow waiting...
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//////////////////////////////////////|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
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Send whatevers to rjung@netcom.com | If it has pixels, I'm for it.
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--------------------------------------+------------------------------Lynx up!
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"You weren't chosen because you are the best pilot in the Air Force. You were
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chosen because you are the class clown and frankly, you're expendable."
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