posted 08-19-2000 07:52 PM                       

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"Suck It Down"
- John Romero

posted 08-19-2000 08:02 PM                          

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These pretzels are making me thirsty.

posted 08-19-2000 08:22 PM                       

There were some bandwidth bottlenecks as I remember, though...

posted 08-19-2000 08:24 PM                       

BTW 3DO was a pretty good system, overpriced yeah, but a good system anyways.

posted 08-19-2000 08:33 PM                       

Oh, and don't forget it's "64 bit." Do the math!

posted 08-19-2000 09:19 PM                          

quote:

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NG: Is it fair to say that Atari produces excellent products which suffer a poor public image?

Sam: We do make excellent products. We have made mistakes in the market, and some of the circumstances in the computer market just made it impossible to compete. The Jaguar will get proper marketing support and we and others are working hard to deliver great software. Whatever poor image exists will change.

NG: Atari's shifted its emphasis from computers to consoles. Is this a permanent shift or not?

Sam: Around the end of 1989, Atari decided that the computer hardware business was too cut-throat, and a proprietary system could not succeed in the long run against the IBM/Intel juggernaut. We decided to focus on the interactive entertainment market. If the business opportunities exist for us to get back into the computer business, we will. We feel that the Jaguar has a great future and is a very exciting platform at a great price.

NG: But why launch a console now, when everyone else seems to be moving into multimedia hardware?

Sam: The console approach enables us to have a low price starting platform and gives the user the chance to add peripherals as he or she can afford them. The future peripherals will be a CD player, a voice modem, a VR headset and something else I can't reveal. The other new platforms are just too expensive for the consumer and this has been proven by the failure of Commodore's CDTV and the CD players. We are focusing much energy now on the multimedia software that will make Jaguar a success.

NG: Is it true that the Jaguar is a make-or-break product for Atari?

Sam: The Jaguar is not a make-or-break product but it is what we are focusing on. We are also going into the publishing business for PC CD-ROM and perhaps others as well, with another brand name.

NG: Do you think Atari can compete with the giants of the console market, like Sega, Nintendo, 3DO, and Sony?

Sam: Atari invented the videogame business and during the late '70s and early '80s was the dominant company. The industry has been through a number of cycles and we are now entering the fourth cycle. Cycle two was dominated by the NES, cycle three has been shared by Sega and Nintendo and we, at Atari, have put a lot of effort into assuring the success of the Jaguar in cycle four. The Saturn is too expensive and Nintendo doesn't even have a product yet. All Nintendo is doing is trying to confuse the market with disinformation. The 3DO group has doubled the royalty to the software community and the hardware manufacturers aren't happy. The Sony product is just too expensive to be taken seriously, and I can't see Sony focusing on a product that won't have the quantities due to the high price. It will not be a big player.

NG: But the Jaguar is going to be in direct competition with a lot of heavily-backed machines. Does Atari really stand a chance?

Sam: We have some very compelling advantages in terms of power, low price, and lots of good software, with more on the way. We have a very experienced tem. We also have the financing. Also important is our strategic investor, Time Warner, and our new partner, Sega, which gives us another source of good software.

NG: How much input does Time Warner have with Atari? Does it provide monetary help beyond its obligations as a large shareholder?

Sam: Time Warner has no official input into Atari. But we do talk to many of the Time Warner divisions and we value our relationship with them. For example, we were chosen to be scheduled in the Time Warner Cable Full Service Network test in Orlando, FL. We got a license from Warner Brothers for the big Batman Forever movie. We also work closely with Time Warner Interactive and you'll see it publishing many titles on Jaguar in the near future. We have no need for more money at this time, but if we did have a good reason to raise more, Time Warner could be an option.

NG: Why has it taken Atari so long to pursue patent infringement? Why didn't you go after Sega and Nintendo when you bought Atari from Time Warner?

Sam: The issue of patents is very complex and we pursued the issues as soon as it was prudent to do so.

NG: Are you going to pursue Nintendo, 3DO, Sony, and the other console manufacturers in a similar manner?

Sam: I can only say that we will maximize our patents' value and will pursue whatever means necessary to ensure that they aren't infringed upon. We have some precedents and we look forward to more favorable outcomes.

NG: The Sega deal means that you can release any of its titles (excluding Sonic) on the Jaguar. What Sega titles are going to appear on the machine?

Sam: We haven't decided yet.

NG: What steps are you taking to sell Jaguar in the US and Japan?

Sam: We have chosen to make the US the first important market for the Jaguar. It is starting to work. We just introduced the Jaguar into Japan and met more than 60 third party developers in Tokyo. It will not be easy selling a US-made machine in Japan, but we are going to try.

NG: Many industry insiders believe Jack Tramiel imagined revenge on Commodore for the way in which he was ousted from the company. If this is true, is he happy?

Sam: We did not buy Atari as a rode to exact revenge on Commodore. it was a good opportunity to acquire the best-known name in videogames.

NG: Is it true that Atari is considering buying its old-time rival, the shattered Commodore company?

Sam: We aren't happy about the demise of Commodore and have no plans to acquire the leftovers.

NG: Finally, what do you think the future holds for Atari?

Sam: Success.

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posted 08-19-2000 10:51 PM                          

I knew that was coming.

posted 08-19-2000 11:04 PM                       

And what do you mean by "who"?
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the baron has spoken!

posted 08-20-2000 02:07 AM                          

As for bitness, you had a 68000, which is an arguably 32bit cpu with 16 bit memory interface.
Then there was the risc GPU which was 32bit with 64 bit memory interface, 32bit DSP processor, with 16bit memory interface, and a 64bit object processor.
Oh and the blitter, which was 64bit.
It also used unified memort for ram and VRam.

posted 08-20-2000 05:01 AM                       

Fight For Life was coded by the guy who wrote the camera and collision systems for Virtua Fighter 1 and 2 at AM2 in Japan.

posted 08-20-2000 05:07 AM                          

quote:

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Originally posted by COOLIO:
Today's fun fact:

Fight For Life was coded by the guy who wrote the camera and collision systems for Virtua Fighter 1 and 2 at AM2 in Japan.

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posted 08-20-2000 05:51 AM                          

Sega worked with the Jaguar? Here comes the questions.

What games were released?
Why would Sega compete with it's own Saturn?
Does this mean that Saturn games were ported , or did sega make whole games for the system, or did Atari just have access to their liscenes?

What exactly was the deal, did Atari have some knid of stranglehold that forced Sega to do this?

Tell me more I am shocked.

*Disclaimer*
Please forgive my ignorance I was a gamer in the 16-bit era but after that I didn't rekindle my interest until the N-64.

posted 08-20-2000 08:34 AM                          

John Carmack had a lot of nice things to say about the Jaguar when he was porting Quake to it. He gave Edge an interview a few years ago.

Basically he said that Tom and Jerry were very well designed and you could get very good results if you programmed directly to the graphics chip (TOm?). If you used the 68k CPU as a traditional CPU then you would get results not much better than any 68k based system , I guess, like a Genesis.

posted 08-20-2000 09:28 AM                          

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Anybody that has ever written off Nintendo has paid the price for it in the past.-Dave Dienstbier

I am the lone plumber of the apocalypse, fear me.-Me