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Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 2:41 pm
by Martin III
A while back, I read on Wikipedia that a version of this game was being developed for the Jaguar CD. Any truth to this? Did any betas of the game come out? If so, how does it compare to other versions, or alternately, are there videos of it online so I can see for myself?

Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 7:14 pm
by sneth
I don't think there is anything other than screenshots for this. It was being ported by Atari directly, but they probably dropped it due to poor reviews. The game wasn't all that great.

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 1:17 am
by Martin III
I would have thought it was canceled due to the discontinuation of the Jaguar... According to GameFAQs at least, the 3DO version came out in March 1996, and all the other console ports came out even later. Was the Jag CD version due to be the first console port of the game?

Interesting that it was going to be a first party release. I guess the game would have made a good demo for the Jaguar CD hardware, if nothing else.

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:13 pm
by sneth
Gamefaqs didn't even get the release right, so the date is probably wrong as well. There was a lot of hype before this game came out, so I'm guessing Atari made the decision to try and include the Jaguar on the list.

Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2013 7:02 pm
by Trev
Martin III wrote:I would have thought it was canceled due to the discontinuation of the Jaguar... According to GameFAQs at least, the 3DO version came out in March 1996, and all the other console ports came out even later. Was the Jag CD version due to be the first console port of the game?

Interesting that it was going to be a first party release. I guess the game would have made a good demo for the Jaguar CD hardware, if nothing else.
I wouldn't be surprised ... Atari had the merger w/JTS before Creature Shock was released, and of course that basically meant the end of the Jaguar for all intents and purposes. Plus Creature Shock is a pretty poor game imo.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 2:07 am
by MegaData
Going through my collection recently I became interested in this one myself. There's a screenshot of this title on the CD attachment box... you know, in the mix with... Brett Hull's NHL Hockey, Robinson's Requiem, Jack Nicklaus Cyber Golf, Black Ice/White Noise, and shown to the right of Demolition Man, Creature Shock.

Were Arena Football and Battle Wheels on there system box?

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 11:59 am
by Martin III
MegaData wrote:Going through my collection recently I became interested in this one myself. There's a screenshot of this title on the CD attachment box... you know, in the mix with... Brett Hull's NHL Hockey, Robinson's Requiem, Jack Nicklaus Cyber Golf, Black Ice/White Noise, and shown to the right of Demolition Man, Creature Shock.

Were Arena Football and Battle Wheels on there system box?
Interesting. I wonder how many of those games Atari was actually working on and how many they simply licensed screenshots of in order to make it seem like the console was going to have a ton of games for it. Demolition Man is a particularly curious one, since that property would have been out of the spotlight well before the Jaguar CD even launched. (It is the same Demolition Man we're talking about, right? The 1993 film?)

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 8:23 pm
by The Laird
It wasn't a first party release at all.

Creature Shock was being coded by Argonaut for Virgin Interactive. I happen to know a couple of ex-Argonaut guys, one of them reckons it was close to being finished if not complete but he doesn't know what happened to it.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 5:22 pm
by Martin III
Ah, that makes more sense.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:21 pm
by a31chris
From one of my sources:

Ross: Q) An ex-Coder from Thalion who went onto work with Argonaught, recals someone having a Jag CD development kid there and that Creature Shock for Jag CD might of had inital test footage, but NO actual coding was done on the game itself, Jez San has stated on record they never did any Jaguar games....yet people are still claiming Jaguar Creature Shock was nearly finished.What can you add to help put this myth to bed?
Mike Fulton wrote: I seem to remember we wanted to get Creature Shock going for Jaguar,
but Idon’t recall that it ever got anywhere, with the possible exception of maybe having converted some video footage to play on Jaguar. And it’s possible we did that ourselves from assets they sent us, using our generic video player code.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 8:42 pm
by The Laird
Well the game was featured on the Jaguar CD box, heavily promoted in the catalogues and magazines of the time and featured on lots of Jaguar advertising. So it was definitely much more than an "idea" or a "want".

Also as I already stated, Creature Shock was a 3rd party game so I wouldn't expect Mike to know much about it. It was Virgin's game and given that the CD-i version was finished and released (I have it) I would be very surprised if the Jaguar version wasn't at least started. After all Creature Shock is just an FMV game, I would imagine that it would have been piss easy to port over the video to whatever system they wanted and drop in a few sprites. This is probably also the reason it was announced across pretty much all the CD formats of the time, very easy to share assets.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 5:09 pm
by a31chris
As part of the interview conducted for ST Gamer Vol 1 with Mr Darryl Still of Atari UK, Ross put the question to Darryl:

Ross:Talking of Lost Jaguar Games, what ever happened to Jaguar CD Creature Shock?

Darryl:As i recal it was something Atari always wanted, but simply could'nt get, as Jez (San) proved very tricky to pin down.


Something which Jez himself confirmed in an interview with Edge magazine, the scan of which Ross says he will be forwarding so community here can enjoy reading. It will be interesting to figure out why they put it on the CD box.

Apparently the ex Argonaut guy mentioned in the previous post is Alexander Holland

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 5:21 pm
by a31chris
From, EDGE Sept 1998, Audience with...Jez San Article, P24:

'We (Argonaught) did'nt do ANY Jaguar games.You have to make the right bets-but we still like to take risks'.

Re:

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 6:41 pm
by a31chris
sneth wrote:I don't think there is anything other than screenshots for this. It was being ported by Atari directly, but they probably dropped it due to poor reviews. The game wasn't all that great.
Just watched a video of this. It would of been one of the better more interesting shooters on the Jaguar. That's for sure. It had a mix of bunch of different play elements. Very interesting. I see why Atari wanted it. I think it would of been a hit on the Jaguar. It wouldn't of been a system saver but would of helped the Jags rep a bit.

The YT comments indicate this one was a hit BITD.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 6:58 pm
by The Laird
a31chris wrote:As part of the interview conducted for ST Gamer Vol 1 with Mr Darryl Still of Atari UK, Ross put the question to Darryl:

Ross:Talking of Lost Jaguar Games, what ever happened to Jaguar CD Creature Shock?

Darryl:As i recal it was something Atari always wanted, but simply could'nt get, as Jez (San) proved very tricky to pin down.


Something which Jez himself confirmed in an interview with Edge magazine, the scan of which Ross says he will be forwarding so community here can enjoy reading. It will be interesting to figure out why they put it on the CD box.

Apparently the ex Argonaut guy mentioned in the previous post is Alexander Holland
Both Alex and Darryl are friends of mine so I have spoken to them about this before myself. Darryl's memory is very hazy on the issue. You have to remember that he wasn't really involved in the game production, he was head of marketing. Alex was a chip designer (super FX) he wasn't really involved with software. The Jez interview is out there already if people want to read it but it doesn't mean a lot really if Virgin were handling the game.

As I said, it wasn't just on the box, it was in catalogues and magazine advertising too, not to mention the press previews.

Re: Re:

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:00 pm
by The Laird
a31chris wrote:
sneth wrote:I don't think there is anything other than screenshots for this. It was being ported by Atari directly, but they probably dropped it due to poor reviews. The game wasn't all that great.
Just watched a video of this. It would of been one of the better more interesting shooters on the Jaguar. That's for sure. It had a mix of bunch of different play elements. Very interesting. I see why Atari wanted it. I think it would of been a hit on the Jaguar. It wouldn't of been a system saver but would of helped the Jags rep a bit.

The YT comments indicate this one was a hit BITD.
I own the game on the CD-i, it isn't really that great. Just a very bog standard FMV shooter with some pretty graphics. Not really much of a loss that it didn't appear, the Jag already has many far superior shooters, that is one area the system is strong in. Creature Shock wasn't exactly a big hit or big seller on any platform. I don't understand all the fuss some people are making about it, it's hardly Phear or MK3.

Whether Atari wanted it or not is pretty irrelevant, it was a 3rd party game from day 1 so was mostly out of their control.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:46 pm
by a31chris
From what I can see I would of been interested in it. It is kinda remiscent of Soulstar in some ways. I think it would of helped the Jags reputation a bit. It LOOKED cool even if actual feelings are mixed. It was high profile. Jaguar needed more of that.

Reading the interview its interesting Jez Sans talk with Sega how he says they were humble. They admitted to him their mistakes with the Saturn. I don't see much of this on FB when Leonard Tramiel talks. I have not heard him say 'we made mistakes here here and here. And we could of done better here.' So far it's all been things he claims were out of their hands that he cites. And some not publically. He would only talk about some of them in PM to some people. That's fine but to not reflect at all and reconsider ANYTHING is kinda, I dunno. Everyone makes mistakes.

And in fairness to him I have not read all of his Atari related conversations. On FB or otherwise.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:02 pm
by Martin III
The Laird wrote:I own the game on the CD-i, it isn't really that great. Just a very bog standard FMV shooter with some pretty graphics. Not really much of a loss that it didn't appear, the Jag already has many far superior shooters, that is one area the system is strong in. Creature Shock wasn't exactly a big hit or big seller on any platform. I don't understand all the fuss some people are making about it, it's hardly Phear or MK3.
Creature Shock isn't an FMV shooter, though. The game is combination of elements of light gun games, interactive movies, and 1st person dungeon crawlers. And, depending on whether or not the version you're playing includes levels 1 and 3, there's potentially space shooting in there, too. There's no equivalent game that I've ever been able to find. The design is poor at times, but I found that once you get deep into the game it is quite a unique experience.

However...
a31chris wrote:From what I can see I would of been interested in it. It is kinda remiscent of Soulstar in some ways. I think it would of helped the Jags reputation a bit. It LOOKED cool even if actual feelings are mixed. It was high profile. Jaguar needed more of that.
I can't agree with this, either. High profile? Maybe back when it was first released for the PC in 1994, but I think by the time it hit consoles in 1996 it was old news. There certainly must be a reason why the PlayStation version stayed in Japan, and why the Saturn version only reached western shores in the form of an enhanced "Special Edition".

Don't think it would have helped the Jaguar's reputation, either. I've found GamePro's reviews of both the 3DO and Saturn versions, and they were quite unimpressed with both. They actually refer to the Saturn version as a second-rate Cyberia. Ouch.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:21 pm
by The Laird
Yeah I suppose calling it a FMV shooter was a little unfair, there is a bit more to it than that.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 7:17 am
by a31chris
You can't tell if GamePro was being on the up and up or not. They favored the PSX over everything Hated the Jaguar no matter what until it was gone. Then when it was gone they hated almost everything about the Saturn.

I would take their journalistic integrity with a grain of salt. I read the YT viewers comments to get a nice varied slice of what it thought. It seems fondly remembered.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 6:25 am
by a31chris
Looking around at some of the reviews it got were mixed. Some it scored higher than average. This was back in the day apparently. Most of the bad press it got seems to be because it was on on-rails shooter. ook.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:28 am
by Martin III
a31chris wrote:You can't tell if GamePro was being on the up and up or not. They favored the PSX over everything Hated the Jaguar no matter what until it was gone. Then when it was gone they hated almost everything about the Saturn.

I would take their journalistic integrity with a grain of salt. I read the YT viewers comments to get a nice varied slice of what it thought. It seems fondly remembered.
I'm quite confident than any bias on GamePro's part is strictly in your head. In the same issue in which they review 3DO Creature Shock, every Saturn game covered got an enthusiastically positive review - even the Saturn version of Earthworm Jim 2. Seriously. And here's a randomly selected Jaguar piece from their February 1996 issue:

Image

That hardly sounds like "Hated the Jaguar no matter what until it was gone", especially when you consider that this was just a few months before the Jaguar went under.

In general, I've found GamePro to be quite neutral and objective in both their critiquing and reporting. Moreover, their integrity is entirely besides the point. GamePro were one of the most popular and respected gaming magazines of the time, and if you don't believe that, just take a look at who's quoted on the cover of The Horde. Whether or not you like GamePro's reviews, they were what gamers were reading at the time Creature Shock came out.

I certainly wouldn't trust YouTube viewers comments. People's memories of how games were regarded are almost always badly skewed and tinted by their own opinions. Gamers who like a game tend to remember it as being critically acclaimed, and gamers who hate a game tend to remember it as being panned. Add in that you're looking at YouTube comments, and the unreliability increases tenfold. If you want to know what a game's reputation was, the actual pro reviews are the place to look.

I strongly suspect that your above post was entirely in jest, but unfortunately one really can't assume anything on the internet is meant as a joke, not even, "GamePro has no journalistic integrity. If you want unbiased, well-researched facts from people you can trust, read YouTube comments."

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 6:32 am
by a31chris
No the comment wasn't in jest and I stand by it. Well I'll back off a little on the 'completely' remark. But in large Gamepro and DieHard GameFan were horribly biased. Wasn't Gamepro the one that called NBA Jam on the Jaguar worse than the SNES version?

If I remember right Gamepro was the magazine that became mostly ads around 95 or so wasn't it?

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 6:47 am
by a31chris
Also the Jaguar has a 64 bit architecture rather than a processor.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:28 pm
by The Laird
a31chris wrote:No the comment wasn't in jest and I stand by it. Well I'll back off a little on the 'completely' remark. But in large Gamepro and DieHard GameFan were horribly biased. Wasn't Gamepro the one that called NBA Jam on the Jaguar worse than the SNES version?

If I remember right Gamepro was the magazine that became mostly ads around 95 or so wasn't it?
EGM was far worse than those, I always though GamePro and DHGF were really good actually, I used to import all 3. DHGF was actually the first magazine I saw Jaguar screenshots in and an in-depth article on the console, pretty much convinced me I wanted one!

EGM (Sean Baby to be exact) was the tool who claimed 32X version of Doom was better than the Jag one! They were also the ones to start the Jaguar is just two 32-bit processors stuck together myth.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 12:15 am
by a31chris
Wait maybe its EGM I was thinking of. GP wasn't great though.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 2:43 am
by The Laird
I have seen the tirades of abuse, insults, slander and downright fabrication posted about me elsewhere with regards to lost games and stuff. All I have ever done with the lost games is look for info, re-post it and tell people where I found it, exactly the same thing another person is doing. If info in a magazine or on a website is wrong that is not my fault, it is not ME making it up and it certainly doesn't make me some sort of pond scum for sharing it. I don't bother researching Jaguar stuff any more, there is just no point, but I will be sharing some of the stuff on my hard drive very soon. But before I back out of these puerile discussions for good I will leave you all with one last quote, not one made up by me as certain people will probably try to claim, but one taken from issue 137 of Retro Gamer magazine that came out last month. To set the scene Crusto over on Retro Gamer forum asked a question to be put to Jez San (owner of Argonaut) on Ross' (Lost Dragon's) behalf, so here it is:

Crusto: There have been rumours that a version of Creature Shock was nearly finished for the Jaguar CD, is that true?

Jez San: That is probably true, though I am not sure how finished it was. We did do some things on the Jaguar and the Jaguar CD and Creature Shock was one of our first CD games. It's entirely possible but my memory is a bit hazy . . . .


So there we go, Jez San himself says that they did work on Jaguar Creature Shock, as well as other projects too. The plot thickens . . .

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 11:31 pm
by Martin III
a31chris wrote:No the comment wasn't in jest and I stand by it. Well I'll back off a little on the 'completely' remark. But in large Gamepro and DieHard GameFan were horribly biased. Wasn't Gamepro the one that called NBA Jam on the Jaguar worse than the SNES version?
Nope.

Image

And even if they had, so what? GamePro published thousands of reviews over its more than two decades of existence, and because you personally degree with their conclusion in one review, you consider that to be proof that the magazine had such a reputation for being biased that no one read it? Are you for real?

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 7:15 am
by a31chris
Martin III wrote:
a31chris wrote:No the comment wasn't in jest and I stand by it. Well I'll back off a little on the 'completely' remark. But in large Gamepro and DieHard GameFan were horribly biased. Wasn't Gamepro the one that called NBA Jam on the Jaguar worse than the SNES version?
Nope.

Image

And even if they had, so what? GamePro published thousands of reviews over its more than two decades of existence, and because you personally degree with their conclusion in one review, you consider that to be proof that the magazine had such a reputation for being biased that no one read it? Are you for real?
I'm not going to get too far into this but that was one example that sticks out that was very blatant. No of course not basing it on one review. You assumed that.

Re: Creature Shock for Jaguar CD

Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 2:38 am
by MathUser
I was never into gamepros little smiley pictures for their reviews.