The Missing Retro Gamer features

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

I think a lot of people would see that as a waste of a page if I'm honest.

[Antiriad2097]

They could work in an 'Oli-bug' sort of way, tucked into a page header or footer now and then as a little bonus item, especially around games featured on the page.

[NorthWay]

A family tree of hw designs:
Konix - Jaguar (more?)
SInclair Amiga-beater (wossname again?)
Panther???

So I was surfing the net last night and found an excellent Konix site, and from that and Wikipedia I stiched together a whole lot that suddenly makes much more sense:

Loki(Sinclair wet dream) -> Flare One -> Konix -> Flare Two -> Panther -> Jaguar -> Nuon

More or less the same people all along. I think the first four were 16bit, the next 32, the Jag 64, and probably 64 for the last too?

I also read the Konix tech specs that Simon Goodwin has summarized, and I'm not _that_ impressed now. Very much limited to being a console, and not much flexibility for use in a computer. I can also relate to the comments on the Jag chips being limited in how much memory they had and being "hard" to program.
The Amiga 3000+ with its DSP would have been awesome. We need an article from the Atari contributors that focuses on the Falcon and its DSP.

[The Laird]

A family tree of hw designs:
Konix - Jaguar (more?)
SInclair Amiga-beater (wossname again?)
Panther???

So I was surfing the net last night and found an excellent Konix site, and from that and Wikipedia I stiched together a whole lot that suddenly makes much more sense:

Loki(Sinclair wet dream) -> Flare One -> Konix -> Flare Two -> Panther -> Jaguar -> Nuon

More or less the same people all along. I think the first four were 16bit, the next 32, the Jag 64, and probably 64 for the last too?

I also read the Konix tech specs that Simon Goodwin has summarized, and I'm not _that_ impressed now. Very much limited to being a console, and not much flexibility for use in a computer. I can also relate to the comments on the Jag chips being limited in how much memory they had and being "hard" to program.
The Amiga 3000+ with its DSP would have been awesome. We need an article from the Atari contributors that focuses on the Falcon and its DSP.

Strictly speaking the Panther was not by Flare, it was already well into development at Atari when Flare came on board to take a look at it.

The Flare II was the machine that became the Jaguar. They also developed the Jaguar II, which you missed out, a backwards compatible PlayStation killer. It was at prototype stage and near finished when Atari pulled out of the market.

I would love to do something about the Falcon if enough people ask for it and I am asked to do it, would follow on nicely from my ST article.

[NorthWay]

Strictly speaking the Panther was not by Flare, it was already well into development at Atari when Flare came on board to take a look at it.

Aha! And who was originally doing the Panther?

If "Games that weren't" are interesting, it is nothing compared to "Hardware that wasn't"!

[knight_beat]

Strictly speaking the Panther was not by Flare, it was already well into development at Atari when Flare came on board to take a look at it.

Aha! And who was originally doing the Panther?

If "Games that weren't" are interesting, it is nothing compared to "Hardware that wasn't"!

This gets my vote, with one minor tweak. I would change it to a semi-regular 2-4 page feature dedicated to each machine. The story behind many of these machines can't be reflected in a single paragraph.

If anyone is interested, I've written about the various Amiga prototypes planned for release over the years http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/notrel.html.

[The Laird]

Strictly speaking the Panther was not by Flare, it was already well into development at Atari when Flare came on board to take a look at it.

Aha! And who was originally doing the Panther?

If "Games that weren't" are interesting, it is nothing compared to "Hardware that wasn't"!

As I said it was being developed internally at Atari.

I just did a massive feature for Pixel Nation (Issue 2) on the Atari Panther complete with hardware & game screenshots as well as words from developers.

[samhain81]

I think a lot of people would see that as a waste of a page if I'm honest.

I'll reiterate what I said in my original post, How about you do a top 10 retro cheat codes used instead then, and make it an article.

You could hardly call that a waste of a page/double page. The amount of nostalgia running through your readers with such an article would make it all worthwhile

[NorthWay]

If anyone is interested, I've written about the various Amiga prototypes planned for release over the years http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/notrel.html.

Nice one. You do know that in the C= era there was talk about a CR (Cost Reduced) model that had the 68030 licenced from Moto and baked in to the custom chips to lower cost? That rumour came from CIX originally - I wonder if I still have the text somewhere...

Oh, and SCALA (the presentation company here in Norway) is said to have had a 3000+.

[crusto]

Strictly speaking the Panther was not by Flare, it was already well into development at Atari when Flare came on board to take a look at it.

The Flare II was the machine that became the Jaguar. They also developed the Jaguar II, which you missed out, a backwards compatible PlayStation killer. It was at prototype stage and near finished when Atari pulled out of the market.

I would love to do something about the Falcon if enough people ask for it and I am asked to do it, would follow on nicely from my ST article.

I think you may have omitted the word "potential" in front of playstation killer

[The Laird]

I think you may have omitted the word "potential" in front of playstation killer

No I didn't because I am talking in hardware terms and I have seen the tech specs

[Antiriad2097]

Spec alone does not make a successful machine. A great spec with poo games won't sell.

[psj3809]

They could work in an 'Oli-bug' sort of way, tucked into a page header or footer now and then as a little bonus item, especially around games featured on the page.

^Yeah that sounds a nice idea, just mention a poke/cheat for a game if its featured. But a whole page on cheats for games i cant see doing well, you'll start getting loads of 'retro gamers being lazy' if theres a page full of cheats as most people wont use them. In the old days it was fine but nowadays with so many different formats (and the internet) just not really needed. But if theres a feature on game 'x' and theres a small bit of text saying 'press X/R/L/X on the menu to access ....' etc it could be alright.

Still would love the trainspotter award though !

[merman]

I have proposed an article on cheat cartridges in the past, perhaps a wider look to include other methods of cheating - passwords, inputs like the famous Konami code and other Easter Eggs?

[The Laird]

Spec alone does not make a successful machine. A great spec with poo games won't sell.

Yes as the Jaguar proved but my point still stands. You can't really talk about games for a machine that was never released but you can talk about hardware and on that front the Panther was way ahead of all the other 16-bit machines of the time.