The Forum boys
By Marss
What a terrible night! I had a hard time to get to sleep. I spent the night
to concentrate on the perfect angle to begin this article. And another too
(no as a matter of fact as it's too politically oriented). Why torture
myself to adopt an original style of narration. No way. Make it effective,
make it simple.
Enough simplicity to tell a whole year of the vibrating life of our forum. I
dedicate this text to all those who have projects on Atari. And sometimes
they are numerous, but prefer to remain in the shade and to wait their hour.
The major event was the Jaguar Connection 2004. One weekend with friends, a
hundred kilometers of Paris. I put in my bag a CT060 Falcon and a laptop to
draw with Poser 5 and Vue d'esprit 4.5 Pro. Kuk was with Xerus in front of
my door. I kissed my woman and child and quickly installed myself in the car
with Kuk. Not much room and the diskettes which held in balance. Each one
spoke about their life and their projects. What! already arrived? Fantastic.
We were not the first, it was already 11 a.m. The room is very large to
shelter about fifty participants enough.
We were only 7 people originally at the first Jaguar Connection 2002. It was
a pleasure to meet again everyone and to become acquainted with new fellas.
I pay my ticket for the weekend and the meals (vegetarians) at 30 euros. I
installed my material and I sat beside Xerus, opposite Kuk and on the left
of a big boy, Cooper.
I turned on the Falcon to show some demos and to install Mint. My Falcon
tends to quickly block when I open and set windows. It is a pain. Cooper
speaks about the programming of his game 'Pooz'. It is Zoop for Atari
computers. The coding is in GFA, graphics are by Exocet and STS. I am
mistaken? Guests were there. Nick Harlow had a stock of games and hardware.
He is a very pleasant and nice boy. However, some products were a little
expensive. That did not prevent me from exchanging my copy of the Robinson
Requiem CD on the Falcon against another.
This game does not like NVDI. I also bought a prototype for the Jaguar
'Brett Hull Hockey'. It is superb and I await the version on CD and a copy
of Varuna's Force. A friend bought Extremist Packs and Ocean's Depth's.
Nothing too extraordinary. Thierry Shembry arrived with his ATW 800, a
beautiful machine which attracted people to touch it in truth. Then Rodolphe
Czuba entered the place. I annoyed him a little by showing him my CT060
which had a little problem to run. Xerus withdrew the CT60 card from my
computer and gave it to Rodolphe. Three weeks later, the bird flew more
quickly and higher.
Another expected guest was Carl Forhan. All had been preparing for his
arrival. What a disappointment! Family affairs detained him. And to which
disappointment was added also when the author of Robinson Requiem was
noticed by his absence. Perhaps will they come next year? They are welcome.
Without my Falcon, I continued my game, for the Falcon by rendering. CTS had
already installed its material and had started to code under Linux when I
came to torture him with my questions. His objective is to make a game like
Wipe Out in 3D, even more polished, on the Jaguar.
He was concentrating on lines of code and its good execution on the Jaguar.
Next to CTS was Freddi Freddo, the unlucky person. Each one of his attempts
fails. But, how does he make? He was occupied testing its Alpine board to
display an image with an effect of light coming from behind letters. He
showed me some beta free games as well.
Finally the meal. It is the ideal occasion to analyse things and to have the
first impressions of our party. I exchanged impressions with Pocket Mag,
Florian, Arethius, Odie_One and with some newcomers. After this good meal,
playing some games on the Nuon were obligatory.
This machine was on my list of acquisitions (at the time of writing I bought
mine).
Arethius approached the microphone to announce the beginning of the
tournaments. The first was on Tempest 2000. Nick Harlow beat me. In
Warlords, on the VCS, the same thing. Too bad... In one moment of madness,
Kuk insisted on occupying the scene and to speak to us about the virtue of a
wine from the Middle Age. I benefitted from that pause to make a tour of the
room.
Some guys worked on a game called 'Alice' on the Dreamcast. Others had
brought an arcade, Xbox, and a Playstation 2. A small corner was reserved
for the exchanges and the sales. Another corner was reserved for repairs.
Vince and his fingers of fairy were of service. The Lynx 2 praised Alpines
Games It is the most beautiful game of the world or the universe, it's up to
you. All is superb in this remake of Winter Games. Why buy a GBA? And other
games of this quality arrive. It is the case of Fadest, but in another
style. He likes reflexion games without music or sound effects. He devotes
his time to develop such games for Lynx 2, like Vince and his port of
Tempest 2000. Good luck to them. The last hour sounded and I ate an excess
of chocolate cake. The organization was excellent as usual. Participants
were in the Atari spirit and very cool. See you in April 2005 for the next
edition.
The forum is attended by devoted and pleasant people. Many still-active
people or who marked the scene by their productions come regularly. It is
the case of Patrice Mandin, Brume, Rajah Lone, Tobe, and Logitron. But the
group which is emphasised in this article is Cerebral Vortex. It counts 2
additional members (Scrat and Templeton). Their principal project seems to
be Pong for 8 players. This is 'Poong'. Another one drawn to my attention
is Blood Money 2. It would be on STE in overscan and 1 VBL. Good luck guys.
The group wishes to launch out in the development on the Jaguar. Turbo GT,
their boss, codes an editor map for the Atari. Does he sleep ? Does he take
illicit products to be so productive ? In any case, it is promising. And as
if it were not sufficient, Cerebral Vortex released an intro for the 10
years of DHS. On the development side, there is Rajah Lone who continues his
GEM version of Dungeon Master. His Renaissance group accomodates a second
member, Darou.
Tobe continues with Roger 2000. His intro for DHS is really my preferred
choice. For a first step in assembler, it is superb. And then, of course
there is Patrice Mandin. With Didier Mequignon, he's an Atari god. Patrice
wishes to help someone to port a SDL library on the Jaguar. This is the best
of news. And then, there is Cooper. But where is Pooz ?
For my part, I continue with graphics for Chrome. A game which puts in scene
a couple of robbers who flee in a car, away from very malicious types. There
are also scenes a-la-Maximum Force, I make my possible so that it resembles
it. Already there are 140 megs of animations and it is only the beginning.
Xerus could program it. If another coder wants to help him, he is welcomed.
Lastly, Vince decided to write tutorials for the Lynx 2. He has already some
volunteers. Freddi Freddo sells his BJL pack to develop on the Jaguar and
continue his tennis game with animals.
What? a new comer by the name of SPVCD develops his own kit of development
for the Jaguar!!!
About the magazines, Rayxamber publishes number 137 of ST-Mag and a new
issue of Revival too.
Pocket Mag sells in kiosk Pocket Magazine. The best magazine which speaks
about handheld consoles. Arethius will release a special issue of Becanes
Atari which will compare Defender 2000 and Protector SE and be focused on
Iron Soldier 1,2 and 3. Since the beginning of 2005, the forum counts
registered voters more and more. Some rediscover Atari, others develop,
others complete their collection. Will the Atari spirit be stronger in 2005?
I am sure it will!
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