        *****************JAGGED CES REPORT*****************
            ***BY BRIAN MCKENZIE, EDITOR 72702,3670***
Hi Everyone,
       Before I begin, I'd like to thank Don Thomas (Atari) for getting me into
 CES at the last minute. If he hadn't been there I wouldn't be able to give you
 this info.
     This was the scene at CES: Atari had a both right at the front next to
 Acclaim. Nintendo was on the other side of Acclaim. The Atari booth had a TV
 showing movies off the Jaguar CD at the left front corner. Star Wars and Back
 to the Future looked much better than they do coming from my VCR at home.
 Jaws wasn't quite as hot but you wouldn't know from 12 feet away. At the right
 corner was a big-screen TV on which people were competing in Kasumi Ninja and
 later Iron Soldier.
     Although Nintendo had a booth 4 times the size of Atari's, they didn't
 attract as many people. I could barely walk around sometimes in the Atari boot
 there were so many people. I also noticed that younger people (the 15-18 year
 age group) Stayed mainly in the Atari and Acclaim booths watching Kasumi Ninja
 Ultra Vortex, and MK2 in the Acclaim booth. The parent-types and business-type
 were over at Nintendo, probably discussing what should be done about terrible
 morally-corrupting games lik e Kasumi Ninja and Ultra Vortex. I'll let you in
 on something: any kid would rather blow up someone's torso in Kasumi Ninja tha
 watch some little monkey (and I mean that literally) eat a banana or throw a
 barrel (watch that violence, Nintendo!!!) :)
     Now on to the games. Just so everyone doesn't ask me about it, here are
  the games that either weren't at the show or were taken out because of glitch
  before I could play them:
  DOOM (glitch)
  Freelancer
  Apeshit
  Zodiac
  BattleWheels
  Tiny Toons
  Any other games I didn't mention in the report but forgot here
Jaguar  games at the show and what Dan and I thought of them:
Kasumi Ninja: The most talked-about game of the show. Despite my errr, conflict
 with the game's producer, I have to admit this is awesome. The backgrounds are
 great, especially the temple. The characters are okay but don't grab your
 attention very much. Pretty generic. The game had only 3 playable characters
 and was running slow, but the backgrounds looked very complete. Don't look for
 it real soon though.
Ultra Vortex: The other good Jaguar fighting game at the show. In my opinion
 this is better than Kasumi. It is running faster, has more interesting
 characters, and even better backgrounds than Kasumi Ninja. My favorite
 background is the one with all the hi-res statues. The one with the huge eye
 isn't bad either. The whole game looks like it will give MK2 a run for it's
 money. The only bad thing, in fact, i s that the animations are missing some
 frames (just like SF2 Turbo!). Four playable characters and complete (mostly)
 backgrounds make this one look as if it could be in our hands by September.
Double Dragon V:The Shadow Falls: Really pathetic. I couldn't tell between it a
 nd the SNES version of the game. The control is off, too.
Iron Soldier: The sleeper hit of the show. This awesome  3-d Battletech type
 game was supposedly done in only 2 months! The only thing missing was the AI
 on the enemies. One of the most creative and innovative games I've seen. You
 can destroy buildin gs, copters, tanks, etc. with multiple views of the action
 and the ability to move your head. I like the texture mapping on the copters.
 Iron Soldier looks very complete and I bet we'll see it shortly. This game
 should be rushed to the stores and magazines!
Checkered Flag II: Another great game. If they add a little more realism it
 will take Virtua Racing down. The polygons are perfectly done and move at an
 astonishing rate of speed. Lots of options help this game out, as well as the
 perfectly designed tracks. It looks more complete than Aliens vs. Predator. My
 personal fave of the show.
Club Drive: A hard game to describe. It never gets more than about 8 colors on
 the screen at one time and has blocky, dull polygons. However, it plays great
 and we spent more time on it than anything else. This is a classic conflict
 between graphics and gameplay. Looks pretty much done, except we couldn't
 figure out how to get to other courses. Maybe they aren't done yet or
 something.
World Rally: Nobody expected to see this game at the show. Don told me they
 unpacked the eproms and there it was. It is a bitmap racing game sort of like
 Super Off Road only it scrolls and looks pretty good in places. It didn't look
 very close to completion. It may end up being the kind of game that doesn't us
 the capabilities of the system well but is fun to play. I liked it.
Zool 2: Not good. It was barely even started and nearly impossible to control.
 The graphics are only SNES-quality at best. Don't bother to look for it in
 stores. It won't even get past quality control.
Bubsy: Looks better than any other version but nothing very special. Not far
 along in development but shows a small bit of promise if they improve it and
 add more colors. Right now it looks like a smoother, more polished version of
 the SNES game. It might be cool.
Rayman: Tied with Donkey Kong Country (SNES game rendered on an SGI) as the
 best side-scroller of the show. I can't stress how good this looks. Although
 it is early in developement (no collision detection, only 1 level) it looks
 like it will be practically perfect in every way. It controls better than DKC
 and has funny characters. This is a must-see.
Wolfenstein 3d: Forget about any other version of this game. The Jaguar has
 great resolution and moves almost too fast. The music is annoying, though. It
 has cinemas and a cool title screen!
Brutal Sports Football: This first sports game for the jaguar has lousy
 graphics but plays well and is addictive. We spent a lot of time with this,
 too.
Space War: This suprise atari game looks like it will be cool. You have a split
 screen and you fly through space shooting stuff. Not "on rails" like Starfox.
 Reminded me of Wing Commander a little bit. This looks complete enough that
 they could release it once they put in new enemies, cinemas, etc.
Star Battle: A not-very-complete 3d space shoot-em-up. It looks good but we
 won't know much about it for a while. All you could do was look at different
 ships like in the 3do version of Stellar 7.
BatleZone 2000: This was an early version. It is texture mapped, though,
 controls well, and has enemies in some areas. This ought to be a winner unless
 they blow it.
Aliens vs. Predator: Geezzz this has awesome graphics. Everything you've heard
 is true. It is slower than I had hoped but this will be improved. I noticed
 the cinemas are still missing except for this one that was on the cover of
 VideoGames magazine.  I have yet to see a better-looking DOOM-style game.
 I think we'll see this around September or October. Oh, by the way, all 3
 characters were playable, so don't listen to anyone who says otherwise.
Arena Football, Troy Aikman Football: I didn't play these but they were there.
World Class Cricket: This odd little game didn't look real graphical or excitin
Ruiner: This pinball game has the coolest title screen in the world. I didn't
 get to play it but it looked complete and should be just the ticket for pinbal
 fans everywhere.
     That's all the games I can remember.  E-Mail me if you think of any I
 missed. It was a great CES and it reassured me that games, and lots of them,
 are in developement for the jag.
                                     -Brian McKenzie
