Battlesphere Gold (REVIEW) - Atari Jaguar

[bigmike4758]

is there a difference between the CD-Rom version and cartridge version?

[Antonyv1982]

this doesn't actually look too bad, and I'm amazed to hear/see that it had network capabillities, how did that work? I see no modem socket on the back. or did it just require loads of jags in a room with loads of tvs and link cables?

[AKIDPRODUCTION09]

"Kids this is what daddy plays.. Fuck your call of duty bullshit this is a classic!"

[3gdosrsfs]

@AtomicSkull: Actually you forget to mention the most important FACTS which is the OPL and the Blitter, THE REAL workhorses of the Jaguar are 100% 64 bit's wide. The only issue of the Jaguar and it's typical game title lineup, is that the tools for it sucked hairy moose and most programmers could not leave the 68000 alone. Given a dev kit similar too and as well thought out as the Sony had, the games would be much more superior. It did not even have a decent C compiler for it's two risc chips.

[phrixil]

Now if THIS game were the pack in game with the Atari Jaguar at launch instead of Cybermorph, I think people would've taken Atari more seriously when they said "do the math".

This game looks almost as good as Colony Wars on the Sony Playstation. Very impressed.

[j2e2c]

This looks like a great game... reminds me of X-wing VS Tie Fighter! :)

[saturndual32]

I hope this great engine is put to use again at some point, Scatologic did an incredible job coding it. It would be just sad if it was never used again.

[theelusiveone]

Excellent video. The music you put in goes great to this game. I'm going to try it on the Jaguar emulator.

[punipunipunisher]

2002, even...

[punipunipunisher]

"the graphics are simply fantastic for a game coming from that time period."

Talking about a game from the year 2000. You are trolling or insane.

[Sypran]

I seriously want this game. or a game like it, but there are no space shooters anymore and the ones there are are usually starwars, 3rd person, and well just arn't as cool

[theelusiveone]

@Sypran You can download a Jaguar emulator and this game for free. Chances are your computer can run it perfect. If you want to play the greatest space sim ever in my opinion than you can either buy FreeSpace 1 & 2 at gog.com for $5.95 usa money or you can even download the FreeSpace 1&2 torrent from pirate bay and download it for free. If you go the piratebay route than make sure you download the good old games (gog) FreeSpace torrent because it works perfectly. Hope you get this msg.

[modewr]

The Jaguar was 16-24 bit....and of course it had to be better graphically than the SNES and Genesis which both came out 2-4 years earlier.

[viMasterJag]

@modewr of all the uneducated remarks i get, that's one of the funniest.

[modewr]

@viMasterJag : Huh? You mean this crap console is 64 bit? Man you're a weirdo.

[cant1rac]

@modewr how the hell do you get 24 bits.

the jaguar worked on a 64bit bus, had 5 processors 2 64bit, 2 32bit, and a 16 bit master chip.

the jaguar was overpowered and unable to deliver a fraction off its potential, because of atari's mistake of making it a catridge based system, which in 93. ment a practal limit of 32mb storage on a cartridge.

it was a cost problem, not a technical one.

this can be seen in the n64 as well.

the far weaker saturn could have greater texturing in games like quake

[DracIsBack]

@modewr LMAO. you really have no clue what you're talking about, dude.

[Atomicskull]

@modewr Actually is was a hybrid of 16, 32 and 64 bit. the 68000 was 16 bit the other chips in the system were a combination of 16-bit and 32-bit internally and used a 64-bit memory buss. The 64-bit wide memory buss was so they could use cheap slow RAM without sacrificing speed, they just doubled the width of the buss. Most of the Jaguar technology was actually designed by Flare and was purchased by Atari look up Konix Multisystem on Wikipedia it's a facinating story. 

[meowmmmmm]

It's an interesting game, and very very rare, but from a programing point of view I don't think it pushes the hardware.at all.

[3gdosrsfs]

Only a Moron and Nintendo fanboy who knows nothing about AI programming would

be stupid enough to compare StarFox to the genius and superior computing of Battlesphere. Get a grip Nin fan boy. Star Fox is an on rails pile of shit with no replay value whatsoever.

[AlephNeil]

This looks like an X-Wing clone. As such, it holds its own against early versions of X-Wing and Tie Fighter, in terms of graphics and sound. However, in those games you had capital ships to attack or defend, and the missions had fairly interesting 'plot lines'.

This points to one of the factors responsible for the death of the jag: *None* the games (except *maybe* AvP) had any sort of depth. So many simplistic, brainless, boring, half-assed shooters.

[bobbystar101]

Where can I download this game? (as this would be the only way to run it, im sure the devs themselves intended to put it online for people to run as homebrew - surely they dont want to kill their own game)

[MasterOrHan1]

@bobbystar101 check ROM download sites, Google "Battlesphere Gold ROM" and I'm sure you will find results. But that's coming from a dumbshit per your description so that can't possibly be right. One finger is pointing and 3 are pointing back obviously.

[jose35neg]

whose the rock band that sings @ the beginning,they Kickass!

[viMasterJag]

@jose35neg It's called "Almost Honest" by Megadeth :-)

Thanks for watching.

[jose35neg]

thank's dude for da 411,contineu keepin the JAG alive .

U ROCK

[deadline27]

@viMasterJag i wonder if megadeth even knows about them using that song... any copyright info on the package???

[viMasterJag]

@deadline27 I don't think it will be a problem.

I put the music in.

[CLeRKSfan4life]

Why the crap does every Jaguar game get compared to fuckin' Starfox. Seriously, Cybermorph, Battlemorph, I-WAR, Battlesphere and I'm sure I saw a comment on a Club Drive video, they get compared to Starfox because they use flat shading or gourad shading and involve a vehicle moving in a 3d environment. It's fuckin' stupid.

[nooblet911]

it still looks like an early 32 bit game, nothing more

and the empty space helps a lot (star fox had colorful planets and many objects)

[viMasterJag]

That's not a bad thing, necessarily.

"64-bit" technology was obviously in its early stages with the Jaguar. It makes sense that a "32-bit" machine developed at a later time could outperform an old 64-bit architecture in 3D applications, especially with specific 3D-geared hardware.

That doesn't mean the games on the Jaguar don't "look" 64-bit, because the bits are completely trivial. It's about what the hardware and coders could do at the time.

[nooblet911]

well yeah, of course the bits don't mean much

turbografx 16 was 8 bit and could compete with the 16 bit genesis for example

[atarian2049]

Precisely. The 2600 was 8-bit, but it couldn't play a game like Mario because it was using 1974-designed technology. Atari sadly thought that the amount of bits would be its ace in the hole, but unfortunately, it was 64-bit technology designed in 1991 and released in 1993. So by the time the PlayStation was released, the Jaguar was already considered "old technology".

[A31Chris]

32bit game and 64bbit game is meaningless terms. How they(bits) benefit a game is subjective. The bits aren't as important as the texture mapping memory which is needed for more texturing on the Jag etc.

The Jag was a 64bit system that had no memory given to it for texture mapping.

The filtering and anti-aliasing that came later with the n64 is not a property of it being 64bit but a seperate function altogether that could be slapped on any 32bit machine as well.

[mightyfistik]

Looks average. Wouldn't pay $400-$600 even if it came with a fully stocked Jaguar and everything else available for it!

There are far better games on consoles of the same era, and CHEAPER

[atarian2049]

It's $400-600 because of its rarity. BattleSphere Gold is one of the rarest completed Jaguar games ever made- released several years after Atari itself folded- and only a small amount were released as a "special edition".

[SenjaruVideos]

Doesnt look any better than starwing :/

[viMasterJag]

LOL, seriously?!

Look at Star Fox and its flat polygons with hardly any shading at all and then look at the enemies here again... BIG difference. This uses amazing gourad-shading.

Now since the graphics are obviously better on Battlesphere, let's talk about the depth of the game -- SO much more to do than on Star Fox.

[SenjaruVideos]

lool maybe this video doesnt do it justice, But i loved starwing, the music, the gameplay everything was just so fun

[viMasterJag]

Oh, I enjoyed Star Fox when it came out, too. I didn't have an SNES, but my friend did and he got that game on release day and we played it like mad.

I was replying to your comment that it doesn't LOOK better than Star Fox, though. With that, this really does look better. I compared this video with a Star Fox video and the difference is clear to me.

As far as gameplay, though, they are different types of shooters. SF is on rails and this one isn't.

[WaxHeadroom]

Wish i had this. Just think how exciting it would be to see another Great title come out for the Jaguar.......it would sell plenty of copies.

[SteveBenway]

Great video.

I have a Jaguar in my collection (video of my collection on my channel), and a few games for it, and I can honestly say that none look as good as this.

It's like you say, if developers had had more support, and no doubt time, the Jaguar could have done much better.

[Clipman00]

This almost looks 32-bit but no way is it 64-bit, hope to check out a ROM of this one.

[viMasterJag]

Games can't be "32-bit" or "64-bit."

It's the system that determines that.

What would you classify as 64-bit? Games on the Nintendo 64?

The N64 was released in 96/97. The Jaguar was released in 93/94. Technological advances would have obviously taken place. There's clearly a difference between 1993-64-bit and 1996-64-bit. However, that doesn't make the Jaguar any less 64-bit -- just less advanced, because of the timing.

[Clipman00]

N64 was 64-bit like Jaguar was 64-bit or in other words, it was a stretch to call it that. You have a point about the time discrepancy, but most people would agree with me that the games for the most part did not take advantage of the reputed power of the system. Battlesphere looks interesting though and is worth commending for being released long after the system died.

[viMasterJag]

woops, I went to hit reply to your last one, but instead I hit spam. Is there a way to reverse it?

Anyway, yes, you're right about not taking advantage of the system.

There are few that have come closer than others -- Battlesphere being one. I'd say Zero 5 & Phase Zero are others that do well.

[dstarks80]

Your statement sounds quite narrow-minded. Atari 2600 is 8-bit..NES is also 8-bit with 9 years of progress behind it. Intellevision is 16-bit..Sega Genesis is 16-bit. What does a game have to "look" like to be a representation of bits?

[MasterOrHan1]

I suppose I've ruffled the feathers of some Jaguar fanboys. Anyone that has played a Sega Genesis & a NES will be able to tell the difference. Most people agree that Atari stretched their claim that Jaguar was 64-bit. To me, this game looks like something on Sega Genesis 32X. In fact, compare this game to Shadow Squadron for 32X and you'll see that there isn't a huge gap graphically. What a game has to look like is relative, but any toddler can tell you there is a difference.

[dstarks80]

Then I guess it would be fair to say Castlevania on PSX looks almost 24-bit because it doesen't look much better than the SNES Castlevania.You still didn't answer the question.Atari 2600 and NES are two 8-bit machines with games that have no visual similarities.16-bit Intellevision games look nothing like 8-bit NES or Atari 7800 games.I think the programming tools,techniques,skill,game budget,and available technology are much more important than bits.Jaguar games "looked"good in 94 BTW.

[MasterOrHan1]

SoTN looks much much better than say Castlevania IV IMO and is one of my all-time favorites. I did answer your question, that is that a games' appearance is relative, mostly on available technology. Jaguar games looked better than average in 94 with nothing else to compare them to but when the 32-bit CD based consoles came out, it really showed that Jaguar could have put more muscle in it's machine.

[MasterOrHan1]

The Dreamcast is a good example of a piece of hardware that came out before others of it's generation but still was competently created to even rival the PS2 which came out 2 years later. Atari has always made underpowered hardware, the 5200 & the 7800 being great examples. The 7800 came out after the NES and the detail is nowhere as good. Atari got run out of the hardware business because they weren't competitive. I like the Jag, but only with a grain of salt because I like all games.

[dstarks80]

Atari has usually made overpowered hardware but they ususally failed to exploit it.The 7800 was created B4 the NES and had a limited release a year B4 the NES.The 5200 is a much more capable machine than it's competetor (Coleco Vision)and most 5200 games had better graphics and sound than Coleco Vision.I've had a 7800 for nearly 20 years and can tell you the graphics are nearly on par with NES but the sound is very inferior.Atari failed because the Tramiels weren't true to the gaming industry.

[3gdosrsfs]

@MasterOrHan1

The 7800 Graphics chip is far superior to the flicker fest VDP in the NES. You need to learn what you are talking about before you open your Ninfan boy mouth. The AI coding in Battle Sphere is far superior to any game until Halo.

Sure the graphics have long been out done by other systems, but certainly not the SNES MAXES out at 32k colors and star fox does not even come close to that. BattleSphere is using 16 bit CRY color....that means 65536 colors.

[MasterOrHan1]

@3gdosrsfs This comment thread is over a year old and you are digging it up again. I haven't researched extensively what is inside the consoles but compare any game you like that is on both 7800 & NES and obviously the detail is more pronounced on NES. The 7800 looks pixelated on screen. I referenced Nintendo and Sega, I don't know how you are calling me a "Ninfan". I never said SNES was more powerful than Jaguar in any way. Way to put words in my mouth.

[3gdosrsfs]

@MasterOrHan1

continued Also the SNES had a real tool set to code with...the JAguar had nothing to write home about. There was NO C compiler for the RISC's. Therefore no one wanted to bother and used the slow bus choking 68k..which was supposed to boot the machine and be turned off so the reall 64 bit parts could do the work.

[3gdosrsfs]

@MasterOrHan1

Since the 16 bit 68k was not used according to Atari's recommendations, you see a lot of garbage games on the Jaguar because it never stood a chance since Atari never gave it a fighting one. At the time of the JAguar's release, there is no system beofre it that even came close in computing ability. NO not even the 32sux.

[MasterOrHan1]

@3gdosrsfs

I don't feel compelled to play any of the Jaguar's game library really. Battlesphere looks interesting but I've never even seen if a ROM is available. Forget playing Jaguar CD as I hear those don't even work. Jaguar seemed like an advanced SNES or Genesis but not the next evolutionary step in gaming consoles. The Jaguar controller was classic with all those buttons that weren't used by most games. For collectors only.

[dstarks80]

The other 32-bit machines you're reffereing to(I'm assuming PSX and Saturn) came out after Jaguar, were slightly more powerful than Jaguar and they had a better reputation than Atari at that time. Not to mention they had huge financial backing. PSX Casltevania (I had this for my PSX) is overglorified. It has terrible acting,most of the FMV is lousy still images,the gameplay is straight from the 8 and 16-bit era,and the 2D graphics are only a slight improvement over the SNES game.

[MasterOrHan1]

@dstarks80

The point I was making was that Jaguar claimed to have 64-bit technology while the consoles afterwards were 32-bit. Therefore being "64-bit" should have meant something more power wise. You can compare Jaguar to TurboGrafx-16 which wasn't truly 16-bit but had an 8 bit CPU and 16 bit GPU. TurboGrafx-16 had some unique games I enjoyed playing, but it wasn't up to speed with the Genesis which came out almost at the same time.

[bobbystar101]

@MasterOrHan1 OMG dumbshit the 32x never even got close to this and this is from someone who was a megadrive fanboy with a power base converter 32x and mega cd.

[MasterOrHan1]

@bobbystar101 I don't know what you are talking about. This looks like Starfox on SNES, nevermind the Nintendo 64 version which looks way better than this. Still think this looks like Shadow Squadron on 32X(I know it does). I'm sure this game is a lot of fun but it isn't some incredible piece of technology we all missed somehow.

[bobbystar101]

@MasterOrHan1 This looks way better than anything on snes megadrive 32x etc etc.

End of.

[MasterOrHan1]

I agree it looks better on Jaguar than the systems you mentioned, but not by much. That's why the Jaguar tanked because it wasn't delivering on true 64-bit performance over what was out at the time.

[xnonsuchx]

@bobbystar101 - It was better than Genesis/SegaCD/32X and SNES, but not quite able to compete w/ the PS(One) or Sega Saturn, though many of the titles were also rushed to keep a flow of games coming. id Software said 4-6 mos. after DOOM for the Jaguar came out that they coulda had much better graphics (esp. higher quality textures and fps) had they delayed it.

[DevilMaster]

Does a ROM dump of this game exist?

[viMasterJag]

Not that I know of.

[viMasterJag]

People do crazy things for systems they love.

In defense of the game, though, it's really actually quite good. I'd call it great, actually. I can't seem to play my 360 for anything other than rock band & call of duty, but I can always play a bunch of games on the Jaguar and they keep me entertained -- especially Battlesphere.

[ninjafilm]

I really want to play this game on a Jaguar console. :(

[Glumglufs]

Probably the most graphically impressive game I have seen so far for the Jaguar. If it would have had more games like this, it could have made a much bigger impact on the industry.

[anss321]

Cool review. The game seems very similar to X-wing from LucasArts. Same radar and weapon setup, shields, etc. I wonder of the devs drew inspiration from that game.

[viMasterJag]

I'm unsure how much inspiration was drawn from the Star Wars series, but I wouldn't put it past them.

I believe one of the biggest inspirations was an episode of the original Star Trek television show, but I'm unsure which one.

[anss321]

I took a look at their home page (or I think it was their homepage) and they mentioned X-wing and some other game as the basis. Not surprising with the game play being so similar (from what I can tell with your video).

Voidwar is also supposed to be similar; it was reced by a Battlesphear fan anyway.

[leechapman76]

Mmmmm makes me want this game even more (if I can ever find a resonably priced copy!). Shame I've not got a sound card in my PC yet (it was free from work).

[DFCstyleX]

this is like galaga 3d

[tursilion]

Nice to finally see a good clear video of Battlesphere, I finally have an idea what it's like. ;)

[saturndual32]

Thanks for showcasing this great game to the world. You do a great job reviewing Atari Jaguar games, keep up the great work!

[KevinCali24]

AWESOME job as usual. ;)

[dantheratman]

awesome vid man, best bs video on youtube. how high did you have to turn up the contrast?

[viMasterJag]

I'm not sure how to quantify that lol, but I had to turn it up maybe a quarter of what it was before on my capture card. I had to increase the contrast as well as the brightness and turned up the saturation a little.

[doctorclu]

Not a bad review. Just to show the difference between Battlesphere and the gold version you might want to show the different warp effect and the hidden games. :D

[viMasterJag]

I don't know anything about that stuff, so I'd have to figure that out first hehe.

I've only played it a handful of times.

[saturndual32]

doctorclu, could you tell us a bit about the hidden games?