Issue 47: Sep 2004
Features
- | Foreword
- | Tip of the day
- | Classic Gaming Expo UK 2004
Reviews
- | Tempus-Word NG 5.35 beta
- | Driv3r
| Ups and downs Welcome to the September issue of MyAtari. Many of you will have noticed that the last few issues of MyAtari have been... shall we say a little behind schedule? This has been due to a number of reasons including holidays and pressures of work. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those of you that e-mailed us recently with offers of support concerned that the magazine might have closed. Far from it! With the summer behind us, the cold winter evenings looming (and our fourth birthday next month), I am pleased to confirm that we are indeed alive and kicking :-) However, sadly the software publisher Acclaim Entertainment is not. Following weeks of speculation and uncertainty, Acclaim finally called in the receivers at the end of last month. Founded in 1987, Acclaim was once an active software house on the Atari scene publishing games including also enjoying reasonable success on the PS2 and Xbox platforms with games such as ALIAS and Turok. At the time of writing, Acclaim's web site still does not include any official press release and continues to promote its forthcoming release, Juiced - which must surely be now in doubt. On a positive note. As promised last month, I am pleased to announce that although we recently lost control of our mirror site at http://www.myatari.org, we have now secured hosting for our back issues thanks to reader Graeme Hinchliffe (LinkoVitch). As a result, you can now download every issue of MyAtari to read and enjoy off-line. Until next month, remember it's our fourth birthday so see you at the party! Date is Saturday 02 October in London, contact us for details. See you next month, Matthew Bacon, Editor matt@myatari.net
Useful links
Acclaim http://www.acclaim.com Back issues of MyAtari http://www.myatari.net/back.htm
Leaves on the line We did it... We were so late with the August issue (actually ready for weeks but simply lacked a cover picture!), we didn't manage to formally invite everyone to our second big curry night (at the end of August) in time, but well done to the ones who caught our invitation on the forum. It was a blast, even if the orders got even more messed up than last time! The London sightseeing tour earlier in the day was also great fun, we visited the Namco Station arcade inside County Hall by the River Thames, and missed a stop on the London Underground due to Stone and Tyrant's riveting discussion about the Jaguar's transparency and colour space. Atari historians and the older ones among us know that Namco's arcade operation has its roots in Atari of Japan, so even if the idea of an Atari Station arcade doesn't become a reality (come on, New Atari, explore this one), wouldn't it be great, and easily done to also incorporate Atari classics into Namco Station? I clearly remember an Atari-badged Pole Position sit-down cabinet at the theme park formerly known as Chessington Zoo, and how cool it was to see the "real" version of the game I played so much on the Atari 800 home computer.
Movin' on the queen's highway Lookin' like a streak of lightnin'
A stripy Felice closely followed by Tyrant disguised as a Bee Gee.
Stone pondering what to have for lunch by the river, with the fluffy thing he won at the nearby fun fair.
MyAtari was always intended to be more than just a magazine, and in recent times, the community aspect has matured well, thanks to the participation of readers and supporters from other sites. Funny for all the wrong reasons I was never into any of the Driver games, but I had a riot of a time during our review sessions of Driv3r while taking screen-shots. Like Club Drive on the Jaguar, I found it to be most entertaining when played in totally the wrong way to that originally intended. That meant attempting to mow down wire fences in a single motion with no breaks, and checking out the damage simulation by reversing at speed to swing doors open then snapping them off against walls and other hard objects! There was also a hilarious moment where I managed to drive one car up the stairs of a monorail station and onto the platform, then mounted the track! Unfortunately I slid off in the excitement of having got up there, before managing to find out what would happen if I tried to ram a train off it... Subsequently we spent at least another hour just trying to find out which car was narrow enough to get up the stairs of which station again, for a second attempt, and to get a screen capture of it. If any readers find out, let us know, or even send us a photo! In fact why not send us pictures of your funniest Atari gaming moments, the only condition must be that it actually happened in the game and is not faked. There's no fun in that, right? Like a '70s kung-fu flick featuring Jim Kelly, you too can find bags of unintentional humour, in your games, so it's time to dust them off and play again, with complete disregard for the rules... Shiuming Lai, Features and Technical Editor shiuming@myatari.net
[ Top of page ] | MyAtari magazine - Feature #1, September 2004
Copyright 2004 MyAtari magazine