PRGE 2019 - Making of Alien Vs. Predator AvP for the Atari Jaguar - Portland Retro Gaming Expo 4K

Panel "Making Alien Vs. Predator for the Atari Jaguar - a 25th Anniversary retrospective" with James Hampton from the 2019 Portland Retro Gaming Expo (PRGE), October 18th - 20th, 2019.
For more information go to www.retrogaming...
Description: Come hear about the time James had to smuggle an Alien Queen through quarantine...seriously. James served as producer of AvP and will share a ton of insights into working with Fox Studios, Rebellion Games, and Atari.

[@Retro-Fez]

I loved playing this game back in 94 and still love playing it today, scary to think its been 29 years YIKES ❤

[@CascadesHomestead]

Best game on the Jag and I also still play it today! T2K and Doom are also quite good.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

​@@CascadesHomesteadThe Iron Solider games are awesome, if your into Mech titles..

[@DaveVoyles]

I've wanted to hear this 'making of' for my entire life

[@EddyEdwards1]

Man I remember first seeing it at my mates house and being just blown away buy it.

[@J0MBi]

26:39 good to see some love for Iron Soldier - that game is genuinely excellent and never gets talked about.

[@CascadesHomestead]

+1 One of the best for the Jag!

[@J0MBi]

@@CascadesHomestead one of the best mech sims IMO. The 3rd game, which was realised on PS1 is probably the most accessible version, making great use of the PlayStation dual shock controller and improved graphics capabilities. But I really love the 90s aesthetic of the original game, and the sense of scale and weight the mechs have.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

​The Noun version is supposed to be even better

[@Sinn0100]

Oh wow...AVP for the Jaguar had an impact on me as large as Doom did. Back when kids were still playing mascot games I truly had something special and while AVP had its issues nothing like it existed at the time. This is a video I will be watching post haste. Starting in 3...2...1...

[@CascadesHomestead]

Yup, not only one of the best Jag games but truly an awesome FPS with the ability to play multiple characters and awesome ambient sounds - play it in the dark ! :)

[@Sinn0100]

@@CascadesHomestead With the sound all the way jacked-up. Seriously man, when I saw that game running I had an Sega Genesis/Sega CD and Snes. I thought nothing got better than the 16-bit generation (minus Doom on PC). We had arcade like experiences and great games. What else could I ever want? It wasn't like the next generation of hardware was out accept the 3DO and at 750 dollars they can keep it but I digress... I heard about the Jaguar and of course saw the commercials but even at that point I was a very jaded gamer. I thought...right, the commercials obviously are all smoke and mirrors otherwise why wasn't anyone talking about it. I was sure there was some Sega CD type trickery going on and the gameplay would be minimal at best. Little did I know I was going to find out how wrong I was.... At any rate, a local mom and pop video store had a Jaguar with AVP to rent so I did it. When I inserted the cart, threw on my TV (in my bedroom), and jumped into the Space Marine campaign my jaw hit the floor. I simply could not believe what I was seeing, how was this possible?! I immediately called friends over and their reaction was the same. I bought that Jaguar from the video store and because no one but me rented it he gave me Cybermorph, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and AVP for 300 bucks in 1994. Guess what I rarely played after that...my Sega Genesis/Sega CD and Snes. They really seemed like cheap toys by comparison. Although I did use my Sega CD to play a burned copy of the Doom soundtrack while playing the game which just set it off! ;)

[@sebastiann.8088]

​@@Sinn0100That is a great story! and a good deal on those Jaguar games back then. I hope you still have em!

[@friendsfan987]

So much work and passion went into this game! One of my all time favourite game, and totally nailed the atmosphere of the films

[@toastedfallenstar584]

Excellent game was that!

[@CascadesHomestead]

Agreed, best game for the Jag (together with T2K)!

[@bolid21]

Great!!! Thank you!!!

[@ChadTi99]

Enjoyed this, such a brilliant game!

[@kingofmars9627]

Great video. Thanks for posting.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

It's possible Purple's canned Lynx AVP title might not of been the first to run with the 3 seperate species campaign concept. PC 1993 Activision had in development :Aliens vs Predator: Nightmare on Ryushi allowed you to control a human, a predator or the alien queen, which gave three completely different games. With the Predator, it was an Operation Wolf -style shooterthat used the creature's infrared vision (as well as its triangular viewfinder). With humans, it was an adventure game playable with the mouse and seen through the character's eyes. Finally, the part with the alien queen was more strategic, you apparently had to design and deploy your troops to take control of the planet. The project seemed well advanced, since the game was announced in the Activision catalogs , but it finally collapsed during the summer of 93 due to licensing issues with Fox

[@21innocentbystander]

Amazing stuff! Thank you so much for uploading.

[@whiskeysk]

this was brilliant! Thank you very much for sharing.

[@w.w.7148]

Really great background info!

[@garethjohnstone8662]

Good game. I remember my mum drove me to a town 100 miles away and she wouldn't drive on the motorway so, we had to use main roads and 30mph. So pre sat nav, it took us all day, We got back late and I wasn't allowed to set it up until the morning. Sleepless night! I swapped my Amiga 600 with 200 games for a Jaguar with this 1 game. Big mistake lol.

[@CascadesHomestead]

AvP is awesome but yeah, not for an Amiga 600 with 200 games, ouch! Amiga had some real gems: Elite, Turrican 2, Sensible Soccer, Amberstar & Ambermoon, Worms etc. - so much goodness!

[@yuvraj01]

Hopefully the Lynx version may see the light of day in terms of a video, even if unfinished.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Atari's Dan McNamee, lead tester on AVP, backs up Purple Hampton in saying it was the ATARI team that came up with the concept of 3 seperate campaigns and wanting each character to play differently. So it's looking like Rebellion's Jason Kingsley is taking credit for featues he had nothing to do with. Dan also talks of features like the Run button for the Marine and other cool content, being dropped as the team simply ran out of time. Yet Jane Whittaker has always claimed content was dropped due to lack of space on the cartridge 🤔

[@Thegamingground]

Awesome video mate =)

[@gamingwithstand6886]

I really liked this game when it came out. There is a way to beat this game in 5 or 10 minutes I just can't remember how to do it again.

[@shawnlyons2952]

Great talk. Very interesting!

[@Ted-1993]

Maybe the AvP for ATARI LYNX can be re-created as the mod for Wolfenstein 3D?)

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

THE game which sold me the Jaguar on day one. Pity Jane Whittaker A.I routines killed the frame rate :'(

[@loganjorgensen]

Wow so many WTF anecdotes, Alien Queen considered porno in the UK, and any Tramiel being so helpful lol. 😄Neat stuff, always fun seeing the good digitization examples of costumes and stop motion, a very undervalued graphics method imo. In hindsight it is too bad AVP doesn't have a locked 15 FPS performance level, many of the earliest 3D games get a lot of flack for frame rates now Ie. the present where even 30 FPS isn't acceptable anymore.🙄Bitd I never noticed lag but now it is all people can say about it and the platform anymore.😮‍💨 Great stories and anecdotes about the people behind the game, easy for contemporary eyes to forget how much work and effort went into AVP Eg. three games in one.🙂

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Jane whittaker really should listen to this from start to finish, before doing anymore Tweets, talks or interviews about AVP.. Whittaker claims Mike Beaton got homesick, flew back to UK to finish coding AVP. Purple says Beaton stayed till the end, gave up months of his life. Whittaker claims AVP having no In-game music, was a deliberate design choice, they wanted the ambience sounds only, for better atmosphere. Absolute rubbish. Purple explained all.. Retro Gamer magazine issue 57, page 30. “In some instances what may have been a limitation turned into an identifying feature in the game. So when we found that the memory limitations weren’t going to let us have a movie-like symphonic score, we opted to go the other direction, and create an eerie soundscape from the ambient space station noise. The result added a lot of dramatic tension and captured the spooky feeling of being alone - until a threatening Predator clicking sound appeared nearby.”

[@CascadesHomestead]

Yup! Something *definitely* doesn't match up here!

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

@@CascadesHomestead I think a large part of the issue is, out of a team of what? 30 people involved in making AVP, We only have the accounts of a mere handful of individuals. Lance Lewis RIP Purple Hampton Jason Kingsley Rebellion A few misc soundbites from Dan McNamee And some very very dubious claims by Jane whittaker. It's clear there are still open wounds, Tramiels and money caused issues, Rebellion wanted to move onto other projects.. So many unanswered Q's to this day.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

@@CascadesHomestead Whittaker STILL making claims now. His latest tweet on It: the sound guys did an amazing job! really made the game. it is why we chose not to add in-game music!

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

AVP wasn't the first game where you could play as an Alien or The bad guy.. 1987 Survivor US GOLD/Toposoft Amstrad CPC, MSX and ZX SPECTRUM Description Survivor is a platform game in which you take the uncomfortable role of the "bad one". This time, you will be a ruthless alien wandering around in a gigantic spaceship which contains the last vestiges of the species which once extended thorough the entire Universe. Unfortunately for these species, Survivor (you) wants his race to be the only existing one. With such an evil purpose, you will move in different zones of the spaceship erasing all the species you encounter , including their babies. Your main weapon to do so will be a recalcitrant liquid, which you will be able to throw from your mouth. You are, however not immortal, and in order to recharge you energy you will have to eat some humans.

[@J0MBi]

Survivor is great - my friend had it back in the day on the CPC and the concept of playing as the alien in a platform game was great. 38:00 it does say "First FPS in which gamers can play as the monster".

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

​@@J0MBivery true it does say FPS. The Xeno isn't a monster though, from the Wiki. The Xenomorphs are vicious predatory creatures with no higher goals than the propagation of their species and the destruction of any life that could pose a threat to them.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

One of the games Sam Tramiel claimed the Sega Saturn could never pull off as well as the Jaguar :-)) Rebellion had started on an enhanced Saturn version

[@atarijaguarsgarage8873]

Not sure if the Saturn could pull off these solid walls with high res textures (+15 bit color). It was faster with texture mapping than the Jag but also limited in the way it renders the graphics.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

@@atarijaguarsgarage8873 I'd expect a reduction in colours on screen, hard to say from there on. Alien Trilogy only used on SH-2 I believe? So no equivalent Aliens game to really compare. Rebellion said Saturn AVP was killed early in, used Quads not polygons, that's about all I know.

[@adamduffield7782]

I dont understand why it didnt get a pc release. luckily rebellion made 1 of the best AVP games for pc in the late 90s

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

@@adamduffield7782 Rebellion took concepts from the Jaguar CD S. E wish list and features they couldn't put into the Jaguar version of AVP and used some of them in PC AVP.

[@sebastiann.8088]

​@@thefurthestmanfromhome1148Alien Trilogy on Saturn only uses one of the SH2 processors, which basically gimped it's preformance and put more strain on the CPU, but saying that Alien Vs Predator would not have been possible is just complete RUBBISH. A developer like Lobotamy Sotfware could have pulled a port off perfectly, and then some! Just take a look at Powerslave or even Quake on the Saturn and you will see that the Saturn is more than capable of handling a game that was made for an inferior console.

[@youtubesuresuckscock]

Nah, it's not the first FPS where you could play the monster. There was probably a Doom mod that allowed it first.

[@KingofCrusher]

I don't think mods count, yo.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

The Xenos and Predators aren't MONSTERS, the Predators are no different to the humans they hunt, they hunt for sport. The Xenomorphs just kill to survive and progate the species, would anyone class a Wasp as a monster?

[@Krooksbane]

@@thefurthestmanfromhome1148 You could use that logic literally for any monster

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

​@@KrooksbaneThe Xenomorphs don't exhibit cruelty or what could be described as evil behaviours.