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                    DEMOLITION MAN & COMMANDER BLOOD DEMO CD
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system... Jaguar + CD + CD Bypass cartridge

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B & C Computervisions from the U.S. brought us another interesting stuff in form
of the  left overs of never  released games  for the Jaguar. On  this CD you can
find the presentation  demo of "Demolition Man" and "Commander Blood", but while
the first one is a  real demonstration that  shows how the complete  game should
look like, the demo of the second one is more or less  a collection of 3d scenes
that are thought to be included in the game.

Ok, let's take a closer look onto "Demolition Man"... I think the plot should be
clear to anyone  since it is based  on the movie with Sly Stallone that features
the  adventures of a deep  frozen police officer  in the future world, hunting a
badass that was frozen as well and is terrorizing the future peaceful world.

This  should give  enough stuff for an  action game, esp. a 3d game. And so this
presentation  is all about the  game, featuring large excerpts from the original
movie, mainly used to  guide through the  game itself. You  take over the job of
Sylvester Stallone, you're the  police man and your  first mission starts in the
burning Los Angeles of  1996 and so you're  following his way  through the whole
movie while several special parts, as he hunts the  bad guy, are the core of the
game itself since you're taking over his job there by yourself.

The game  sequences are all  in 3d, showing in  parts 3d sceneries and also some
mock up game sequences showing the perspective as first person or from behind of
your hero. The sequences are looking good, very detailed, atmospheric and with a
quite high resolution... but here comes the  point that makes it understandable,
that this game never saw the light of day.

Nothing against the Jaguar, but  the game sequences  are of a quality that needs
at least  something like the  Unreal engine, or better Quake2 and here comes the
problem. As the menu shows, it isn't  thought for  the Jaguar only  since in the
menues  another controller  appears, but I  have to wonder  what machine in this
time, and I mean  console, was able  to let  such a 3d engine  run in reasonable
speed. I think  no console in  that times (the  game was scheduled for 1995/1996
as I think) was able  to bring the game  in the way it was presented here, maybe
the Playstation  had offered the power, but I doubt  that the Jaguar  would ever
be able to create 3d engines like the needed one.

I don't know if the game was ever finished on another console system, but for me
it is some kind of dull to create such impressive  demonstrations of forthcoming
games before making  bigger steps  in the  development of  the game itself. Just
think, after  all the  demonstrations  some video shots  coming up, starring Sly
again, presenting  the Mission finish  screens with  his personal  critics about
your finish of each mission. I don't  see the point in  doing such things before
any bit on the game engine is done.

So it is also clear that  this demo appeared quite late, several years after the
project was already dead and I think it's better so, since this demo maybe would
have made a wet  mouth to the Jaguar players  without being possible to feed the
hype in the end.

Today it is some kind of nostalgic to watch  at these antics. The demo is surely
very professional produced, the quality of the video shots isn't bad but in some
parts the resolution is  turned down like hell (esp. in the first sequences with
the burning  buildings and the police  cars on the streets). In  later parts the
resolution is very good, still no movie quality, but eh, it's a game!

The parts that presenting the 3d engines of the game are quite different as well
since it looks like  the first person engine and the "camera view" engine are of
different  quality. While the first  person engine, is very  comparable with the
Quake2 engine, or  even better, the "camera" engine  is maybe of Unreal style, I
also have to admit that the movement of the hero looks a bit strange...

Anyway... it surely could have been a nice game, if it would have found hardware
that is able to create such powerful engines... Not only  that the Jaguar wasn't
able to offer  that high power, I also  have to doubt that the programmers would
have been  able to squeeze  out the best of that  machine, just remember how bad
many many Jaguar games were converted/created.

Too bad... so what is left? A nice short cut version of "Demolition Man"...


At next, "Commander Blood" isn't very  impressive, or better, it is hard to find
out what this  game should be about. It presents  quite stunning 3d scenes  with
some kind of Jaguar feature (since it starts to slow down, yurk). But that's all
about  it, there  is  no sound, no game  sequence, nothing else... just  some 3d
animations, and not more...

What is left to say? This CD doesn't feature  any game ore something, just the 2
demos mentioned above and because of this  it isn't a  thing for gamers, more or
less  only for collectors of Jaguar antics that  are going to  get anything that
was released for this machine.

Ok... thanx to Flash of .tnb. for lending me his Jaguar incl. CD and stuff since
without his help  this and the  other Jaguar articles  surely wouldn't have been
possible...

_.tSCc._________________________________________________________moondog__o8/2k2_