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[Guardians][Software That Wasn't: Jaguar XJ220]    
Jaguar XJ220 Amiga ingame Jaguar XJ220

Advertised

Advertised by Core and previewed in some magazines but unfortunately never released.
(screenshot above from the Amiga release)


Jaguar XJ220

When Jaguar XJ220 - which was to many the holy grail of car racing simulators - apparently failed to surface on the Atari ST in the early 90's, ST owners the world over cast an envious glance over at their Amiga counterparts and wept.  In a story of 2 parts, Guardians investigates exactly what went down back in the hazy days of the early 90s and what ultimately became of this racing leviathan on the ST.


The 'Best of British'

Jaguar - A Great British institution, a prestige car, a computer game?...  Well in 1992 it was set to burst into the world of ST gaming when independent software developers Core Design (who at this time were perhaps best known for the games Chuck Rock & Car-Vup) decided it was time to channel their considerable talents into the world of racing simulators and take on the big boys of the time - Gremlin's much lauded and all conquering 'Lotus' series of games and Titus' Crazy Cars.  So they put their hat into the ring and came up with 'Jaguar XJ220'.  A supercar racing simulator par excellence that would see the Jaguar XJ220 take on some of the worlds finest supercars - Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghinis etc - in a series of races around the world on more tracks than you could shake a stick at. (*ahem* well 36 circuits through 12 countries to be precise).  The game was to be the 'Best of British', combining as it did the blue chip Jaguar name with Core's increasing reputation for producing top notch games. Boasting a 2 player mode, an innovative track editor and attention to detail like never before - including atmospheric weather conditions - Jag looked every part the real deal.  So, exactly what went wrong?  Did an ST version ever exist at all and if so where is it?

Back to '92

"Will you run out of bottle before the throttle"(strapline from Jaguar XJ220 advert run in '92)

Sadly ST Owners would never get the chance to find out!
The game was originally scheduled for release in 1992 - the year in which the Jaguar XJ220 car first entered production in the UK - and as such publicity for the Jaguar XJ220 title could be seen rolling out across various magazines earlier that year.  The gaming publication 'ST Format' (citation needed) and the multi-format 'Zero' magazine (Issue 30, April '92) would both publish WIP articles on the game - the latter as part of its 'Underwraps' preview series where a game currently under development was examined. This article even went so far as to give a projected release date for the ST version - April 1992, the very same date given for the Amiga release!  An Amiga version of Jaguar XJ220 did hit the shops midway throughout the year as promised (to near universal acclaim I should add [1]) however, there was to be no sign of its ST counterpart - only the tantalizing prospect of what was to come courtesy of the ubiquitous format blurb found on the reverse of the Amiga Box and in advertisements running at this time.  This read:

'Available on Atari ST and Commodore Amiga (both 1 Meg only)'.

ST owners could therefore be forgiven for believing that it was only a matter of time and that it was not a case of IF but of WHEN would Jag appear (sadly in reality we all know this provides little more than a statement of intent on behalf of the publisher - even if the publication of minimum ST specifications suggested something was in the pipeline).

The Science of Speculation

As the months rolled by however nothing was to be heard of this ST version.  There were no reviews to be found in the battery of ST publications from that era, no updates, no news, no official cancellation.  Nothing!.  The game simply died a quiet death without ever making the jump from mere magazine intrigue to final retail product.  No reason or explanation (that we can find) was ever given.  We can therefore but speculate as to what the main reasons were behind this death.  Poor Amiga sales in the face of intense competition - not least from Titus's 'Crazy Cars III' (launched a few short months after in Aug 92) and a now rejuvinated 'Lotus' (rereleased on budget [2]) - would see Jag fail to make any serious impact in the Amiga Top Ten games chart after its release and this against the backdrop of an ever declining (if not dying) ST software market!  If Core had ANY doubts about publication of an ST version beforehand then this certainly wouldn't have helped persuade them to the contrary.  Core had other internal problems to contend with also.  Its wildly ambitious game 'Darkmere: The Nightmare's Begun' - a Cadaveresque isometric-3D action, adventure, roleplaying romp (don't worry this never made the ST either!) - was falling badly behind schedule causing it's projected launch date to continually be pushed back.  Given the investment and time already made by Core to this project they responded by drawing resources from other areas [3].  The ST version of Jaguar XJ220 may well have been a casualty of this internal fallout, especially if the Amiga version had performed below expectations.

So there we have it!  Jaguar XJ220, a supercar racer that sadly never made it off the starting grid.  It was fueled..., it was ready..., but ultimately for reasons still largely unknown it failed to launch.  That it did so truely was a travesty for ST race fanatics everywhere.


Actual Known Releases

Aside from the Amiga version referred to above, Jaguar XJ200 also made an appearance on the Sega-CD console in 1993 (see below).




Screenshots taken from the Sega-CD release




*STOP PRESS*

This just in folks...  One of the more mysterious, perplexing, and darn right curious non appearances ever to grace the mighty ST - namely the non appearance of Jaguar XJ220 - has finally been put to rest!  Yes you read right, this one is solved! Thanks to Andrew Buchanan (the programmer behind the ST conversion) for the inside story of what really went down and why, and for making the development demo of Jaguar XJ220 available to all for the first time. 

You can view the database entry for Jaguar XJ220 here: http://www.guardiansofthepast.co.uk/software.php?Version_ID=413.


Notes:
  1. it consistantly scored in the 80s and 90s in reviews conducted by various Amiga publications - a critical success highlighted by comments such as:
    "Core have excelled themselves with Jaguar XJ220... consider it an integral part of your software collection!" (Amiga Action 33, Jun 1992)
    "Simply the finest racing game I've seen so far and one that both Jaguar and Core can be justifiably proud of". (CU Amiga, Jun 1992)
  2. The first Lotus game from Gremlin reappeared on budget (see: 'The One Amiga' issue 45 Jun '92) around the time Jaguar XJ220 was released on Amiga.  This was bad news given that the games were very similar yet one would now retail at a price more than double the other!!!
  3. the 'Darkmere' project was initiated in February '92 for a scheduled Christmas '92 release (The One Amiga, Issue 50, Nov '92) (Amiga Action 38, Nov '92).  After numerous setbacks & delays in its development however (causing its release date to be pushed back several times) there was major reshuffle in the development team. (The One Amiga, Issue 59, Aug' 93)

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