Ultra Vortek
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''Ultra Vortek'' (also released as ''Ultra Vortex'') is a
fighting game The fighting game video game genre, genre involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappling, counter- ...
developed by
Beyond Games Beyond Games was an American video game developer. It was founded in 1992 by Kris Johnson. The first release from the company was BattleWheels for the Atari Lynx, winner of the 1993 Consumer Electronics Show Innovations Award. Their follow-up, ' ...
and published by
Atari Corporation Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of Home computer, home computers and Video game console, video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than ...
for the
Atari Jaguar The Atari Jaguar is a home video game console developed by Atari Corporation and released in North America in November 1993. It is in the fifth generation of video game consoles, and it competed with Fourth generation of video game consoles, fo ...
in North America and Europe on September 5, 1995. It was the second fighting game released for the Jaguar after ''
Kasumi Ninja ''Kasumi Ninja'' is a fighting game developed by Hand Made Software and published by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar. It was first released in North America and Europe on December 21, 1994, and was later released in Japan by Messe Sanoh in ...
'' and unsuccessfully sought to capitalize on the trend of violent fighting games started by
Midway Games Midway Games Inc. (formerly Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known simply as Midway) was an American video game company that existed from 1958 to 2010. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (franchise), Ra ...
's ''
Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of fighting game, fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The original ''Mortal Kombat (1992 video game), Mortal Kombat'' arcade game spawned Lis ...
'' in 1992. It was the only officially released game that supports the unreleased Jaguar Voice Modem
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for online play. Set in a
dystopian A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmenta ...
future, ''Ultra Vortek'' follows seven fighters from three groups as they enter a tournament held by a demonic being known as the Guardian. He is protector of the titular ancient tablet that will grant full power to the winning victor capable of defeating him and save Earth from being consumed by the artifact. Its
gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game. The term applies to both video games and Tabletop game, tabletop games. Gameplay is the connection between the player and the game, the player's overcoming of challenges, and t ...
consists of one-on-one fights, with a main three-button configuration, featuring special moves and finisher techniques, as well as two playable modes. After the launch of ''
BattleWheels ''BattleWheels'' is a 1993 first-person vehicular combat video game developed by Beyond Games and published by Atari Corporation in North America and Europe exclusively for the Atari Lynx. The first project to be created by Beyond Games, the g ...
'', Atari Corporation was impressed with the work of Beyond Games and invited their founder, Kris N. Johnson, to see their new hardware that would later become the Jaguar. Intrigued by the hardware specifications during this invitation, Johnson's company signed on to be one of the first third-party developers for the platform. Atari Corp. requested them to create a fighting game project and with the success of releases like '' Street Fighter II: The World Warrior'' and ''Mortal Kombat'', the team settled on developing a title which combined several art styles to showcase the system's capabilities and would become ''Ultra Vortek''. ''Ultra Vortek'' garnered mixed reception from critics. Some praised the mixed visual style and audio department while others panned the slow controls, choppy character animation and gameplay, deeming it as a ''Mortal Kombat'' rip-off. A version for the
Atari Lynx The Atari Lynx is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth-generation handheld game console, hand-held game console released by Atari Corporation in September 1989 in North America and 1990 in Europe and Japan. It was the first handhe ...
was also in development but never released, though Songbird Productions announced plans to publish it under the title ''Ultravore'' after acquiring the rights to the project from Beyond Games in 2000.


Gameplay

''Ultra Vortek'' is a fighting game featuring
digitized Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer-readable) format.Collins Dictionary. (n.d.). Definition of 'digitize'. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english ...
graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of the data, as in design and manufa ...
and sprites similar to ''
Kasumi Ninja ''Kasumi Ninja'' is a fighting game developed by Hand Made Software and published by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar. It was first released in North America and Europe on December 21, 1994, and was later released in Japan by Messe Sanoh in ...
''. The player fights against other opponents in one-on-one matches and the fighter who depletes the
health bar Health is a video game or tabletop game quality that determines the maximum amount of damage or fatigue something takes before leaving the main game. In role-playing games, this typically takes the form of hit points (HP), a numerical attribute ...
of the opponent wins a bout. The first to win two bouts becomes the winner of the match.''Ultra Vortek'' game manual (Atari Jaguar, US) Each round is timed, which can be adjusted or deactivated in the game options; if both fighters still have health remaining when time expires, the fighter with more health wins the round. The game features four levels of difficulty. Although inaccessible during normal play, players can also activate a turbo mode for faster playing speed similar to '' Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting'' via
cheat code Cheating in video games involves a video game player using various methods to create an advantage beyond normal gameplay, usually in order to make the game easier. Cheats may be activated from within the game itself (a cheat code implemented by ...
. In single-player mode, players can choose from seven playable characters and fight against computer-controlled fighters. A hidden character can be fought by fulfilling certain conditions. If all of the opponents are defeated on the Normal difficulty or higher, the player will be able to fight against the Guardian. Like in ''
Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of fighting game, fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The original ''Mortal Kombat (1992 video game), Mortal Kombat'' arcade game spawned Lis ...
'', special and death moves are performed by entering button commands while pressing the
d-pad The D-pad (short for directional pad) is a compact input method developed for video games, designed to translate thumb movement into directional control through a flat, cross-shaped surface that rests on four internal switches. Each switch corres ...
. The player can turn opponents into feces by performing a "Poopality", a
finishing move Finishing can refer to: *Finishing (whisky), a whisky making method that involves aging of multiple casks *Finishing (bookbinding), the process of embellishing a book *Finishing (manufacturing), processes that are applied to a workpiece's surface ...
which players execute against a defeated opponent. Multiplayer options include a local two-player versus mode and a network mode. When network mode is activated, players are required to dial each other with the Jaguar Voice Modem for online play.


Plot

During an excavation process in South America in the mid-21st century, archaeologists unearthed an ancient tablet named the Ultra Vortek which referred to both its demonic protector known only as the Guardian and the "Time of Testing", an event where people would send their best fighters to combat against the Guardian to seize full power of the Vortek tablet. Failing in defeating him would result in their current society being consumed by the tablet, starting the cycle anew and bringing humanity into a loop until he was defeated. A hundred years after discovery of the artifact, civilization declined and nations across the world fell apart as a result. During this dystopian period, both science and technology advanced far enough for humans to develop
robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...
s designed to replace manual human labor for cost effectiveness. However, they become self-aware due to their own ability to reason and, after being enslaved for more than 50 years, form their own society. Conflict between humans and robots erupted afterwards. Through the human cloning creation process, the Military Industrial Complex developed and designed a new race that would eventually replace soldiers due to their survival capabilities that surpassed humans. However, a great conflict that broke in the year 2112 lead to some of them escaping and forming their own collective underground gang. Very few gangs offer any allegiance to them because of their lack of a true leader and constantly changing opinions and views. As society continued to crumble, many humans joined gangs to rebel against the corrupt government and the rival gangs, with the largest of them residing in the underground and splitting into two factions, one of which possessed powers derived from the Vortek tablet that would cause friction between those who used hand-held weapons, whose tools were regarded by the former as poor substitutes. At a certain time period, the Guardian reappears before humanity and announces that he will destroy the world, unless a warrior defeats him in violent combat. He allots a specific amount of time for humanity to select seven of their best fighters and have them compete against one another. Once the fighter defeats the other warriors, he will open the "Ultra Vortek", combat the Guardian, and if victorious, may then use his newly acquired power to determine the fate of Earth.


Development

Atari Corporation was impressed enough by Beyond Games' ''BattleWheels'' (1993) on the Atari Lynx that they invited Beyond Games founder Kris N. Johnson to see their upcoming
home video game console A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few game ...
(the Jaguar) in development. Beyond Games was preparing to move onto another platform and develop new projects at the time, so Johnson visited and was intrigued by the hardware specifications on the new console. Beyond Games signed with Atari Corp. to be one of the first
third-party developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...
s for the console and they received software development kits that included several demos for it months later. Johnson began to disassemble the demo
source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...
to slowly build an understanding of the hardware architecture, eventually managing to make a scrolling background demo with full-color support. Beyond Games originally had plans to release an updated
conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Convert'', a 2023 film produced by Jump Film & Television and Brouhaha Entertainment * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * ...
of ''BattleWheels'' as one of their first titles for the Jaguar. However, Atari requested them to create a fighting game instead. After the success of both ''Street Fighter II: The World Warrior'' and ''Mortal Kombat'', the team decided that a digitized one-on-one fighter would serve as a positive showcase for the hardware and their creative efforts. During a
brainstorming Brainstorming is a creativity technique in which a group of people interact to divergent thinking, suggest ideas spontaneously in response to a prompt. Stress is typically placed on the volume and variety of ideas, including ideas that may seem o ...
session, Johnson and
designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...
Curt Hatch determined that some of their ideas for the company's next project would be unachievable with digitized actors. Hatch and
artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...
William Clark Walker were developing computer-animated character concepts, which lead the team in creating a fighting game project by combining digitized actors along with
stop-motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...
models and computer-animated characters that would become ''Ultra Vortek'', albeit with limited resources. Moving from hand-drawn graphics to digitized images,
motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution motion (physics), movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in Military science, military, entertainment, sports ...
and
3D modeling In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based Computer representation of surfaces, representation of a surface of an object (inanimate or living) in Three-dimensional space, three dimensions vi ...
represented a big leap for Beyond Games. Johnson contacted artist Jim "Meats" Meier, who was experimenting with 3D art, to recruit him after seeing his artwork locally and the project became Jim Meier's first work in the
video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...
. The development of ''Ultra Vortek'' reportedly took over a year with an estimated budget of nearly US$100,000. It was described by writer Tim Huntsman as "very
indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media *Independent media, media free of influence by government or corporate interests *Indie art, fine arts made by artists independent of commer ...
", as most of the team had several roles during this process. Johnson served as the game's sole programmer in addition to being producer. His background with
martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...
helped during the design and creation of the characters. Jim Meier was art director and responsible for the stage artwork and cover art. Both Hatch and Walker, as well as D. Christopher Salmon and Chris Hansen, designed the characters and costumes used by the actors. Dale Meier and Walker were responsible for composing the soundtrack and making
sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...
s, respectively. Huntsman wrote the scenario, assisted with gameplay design, and lent his voice for The Guardian. After the characters were designed and Jim Meier began working on backgrounds early in development, the team started filming the actors with a blue screen at a warehouse. There were several problems that occurred during this phase, such as with the lighting equipment, that led to various character costume elements being scrapped. They eventually moved to the "Bar and Grill" nightclub owned by Johnson, due to its large space that allowed actors to move more freely. Four of the playable characters were digitized live-action actors, two of whom had no previous experience in martial arts. Both Buzzsaw and Lucius were played by Huntsman and
Clark Stacey Clark Stacey (born 1980) is an American video game developer. He is the co-founder and former chief executive officer of WildWorks (earlier known as Smart Bomb Interactive), which in 2010 launched the ''National Geographic Animal Jam'', a massiv ...
respectively, while former bouncer Lamont Hanna portrayed Dreadloc and volleyball player Toni Fitzgerald acted as Volcana. Fitzgerald also brought some of her own costumes for the character as well. Both Grok and Mercury were
pre-rendered Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputting or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of footage that was previously rendered on different equipment (typ ...
3D characters by Hatch and Walker, while Skullcrusher and The Guardian were made by Chris Salmon as 14-inch models that would later be filmed through the process of stop motion animation. Afterwards, both Huntsman and Dale Meier edited and cleaned the films to provide the necessary frames to animate the characters within the game. Bruce Johnson applied finishing touches to some scenes.


Atari Lynx version

A version of ''Ultra Vortek'' featuring hand-drawn graphics was in development by Beyond Games for the Atari Lynx under its original ''Ultra Vortex'' name. It was intended to be released as part of a planned relaunch of the Lynx if the Jaguar proved to be successful on the market. The game was only displayed for versus play once at Atari's booth during Summer CES in 1994, where it featured one stage and two playable characters. The Lynx version was left unreleased due to the Jaguar's lack of commercial and critical success. Carl Forhan of Songbird Productions, who had interest in completing the project, contacted Johnson in regards to his unfinished projects for the system and eventually picked up their rights for distribution. Johnson sold his original development equipment and source code to the company, and the game was renamed to ''Ultravore''. A prototype of this incarnation also exists but has yet to be released online. Several
emulated In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use perip ...
screenshots have been made available to the public for viewing.


Release

''Ultra Vortek'' originally went under the name ''Ultra Vortex'' and was announced in early 1994. It was first showcased to the public at
Summer Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
(CES) of the same year, featuring only four playable characters and different stage visuals compared to the final release. The game was originally intended to be released in December 1994 and was later featured in the ''Do The Math''
promotional recording A promotional recording, promo, or plug copy is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as mus ...
sent by Atari Corporation to video game retail stores in a more advanced state of completion, closely resembling the final version. From early 1995 up until its eventual release, the game was showcased across several events such as Winter CES 1995, Spring ECTS '95 and
E3 1995 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 1995, commonly known as E3 1995, was the first Electronic Entertainment Expo held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from May 11–13, 1995, with 50,000 total attendees. Highlights of the ...
. The latter was its last
trade show A trade show, also known as trade fair, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and ...
appearance ahead of its Q3 1995 release. The game suffered a series of delays, missing its original February 1995 release date and was pushed back month after month, before finally being released on September 5, 1995. These delays were due to refining gameplay and technical issues with development tools. ''Ultra Vortek'' is the only Jaguar game that support the Jaguar Voice Modem. The device was announced in 1994 at the Consumer Electronics Show by Atari, as a partnership up with Phylon, Inc. to create the device. The unit was delayed and eventually in 1995 mass production was canceled altogether, but not before an estimated 100 or so were made. The unit used a 19.9 kbit/s dial up modem and had the ability to answer incoming phone calls and store up to 18 phone numbers. Players were required to directly dial each other for online game play.


Reception

''Ultra Vortek'' was met with mixed reception from critics. ''
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'' praised the game's "impressive" graphics and the ease of executing special moves, but gave it an overall negative assessment based on its lack of original elements. They concluded that "''Ultra Vortex'' is a great game for someone who hasn't seen ''
Killer Instinct ''Killer Instinct'' is a series of fighting game, fighting video games originally created by Rare (company), Rare and published by Midway Games, Midway, Nintendo, and Microsoft Studios, Xbox Game Studios. The original Killer Instinct (1994 vide ...
'', ''
Mortal Kombat II ''Mortal Kombat II'' is a 1993 fighting game originally produced by Midway for arcades. It was ported to multiple home systems, including MS-DOS, Amiga, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Genesis, 32X, Sega Saturn, Super Nintendo Entertainment System ...
'', or ''
Super Street Fighter ''Super Street Fighter'' is the beginning of the title of several games in the ''Street Fighter'' series. While there was not a "super" version created for the original game, sequels picked up the adjective: *''Super Street Fighter II'' *''Super St ...
''. But if you've seen and played those games, you've seen more than ''Ultra Vortex'' has to offer." ''
Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...
'' stated that "Though this game is unoriginal and suffers from slow control, you forgive ''Ultra Vortek'' because of the overall good job (graphics, tone, and gore) Beyond Games has done with the borrowed concept."


Legacy

In October 2003, a nearly complete prototype
ROM image A ROM image, or ROM file, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory Computer chip, chip, often from a ROM cartridge, video game cartridge, or used to contain a computer's firmware, or from an arcade game's arc ...
of ''Ultra Vortek'' was made freely available to download by website
AtariAge AtariAge is a website focusing on classic Atari video games. The site features gaming news, historical archives, discussion forums, and an online store. It was founded in 1998. Taking its name from the 1982–84 '' Atari Age'' magazine, the site ...
with permission from Beyond Games. Buzzsaw, Grok and Volcana would re-appear as
guest character In fiction, a character is a person or being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, in which case the distinction of ...
s in ''
Motor Mayhem ''V.C.L.: Vehicular Combat League Presents - Motor Mayhem'', also known as simply ''Motor Mayhem'', is a vehicular combat game developed by Beyond Games and published by Infogrames for PlayStation 2 in 2001. Gameplay Similar to other arena- ...
'' for
PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...
.


Notes


References


External links

* *
''Ultra Vortek''
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''Ultra Vortek''
at
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''Ultra Vortek''
at
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