Aaron
Professional
The Max
Posts: 242
|
Post by Aaron on Mar 15, 2010 21:18:16 GMT -5
So, after a fair bit of effort, I've managed to accomplish a bit of a correspondence.
About 2ish years ago (November of 2008 to be exact) I started a conversation with Laura Janczeweski (one of the lead designers on Jet Moto 2124) who worked along with Syd Mead on concept art and level design. She was sharing with me her enthusiasm about us Jet Moto fans. From my Facebook Group, to this far more impressive endeavor here at Jet Moto Central. She gave her blessing on gathering as much info as possible on Jet Moto 2124. And gave me permission to use all of her designs and screenshots from her portfolio.
Just yesterday I managed to contact Paul Willman (former Producer Sony Interactive Studios America) and Christopher Tritt (former Associate Producer Sony Interactive Studios America). I asked them some questions and started a discussion about the article they helped create for Playstation Museum, and just generally inquiring about whatever else I could find out about the lost game.
I just wanted to share. I'll post more when I get the next of their emails. Hopefully it'll be most interesting and enlightening, with details we've yet to hear. I hope you all enjoy, and are as excited about this as I am.
|
|
Aaron
Professional
The Max
Posts: 242
|
Post by Aaron on Mar 15, 2010 21:20:08 GMT -5
Possible Cover for Jet Moto 2124 Attachments:
|
|
Aaron
Professional
The Max
Posts: 242
|
Post by Aaron on Mar 16, 2010 22:19:01 GMT -5
Here's a copy of the emails transcript that was sent between myself and Christopher Tritt, former Assistant Producer of SCEA.
Thank you so much for your reply, Chris! see below
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:23:17 -0700 From: Subject: Re: Jet Moto 2124 To: ---@msn.com
Hi Aaron, it's a pleasure to meet you. Please call me Chris. I'll try to answer your questions the best I can. See below:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Aaron Nicewonger <orinanime@msn.com> To: ---@yahoo.com Sent: Mon, March 15, 2010 7:00:07 PM Subject: RE: Jet Moto 2124
Dear Mr. Tritt, Let me start by saying how excited and honored I am that you took the time to write me back. I'm a film major, who's done storyboard and set/character/prop design. And worked on soundtracks, and filmed/created short films. So, I've always been interested in the creative process. Where are you going to school? University of South Carolina. Transferred from Midlands Technical College
I read a recent article in Playstation Museum about the unfinished Jet Moto 2124. I'm truly sad that it never came to fruition. I loved the first three games in the series and was both excited and upset to learn all I have learned about the 4th game. I've also spoken with Laura Janczeweski (one of the designers working with Syd Mead) on the matter. I worked closely with Laura. She was the Lead Artist (Art Director.) That's pretty cool. She's a great. From what I've gathered from talking to her, she's a really nice person.
I had three questions about Jet Moto 2124. 1) Aside from the vast amount of detail you shared in the article, were there any other thoughts, regrets, details you had on the subject of this game? Why it was cancelled, other than needing an additional six months of revisions and the somewhat lackluster reception of Jet Moto 3 (I bought, still own, and love that game by the way).
I had forgotten to mention that there was a paint shop where you could customize your moto in the front-end of the game. I thought that was a pretty cool feature. (Similar to Ridge Racer's paint shop.) The creative process is a difficult one. There are a lot of fragile egos that need to be dealt with. There are a lot of politics (same with movies and television) and when writing this article, I purposely wrote it in a way as to not place blame on anyone. It was much more important to me to show everyone what could have been and I am grateful to the Playstation Museum for the opportunity. Sometimes things just don't work out and when this game was being made, a lot of games were being cancelled. The thinking then was that cost didn't really matter since the return on investment was so high... Today's games cost a lot more to make and so have a slightly better release rate - but still you see a lot of major studios closing. The game industry is definitely moving towards a stricter business model, more in line with what the movie industry does. In our case, there was a lot of transition going on within SCEA back then. In fact, they no longer have a non-sports studio in San Diego. That's pretty cool about the paint shop. Customizing the Hover Bikes in any way, was always something I've wanted to do. It's always in the plans when other fans and I talk about what we'd do with a Jet Moto game. I understand about the egos thing. When working on the few short films I've done, you always have to find a way to express criticism politely. Like a back-handed sort of compliment. It's really sad that things don't work out like they should. I was so upset to learn that this game was so far into development when it was cancelled. I'm a big fan and this game looked great! 2)In the article Paul Willman said: "Chris scored a major coup unprecedented at the Studio by getting nearly $100k in music licenses from big-name artists for a sound track that I STILL listen to, today." And you were quoted as saying (I do believe): "[The way I test music… I get in my car and play the music loud. If I start speeding – then I know it’s good for games.] At one point, we were in discussions to publish a video game soundtrack CD. We spent $150,000 on the music alone…"
Do you happen to still have/know the track list for that game? So that I can purchase these songs to make my own soundtrack? As a fan and collector, and as someone who is trying to recreate what could have been for his pleasure and the pleasure of other fans (and fan club members) he knows. Okay - it might be easier to just send you the discs If you give me your address, I'll send you the music and a copy of the game. I also have Thrill Kill if you would like that too. To play these games you'll need a modded PSX or PS2. The music is no problem. Remember that the game is incomplete - so it has bugs and the AI is broken because we were in the process of making changes to the game but most of it is at least playable. OH MY GOD! That would be incredible! Amazing! That's fantastic. And I would certainly love a copy of Thrill Kill as well. I can get the modded PSX or PS2 to play. Does the PS2 have to be modded? Or did you mean just the PSX. My address: -------------- ( blanked it on the forum, but I did send it to him) ------------------ -------------------- Thank you for taking the time to read this. I apologize for its length. I just get so excited when discussing this subject.
Sincerely, Aaron Nicewonger Talk to you later, Chris Thank you so very much. Aaron
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:06:21 -0700 From: Subject: Jet Moto 2124 To: ---@msn.com
Hi. Yes, I was the assistant producer on Jet Moto 2124. What did you want to know?
|
|
Aaron
Professional
The Max
Posts: 242
|
Post by Aaron on Mar 16, 2010 22:20:30 GMT -5
Hope that made sense.
In the emails. The original email I sent is regular. the responses are colored, his blue, my next ones red.
Hopefully this means it'll be arriving in not too long of a period of time.
|
|
Aaron
Professional
The Max
Posts: 242
|
Post by Aaron on Mar 16, 2010 22:34:51 GMT -5
also, i realized i forgot to include the 3rd question. I emailed that to him. But it wasn't anything important.
|
|
|
Post by OskyCMK on Mar 17, 2010 13:04:42 GMT -5
Wow thanks for these emails Aaron. Around the time 2124 was being developed I did notice that there was much transitions going on. I believe 989 studios shut down not too long after. So intriguing.
Jaws are on the floor after reading that he's sending you a CD. One thing that would be great to have done is to take a photo of the package you'll receive. Eventually what could be done is an ISO rip of the CD. But that is for later.
Thank you for making contact with these people. I'm looking forward to reading more emails.
|
|
Aaron
Professional
The Max
Posts: 242
|
Post by Aaron on Mar 17, 2010 21:41:59 GMT -5
Wow thanks for these emails Aaron. Around the time 2124 was being developed I did notice that there was much transitions going on. I believe 989 studios shut down not too long after. So intriguing. Jaws are on the floor after reading that he's sending you a CD. One thing that would be great to have done is to take a photo of the package you'll receive. Eventually what could be done is an ISO rip of the CD. But that is for later. Thank you for making contact with these people. I'm looking forward to reading more emails. I'll definately be taking pictures. I don't know how to do an ISO rip of the CD. I know some of my friends can do all that stuff. So, I'll have them take a look at it. I'm glad you enjoyed the emails. And, you're welcome I guess. I'm thankful that they bothered to respond to some random fan. They rock.
|
|
Aaron
Professional
The Max
Posts: 242
|
Post by Aaron on Mar 19, 2010 0:11:17 GMT -5
So, Chris Tritt said he was going to mail the discs Friday. That would be today. I hope they arrive in the next few days. I'm getting anxious.
|
|
Aaron
Professional
The Max
Posts: 242
|
Post by Aaron on Mar 20, 2010 19:44:55 GMT -5
A video I made of Jet Moto 2124. Editing a lot of the screen shots and concept art from the game together with the game's theme song. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeAIXDyRhKYHope you all enjoy!
|
|
|
Post by OskyCMK on Mar 20, 2010 21:28:56 GMT -5
Great job on the video! I like the song a lot!
|
|
Aaron
Professional
The Max
Posts: 242
|
Post by Aaron on Mar 20, 2010 22:31:19 GMT -5
Great job on the video! I like the song a lot! Thanks a bunch! I really appreciate it.
|
|
Aaron
Professional
The Max
Posts: 242
|
Post by Aaron on Mar 28, 2010 11:33:25 GMT -5
I got the package in the mail! Here's some pics of what he sent Attachments:
|
|
Aaron
Professional
The Max
Posts: 242
|
Post by Aaron on Mar 28, 2010 11:35:14 GMT -5
All of what I recieved. Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by Nightbarrel on Mar 28, 2010 18:06:49 GMT -5
Wow, Thrill Kill! Lucky man getting those.
|
|
|
Post by spikel on Mar 29, 2010 15:48:08 GMT -5
I got the package in the mail! Here's some pics of what he sent For the sake of all humanity please upload the Jet Moto .iso and the soundtrack! ....Please? Oh and just went back through the pics and saw Big Guns developed by Neversoft in there, if you could upload that .iso as well..... You do realize you seriously hit the jackpot correct? Also, it would be amazing if you could upload Thrill Kill as well. ;D
|
|