"Aircars: the B&C reproduction"

Before I review AirCars, I think I should offer newcomers to all things Jaguar a very brief background history of this game. A company named ICD developed, among other products for Atari's, an I/O device for the Jaguar called a 'Catbox'. To showcase the networking capabilities of the Catbox, ICD also helped to develop and sell a network-supporting game called Aircars. Unfortunately, ICD never delivered many of these items to customers who had ordered them, and so now copies of both the Catbox and AirCars are difficult to find - and very expensive!

Over the years I've read many comments about AirCars, and the majority have been negative. It seems that if this game were not so rare - and supported multiplayer networking - no one would pay it much attention. However, rarity has lead to some very high prices for this rare game. In addition, purchasers were burned by ICD, leading to a lot of anger. All of this has created a dark shadow over the game of AirCars itself.

Enter "B&C ComputerVisions" (www.myatari.com). On their web page, B&C relate the following:

QUOTE
Years ago we purchased the rights to several of ICD products. Over the years we have also bought and traded each others products for resale. In 1997 we traded several Jaguar developer items for several ICD products including Aircars. Since ICD never delivered their products due to internal problems(????) we are now producing our own B&C version.

So if I understand correctly, B&C were owed copies of AirCars by ICD but since these were never delivered, they've decided to produce copies of AirCars. It seems a bit of a quandary to me; if the story is true, B&C would've had AirCars to sell. Is this legal? It all sounds pretty questionable to me - but on the other hand it's not as if carts are being sold by ICD, a company that no longer exists. Where does this leave other Jaguar products that are no longer actively sold? Could I set up a cart-burning bench and start selling copies of, say, Atari Karts? Have you priced Atari Karts on eBay lately? Hmm, maybe that's not such a bad idea...

I've been a Jaguar fan for years, but despite having played most Jaguar cart games at one point or another, I've never even seen AirCars in the flesh. After debating the various issues for some time, my damned curiosity finally got the better of me, and I decided that I just had to see what all the fuss is about.

I recently ordered a B&C AirCars cart. Certainly the price is superb: only $40 US for a cart, plus shipping. If you want the optional manual, you'll need to pay an extra $5. The package arrived promptly in the mail in a sturdy box.

My immediate impression was good: the cartridge appears to have a standard Atari Jaguar shell, but rather than dark grey the shell is the cool-looking jet-black colour used for the Trevor McFur carts. I've always wondered why Atari didn't use a variety of colors for their shells, rather than the charcoal grey.

However, after just a few seconds, I was dismayed: the quality of the label is absolutely terrible! It's an optical scan that was printed off on a (very) low-resolution inkjet, and then after being stuck on the cart shell, it was covered with a large chunk of clear Scotch-type adhesive tape. And to make matters worse, the Scotch tape on mine has a big ugly wrinkle in it. It looks really awful!

I know that some of the more serious collectors get really jazzed over having an authentic-looking box. Me, I take the cart out and then only hang onto the box for possible resale. I don't really care that AirCars doesn't have an "official" box - but a nice looking label is a real positive to me. This weekend, I'm going to try printing off a scan of an AirCars label myself on my $99 Epson inkjet; I'm sure it'll look better! Yuck!

I popped the cart into my Jaguar and played it for a few hours. Your mission is to pilot an armed hovercraft around an unfamiliar terrain and destroy several enemy targets. Along the way you run into MANY battles with tanks, missile batteries, and other hovercraft. Once you've destroyed your primary targets, you can leave the map for the next 'world' by driving through a transporter portal.

My impressions of the game? Meh. It's not that AirCars is a bad game, but it just doesn't do anything to stand out from the crowd. Take the game play of Jaguar's Hover Strike and strip away the "floating" controls so that the vehicle drives more conventionally. Now, change the graphics for the landscape and the enemy vehicles and buildings so that they're created with Gouraud shaded polygons rather than textured (think of the landscapes in Cybermorph or IWar), and you've pretty much got AirCars. Yeah, to me it feels pretty much like a Hover Strike or a ground-hugging Cybermorph with different maps. In fact, I don't really care much for Hover Strike, but I enjoy Cybermorph way more than AirCars.

Some folks claim that the networking feature adds a strong element of fun to AirCars; it's great to scoot over the hills and blast your pals. Maybe, but the fact of the matter is that there just aren't that many folks out there with another Jaguar to link to, so I'll likely never get to try the networking feature out...

Do I recommend buying AirCars? Frankly, for a new Jaguar fan I'd have to say 'no': for $40-plus dollars, you can easily pick up two or three of the more common carts for the Jaguar. This is really only a purchase for the more serious collector who already has a substantial collection of Jaguar games, and is looking for either completeness or simply a new Jaguar game experience.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate Aircars a 5.5: only its unusualness and rarity lift it slightly above average. If you are new to the Jaguar scene and don't have a large collection, I recommend picking up cheap copies of Cybermorph, Hover Strike, or IWar instead.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/08/06