...FIGHT  FOR  LIFE  FAQ

....Vers 1.1


by Danny Miskin

If you have any questions send E-Mail to me at 74067,53 or leave 
a message in either the Video Games or Atari Gaming Forum.  I 
will try to answer your questions in the next version of the FAQ 
which should be out soon enough (the sooner I receive the info 
the sooner the FAQ goes out).

If you send in some questions it will allow you to get the 
information YOU want on the game, although I hope this FAQ will 
answer most of those question as it keeps on being posted.  Oh, if 
anyone has access to the Internet and could post the FAQ somewhere 
that would be great.  If so please contact me, thanks.  Also anyone 
who has access to other networks contact me I'd like to get the 
information on the game wide spread.
_________________________________________________________________


Welcome to the 2nd FFL FAQ.  For those of you who don't know Fight 
For Life is a new VF style fighting game being worked on now for 
the Jaguar. It's being developed by Francois who worked for Sega's 
AM2 R&D staff who have made games like Virtua Fighter 1 and 2, 
Daytona and many other games. He actually worked on VF1 and 2, and 
also on the Saturn version of Virtua Fighter.  He has been working 
on FFL for about 8 months now. 

Now of course as many of you are thinking it's just a VF clone for 
the Jag but that is where you're all VERY WRONG.  The only 
similarities that I can think of are that it's a VR fighter and uses 
3 buttons, a punch, a kick and a defence button and that's where the 
similarities start to end. Well since the Jag only has 3 buttons I 
guess it really isn't a similarity is it.
   
Does any know how many VF style games are now being worked on or 
being released?  I can think of around 8 maybe more.  Sony has one 
or two lined up for the Playstation one is called TO-SHI-DEN, Namco 
is releasing a VF style fighter in the arcades soon it was previewed 
at either the AMOA or JAMMA called Tekken.  There's also a 2nd VF 
style game coming to the Jag by Rainmaker who no one seems to have 
heard from in a while.  Then there's that game BALLZ which I think 
just looks slightly pathetic for Genesis.  So that's only 5 but 
there are more.


- Story -

So far the story is this.

Because of their bad attitudes, these 8 fighters have been sent 
to hell for the rest of their dead lives.  Every year, there is 
a tournament in hell, and the winner may encounter the son of the
devil.  A victory against this guy means a life, a new life. 

Welcome to Fight For Life.

Yes, I know it's very basic but that's how Francois explained it 
to me.  It should get more into it later on but for now that's it.

I still don't have any more then that.

- The Characters -

Here's the list of the 8 characters you will be able to choose from
and some character descriptions.

- Sarah O'C.  (She's in the Game Fan pixs)  Francois has been forced
.to change her name because of the similarity between her 
.name and the Sarah in VF.  I told him that would happen.  Oh, 
.he did say she has the coolest background so we now have 
.something we know to look for.  So far I don't know what her 
.name has been changed to.

- Ian : Ian has blonde hair and is fully decked out in Army clothing.  
.He seems to have a small heart tattoo on his left arm.  I have 
.a bad feeling about him...

- Pog : Pog wears shades, rip jeans, white shirt and a hat.  For those 
.of you who have the Demo Tape he's in the first pixs when they 
.start to show the game with Ian.   Francois says that he's the 
.best character in the game. Oh, it's really cool Francois 
.designed him to look like a friend of his in France maybe 
.that's the reason?

- Muhali

- M.J : I think he's the black boxer but I'm not sure, it could be 
.Muhali though.  Oh, the reason I think he is, is because the
.boxer on the tape seems to have the initials MJ on his gloves.

- Lun

- Kimura

- Jenny

--------

- Junior

Well would anyone like to guess who Junior is?  He's the Devil's 
son of course and he sounds deadly.

For those of you who have seen the FFL pixs in the December Game 
Fan you might notice a character name has changed.  There is no 
longer a character named Bill.

 - Game play -

Here is where Fight For Life starts to begin it's journey away 
from Virtua Fighter.

When you begin you will only have BASIC moves (Punching and 
Kicking). Now you must be thinking well then we LEARN new moves as 
we play, no that is not the case in FFL... YOU STEAL moves from 
your opponents.  Meaning after you win a fight you get the choice 
of picking moves from your opponents arsenal.  In Francois words if 
we begin the game with the same character, were not going to finish 
it with the same.

Now here's something to add to this.  There is a Password Option, so 
we will be able, if we fight against each other to see who made the 
best choices and who has the best fighter.  Again his words.
   

FFL has been designed to be FULL 3D Fighting.  What this means is 
the characters not only walk straight or jump straight they can 
walk sideways and jump in different directions.  Francois hopes 
that this will give the game a much better VR feel.  VF does not 
have this style of play and as I said Francois hopes this will make 
the game even better.  

Special moves

No, I'm not listing any BUT here's how they will be performed.
Francois has just recently made this change to the game and 
hopefully I won't screw up explaining it.

There are 3 ways of performing moves in FFL.

1. Hold down a certain button then do a motion.

2. Do a motion then press a button (ie Up, Up, Right + A)

Ok the 3rd I guess isn't how you perform it but I'm a little 
confused in how I should explain it.

Say you were going to do a left punch then a right punch.  
You'd have to wait until your left punch is finished before 
being able to get the right punch in.  Well I'm still 
confused about it.  I should have been recording our 
conversation...

There are a total of 40 special moves in the game.  Each character
has 5.  So after you win a match you'll have a choice of 2 or 3 moves
from the character you just beat.  What this means is that by the
time you reach Junior you may have between 14 and 21 special moves at
your disposal (boy is it going to be hard to keep track of the motions
but won't it be fun).

The order in which you'll have to fight your opponents is preset.
Meaning each character will go through their opponents in a different
order to get to Junior.


- Graphics -

Resolution : 320 x 240

FFL uses an over scan screen.

FPS : 20   (Francois has told me the FPS is up there)

1000 Polygons Per Frame, but here is a little note about 
that, that Francois told me.

"By the way when I say I have 1000 polygons per frame, it 
means I DRAW 1000 polygons on the screen, but I calculate 
a lot more (hidden, face, clipping...)."
 
Colour : 16-bit colour (65536 colours) 

Now to the REAL information on the graphics.

There will be MORPHING in the game!!! yes Shang Tsung style 
except I haven't been able to get any thing out of him on who 
will be using it but I'm betting the last boss will be (JUNIOR!).

All Light is calculated in real time, and both the texture 
mapped and flat polygons are shaded depending on the light 
source.

*Now here comes ONE of the things that those of you who have 
been reading my messages should know by now things have changed 
and like said could keep changing.  Francois DID put in Gouraud 
Shading.  Sean F., that was going to be for you, but he was forced 
to remove it for now.  He did say it was in one version of the 
Game but that the because of the data, the calculation time was 
going to be too large so like I said he had to remove it.  

It does not look like the Gouraud Shading will make it into the 
game...at least for the version that will be at the WCES.  There 
may still be hope for it though in the final version.

Each character is made up of around 800 polygons.  The Polygons at 
this point are from 25 to 50% done depending on the character.  So 
for those of you who have seen the latest Demo Tape I'm guessing 
that there's been a lot done since then.

The platform the characters fight on is made up of around 100 polys.   

I noticed some connection problems with the polys on the tape 
with one of the characters.  Francois has told me that there may 
very well be some connectivity problems because of the way he had 
to setup the game.  He did say that VF for Saturn has the same 
problem but so far I haven't heard any complaints about it.  He is 
expecting some people to complain about this but he said it 
shouldn't be too noticeable.
   
 
"If Francois didn't do the artwork, who did?"
Q - from Kerry G.  AOL

A - Richard Ho has done the rest of the graphics and artwork on 
the game. However because the CES is so close he was joined 
recently by a 2nd graphic artist.  Richard is now working on the
motion of the characters. 

Sorry Sean still haven't gotten an answer about the PAL tv deal.  
I'll keep trying.


- Notes -

Francois has done all of the coding in the game alone but he said 
he has done less then 1% of the graphics and now we know who as 
done the rest.

Francois is now working on the AI and I'm hoping the CPU opponents
will not be push overs like in most fighting games.

The game will be a 32 meg Cart.  So think about this, VF on Saturn 
is on a CD of course and has all of that memory to make the game.  
FFL is on a cart and so far pixs wise comes very close to the 
FINISHED version of VF and technically speaking is somewhat beyond VF.  
Any one want to see Francois make a game using the CD for the extra 
memory?  with the rumour that the CD will have a texture-mapping chip.  
I think I read that somewhere...

Someone else has recently joined the team from Atari and...what 
they may be working on is a *Modem* version of the game.  No big 
deal there.  Oh, this is still only rumoured to be happening even 
though I get the information direct from Francois it's not a 
guarantee that it will be in the game.  Would be cool though don't 
you think?  Oh, Steve W. since this is an Atari game do you think
it could very well be a Voice Modem game, although this is still
just speculation.

For those of you who read the message that I said who ever has 
seen the Demo Tape I'm betting a lot had be done since that had 
been taped.  I was right.  I'm still trying to find out though 
what version of the game it was but I've been told that it wasn't 
the latest and that a lot has been done since then.  Francois did 
not say that but, it was someone that I of course trust more then 
anyone else at Atari.

Well folks like I said to someone I've been speaking to for the 
past little while about the game and other stuff forget I even 
mentioned there being some other information, consider it none 
existent.  Sorry, I was told to more or less do the same.  No, this 
does not concern me doing the FAQ so it will keep on being posted 
even after we get the game, only then it will have special moves and 
everything in it until we know everything there is to know about it.

Francois is working straight through the holidays.  So everyone 
should wish him a merry Christmas, he's very dedicated to bringing 
us one of the best VR fighters around.

MERRY Christmas Francois, Joyeux fetes.   :)

  
 - Credits -

I'd like to thank the following people.

Francois : for making the game...as you read this, and of course 
.for answering all of my questions and giving me all the 
.info.   

John K. : well since he drove me crazy constantly talking about 
.Tempest. I bought the system... he was right Tempest 
.RULES!

Jeff Minter : for showing me why I bought the system in the first 
.place,  TEMPEST!!! I WANT MORE MINTER!!!
.Oh, THE VLM RULES!!! MORE MINTER!!!

Don Thomas :  For just helping me out with the Mag and being very 
.honest about everything.

Richard Ho : for doing a great job on the graphics so far and I'm
.sure he'll continue to do so.

I'd also like to thank rest of the people who are working on FFL 
and finally Sam Tramiel why? well for getting the system out in 
the first place, and for hopefully getting Atari to finally succeed, 
since the Tramiels took over. 

I hereby acknowledge all companies and games mentioned in this FAQ.

Everyone have a merry christmas and a happy new year.  :)

cya next time, and remember don't thank me for the FAQ thank Francois.

MORE QUESTIONS, SEND THEM IN IF YOU WANT ANSWERS!!!

(c) copyright 1994, ahh who cares!
